Not Quite Four Laps

Monday

10 miles @ 7m11s/mile

Round Bull Island to bring the year's running to a close.

Tuesday to now

Nothing

Took a small bit of a tumble on New Year's and injured my shoulder. Nothing very serious but taking a few days off to let it sort itself out. Should be good to start the plan for London sometime during the week. I'll have to decide what I'm going to do first of all, of course.

Wednesday

10 miles @ 7m31s/mile

Took about 5 miles to get anyway warm. Freezing out there. Nice to see my easy pace getting back to something normal.

Friday

8 miles @ 7m24s/mile

Just an easy evening time route around Clontarf and Raheny.

Saturday

18 miles @ 7m/mile

Had a 16 mile route mapped out down the canal, round Phoenix Park and back. I had added two little detours in Phoenix Park to make up the extra mile from my normal route. In the first detour around Farmleigh, the exit I had intended on leaving through was closed so I had to return through the gate I came making a significant addition to the run. I missed a turn on my second detour too adding another little bit on to run. I was pretty tired at this stage and was looking forward to getting on the canal so I'd be on the home stretch. Then after passing Ashtown Station, I saw blue police tape across the path further down. I stubbornly ran on but the Garda coming towards me started signalling for me to go back. I cursed to myself, stopped the stopwatch and just accepted I was going to have to the long way round to get back on to the Canal.
No further mishaps from there on in but I had unintentionally added over 2 miles to my run, which wasn't ideal for a long run. I'm going to reign the mileage in a small bit next week because I don't want to be over zealous at this stage. Also, I'll have to scan the papers to see if there was anything serious going on down by the Royal Canal. It's not the most pleasant stretch down by Broombridge so nothing would surprise me.

Cheers RFR, I'm happy enough to have kept ticking over since the DCM and I feel in good shape to tackle a plan for London. I'm down for the Raheny 5 at the end of the month and I'll have to plan out a few races after that. I haven't been down to the club this year so I'm going to consult with the trainers and see if they have any ideas. Are you still fairly bogged down with college work or are you back to a bit more regular running?

Aye, myself and the brother entered via the Good For Age after the Edinburgh Marathon and he sorted the whole thing out because he lives over in Scotland. He's booked an apartment and everything so it's been plain sailing for me. All I had to do was book the flights. I'm provisionally thinking of the Meath Half myself. There's not much else on around that time period only a charity half being run in Balbriggan. Sounds like a good race anyway from what I read.

Sunday

6 miles @ 6m23s/mile

This was intended to be a recovery run after the long run yesterday but it was freezing and I had to run fast just to get a bit of warmth. Surprisingly, not much after effects from the effort yesterday so I didn't feel too bad pushing the pace a bit. Another easy day tomorrow anyway so I'll have plenty of recovery time before the club interval session on Tuesday.

Thursday & Friday

No running

Got absolutely drenched going to the train station in Bray after work. I was shivering with the cold on the train so I thought it best not to go to the club session. It would have been another 40 minute walk home in wet clothes after so it would have been a recipe for disaster. Once I got into dry clothes and in front of the fire at home, I wasn't heading back out in to the maelstrom. Similar story Friday with cancelled DARTs and awful weather leaving me in no mood for running come the evening.

Saturday

15 miles @ 7m02s/mile

Had a small bit of a cold over the last few days so I wasn't expecting much from this run. Just wanted to get a bit of mileage in to make up for the last few days. Started off easy but really picked up the pace for the last four miles to maybe 6m20s pace or so and felt good. Took a bit of a tumble on one of the tighter corners towards the end of the run and split my lip open. Was worried that I'd lost a tooth for a moment but thankfully I hadn't. Got away with it fairly lightly considering how hard I went down. Going to have to be a bit more careful in the wet conditions from now on.

Tuesday

1 mile w/u, 4 X 1 mile (2 min rec), 1 mile w/d

5.43, 5.40, 5.40, 5.41

Icy track meant out to the fields again, which was a little disappointing. Everyone was doing different things so I went with two lads who were doing mile repeats around some GAA pitches. The ground was a little boggy in patches but the pace felt comfortably hard as a whole. Finished feeling I could have done one or two more. Happy with this session and I think I might be back to near 100% after a few below par sessions since Christmas.

Saturday

6 miles @ 7m52s/mile

Just a very easy one around Drumcondra to keep the mileage up for the week. Was a little tired on this one but hopefully I'll be in fine fettle for the race come tomorrow.

Sunday

3.5 mile w/u, Raheny 5, 3.5 mile w/d

I ran out to this one at a very leisurely pace as it's not too far from me. I was really feeling the urge to up the pace so I took this as a good sign. After collecting my number and dropping off my stuff, I put in a few strides by the start area and lined up a couple of rows back. I thought I had put myself in a good position. I expected to finish in about 50th place and lined up accordingly. When we got going, I was actually a bit further back so it was a relatively slow first quarter of a mile. I like to take it out easy for the very start of a race so I took this as a blessing in disguise.

Once things had settled down, we were running in to a fairly strong wind along the Howth Road. A runner from the Harriers went to go past me, I upped the pace a bit and went with him. We made a small bit of progress through the field and then I pushed on a bit myself. The next part of the course by St Anne's Park and the Coast Road were the quickest part of the course. I tried to push the pace as much as I could on this section. Any time I tired, I just tried to relax my whole body and generally found that I recovered pretty quickly.

Once we left the Coast Road, it was on to an uphill by the other side of St Anne's Park. I knew this was coming and was a bit daunted but I didn't struggle near as badly as I thought I might have. We swung a left at the top of the hill and we were in to the full brunt of the wind with still a bit of an incline to deal with. We were close to home now so I just dug in and fought all effort to slow down. The finish line came in to view and I emptied the tank. Made a few places and wasn't overtaken so I was massively happy.

Finished in a time of 28.13. This was about the time I was expecting, so to have achieved it in some really rough conditions was a huge boost. Chatted to a few lads from the club after, who put in some really quality performances, smmoore to the forefront among them. A three and a half mile run home to finish things off, carrying a fairly laden goodie bag that I hadn't contended with beforehand. Really well organised race and the goodie bag was top notch. The commemorative trophy I thought was an especially nice touch.

smmoore79 wrote: »

I can guarantee ya that sub 28 is on the cards for you. RTE 5 miler might be the place to get it. I must do that 'relax the body' thing during a race, with all that wind I hadnt time to think about relaxing the body! Class goody bag, but unfortunately I left it in the boot of Murphs car!!!

I read it somehwere once that if you start to tense up, just relax your hands and it feeds back through to the rest of your body. I find it works a treat. I don't always do it but I had it in my head before the start of the race this time. By the way, if Murph says that there was no giant Mint Aero and Rolo bar in the bag when he got it, then he's trying to pull a fast one;).