If... the Unforgiving Minute

As predicted, I had a busy week at work and delayed my Thursday session to Friday and it was tough going. Plan was for a tempo interval 3-4 laps of 2.25 km at 10K pace = 9 mins /lap, with 2 mins recovery between each lap.

I had plenty of excuses for struggling - I was mentally and physically tired from the working week; I usually take a rest day on Fridays; it was windy; the course was a mucky, hilly XC course not best suited for fast times; there were some uncontrolled dogs putting me off. Probably it was a combination of all of the above.

I went out hard on the first lap (too hard) in 8:32 with average 166 bpm.

After a 2 min recovery, I pushed it again. After about 200m a large sheep dog decided to use me as herding practice. I knew he would do me no harm but he did not help my pacing and concentration. In fairness to the owner, she tried to control him and apologised; all I could manage were a few expletives. This lap was 8:59 and 169 bpm but I was cream-crackered.

I knew I would not manage 4 now so I settled for 3 laps. This time the sheep-dog was under control but another more menacing dog was loose so I took evasive action to avoid him. This resulted in a shorter 2K lap in about 8:30 with HR of 165 but way slower then planned pace.

Overall it was not a very satisfying run but I took solace in the fact that I had got out there and pushed myself hard. Probably the biggest problem was going too fast on the first lap.

I have a few races planned for the next few weeks. At Easter I am targetting the Carney 10K but I have decided to run another local 10K next weekend as well. My thinking is that I improve with each race and I want to get my pacing right and I will use the first 10K to do that. I am also hoping to knock my 40:32 PB on the head next weekend and then try and pull big one out of the bag in Carney. The first 10K will have a small field, last year 40 mins would have got in the top ten and as it coinicides with the National 10K GIR this year it should be much the same. The Carney race will have a higher quality field with hopefully a few people to chase after and push my limits.

I am not sure if it makes sense but I will give it a go. If I am not feeling 100% I will give the first one a miss and concentrate on my target 10K. Three weeks after that the Streets of Sligo 5K is on and I will try to give my recent 5K PB another rattle. The course has one good hill so might not be the best for a PB. In any case I can not miss the opportunity to run around the streets with no traffic. I did the Streets of Galway a few years ago and it was one of my favourite races, running along the familiar streets, traffic free.

In the meanwhile, I will continue with my usual sessions - Sunday long run, Tuesday intervals, Thursday tempo or hills - probably ease back on the Thursday intensity on the race weeks. Keep running!

On mature reflection, I am considering not doing the 10K next weekend and saving my efforts for two weeks later. I have just checked out the route and it is nice and flat for 7.5K, then has a 20m rise over the next mile and back down over the last km.

My main reason for racing next weekend was to get a bit of experience at pacing a 10K and set myself up for Carney 10K two weeks later.

Being a logical person, I am trying to weigh it up:

Pros:
Get experience of pacing 10K
Sharpen up for 'A' race
Get rid of the race nerves
Enjoy the race, maybe even place in my age-group

Cons:
Hilly course, may struggle to PB
Reduced training Thursday to Tuesday
May not be a "professionally" run race, accurately measured etc
Risk of injury

Any opinions out there?

Still felt the effects of Tuesday's speed work in my legs today but went for a 1 mile repeats session anyway. Coping with the extra tiredness in the legs is good practice for a 10K race.

Started the session with the group who were doing about 7 min miles and then pushed on alone for the next 5. Times were 7:00, 6:19, 6:16, 6:09, 6:11, 6:07 - giving an average 6:20, just outside my 10K pace. Recovery times were around 3 mins except for the first one @ 4 mins.

This is similar to one of the Best 10K workouts in this thread.
I would have followed the sequence more closely if I had read it earlier. I have done a few similar sessions in this 10K build-up and will try the 3 x 2 mile @ 10K pace this time next week. To be effective, I need to ease back a little on my Tuesday intervals.

Next up long run on hills.

