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

Careful now, this is a training log for all the family

Ha ha, I'm hoping for a nice bit of west coast sunshine. Should I pack the sunscreen?

Day|Time|Dist/Pace|Comment
Monday|PM|Off|
Tuesday|PM|4.9 @ 8:41 m/m|Easy
Wednesday|AM|4.7 Miles @ 8:46 m/m|Commute - Easy
Wednesday|PM|5.4 Miles @ 8:47 m/m|Commute - Easy
Thursday|PM|7 Miles @ 8:25|Steady run at the club session
Friday|AM|3.1 @ 9:11 m/m|Very Easy Commute
Friday|PM|4.7 Miles @ 8:45 m/m|Easy Commute
Saturday|AM|3.9 Miles @ 8:42 |Easy with Strides
Sunday|PM|4.23 Miles @ 8:51 m/m|[URL="https://www.strava.com/activities/1402832263]National Masters XC[/URL]

Where to start? I wasn't feeling great, despite an early night and a very easy week, I' developed a sore throat overnight and it had me concerned. Undeterred I packed the gear and headed for the bus at Bushy Park. Weather wasn't great but it seemed to get steadily worse the further west we went. The concern was very real as the snow just kept coming down and I was thinking this could be tough.



Luckily once we arrived in Clarinbridge there wasn't much snow and the sun even came out.

I'm not even going to describe the underfoot conditions. Something like this though.



Sorry for all the photos! Anyway once we were underway it became apparent how tough this was going to be. 1 small lap and 3 large laps. I knew it was going to be a struggle before we were through the first lap. The mud was so deep that actually running in the normal sense just wasn't going to be possible.

All you could do was plod around as best you could. All thoughts of picking up places or performing well went out the window. I just wanted to get through it and get home. It was energy sapping on the legs. Any overtaking that was going on was purely incidental.

At least I wasn't like my unfortunate clubmate who lost one of his spikes in the mud and then discarded the other and then completed the race in a pair of socks.

Once we got onto the last lap I was thinking, right less than a mile to go, but that seemed like it was such a long way that line of thinking was no good. I also remember thinking that marathons seemed easier than this but I guess I'd forgotten the hurt of the marathon. On the second half of the last lap I did pass a few people and did my best to hold off a clubmate who was right behind me.

I was really glad it was over and while glad of the experience I'll be happy to hit the roads again for the next while at least.

Result: 37:26, 206th out of 248.



Mileage total for the week: 40.2

Wubble Wubble wrote: »

Congrats, you nailed the Nats! Tough and all as it was, you were still able to pick it up at the end. Plus that's a serious improvement from National Novice. Hope there were a few beers to help you recover on the bus back

There are two more BHAA XC races remaining, the first this Saturday at ALSAA, if you fancy keeping your XC season going a while longer.

Yeah, we stopped off in Balinasloe on the way back and then hit up Brady's in Terenure later on

I'm not sure about ALSAA at the moment. I'll see what the club session is on Saturday. I think I've raced 7 times already this year. So much for 1 race per month!

Day|Time|Dist/Pace|Comment
Monday|PM|4.8 Miles @ 9:01 m/m|Recovery/Pick up some coffee on the way home!
Tuesday|AM|3.2 @ 8:47 m/m|Commute - Easy run into work.
Tuesday|PM|Club Session|8 x 800m
Wednesday|PM|Off|Work got in the way of todays run.
Thursday|AM|4.8 Miles @ 8:48 m/m|Commute - Longer than intended but trying to make up for missing Wednesdays run
Thursday|PM|3000M Race|1 more NIA race. 3,000m in 11.35
Friday|PM|8.2 Miles @ 8:56 m/m|Legs feeling the effects of the race so nice and slow.
Saturday|AM|8 Miles @ 9:00 m/m|Legs still not 100%, so recovery pace again.
Sunday|AM|15 Miles @ 8:52 m/m|Hilly Long Run including Waterworks outer loop

Interesting week. I wanted to maintain 50-ish miles per week and get in 2 good sessions. Tuesday night the cub were doing 800's so I had the idea to do 6 really good reps and leave it at that. I got talked into the additional 2 though. I knew this could affect the 3K race but I went with it anyway.

Paces were: 6:13/5:51/6:06/5:52/6:22/5:57/6:23/6:01.

They alternate with slightly uphill/slightly downhill. Good Session.

Thursday went out to Abbotstown again for the years final NIA live. Went with the 3K this time. No idea what to expect but figured 45/46 seconds per lap would have me in a good position to go 11:15 to 11:30 which I'd be happy with. My PB (in my only other 3K race) was 12:26.

I'd purchased a pair of spikes since my last outing, went out at target pace but it soon became obvious that I was going to be the last finisher. I wasn't bothered by this really, but was lapped for the first time around lap 4 or 5.

My pace was falling off a bit around 4 or 5 seconds down on target when I stopped paying attention to the clock. I find these indoor races really hard to get the pace right in. Anyway I kept plugging away, lapped a few more times.

Around 3 or 4 laps to go I notice my lace is undone, flirt with the idea of carrying on but not a good plan so step out to the outside lane to do up the laces. Pretty annoyed by this I burn through the last few laps as best as I can.

The last lap I'm the only one on the track and at least get a shout out from the commentator.

Finish time was 11:35 by the garmin. Happy with this, would have been sub 11:30 without the stoppage.

Sunday I went for another hilly long run. Legs still fairly lethargic, but loosened up during the run. it's a great route and it was nice to get out early morning for it.

Happy with my weeks work, 53.9 Miles ,1 session and 1 race.

Next up will be Bohermeen Half on March 11th.

