Things will come to those who wait...

BeepBeep67 · 05-10-2014 7:29pm

8 Laps? Is there no big fields left after the M50?

pconn062 · 05-10-2014 7:34pm

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

8 Laps? Is there no big fields left after the M50?

Ha, I know. The novice is held traditionally in this place for some reason. It's god-awful, started getting dizzy after about 6 laps! The intermediate next week is only 4, less counting!

pa4 · 05-10-2014 7:42pm

Well done Pconn. It's tough going when you haven't raced in a while. Don't know how you managed 8 laps, that's too much for a training run never mind a race! When's your intermediate on?

pconn062 · 05-10-2014 8:06pm

pa4 wrote: »

Well done Pconn. It's tough going when you haven't raced in a while. Don't know how you managed 8 laps, that's too much for a training run never mind a race! When's your intermediate on?

Ha, 8 laps is killer alright. Intermediate is on next Sunday so not much of a turnaround! Well done today, I know you're not completely happy but it's a solid performance at the start of a long season.

pa4 · 05-10-2014 8:13pm

pconn062 wrote: »

Ha, 8 laps is killer alright. Intermediate is on next Sunday so not much of a turnaround! Well done today, I know you're not completely happy but it's a solid performance at the start of a long season.

Thanks. I know I should be happy but when are we ever happy with our performances! I'd probably still find something to complain about if I won

Ours is on in 2 weeks so hopefully I'll get in a solid weeks training this week.

ThePiedPiper · 05-10-2014 9:02pm

Do you think you possibly get over involved emotionally in these type races, and when you have a little bad patch, you waste your energy getting mad with yourself? I know it's a fine line between having that passion and channelling it positively.

You can only get the best out of what you have to give yourself on any particular day. I know it might not suit your racing mentality 100%, but sometimes a time trial type approach works better in x-country. Ignore the groups early on and ignore the well intentioned advice from the sidelines. Run your race on your terms. Just my tuppence, granted its a very individualesque time-focused approach that works for me personally.

pconn062 · 05-10-2014 10:14pm

RunForestRun wrote: »

Do you think you possibly get over involved emotionally in these type races, and when you have a little bad patch, you waste your energy getting mad with yourself? I know it's a fine line between having that passion and channelling it positively.

You can only get the best out of what you have to give yourself on any particular day. I know it might not suit your racing mentality 100%, but sometimes a time trial type approach works better in x-country. Ignore the groups early on and ignore the well intentioned advice from the sidelines. Run your race on your terms. Just my tuppence, granted its a very individualesque time-focused approach that works for me personally.

Possibly, it's a good point and something to consider. Am actually considering a bit of a time-trial strategy for next week, might go out a bit easier and try and work my way up the field. Thanks for the advice.

pconn062 · 08-10-2014 10:30pm

Monday: Off

Tuesday: 1 hour easy

Gorgeous day and I headed down towards the sea, haven't been down here for a few weeks. Absolutely gorgeous day, felt pretty good and was ticking along nicely by the end.

Wednesday

Session: 1 mile, 4 mins rec, 6x800m off 1 mins rec, 5 mins, 1 mile

Splits: 6.01, (2.44, 2.41, 2.42, 2.43, 2.43, 2.35), 5.57

Looonnnnng session tonight. The plan for the mile to open the session was just to get the legs moving. The first mile felt very comfortable and we were chatting the whole way through. The real work started with the 800's. I slightly underestimated this session, the first rep felt really good, if a little slow. By the third rep I was really starting to hurt. The recovery seemed very short, was barely hanging in on the 4th and 5th reps. For the last one I was determined to put in a big effort to try and banish the demons from Sunday. It was just me and my friend for this one and after a lap he had a few meters on me. With 200m he was 7-8 meters ahead but I put in a massive effort and managed to catch him. Was in absolute bits after that, really one of the toughest sessions I've ever done. After a few mins the coach announced we had another mile to do, we were all cursing him! Even though the pace was quite slow this mile felt a lot harder but finished the session feeling very satisfied with the effort. Did 10 mins cooldown afterwards, it felt really wintry with a cold fog and was glad to get home to the stove.

Have another race this weekend, the Louth intermediate cross country championships. Going to take it very easy for the rest of week to try and be fresh for that, really feel I need a good race to get some confidence back. Need to toughen up a bit mentally for this one too, 8k might not seem to bad but it's long for me and the course is not the easiest. Still, bring it on.