Since I pulled out of the 10K I decided to hit Knocknarae on Sunday morning for a good hill work out and follow part of the route of the warriors run. I arrived in the car park at the bottom of the tourist trail and the cairn was covered with mist and there was no one else on the mountain. I had forgotten my HRM watch, so I took my Nokia phone with sports-tracker instead - probably a good thing to bring when running alone up a misty mountain.

I followed the trail upwards. The first section was slippy enough, first lesson learnt - make sure to use runners with good grips! Then it gets a bit steeper. I had heard people say about the warrior's run that "everyone slows to a walk at some point". Not me mate, I thought to myself, wrong again. At least on this first attempt I had to slow to a walk a few times, but there's plenty of time for practice in the coming months.

When I got to the top I went around the cairn anti-clockwise and followed what I thought was the warrior's route up. I continued along by the wall for a while and eventually came to the edge of the mountain where I took the photo below, looking down over the bay as the mist was starting to clear. There obviously was another path downwards that I had missed so I headed back to the cairn (always the reference point up here - second photo) and back down the descent.



I could not believe how strong the pull of gravity was and had to rein myself in from flying over the edge. At the steepest parts, I did not take the direct route that I suppose the experienced mountain runners could handle and went the longer route around it. About half way down, I turned off to the right following the fence, in search of the race route, which I never really found, so just headed back up through the heather eventually following a path that brought me back to where I had been earlier.

From there it was around the cairn again and back down, meeting human life forms for the first time and trying not to take flight. By now my feet hurt with blisters, I think from a combination of the sharp stones, perspiration from the now warming day and the side to side movement on the trails. I had gone over on my ankle a couple of times also but nothing serious.

After reaching the bottom, I headed out on the road down towards the glen, keeping it easy all the wasy to the bottom. Back up the Glen Road was not a tough as I had thought from driving the route. In the end it was just over 12.5 km, so not really a long run, but the effort was equivalent. Today I have a couple of tight calves but no after affects.

Below is a screen-shot of profile from sports-tracker showing the ups and downs and corresponding pace.

Seres wrote: »

best of luck sunday , hopefully weather wont be too hot for it ! whats your number ? ,cause if im there i shout you on

thanks, don't have number yet, collect on the day I think.

you will just have to shout for everyone so or look out for me in the luminous yellow top

1. Run 10K without injury and enjoy the race
Check!

2. Break 2 yr old PB of 40:32
Check!

3. Break the 40 min barrier
Check!

4. Beat a few competitors
Did not beat them all, but passed a good few on the way in - half marks!

5. On a good day 38:59 ! :eek:
My watch said 38:59, officially I was a few seconds over, but don't know if that was chip or gun time - half marks, but I'm not complaining.

Race went close to plan, started a bit fast, slowed too much for a few K, unofficial 5K split at 20:04 and came home in about 19:00.

Great crowd, great weather, great spread afterwards, great atmosphere, great race !

I'll do a race report later, off to enjoy what's left of the long weekend now.

Had built this race up as a target to break 40 mins, without realising that it had a decent hill in the middle, but my training had gone well and after a good 3x2 mile session (ala McMillan) I knew it was possible as long as I did not mess up.

It was a beautiful summer's day in spring, with a light breeze coming off the sea. As often happens at race starts I struggled to get a signal on my HRM watch which I needed as I can not get lap (km) times without it. I lined up near the front and we were off within 5 mins of the advertised time. I was across the mat in couple of secs and my watch started, great now relax.

The lads in the front row went off at their usual hectic pace. I heard afterwards that the winner Emmett Dunleavy went through the first km in 2:57 and had already established a lead that in the end was almost a minute.