Murph_D wrote: »

Fair play on the 3000 - although I think you’re entitled to pull your previous PB from one of your much faster 5ks!

8x800 seems like a long session -is this usual at your club? At the Cru, the accumulated session distance is always around 4.8k (e.g. 6x800).

What’s the Bohermeen target? You fairly killed it last time out in Charleville.

Yeah the 3K equates to around 20:00 5K based on the VDOT tables so happy enough with that.

Most of our sessions are listed as quite long or hard but usually only the tops guys will do the full number of reps. Usually I will do something less than that. In this instance I'd have been happy with 6 but I felt ok so added the extra 2. But the last one was pretty slow so maybe it was too many.

Bohermeen? I'll go out similar to Dungarvan and see how I'm feeling in mile 1. I'd like to think I can go under 90 mins but it may be optimistic.

I also have the Madrid Half in April but that is supposed to be a tougher course so hope to hit my target in Bohermeen!

Day|Time|Dist/Pace|Comment
Monday|PM|5.3 Miles @ 8:44|Easy
Tuesday|PM|Treadmill Session|6 x 1 Mile @ 10K Pace
Wednesday|PM|Off|Didn't manage to get out, was getting dark by the time I got home and didn't seem like a great idea to head out. Gym helpfully closed early.
Thursday|AM|8 Miles @ 8:39 m/m|Great fun running in the snow in the morning, up to Bushy park and a few laps then home. It was cold and windy but a whole lot of fun.
Friday|PM|Off|Another rest day. Any running today would have just been about ticking the box.
Saturday|AM|16 Miles @ 8:48 m/m|Met a group from the club and this turned into a long run which I wasn't intending, but once I got to around 12 or 13 I decided I'd finish it out to 16.
Sunday|AM|8.27 Miles @ 9:21 m/m|The snow is turning to ice and this was nowhere near as much fun but nice to get a run done at least.

Interesting week. Easy run on monday. Club session was cancelled at the last minute on Tuesday so I hit the treadmill. Unfortunately the Gym hasn't opened since so haven't managed another session though I did get a really good run in on Thursday morning and a good long run yesterday.

Overall not to bad, salvaged 47.9 Miles and a decent session from the week.

Day|Time|Dist/Pace|Comment
Monday|PM|5 Miles @ 8:54|Recovery
Tuesday|AM|3.2 miles @ 8:35|Commute
Tuesday|PM|Club Session|4 x (600m/800m)
Wednesday|PM|7.1 @ 8:43 m/m|Easy run home from work
Thursday|AM|7.1 Miles @ 8:18 m/m|The reverse of Wednesdays run.
Friday|PM|5.1 Miles @ 8:48 m/m|Treadmill. Bought a fancy new footpod, only to find its not compatible with my watch. It has its own app anyway so not all bad.
Saturday|AM|4.2 Miles @ 8:29 m/m|Went to the Club Session and did a few laps of Bushy Park with some strides. Gatecrashed the parkrun birthday run in certain sections!
Sunday|AM|Bohermeen Half Marathon|1:32:42 - 20 seconds slower than Charleville last September

Well, this week all about the race. Not really a goal race but one I'd like to do well in. Given the interrupted training due to snow I felt a bit sluggish down at the club session on Tuesday. Gave it a good go and really pushed the pace as much as I could. Looking back the paces seemed to be like 5-10K pace. It's always good to get a good session in after you've not done one in a while.

All easy running after that until Sunday. I'd decided I'd go for the sub 90. After the performance in Dungarvan I think this should have been a realistic goal. Should have been.

I lined up just in front of the 90 min pacers. The start was ok, I was feeling ok but if I dropped the pace at all I got sucked into the large group. I got boxed in with legs getting clipped a few times so I tried to stay a few meters in front but it soon became apparent that I was working too hard and it was going to be a tough ask to maintain this for another 10 miles.

I struggled on like this for another few miles but eventually dropped back from the 90 minute group.

Splits for the first 5 Miles: 6:45/6:49/6:49/6:48/6:55

I started to go backwards at this point. I was surprised by how isolated I found myself, also found myself getting passed by a fair few runners, trying to keep the pace honest but really struggling at this point.

As we came around for the second lap I knew the game was up. I did have thoughts of dropping out but put those thoughts out of my head but at this point I found the wind to be an issue and was just trying to get through it.

7:08/7:05/7:10/7:16/7:24

Still getting passed by runners and still trying to think I can PB if I can just dig in a bit more but really finding it tough to pick up the pace at all. I am passed by a clubmate with around 3 miles to go.

Try as I might I just can't get anything going. Delighted to finally turn right onto the last stretch, check the watch, is PB on? 3 mins to run 800m to grab a PB. No chance but I still finish out as strong as I can.

7:25/7:11/7:09/(5:53).

Overall disappointed. I thought I'd do better. The pace really dropped off a cliff after 5 miles and it was just impossible to get going. Pretty demoralizing from there.

In hindsight I'd have say it's good to almost PB on a tougher course with no real taper but I'd have hoped to go a bit better based off Raheny and Dungarvan. I won't dwell on it but probably didn't give the race the respect it deserved in terms of preparation.

I've another half in April, where I will try to run close to 7 min miles from the start and see where that leads. Kudos to Bohermeen on the race, its a nice route and there is a great atmosphere around the place. I'll hopefully be back again.

Weekly Mileage 55.1

RayCun wrote: »

Why did you start in front of the pacers?

It wasn't intentional it was just where I ended up in the first mile. I hadn't intended on running with them, I just wanted to go out and run by feel more or less. But once I found myself just in front of that group I tried to stay there, and probably ended up going a bit quicker than I would have liked in all honesty.