Mum on the Run

Monday - LSR

Celebrated the morning off work with a trip to the Phoenix Park. What a spectacular day! The park looked amazing in the sunshine, there wasn’t much of a breeze, and apart from the paths and trails being flooded it couldn’t have been better conditions for running. I followed the Frank Duffy 10 route, just neglecting that triangular detour off the North Road (for some reason I thought that was only for the half marathon). So down Chesterfield Ave, left onto Lords Walk, all the way round the North Road, up to the Castleknock Gates, back down Chesterfield with a detour via the pope’s cross, right onto Wellington Road, out Islandbridge Gate, up Chapelizod Road and back into park, up ‘the hill’ and finishing a bit further down the Furze Road than the actual race itself.

I felt the effort was fairly even so I’m recording the splits of these training runs to help with pacing on the day. Nothing like a bit of forward planning!

Legs felt a bit heavy after yesterday’s race but I’ve been neglecting the long runs recently due to all the racing so it was great to be able to get this done today. Better than going into work anyway.

Went to the Run Hub after to get a set of 12mm spikes for next Sunday’s masters’ XC. Never used 12’s before but I think they’re an investment :eek:.

• 10 miles @ 8:26 (tarmac)

Splits (8:19, 8:25, 8:35, 8:31, 8:21, 8:11, 8:05, 8:23, 9:02, 8:33)

Tuesday – Easy

A random lap including Drumcondra, Marino, Killester, Donneycarney and Whitehall. Did the hill sprints on Calderwood Road.

• 4.4 miles @ 9:30 + 2 x 8 sec Hill Sprints (full rec)

Wednesday – S&C, Fartlek

Level 2 Pilates which was harder than it should have been. That’s what I get for taking a week off.

Abandoned the schedule which called for 8 miles including 4 at MP and decided to do something simpler and easier ahead of the Masters XC on Sunday. I didn’t realise how the weather had changed while I was inside at Pilates. This was horrific from start to finish. The grass was like marshland, there was a gale force wind and the rain was freezing and stinging my face with mini-bullets. The water was as high as I’ve ever seen it and as I passed the sailing club the waves were crashing over the wall. Soaked! There was only one other eejit out and we exchanged a greeting in solidarity. Made it up to the Bull Wall and turned. Still wet, windy and boggy underfoot but the tailwind helped motivate me to do some faster running : 30/45/60/75/90/120 mins with equal jog recoveries. That got me back to where I started and I considered making a dash for the car but with barely 3 miles on the watch I figured I wasn’t going to get any wetter and I might as well finish what I started. So back into the headwind for 90/75/60/45/30 with equal recs followed by a short cool down. Ugh. Not sure what this run achieved because I couldn’t keep proper form in the wind and my paces, seen after the fact, were all over the place. Maybe it’ll toughen me up :rolleyes:.

• 5.2 miles incl. ca. 12 mins of ‘faster’ running

Thursday – REST

Murph_D wrote: »

Good spot for the hill sprints. But what happened to Fairview Mountain?

Not in the dark :eek: !!

Firedance wrote: »

Well? how did today go???!

Loved it! Report to follow once I've caught up on 20+ threads and, oh yes, done some work

Friday – Easy

A loop of a very wet and mucky St.Anne’s including a recce of the XC course for Sunday. 12mm spikes looking like a very smart investment at this point :eek:.

• 6.2 miles @ 9:41 (trail, grass, muck)

Saturday – Easy

A social parkrun with Laura_ac3 and Anna followed by some strides, and more importantly, coffee. Great to see Laura_ac3 back building up the miles after a lay-off. And to witness Anna sprinting off like Usain Bolt, making up at least 50 places in the last 200m .

• 4.1 miles (tarmac) incl. parkrun and 6 x 20 sec strides

Sunday – Dublin Masters XC 3K – St.Anne’s

I had no idea what to expect today, never having run in a Masters event before. A bit of research looking at results from the previous two years indicated that finishing in the top half of the field could be a reasonable target, with an outside* chance of making the top ten in my age group.

Aquinn very kindly drove myself and Murph_D to St.Anne’s and we faffed about for a bit before doing a bit of a warm up and meeting up with club and team mates. Slight panic 10 mins before the off when we realised we had no numbers, but coach turned up and sorted all that for us. It was the most perfect morning for running: sunny, cold, no wind. The course was waterlogged in parts, mucky trail in others and the odd patch of dry grass. We were all advised to be on the lookout for the log obstacle and I realised the error of not doing the full course lap as a warm up. A minute to go and I was still struggling to get out of my layers and pin my number on. Made it to the start just in time and got swallowed up in the huge crowd and ended up towards the back of the field as the gun went off.

