Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

Absolutely, the 2 courses are like night and day. That was probably the toughest route I've run in my short CC career.

Monday - 6 Miles @ 8:50 m/m

Christmas morning run in a very wet Kilkenny. Joined the Kilkenny Running Club for their Christmas morning run.

Tuesday - 5.3 Miles @ 8:56 m/m

Very easy run on a very delicate stomach

Wednesday - 8.8 Miles @ 8:36 m/m

Thursday - Club Session

It was Baltic for this run. Bandstand lap in Bushy park. Its a hilly enough route, about 1.1 Miles.

7:16/7:21/7:30/7:41

Glad to get it done.

Friday - Wicklow Way Run

A few from the club met up to run a leg of the Wicklow Way relay from Roundwood to Glendalough and back. It was a great day and really enjoyable run. Even if it was nearly double the advertised distance!

Saturday - Kilkenny Parkrun

Hit up the Kilkenny Parkrun and ran it as a Tempo run, pace was 7:21m/m which is decent enough on that course.

Total for the day was 6.9 Miles.

Sunday - 7 Miles @ 8:45 m/m

More easy miles on another hangover!

Total for the week was 52.2 Miles.

#|Month|Race|Result|Comment
1|January|Dublin Masters XC|227/261|First championship XC race, tough going
2|January|Leinster Masters XC|144/159|As above, found it tough. Not sure how to judge these races.
3|January|Raheny|33:45|Good effort PB, Had been sick in the run up to it.
4|March|Ballycotton 10|72.09|PB but not very happy, had been hoping to go close to 70 mins. But a PB is a PB as they say.
5|March|K-Club 10K|43.06|Great day, good run but time a refelction on current level of fitness.
6|April|GIR 10K|43.48|Good effort, its a tough course but thought I ran well.
7|May|Leinster Masters 6km|24:07|Great race in Gowran, a highlight of the year, Happy with my performance and time.
8|May|Dunboyne 5 Mile|32.54|A great race and delighted with my run, a min off my run in Raheny
9|June|Patrick Bell 5km|20:00|Good race, came up with 20:00, PB, but a little disappointed.
10|June|Trinity Track 800m|2:45|First 800m, went out too hard but held on for4th place.
11|June|Trinity Track 2000m|7:41|Paced this one better and finished in 2nd place.
12|June|Dunshaughlin 10K|41:20|Target race, delighted with a big PB. Set me up well for the second half of the year.
13|June|St. Coca's 5k|19:36|Delighted with this, was hoping for 19:59. Nothing like cashing in on fitness gains.
14|August|Tymon Parkrun|20:55|Good effort but hard to run PB's on this course
15|August|Frank Duffy 10 Mile|71:10|another 10 Mile PB but again disappointed with my time. I've yet to nail a 10 Mile race.
16|September|BHAA Pfizer 5K|19.32|This came out of nowhere but I was delighted with it coming off HM training.
17|September|Charleville HM|1:32:23|Target Race, big PB, delighted with this one as my 2 target races were very successful
18|October|BHAA Teachers XC|94/140|Bad day out, thought I'd go better than this but XC is difficult
19|October|Leinster Novice XC|10/108|Happy with this effort, super high standard but happy with how I ran.
20|November|BHAA Irish Life XC|85/195|Good result a good improvement on the previous year
21|November|La Santa 10k|43:46
22|November|La Santa 13K|1:05:47
23|November|La Santa 5k|25:11
24|November|La Santa 21K|1:36:47|I didn't take any of these races too seriously and the results reflect that! Good week though.
25|December|National Novice XC|185/186|Tough course and tough day out. Good experience though. I'd do this race again.
26|December|Marlay Parkrun|21:01|Bit of a pre Christmas Blowout. Good course in Marlay and happy with the effort.

Lots and lots of races. My plan for the year was to skip the marathons and try to improve at all the other distances.

Some of my PB's were quite old but I managed to take down all my PB's from 5K to Half Marathon. My main target races were Dunshaughlin and Charleville and I was happy with how I went in both races.

Other races I was happy with were St Cocas 5K and Pfizer 5K as well as the BHAA 5 Mile race.

Delighted with my progress this year but I really should have a sub 70 10 Mile at this stage.

For next year, lots more races (I like racing so I'll do it as much as I can get away with).