ThePiedPiper · 08-10-2014 10:41pm

Jaysus, that is a long one! Looks like it would've been good craic that. Best if luck on Sunday, bring that toughness you have in track sessions to the races, you'll be away with it

Chivito550 · 08-10-2014 10:54pm

pconn062 wrote: »

Sunday: Louth novice x-country 6k

16th overall, 22:04, 2nd team

Good outing for the club today, we got second team in a pretty deep field, lots to build on for next year. Not a great day for myself, bit of a shock to the system and I never really settled in. Got into a group from the start but got dropped after about 5 laps (with three still to go). I'm cursing myself now as I kind of gave up mentally at this point which I'm sometimes prone to do and just ran/suffered the last three laps on autopilot. Should have made a bigger effort to catch the guys in front of me, but the race was over at that stage.

Quite annoyed and disappointed at myself now. I ran about 15 seconds quicker than last year but it should have been more, guys of the same standard from my club and others have made big improvements while I seem to have stagnated. Also, I quit too easily, need to really toughen up in these races. I could have tried harder to stay with the group today and it cost me a couple of places. Made me very determined to run a better race at the intermediate next week. Will try and put it behind me, but this was a big race for me and will take a few days to get over. Haven't run a good race in a good few months now and although I think the training is going well, it's not translating (yet) into good races. Things will come to those who wait.....(hopefully)

Are you focusing on XC or is this part of winter training leading into the track season? If the latter then you're taking your cross country results a bit too much to heart IMO. You're a 1500m runner, you're not really supposed to be excelling at these disciplines. It's simply stuff that will make you strong. It's training. Take the benefits from it, learn from the mistakes and move on. Don't think you will care how you did in these races come next July when you will hopefully be running at Nationals.

Sure look at Robinson. Think he came 9th at Euro Cross U23. He ran well, but it was all just a build up to Zurich, where he really stepped up, when it actually mattered.

pconn062 · 08-10-2014 11:18pm

Chivito550 wrote: »

Are you focusing on XC or is this part of winter training leading into the track season? If the latter then you're taking your cross country results a bit too much to heart IMO. You're a 1500m runner, you're not really supposed to be excelling at these disciplines. It's simply stuff that will make you strong. It's training. Take the benefits from it, learn from the mistakes and move on. Don't think you will care how you did in these races come next July when you will hopefully be running at Nationals.

Sure look at Robinson. Think he came 9th at Euro Cross U23. He ran well, but it was all just a build up to Zurich, where he really stepped up, when it actually mattered.

Interesting question. I suppose from August gone to the end of December, cross country is my main focus. Although I am indeed a 1500m runner, I feel the training for cross country acts a great winter work anyway, building strength and a good base for the early work next year. Also I don't really intend on focusing on indoors so don't need to get track ready until May of next year. My new coach as well is keen for me to get some x-country in over the winter to lay the foundation for next year. On top of that, cross country is quite important to me and the club, and I really enjoy getting stuck into these team events, it gives me a great sense of bonding on the team and accomplishment when you training together in a big group with the 5-10k guys for the same goal. But you're points about it being training and not getting too obsessed with it are also fair, sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the team event competitions.

Chivito550 · 09-10-2014 12:09am

pconn062 wrote: »

Interesting question. I suppose from August gone to the end of December, cross country is my main focus. Although I am indeed a 1500m runner, I feel the training for cross country acts a great winter work anyway, building strength and a good base for the early work next year. Also I don't really intend on focusing on indoors so don't need to get track ready until May of next year. My new coach as well is keen for me to get some x-country in over the winter to lay the foundation for next year. On top of that, cross country is quite important to me and the club, and I really enjoy getting stuck into these team events, it gives me a great sense of bonding on the team and accomplishment when you training together in a big group with the 5-10k guys for the same goal. But you're points about it being training and not getting too obsessed with it are also fair, sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the team event competitions.

Ah yeh, I know what you mean about the team/club element. I had a similar enough emotional investment with my club in Melbourne for the track meets. It's a pity there isn't really that here for the track.

Just to be clear, I wasn't suggesting not to run XC. I suspect the majority of 1500m runners do it for strength and endurance over the winter. But if the track is your main discipline then perhaps don't put so much pressure on yourself over XC and just enjoy it. You'll probably run better by doing that also.

Also, I think you should consider doing some indoor races to keep on top of speed over the winter.

pconn062 · 09-10-2014 4:32pm

Chivito550 wrote: »

Ah yeh, I know what you mean about the team/club element. I had a similar enough emotional investment with my club in Melbourne for the track meets. It's a pity there isn't really that here for the track.

Just to be clear, I wasn't suggesting not to run XC. I suspect the majority of 1500m runners do it for strength and endurance over the winter. But if the track is your main discipline then perhaps don't put so much pressure on yourself over XC and just enjoy it. You'll probably run better by doing that also.

