A Slow Journey to Faster Times

Murph_D wrote: »

Wait for a signal next time.

Not hard to see what went wrong looking at that trace!

I did wait for the signal. Must have lost it again though

My wardrobe prep for this hasn't been planned very well. I'll wear whatever is clean in the morning

Just to wrap up the rest of last week:

Thursday 2nd July - 75 minutes Easy
9m @ 8:22p/m average (126bpm)

A bonus run after a 12 hour shift in work at 10:30pm. Perfect conditions.


Friday 3rd July - Rest

Had fully intended on getting out for a few miles with some strides thrown in ahead of pacing Saturday's race. Just like Tuesday it just didn't happen, making me even happier that I got the run in the night before.


Saturday 4th July - Clontarf HM 1:45 pacing (1:44:30)

2k w/u (5:36, 5:07)
2k w/d (5:38, 5:42)

This went pretty much according to plan with just a few slight hitches :eek:. I ate my breakfast far closer to the race than I ever would if I was racing myself, which left me needing to use the portaloo moments before the race. I was actually still in there when the race started, but didn't panic as I knew I was in wave 2. I didn't realise there was only about 30 seconds between waves. I ran from the loo, grabbed my balloon (which fellow pacer belcarra had kindly held for me) and continued on the move over the start line. I spent the first 200 metres trying to tie the string of the balloon to my wrist, before it got tangled up with belcarra's and we were literally joined at the wrist from then until late in the race. Anyway onto the pacing strategy.......

We chatted in the first half mile about how we'd go about this job. The course was marked in kilometres, so both of us had adjusted our Garmins to suit that. 4:58min/km would be the perfect steady pace from start to finish, but to allow for the Garmin measuring long and hoping to bank a few seconds on the way out we decided to try and hold 4:55min/km. We held pretty steady until we came off the causeway first time. We then decided to speed up slightly so we'd have some time to give back against the wind after the turnaround. This worked well and we were able to drop to 5:00min/km before hitting the causeway in reverse back towards the beach. Back on pace then, we explained to any followers we had left that we'd be slowing slightly along the beach (we had about 40 seconds in hand), before picking back up to target pace for the remaining 3.5km when we left the sand for the final time. We took on extra water and distributed amongst the group where possible and all in all stuck rigidly to our strategy the whole way. belcarra gave me full control of both balloons before hitting the beach again as they were becoming a real nuisance at this stage. I found it tough to hold 5:07min/km pace along the beach, so can only imagine that it was unsustainable for somebody who normally holds that pace at HM race effort. I could sense the group getting smaller & smaller the further we moved up the sand. When we eventually made our way back towards the wooden bridge, we encouraged anyone still with us that the hard work was now done. belcarra dropped back a bit to try and round up a few stragglers. From here on in most people around me either stuck with me or put a little spurt on to get in ahead. Saw Murph_D out supporting as I approached the finish and got over the line in 1:44:30. I re-iterate what I said in other threads about the race conditions on Saturday - HORRIBLE! I seriously doubt anybody who raced in Clontarf on Saturday (good or bad result) cannot do better on a more favourable day for running. I was baked in sweat on the way out and found holding 5+min/km pace tough on the way back. I had brought my HRM to wear during the race, but with all the confusion I actually forgot to turn it on which is a shame as the results would have been interesting. Normally I'd expect my HR to be hovering around 130bpm for this sort of pace, but I'd bet money it was closer to 150 today going by how I felt.


Splits:

Km 1 - 4:56
Km 2 - 4:56
Km 3 - 4:56
Km 4 - 4:57
Km 5 - 4:53
Km 6 - 4:51
Km 7 - 4:57
Km 8 - 4:47
Km 9 - 4:49
Km 10 - 4:46
Km 11 - 4:54
Km 12 - 5:02
Km 13 - 5:00
Km 14 - 4:48
Km 15 - 4:54
Km 16 - 5:08
Km 17 - 5:04
Km 18 - 5:01
Km 19 - 4:52
Km 20 - 4:53
Km 21 - 4:58
0.24 - 1:09


Caught up with Killerz, meno & overpronator after the race and enjoyed some water, a banana and some alcohol free Erdinger. dublin runner had already disappeared, although I had met him before the start. Headed home soon after and picked up the pace for a 2k cool down jog to get the daily total to about 15.5 miles.


Sunday 5th July - 65 minutes Easy
8.14m @ 8:02p/m average (130bpm)

Another bonus run I was delighted to get in. A long day meant I wasn't home until almost 11pm, so I hit the road immediately before I could change my mind. I felt extremely fresh despite the hectic couple of days beforehand and the HR was back where it should be at this sort of pace. I may deliberately put a Steady session off until this late in the night next week to see what sort of results I get when the sun's not affecting the HR.

More than 50 miles in total for the week, which I'm happy with considering the two unscheduled rest days.

menoscemo wrote: »

That's happened me a few times pacing too!!
Did you actually run 17km tied together? :eek:

Yep. Right until we came onto the beach second time. Along with worrying about the pace, we had to let each other know what side of lampposts etc. we were going well in advance. We also had to arch our hands over slower runners heads every time we overtook them.