Be still my beating heart

Friday 21 November
50 mins easy/recovery
Kept this very handy as sleep was abysmal last night and I was all over the shop with tiredness.
Thoroughly enjoyable once the effort was kept super easy.
Didn't bother throwing in the strides as felt it was pointless pushing my body to any extent today.
5 miles @ 10:18 avg pace

Saturday 22 November
50 mins easy
Perfect running weather again today. Today should be 2 x 35 mins but I was enjoying this a lot so extended it a bit and added in a 3 min pick up @ 8:08 (10k effort) towards the end.
Ososlo Demesne is in a desperate state after this morning's x-country! Looks like it would have been a lot of fun racing in that muck!:pac: Poor sods!
Nose and eyes watering/streaming a lot these days when running in cold air and very sore from rubbing. Seems to be getting worse lately. Must chat to a chemist about it some time.
5.29 miles @ 9:38avg pace

pm 34 mins easy w/6x25 sec strides
Lovely night. Would be a shame not to take advantage of it. The most effortlessly effortless easy run I think I've ever done.
3.68 miles @ 9:15 avg pace
Just under 9 miles for the day
longer run tomorrow with spice!

Monday 24 November
7.2 miles easy/recovery effort
Slept for about 9 hours! Kept things super easy today as stomach is still a bit delicate.
Parked in St. Anne's and went for a little tour of the area and down to the seafront but almost got lost in a housing estate on the way!
Most enjoyable little run.
Was actually sorry I didn't wear long sleeves though as I remained fairly cold for the whole run as the effort was so easy. Thankfully I did have my gloves on though as my hands are always my coldest parts.

Not sure how the rest of the week is going to go. My da was taken to hospital a few hours ago and I really know very little about what's going on so more than likely I'll drive down in the morning. Obviously running may have to take a back seat so will play things by ear regarding my session tomorrow.
10:05 avg pace

Thanks for the kind messages friends:) Things are looking ok for me da. So far so good ...

Tuesday 25 November
A lot of driving and hanging out in hospital so no time to run. First day off running in 19 days.

Wednesday 26 November
AIS, Lunge Matrix pre run
2 x 6 x 35 sec strides at mile effort (jog back rec) & 3 mins @ 5k
Didn't read the instructions on the tin properly for this one and the strides were supposed to be 40 seconds and not 35. The extra 5 seconds however wouldn't have posed any problems tonight
Paces for the strides were:
6:48, 6:47, 7:26, 6:44, 6:47, 6:36
6:47, 6:35, 6:52, 6:55, 6:31, 6:31
I know I did some of them faster than I should (mile effort) but to be honest with you I was just really enjoying the sensation of moving a lot faster than usual and got a real buzz out of it. I didn't like taking the day off yesterday either so I think I was also trying to make up for lost time and my legs felt really fresh and very springy tonight. Loved this little session. Had a 3 minute jog recovery and then did 3 mins at 5k effort which turned out to be 7:43 pace. Felt good throughout. 2 mile cool down.
7 miles @ 9:45 avg pace
Myrtl post run

Thursday 27 November
35 mins easy w/6x25 sec strides
AIS, Lunge Matrix pre run
With half an eye on the Clontarf 5 mile race on Saturday I kept this easy and short. Pleasant night but feeling a bit lethargic if I'm honest with the recent stressful stuff going on.

Friday 28 November
Rest
Wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do the race the next day until the evening when I got the go ahead. Didn't have to travel to Kilkenny today so all systems go. Was stressed and tired so decided to give the body a rest and take the day off. I've never not run the day before a race before. I always do about 3 super slow miles with strides but didn't think that'd benefit me today.

Saturday 29 November
Clontarf 5 Mile Race - AKA Clontarf 5.3 Mile Race:rolleyes::mad:
Old 5 Mile pb: 42:22
New 5 Mile pb: 40:32
Instructions for this was to enjoy it and not stress about it and put in a good effort and not to go eyeballs out. That suited me perfectly fine considering the week I've had.

Breakfast of banana and wholemeal bagel, a tiny bit of water and a half cuppa coffee. Then went to put my face on and shock horror I couldn't find my make-up bag anywhere:eek: Going around like a headless chicken trying to find it did not help stress levels this morning. I NEVER go out in public without my face on. I don't wear loads or anything but I have to do the basics. "She has little to worry about" you must be thinking!
Found some old crappy stuff and put together half a face but definitely not looking my best:(
AIS before I left.
Drove to Clontarf and found parking easily enough. I'm really bad when driving somewhere new and trying to find parking and I can't actually parallel park:o:o so I'm always limited as to where I can put the car. Eventually found a spot up a leafy suburb about a mile away from the start which was perfect.
Jogged down to registration and picked up the number and queued for toilets. All seamlessly easy. Great organisation.
Jogged back to the car to compose myself. Nerves were starting to get to me. I didn't have time the last few days to get nervous about this race but they were starting to kick in now in a big way. I did consider not doing it yesterday with everything I had going on and using that as an excuse but to be very honest I felt if circumstances allowed at all I needed to do this as I feel I'm developing this fear of racing due to my pathetic 5k attempts over the summer which really knocked my confidence.