My plan was to be somewhere between 3:56 (39 min time) and 4mins for the first few km. I hit 3:42 & 3:48. I felt good and was at the back of a large group but I knew these were not all going to be sub 39 min runners. I eased back saving something for the hills, next one was 4:06 - a bit too slow but still ahead of 39 min pace. I was probably enjoying the surroundings too much going through the grounds of Lisadell house - a carpet of bluebells on one side, calm sea on the other - worth all the euros spent in the courts to keep the roads open to the public. As I hit the hills near the house, I slowed further with the next two km's both 4:14, bringing me to half way in 20:04. I had already passed a few on the hills, but this was a bit slower than I wanted. According to the official splits, I was in 33rd position at half-way. I had set my 5K PB just 10 weeks ago at 18:52 so I would have to do something similar in the second half of this race to hit the 39 mins.

The sun was out and the day was warming up now so I grabbed a mouthful of water from a cup, threw the rest over me and picked up the pace. During the first 4K, my HR was averaging 165, now I was up at 172. I felt I was moving well, I did not even think about my old knee injury. By now the main group had spread out well and I could see small clumps of runners ahead to aim at down the road, and set about picking them off. I know a few followed me as I picked up speed but I did not look behind once. Next few km's were 3:44 & 3:45. At 8K, my watch said 31:30 (my old 8K PB was over 34 mins in Galway 2008). I slowed a little over the next km as I caught a group of 3 and stayed with them for a while, saving some energy for the finish.

I could see a fellow clubmate a few hundred meters ahead of me and although he was probably out of reach, I had him in my sights as I approached the final km. 3:53 for km #9 left me with a 3:40 to get under 39 mins. In my last 5K, I did 3:30 in the last km so it was possible. Into the last 500m, I could hear someone catching me, probably the same few guys that were behind me from half way, but "no one is going to pass me in the last 400m" and as we rounded into the village of Carney, I stretched out and finished comfortably, but would have needed another few hundred meters to catch the guy ahead.

The missing seconds:
I did not check my watch immediately after I stopped but I knew I was within a few seconds of 39 mins, which was good enough. I try not to focus on artificial targets like 39 mins or 40 mins but I admit I was disappointed when the official time had me at 39:04. I tried to figure out where I lost the 5 secs on my watch. I started my timer as I crossed the start mat, so assuming they were real mat to mat times, I should be accurate there. In any case it only took me about 2 secs to get past the start mat. Looking at the split times, my first half was officially 20:09 and the second half 18:55 and my timings were 20:04 & 18:55 so the difference was in the first half and either the official time started early or was not sync'ed correctly (I wonder how that actually works?) or my watch lost 5 secs - the most likely answer as I did have problems at the start. Lesson learnt - don't rely too much on your own watch, or get a better one, which I have been saying for months!

Overall I really enjoyed this race, I ran hard without ever feeling much discomfort. My 2nd half was within a few secs of my 5K PB - a negative split by over a minute. Nobody passed my from about 4K onwards and on a perfectly flat course, I could go faster. However despite the hills midway, lots of others had run PBs also, so there was plenty of discussion and chat over the ample tea, sandwiches, biscuits and cakes afterwards. I will do this one again.

PS Sorry about the delay posting this.

ManFromAtlantis wrote: »

enjoyed the report very much dna.
fair play you hammered the sub 40. a great second half 5k too.
wouldnt worry about the few secs either way . without jumping the gun , have you any other 10km target races? with maybe a flatter course?
well done.

Cheers MFA,

No other 10K races in the plan, yet. There are a few coming up over the summer as part of the Sligo Road Race League but none that you could call flat. Around here its hard to run for that long without bumping into some hills. There are a few 10Ks in Mayo also in their road race league but I'm not sure what those courses are like. I may just wait until Autumn to go for another PB.

Next up is the Streets of Sligo 5K in a couple of weeks, again its not flat but a must-do. I also need to decide if I do the Warriors Run in August and build up the mileage and hill work for that.

Any good 10Ks round your way that you'd recommend?

Seres wrote: »

Caramore 10k , on the 15th May , part of the Mayo Raod League , very flat , great pb course ! , known for it , checkout their website

Only problem is the clash with Streets of Sligo. I think I will pass on another fast 10K until the Autumn.