Within seconds it was carnage with runners tripping and falling all over the place, more due to the congestion than the course itself I’d imagine. It was actually comical, with bodies everywhere (I say this only because they all got up and started running again immediately, so no harm done) and I’d estimate 5 or 6 runners came a cropper within the first 200 metres. There were a few screeches when we hit the first giant pool of freezing muddy water too :rolleyes:. Because I’d inadvertently started so far back I was passing out for much of the first lap and was feeling pretty good at this point. The ‘log’ turned out to be fine, and I was able to hurdle it without too much disruption.

The support from the sidelines was just incredible. Club mates, boardsies, random strangers all screaming encouragement. Sure you wouldn’t get it at the Olympics :pac::pac:. Still feeling good but there was a section of dry trail on the course after a hairpin bend where I seemed to slow down massively on both laps. I think anyone in runners or trail shoes would have had an advantage here. Everywhere else on the course though I think spikes were a must.

I’ll admit to using the elbows once or twice, because it was sometimes hard to get by the packs. All’s fair in love, war and XC, right ? Passing the finish line with a lap to go I was still feeling good, just unsure how much extra I could give without risking blowing up. I felt at this stage that holding my position and not conceding any places would be good, even though I’d no clue where I was in the rankings. While it was tough going, no doubt about that, it was so different from the ‘XC that wasn’t’ the previous week. Then, I was working hard the whole race and really struggling to keep pace and had to talk myself into keeping going and not wimping out. This time, honestly, I was loving every minute, completely ignoring the watch, and enjoying the competition and each little victory as I passed someone. I vaguely remember thinking ‘this is so much fun’ as I hurdled the log for the second time and emerged from the trees into the cheers of the supporters. One randomer advised me to latch on to the group ahead. He was right of course but they were too far to catch and as a result the finish was a bit of an anti-climax as I had no one to battle with at the end and there were no sneaky sprint finishes from behind.

Finished tired but happy, knowing I’d done my best, but also thinking if I’d been a bit braver earlier on and latched onto a faster group I might have done a bit better. But then I could have blown up. And it might have been torture the whole way around. Instead it was one of the best race experiences I’ve had. I can’t wait to do it again.

Our team (including aquinn who claimed to have actually enjoyed it; we are making spectacular progress there :pac::pac:) all finished pretty close together and will hopefully regroup in a couple of weeks for the National Masters in Dundalk.

A very welcome coffee, then switched to supporter mode for the men's race, finishing off a super day.

The Stats:
51st overall (out of 151) so well in the top half and just a place off the top third
17th F40 (out of 41) *was obviously way off here, oh well, something to work on
122% of winning time

• 2.5 miles approx incl. 3K XC

TOTAL WEEKLY MILES: 32.4

Murph_D wrote: »

Great report, G, unlike me you looked and sounded like you knew what you were doing out there!

122% of winning time - excellent, a new metric.

Thanks Murph, yeah the % of winning time is an IMRA thing and it's useful for XC too, especially for the leagues where the winner is often the same person.

Mrs Mc wrote: »

Well done G sounds like you enjoyed it too which is what it's all about.

Thanks, Mrs Mc, I sure did

laura_ac3 wrote: »

Good going, nice placing. Hard to know sometimes the difference between going out too strong or just enough to leave something for a finish!

Thanks Laura, yup, especially when the terrain is unknown territory it's a bit of a guessing game. I think looking back I may have erred very slightly on the side of caution as the race was very short, but I'm probably looking at it with rose-tinted specs now that it's all over :rolleyes:

Firedance wrote: »

well done indeed! you're enjoyment of it is clear to read there BG super report, really sorry to have missed all the fun and excitement as Laura said getting the balance right is tricky but TBH I think you had it spot on.

Thanks FD. I thought I had it right and the splits were exactly the same pace, but then looking through the results I saw a few names I recognised of runners I'd come in ahead of in previous races so maybe I should have HTFU'd a bit on the second lap. Looking forward to Dundalk now, after I bring Aquinn shopping .

Thursday – Recovery

Social loop around the neighbourhood with aquinn. Started off freezing but was grand after a mile or so when the rain/sleet eased off. I was going to do some hill sprints at the end but when you factor in the full recovery, and the absence of a suitable hill at my front door, these were going to take too long and I had to be back for storytime :rolleyes:.

• 4.3 miles (path) @ 10:08

Friday – S&C, Easy Run

Level 1 Pilates which was handy enough. I try to work a bit harder on form and technique in the Friday class because I really should be beyond the basics at this stage . After some errands it was time for a run, although the paths were a bit frosty still. I checked out what I think is the revised Raheny 5 route (detour through St.Anne’s to avoid the roadworks on the coast road). A bit slippy in parts where the sun hadn’t reached so I had a couple of wobbles but thankfully didn’t go splat. Had the trail shoes on so that might have helped with grip.

• 5 miles (path, tarmac) @ 9:21

Going to aim for the club hills session tomorrow :eek: