It's now fun to run

Saturday 1st December

2.21 miles @10 mins/mile

Just a short one to loosen the legs ahead of tomorrow's race.

Weekly Summary| | | | |
No. Of Runs|Weeks Total|Average Pace|Monthly Total|Yearly Total|Current Weight
5|15.63| 9:52| 91.63(Nov)|951.62|88.9|

After reading the the reports from yesterdays races I was itching to get out to run myself.

This was a race that I had planned to do from the first time I saw an old add for it back in early September. The idea is that you predict your finish time at registration and s/he who is closest to their prediction wins the prize. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out the prize... a turkey of course, well actually they had 10 of them for the closest ten times. Of course there was a small matter of the key rule, one could not wear a watch :eek:. Having already given up my music since DCM this was the runners version of running naked. I reckoned though that if I really wanted to push myself properly this was probably a good thing.

So I managed to get over to the Aura centre just after 11 to register. The start was approx 1/2 mile away so that served as part of the warm up. I put down my prediction of my time at 22:59. My PB going into the race was 24:26. That was set on a wet and windy evening back in July before proper marathon training had been done. I was pretty confident that I could take a good chunk off it but how much was the question.

Done a bit more of a warm up around the start area to include some strides and token streches :pac:. It was a bit low key in getting everyone into the starting area and race started pretty quickly. I was positioned a few rows back, away from all the fit lads in the fancy club singlets! It was a bit slow taking off at first but then pace picked up and I made my way throw the crowd to a bit of clear road. I didn't know the route heading off but knew that we were finishing back were we started. The legs felt a bit like jelly after the first few hundred metres, maybe a bit of nervous energy working its way down. I missed the first k mark but noticed the back of the one for 4k so with my knowledge of the area i was putting together a route in my head that would make sense.

Just before the 2k mark a young lad around 12 (maybe younger!) comes flying past me on the inside. He runs out of stem a few hundred metres ahead but I see him again later. At this stage I am really feeling the effort. The mind wonders what time or pace you are doing. I focus on my running form and try to keep a decent stride going. There was a bit of a drag up to the 3k marker but then it was downhill. Around 3.5k my young friend passes me again with a few others. He pulls a bit clear bit never out of sight. He had the raw speed I had the longer legs to peg him back.

I was delighted to see the 4k marker as I knew all I had to do was push it to the line now. A fellow came past me on the outside and I reckonised him from the start. He was one of the fellas I thought would be too quick for me. I work back onto his shoulder and manage to pull clear of him. At this stage I am catching the young lad and I make my way past him too and pull clear of everyone behind me before the finish line.

The sureal thing about crossing the line was that you had not watch to stop or to check. The lads taking the finishing times were flat out and had a group around them so I didn't bother to wait to see what it came up as. Luckily in this modern age it didn't take too long for the results to appear online. I was absolutely gutted when I seen them . I was nowhere near winning a turkey. There were 6 people who guessed their times exactly right to the second and another 7 within a second of their predictions. On a positive note I got a new PB of 22:25, that's a nice 2 mins 1 sec off an improvement . Pretty pleased with that especially considering that my first 5k back in february took 29 mins and change.

blockic wrote: »

Great stuff dazza! I'd be lost without a watch now. Would have no idea of pace at all!

Love the quote above!:) Disappointed when you ran faster than predicted!:pac:

Thanks blockic, though I would nearly recommend taking the watch off for a short race like a 5k. Best just to push and see where that gets you. Annoying things is having no splits to analyze afterwards.

To tell the truth couldn't care less about the turkey

Monday 3rd December

3.05 miles @ 9:17

Decided to try out the new "easy" pace for this one. Felt alright, legs were a little tired from yesterday but didn't give out. Managed to bang my foot on hard wire that was sticking out from a bridge during the first mile. Foot is still a bit tender from that.

Have provisionally targetted a 5 Mile race on the 6th of January as the next race. Would have been nice if it was a couple of weeks later. Still would be a guaranteed PB being the first 5 mile race. Gives me something to focus on in the next few sessions anyway.

career_move wrote: »

:eek:

What?

career_move wrote: »

Bit fast for a recovery run isn't it

Yeah, felt alright so thought easy pace would be ok. Think that McMillan fella was on something when he came up with those easy paces though!! Might get myself a HRM.

blockic wrote: »

I see in the Race Goals sheet you ran the 5k in 22hrs 25mins....good going!:P

career_move wrote: »

Dazza must have entered a time warp :eek:

ha ha, well spotted! The slowest 5k in history and it still a pb!

Thursday 6th December

7 miles @ 9:30

This was supposed to be a session with 4 x 1 mile intervals with 3 mins recovery in between warm up and warm down.

I made a right pig's ear of it. First I had the session nicely laid out in Garmin Connect but forgot to download it to my garmin . Wasn't overly bothered by this, was quite a simple session to do manually just would have to press the lap button a few times.

Biggest mistake heading out was that I hadn't really planned my route too well. I was thinking more about the distance the session would take as opposed to the preferable road to do the intervals. Done an easy 1.13 mile warm up and started my first interval, which was starting off on pretty flat ground but into a very strong head wind. After reading Meno & Ecoli's comments in the graduate thread just thought I was ease the pace slightly to take into account the head wind. My planned route meant I changed direction after about a quarter of a mile which meant no more head bit wind but instead an uphill climb for the rest of the interval. Pace dropped a bit a this went on. Near the end of the first one I mistook a beep from my garmin to be for a mile lap when it was just an overall distance notification which meant I slowed and had to pick it up again. So the mile split ended up being 8:03 when the target pace was 7:30's or so.

Decided to hold off the second mile until I was up the hill and onto flatter ground. Took off again and quickly realised that I was back running into that headwind again. I felt like my stomach was in knots after sunday's race and that feeling was coming back again. I wasn't sure whether I wasn't whether I was ready for the session or whether I just looking for an easy way out. I eased off the pace anyway and just kept it easy back into town and abandoned the intervals. When I got back in I checked the time and reckoned I had time for 2 more miles so had one more go at an interval. Managed to do this one in 7:48, still had some headwind to deal with. In hindsight probably should have tried to do the intervals over this stretch of the road anyway and just turned back at the end of each rep. Done another mile and a bit to make up the even 7. A learning experience if nothing else this morning.

Saturday 8th December

12.07 miles @ 9:42 mins/mile

Was a nice morning for this one. After the first 6 miles it was a case of making the route up on the go. Pros and cons to doing that.

Weekly Summary| | | | |
No. Of Runs|Weeks Total|Average Pace|Monthly Total|Yearly Total|Current Weight
5|29.29| 9:21| 31.50 |980.91 |87.8|

career_move wrote: »

Nice one....you'll have your 1000 miles next week

Yeah would hope so, wouldn't have thought that possible back in January when I went out for my first run with my new garmin... first run of the year was 2.13 miles @ 12:59 and I was knackered after it!

Monday 10th December

5.05 miles @ 9:11

A nice frosty morning this morning, not icey though which was good. Back around my usual 5 mile route, been a while since I was up that hill midweek. Run felt good.
For some reason my garmin tried to eat my last mile, think it is full, maybe should read the message that was showing up!