Whilst back at the car and trying to compose myself and deal with the nerves I made a decision which I'm sure I'll be derided for and probably rightly so. I thought to myself, what would make me less nervous for this race? The answer was to wear my headphones to distract myself:eek:. I was torn whether to do this or not. I haven't worn headphones in a race since my first 2 5ks. Feck it, I said I'd wear them. Am I happy I did in hindsight? Yes. It made the whole experience much more relaxed for me and calmed the nerves. I kept the volume low and due to where I started (at the back) I was passing runners the whole way and very very few overtook me so I don't think I wasn't causing any problems to other runners. If it was a road race I probably would not have made the decision to wear them today.
Awaits onslaught..................:o

Jogged back to the startline, went to loo and did about 3 miles warm up in total with 6 x 20 sec strides. Fabulous morning for racing. Absolutely damn perfect.
Headed to startline but everyone was moving backwards from the official start line towards Alfie Byrne road .
Didn't know why the startline was moved and still don't. Someone told me after that race that they heard that the race was officially changed from a 5 mile race to a 8.5k race don't know if that's true or if some other mistake was made with the route for the 5 mile which extended it by a good bit.

First mile was a mess as paths were too narrow and everyone was in the wrong place as per usual. I started near the back with all the other headphone wearers as I felt that's where I belonged today due to my headphone-wearing status:D First mile weaving but I remained calm and only passed if it didn't stress me too much. Second mile was good as the crowds really dispersed so plenty of space for the rest of the race.
I remained calm and relaxed for almost the whole race. I got into a nice rhythm (nice tempo effort). However I did develop a stitch about half way in so it was touch and go for a while and I did spend most of the rest of the race working to keep it under control which was a bit of a nuisance. When I started pushing the effort upwards, the stitch would get a bit worse and I'd feel a bit nauseous.
What I really noticed in this race was how amazingly strong my legs felt. They wanted to take off for the whole race and never got tired.

Didn't look at the watch for the whole race but here are the splits:
8:10
8:03
8:09
8:09
8:02 (5 mile time 40:32)
______________________
.3 of a mile @ 7:59 pace
*Finish time for 5.3 miles - 42:56 (ignoring this finish time for 5.3 miles on my watch as I didn't enter a 5.3 mile race, I entered a 5 Mile race:()
I'd happily add on/take off 10/20/30 seconds to any race time due to GPS not measuring correctly but there is way too much of a discrepancy with the distance today.

So a good consistent effort. Not over the moon about the time or anything but for the effort I put in and the way I approached it I did ok and it's a decent pb. The thing I'm most pleased about today is that I had a good racing experience overall and am a huge step closer to conquering my fear of racing.
I'm really disappointed it wasn't a proper 5 mile length race. So are they going to give us an official time for an 8.5k race or a 5 mile race? They can't give us a 5 mile time for a race that measured well over 5 miles. That'd be ridiculous. Time will tell...
Did a few miles cooldown and watched some of the half marathoners on their last leg. Saw Mr & Mrs Marthastew pacing the 2 hours and doing an amazing job of getting their crew with them to push on for the sub 2.

Was half considering doing Jingle Bells next week. I'll talk to the boss. My training is more geared towards 10k stuff so maybe I'll just hold out for Raheny 5 or a 10k in January if I can find one and do a Parkrun as practice before xmas. Might give Poppintree a shot

11 miles daily total

yaboya1 wrote: »

Well done on the PB.

Sub 40 in Raheny?

At the very least! Bring it on!

Thank you!

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Great running today O, very consistent splits and plenty more to come.

For me, personally I wouldn't take an official PB from a Garmin, too unpredictable. The headphones seemed to work for you today but you'll probably need to get used to racing without them.

Well done, it seems to be coming together for you

TbL

Thanks TbL. It's only the start for me:)

Yeah I know what you're saying about the Garmin time, but the time on my watch at 5 miles is way closer to reality than the finish time for a 5 mile race that was 5.3 miles! It's not just me being a moany biatch by the way, everyone's complaining about it being long on the events thread too:).

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Hey O,

In no way trying to rain on your parade or suggest that you're been moany, you would have broken your PB anyway. Well done again

TbL

No worries. No big parade to rain on anyhow:)