Also, I think you should consider doing some indoor races to keep on top of speed over the winter.

Good advice, will keep in in mind. I intend on running at least one indoor race, the Leinster Indoors, might have to see what else is available after that.

pconn062 · 11-10-2014 10:18pm

Thursday: 45 mins recovery

Friday: 35 mins easy

Saturday: 30 mins w/1k hard

Woke up Thursday with a throat like sandpaper and my head was stuffed. Felt like crap all day at work, recovery run was fine as I was going so slow. Things haven't improved since, chest is really tight and my head is stuffed the whole day. The two runs today and Friday were short, but I actually felt pretty good on both of them (some how). Did 1k at a hard effort today and again it felt pretty comfortable. Meant to be running the Louth Intermediate tomorrow but will have to see what the morning brings. Will head out anyway and see how I feel on the warm up. I might be needed to make up a full team so if needs be I will jog and the back and pick it up if I feel good. Bad timing and a little frustrating but these things happen sometime, more annoyed that I'm missing the training than not being able to race. Would like to get a good solid run of a few weeks training. Let's see what the morning brings!

pconn062 · 12-10-2014 8:30pm

Sunday: Louth Intermediate Cross country

17th overall (29:56)

So I headed down to this anyway, was an absolutely gorgeous morning for running. Did a warm up with the lads and I felt OK, but the chest felt a little tight still and the cough was worse since morning. Decided to line up as we were desperately short on numbers, the plan was to take the first few laps very easy and then see how I felt, with the option of pulling out if I felt really bad.
Got into my running nice and easily, and stuck about 2/3rd's of the way down the field. My usual group I end up racing with were not too far ahead at this stage, maybe about 20 meters. Took the first lap (of 5) very easy, probably not quicker than 6.20/25 pace, and felt good. Over the course of the next few laps I picked up the pace gradually working from one group to the next, picking of lads who were struggling. I was really enjoying the course, a few sudden, short, sharp hills to make it interesting. With two laps to go I started picking off lads who I would usually be racing against and this was a really good feeling. Must have passed 12-15 lads from lap 2. Last lap and I decided to really go for it, but in a big effort and got another two laps before getting involved with a big sprint finish. Could see a guy about 30m ahead of me with 500m to go so I but down the hammer, and just managed to catch him in the last 100m. Was a lot of fun, and good crowds at the finish line.

So a decent performance, 29.56 for the 5 mile course which is a few seconds quicker than last year. I really love this course and think without the chest cold I could have run 30-40 seconds quicker. But happy to just be able to make it through without too much damage done and help the lads. This sitting back at the start and pushing on over the course of the race is an interesting tactic and more fun that blowing up from a fast start, but you definitely leave some time (and positions) on the course. Not a tactic I would choose in an important race though. Plan now is to get over this cold and put in a solid three weeks training before our senior race. Might hit up a few road races after that for a bit of fun.

ThePiedPiper · 12-10-2014 8:33pm

Nice work pconn, how you feeling now, alright? Ye get a team prize?

ThebitterLemon · 12-10-2014 8:36pm

Nicely run, well done.

Did you take anything before the race for the cold?

TbL

pconn062 · 12-10-2014 8:44pm

RunForestRun wrote: »

Nice work pconn, how you feeling now, alright? Ye get a team prize?

Not feeling too bad now, but need a few days to get rid of it fully. Lungs are a bit sore after the sprint finish. No team, 4th, just didn't have the numbers near the front today.

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Nicely run, well done.

Did you take anything before the race for the cold?

TbL

Thanks TBL, I have been on the Lemsip since Friday and took one this morning before I left. Also took a few puffs of my inhaler and covered the chest in Vicks. Seemed to have got me through it anyway. Hope you're not dosed?

ThebitterLemon · 12-10-2014 9:02pm

pconn062 wrote: »

Not feeling too bad now, but need a few days to get rid of it fully. Lungs are a bit sore after the sprint finish. No team, 4th, just didn't have the numbers near the front today.

Thanks TBL, I have been on the Lemsip since Friday and took one this morning before I left. Also took a few puffs of my inhaler and covered the chest in Vicks. Seemed to have got me through it anyway. Hope you're not dosed?

Hey PC,

Phantom ailments, the missus, however, is coming down with a bad cold, I've just prodded her back over to the other side of the couch with the sweeping brush!