Main target will be a sub 3:15 marathon in Berlin. Other target races will be 10K in National 10K and Dunshaughlin, 5 Mile in Dunboyne and a 5K in May sometime.

I've also got HM's in Madrid (April) and Cork (June) though may not race both all out.

For the second half of the year, I'l be building towards Berlin so will ease off on the races, and I'll hope to run XC again next year.

Progress this year has been:

Dist|PB Dec 16|PB Dec 17
800m|-|2:45
2000|-|7:41
5km|20:06|19:32
6km|-|24:07
5 Mile|35:43|32:54
10K|42:08|41:20
10 Mile|73:57|71:10
Half Marathon|1:39:15|1:32:23

Day|Time|Dist/Pace|Comment
Monday|PM|6.2 Miles @ 8:51|Commute/Rcovery
Tuesday|AM|3.1 Miles @ 8:36 m/m|Commute, Easy.
Tuesday|PM|5.6 @ 8:29 m/m|Club Session - Hills & Sprints
Wednesday|PM|7.1 Miles @ 8:54 m/m|Commute - Recovery
Thursday|AM|3.2 Miles @ 8:36 m/m|Commute - Easy
Thursday|PM|1 Mile @ 6:53|NIA Live - 1 Mile Race
Friday|PM|8 Miles @ 8:42 m/m|Easy Post work run.
Saturday|AM|5 Miles @ 8:41 |Easy with Strides
Sunday|PM|5 Miles @ 6:30 m/m|Raheny 5 Mile

Tuesday's session was Hills and Sprints, I normally go with 8,but in an attempt to save myself for Thursday I went with 6 instead.

Thursday, went back to the National Indoor arena for another Mile race. I'm really starting to enjoy these. This time I wanted to pace it better and most importantly run 8 laps and only 8 laps!. Murph_D and Wubble Wubble as well as Dubgal and around 4 clubmates were lining up for this so I knew most people in the race.

I started in the outside and ended up running in lane 3 for a while. At one point D went past but I elected to let him go but did go past one or 2 others who were not keeping pace.

At each lap I was usually around 1 second outside 6 min pace. I tried to pick it up on lap 4 and went through halfway in exactly 3 mins. From then on I didn't check the clock. Again the end kind of snuck up on me, I picked it up with 2 laps to go, passing wubble and one of the clubmates. On the last lap I emptied the tank as best as I could, catching another clubmate right on the line for a very satisfying time of 5.53 and 6th place. Nice to get a PB but the feeling of going a few seconds faster is certainly there. It's a very interesting distance and once again NIA live was a very well run event.

Sunday (or today as they call it) was another crack at the Raheny 5 mile. I didn't feel I was in PB shape and having had a full weeks training I gave thought to doing a tempo run for this but abandoned that plan early on.

For the start I lined up well towards the front, probably too much towards the front. At 3pm sharp we were off. The first mile went well, I found myself running well and a quick check of the pace had me at 6:20 pace. Too quick I thought but as this was a 'no pressure' sort of race I just went with it. (Mile 1 = 6:26)

We passed back by the start area and down towards All Saints Road. Still keeping things together I'm not concerned with the pace, I'm more concerned with how long I can keep this up. Trying to keep the effort levels steady and realizing there is just over 3 miles to go. (Mile 2 = 6:26)

I've run this race 3 times but I really don't know the area that well and I'm just following everyone, we turn off a main road and there is a bit more room. Starting to struggle a bit more now and feel a few go past me. Hoping not to blow up. (Mile 3 = 6:24)

2 Miles to go and I know there is a tough out and back in St. Annes Park to go. I struggle with this as I see all the runners ahead coming in the opposite direction but my mood improves as we make a 180 degree turn and now see all the runners still behind me! (Mile 4 = 6:41)

Just about digging in now, as we exit the park I try and pick it up a bit. Someone goes past me and I try to respond. There is that horrible loop of the park before we get back to the finish line, empty the tank again on the last turn (thinking the XC is paying dividends here). I'm surprised to see 32:xx on the clock so push on for the last bit (Mile 5 = 6:13)

Finish Time is 32:13 chip time. I wasn't sure at the time if it was a PB but turns out its 41 seconds faster than Dunboyne last May. This is a great result given no taper and no real speedwork done this year, so a sign of good things to come.