TbL

pconn062 · 15-10-2014 10:28pm

Monday: Off

Tuesday: 1hr easy

Wednesday

AM: 3 miles v. easy
PM: Session: 1k, 1k, 2k, 1k, 1k, 1 mile off 2 mins recovery

Splits: 3.43, 3.37, 7.35, 3.43, 3.41, 6.18

Headcold has improved since Sunday, but the chest has got worse. Just can't seem to shake this off which is a little frustrating. Yesterday's hour was very slow, couldn't get comfortable. Did 25 mins very easy this morning to wake up the legs (and clear the head). Then for the session tonight I sat back with the second group and took it a little easier. With the chest not being right this was still pretty hard work, and the last rep was meant to be 2 mile but called it a day after one. Still glad to get something done. Might take a day or two off now to try and shift this chesty thing, feels OK most of the time but the running is probably not helping it. Might have to make a trip to aul doctor as well.

RacoonQueen · 15-10-2014 10:30pm

Why are you even trying to train with a chest infection?!

RayCun · 15-10-2014 10:31pm

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Why are you even trying to train with a chest infection?!

He's desperate to get away from the computer!

pconn062 · 15-10-2014 10:36pm

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Why are you even trying to train with a chest infection?!

Fair question, the true answer is probably "because I'm an idiot". To be honest the chest feels fine most of the time but is worse when I run. Plus I've needed to get out for the sake of the head for the last few days. Not clever I admit.

RayCun wrote: »

He's desperate to get away from the computer!

A fact only a former Mod could know!

Chivito550 · 15-10-2014 10:40pm

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Why are you even trying to train with a chest infection?!

I'm with RQ on this one. Running with a chest infection/ trachea infection/ sore throat is never a smart move. I reckon for every day one trains when sick they push themselves back 3 days. There's nothing beneficial to it. Rest.

RacoonQueen · 15-10-2014 10:40pm

pconn062 wrote: »

Fair question, the true answer is probably "because I'm an idiot". To be honest the chest feels fine most of the time but is worse when I run. Plus I've needed to get out for the sake of the head for the last few days. Not clever I admit.

It's really fuc*ing stupid. Stop doing it, you know better. Wait till you feel better. Then wait another day.

Take it from someone who is extra f*cking stupid.

pconn062 · 15-10-2014 10:44pm

Chivito550 wrote: »

I'm with RQ on this one. Running with a chest infection/ trachea infection/ sore throat is never a smart move. I reckon for every day one trains when sick they push themselves back 3 days. There's nothing beneficial to it. Rest.

RacoonQueen wrote: »

It's really fuc*ing stupid. Stop doing it, you know better. Wait till you feel better. Then wait another day.

Take it from someone who is extra f*cking stupid.

With all the stupid shit that has gone on here for the last few days, it's posts like these two that remind you about the good parts of the forum. Sometimes you just need someone to point out when you're being fucking stupid.

Rest commencing.

ThePiedPiper · 15-10-2014 11:08pm

I'm a total dunce when it comes to running when I shouldn't, but there's damn all to be gained. Also, give it a day or two extra after you think you're ok. Last year I ended up properly dosed due to running the novices when I was 'nearly better'. No point being a martyr. I've finally learned (until the next time!)

kit3 · 16-10-2014 10:08am

pconn062 wrote: »

With all the stupid shit that has gone on here for the last few days, it's posts like these two that remind you about the good parts of the forum. Sometimes you just need someone to point out when you're being fucking stupid.

Rest commencing.

+1000 - sitting here wondering whether to chance a run at lunchtime when I know that my chest is still not 100% - desperately trying to make DCM but can feel it slipping away. Going to wait another day

SamforMayo · 16-10-2014 1:48pm

kit3 wrote: »

+1000 - sitting here wondering whether to chance a run at lunchtime when I know that my chest is still not 100% - desperately trying to make DCM but can feel it slipping away. Going to wait another day

Hope ye are both on the mend soon. Kit3, hang in there, don't chance the run though.

pconn062 · 19-10-2014 11:16am

Thursday/Friday: Off

Saturday: 4 miles easy

Sunday: 1 hour easy

Took a few days off to try and get the chest a bit better, also went to doctor on Friday and got a course of steroids to try and speed up the process. Felt a lot better on Saturday so did 4 miles easy with no issues when I got home from work. Got out for an hour easy this morning with my bro and friend, they were doing more but didn't want to push my luck.

Only 30 miles this week which is disappointing, wanted to try and put two good weeks in before our senior race on November 2nd, but these things happen I suppose. Hopefully the chest continues to improve and I can push on from here. Jingle Bells 5k is the next target after the cross country so the next month after the senior will be aimed at that. Sub 17 is the target, not too confident on that at the minute but will aim for that and try and get as close to it as possible.

Things will come to those who wait...

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