I really wasn't expecting that today but sometimes I guess its better not to concentrate so much on the pace and just go hard at it.

Well done to Raheny for putting on a consistently great race. We'll be up against it to keep our title of "best 5 mile race in the world in Terenure" in May!

So job done this week, 2 PB's and just short of 50 miles

Total for the week 49.1 (Assuming I don't go for a 0.9 Mile run before midnight)

Wubble Wubble wrote: »

That's a brilliant week, without doubt. Surely your club will pick you for the Nats after that Best of luck in Dungarvan.

I'm pretty solidly encamped in the "B" team at this stage!

Day|Time|Dist/Pace|Comment
Monday|PM|5.3 Miles @ 9:01|Recovery
Tuesday|PM|9.5 @ 8:49 m/m|Easy/Steady at the Club Session
Wednesday|PM|7 Miles @ 8:42 m/m|Commute - Easy
Thursday|AM|3.2 Miles @ 8:33 m/m|Commute - Easy
Thursday|PM|6.9 Mile @ 8:19|Steady run at the club session
Friday|PM|5.1 Miles @ 8:50 m/m|Easy Post work run.
Saturday|AM|4 Miles @ 8:57 |Easy with Strides
Sunday|PM|10 Miles @ 6:42 m/m|[URL="https://www.strava.com/activities/1391590912]John Treacy 10 Mile[/URL]

I skipped the 2 club sessions this week (well ran steady at them rather than doing the sessions). On Tuesday I was still recovering, on Thursday I was a bit close to the 10 mile. Everything else was easy.

Total for the week was 55.4 Miles - Most since early November.


Sunday morning I hit the road to Dungarvan. I've heard so much about this race I wanted to see it for myself. Weather was awful in Dublin, glad I wasn't up in the Waterworks with the rest of the club.

Weather improved the closer I got to Waterford and by race time there was nice sunshine and a balmy 8 degrees.

The start was busy but I just tried to settle in and get into a rhythm. We do a loop and come back by the start line. After this we head out towards the country roads. Not being familiar with the area I didn't really know what to expect. Also adding to this was that I didn't really know how the legs would hold up.

I felt good though and started fairly quick and settled into what was quite a quick pace, I wasn't afraid of it though, figuring I'd go out hard and if I blow up so be it.

The first mile was bit too quick but the next 2 were right around where I wanted to be (6:32, 6:46, 6:42).

So far so good. I skipped the first water station around 3 miles in. One god thing about this race (there are lots of good things) is that they call out splits at the mile marker. My split at 3 miles was around 20 mins. That did scare me a little bit.

I was making my way through the field, working a bit harder but certainly not struggling. We went through halfway in around 33.45 I thought that I could hold on at this point.

Shortly after halfway they is a bit of hairpin type bend. I could sense those around me slowing down so pushed on a bit. Less than 5 miles to go and still feeling ok. (6:47,6:44,6:50)

There was a clock at the 10K mark (42:02 I think), that would have been a 10K PB a year ago.

Anyway once we got through 7 Miles I really started to push on as much as I dared. It was fairly downhill but I was going past quite a few people so I felt I was on for quite a good time. I wasn't really checking my pace at all, I'd occasionally check how much distance was left but wasn't trying to stick to a specific pace so not too concerned about that.

Around this time there is a bit of an incline, and then a left turn onto a main road into the wind. As much as anywhere I started to really feel it here but telling myself there is less than 2 miles to go I tried to dig deep.

Once we turned off the main road I gave it everything to try and empty the tank. There was one guy with me and we kind of dragged each other through it.

I knew I was on for a good time so really gave it everything and put in my fastest mile of the race. (6:39, 6:45, 6:52, 6:25).

I finished in 67:03 for a 4 minute PB. I was disappointed that I missed the sub 67 before realising that the A-target was probably 68 so pretty delighted with this.

The race overall is brilliant, closed roads, very friendly, good support, 3 water stations, great spread afterwards (really good actually) and a nice basic goodie bag with Nike T-shirt, Water, Mars Bar, Crisps, Flapjack. Can't argue with that. Great event. Recommended.

Now for some Superbowl/PB Beers!

adrian522 wrote: »

So far so good...

Never in doubt