Leader Of The (Mid) Pack

Thu 17/11 - 5 miles in 10:10 p/m

For the first time since DCM, I tried running on consecutive days. Not too much hassle up to now, but with my time window to do this rapidly shrinking, I headed out into the freezing D15 night without much of a stretch beforehand.

I deliberately kept it slow all the way. This was one of my old loops from my early days living in the area, with only two hills crossing over the railway line to contend with. Still, I wasn't feeling brilliant even after 3 miles, and then my old niggles started coming back, worse than at any stage since the marathon. Not so bad that I was going to stop or anything, but enough to slow me down even more for the last mile and a half or thereabouts. As I worked through some belated stretching and foam rolling after I got home, I couldn't help thinking that last night was a setback. Maybe I need more time before trying this tortuous two days running in a row lark again.

Fri 18/11 - Rest, apart from stretching and foam rolling.

Sat 19/11 - Clontarf Half Marathon - DNS

Clontarf 5 Mile Porterstown parkrun - 3.1 miles in 23:42

Felt a bit strange this morning getting up having decided not to risk Clontarf. This was my first half marathon, back in the summer of 2013, and it's still one of my favourites to this day. I could have run it, but at what price long term? Plus a late night drinking and playing poker made it an even easier decision; I could have gone out there and switched to the 5 mile of course, but anyway I'm happy with my choice.

And so it was that I stayed home for another parkrun. On a bitterly cold morning, I kept the layers on until just before the start. There were a lot of icy stretches on the path, so I ended up running a fair bit of it on the grass. How much this had to do with it being a pain free parkrun, I don't know. Anyway, it felt easy, and, amazingly after Thursday's disaster, there were no niggles to report. It felt even better with the coffee, cake and biscuits that followed

Thanks Denis, I'm feeling the benefits this evening i.e. not sitting at home with my legs in a bundle. Plenty of other races to come over the next few months.

Your times are quite close to my own actually. It won't take you long to reach my current PBs. Very generous with regard to GAA I only ever got two winners medals in all my years playing; I stopped after getting my second one last year, a mere 20 years after my first!

The club have two groups out early in PP tomorrow. I'll see how I feel in the morning before I decide whether to join them.

Mon 21/11-Wed 23/11

Positives

Two pain free stretching and foam rolling sessions. I also entered Jingle Bells, having received a favourable timetable for my college tutorial weekend.

Negatives

Not getting out for a run at all so far this week. Work and college make it hard to get out Mondays or Tuesdays, unless I go running at lunchtime, which I hate, or I have a day off.

The plan was for an easy few miles tonight, but real life intervened. However, that might not turn out to be a complete disaster given my recent "fitness" history. I'll get out tomorrow, and then probably leave it till I add to my parkrun tally on Saturday morning. Recovery is taking longer than I hoped!

Sun 27/11 - Rest (unplanned)

Best intentions etc etc. My intention was to do the club run this morning, or failing that get a few miles in on my own. However, I was feeling ropey after drinking "enough" pints of Guinness on Saturday night (family birthday) so that was knocked on the head. This afternoon saw a trip to my brother's house for my eldest niece's birthday party. Thankfully no more alcohol, but there was chicken curry and lots of cake. So I'm out there thinking, I can get out this evening and recover some of the damage. By the time we got home, however, I was feeling too drained to even bother with a stretch. So a bit of a disaster for me I'm afraid, but a fine day for the club, with our ladies picking up a team prize in the Nationals, and AMK nailing the sub-3 in San Sebastian.

Less than ten miles covered in total this week, and it will be Wednesday before I hit the road again. I'm still thinking I'm in with a decent shout of sub 20 in Jingle Bells though. Either way, I'm looking forward to racing again.

Time to catch up on the last few days...

Thu 1/12 - 5 miles @8:26 p/m

Very happy with this one. It was basically the same run as two weeks previous, but whereas that time I limped through the last two miles, this was a pain free run out - and the best part of two minutes per mile quicker overall.

Fri 2/12 - Rest

Sat 3/12 - Jingle Bells 5k, Phoenix Park

Past

This was my first ever 5k, way back in 2012. Back then I was thrilled with a time of 21:16. I thought I would have a better record in this race subsequently, however this turned out not to be the case.

2013 - 22:23. Stinkbomb.
2014 - Didn't enter.
2015 - DNS, due to uncertainty about the race taking place in the midst of Storm Desmond.

My PB for 5k was set on the grand occasion of my 50th parkrun, which took place in Porterstown at the end of May (20:36). In spite of my steady diet of nothing (relatively) with regard to mileage since DCM, I'd set the beating of this time as a minimum requirement here. One of my goals as stated at the start of 2016 was to go sub 20, and it was the only one I still had a chance of beating this year. So that was the plan anyway.

Pre

I got to the Papal Cross car park super early, and had a mile warmup done before some of our massive club contingent arrived. By chance, I bumped into nop98 and the artist formerly known as Firedance, and hence I was there to witness the presentation of her well deserved t-shirt

Once the rest of our group had got themselves dressed for action, we got a nice warmup done around the Acres, finishing with some strides alongside the start area.

I lined up not too far back, with some club colleagues a wee bit in front, and HelenAnne almost directly behind me. I saw Murph_D earlier, and was looking for him again as we waited for the gun, but no luck there.

One

My lack of speed work was certainly felt on the opening stint uphill. At this early stage, I was trying to follow our lady captain, a 19:xx 5k runner on the road, who's been improving rapidly on the XC scene. However, she gradually pulled away as we approached the roundabout, and quite a few others passed me too. To be honest, I was gasping a bit, and thinking maybe I'd set the bar a bit too high, considering my lack of action lately. But this would be the hardest kilometre, wouldn't it?

Two

Much of the same really, as we turned onto Chesterfield Avenue. More and more groups came by, and spat me out the back as soon as I thought I had a chance of staying with them. Surely some of them were thinking, who's the joker in the cap starting this far up? Our coach was near the 2k marker, and gave me a shout. Even at this stage though, I was struggling to come up for air. Not good. Not good at all.

Three

The slight downhill as we approached the turn onto Ordnance Survey Road gave me a small bit of respite, but not enough to halt the seemingly endless tide of runners leaving me behind. Shortly before we passed the Ordnance Survey itself, it was HelenAnne's turn. I made a half hearted attempt to tag on, but very soon it was clear that wasn't going to work. By now I was just hanging on and waiting for the last 2k, hoping the run to the finish would boost my confidence and speed. Eight minutes, eight minutes!!!

Four

The slope began to change in my favour. And finally, I started to pass people. I think I passed two runners in the first 3k, whereas we're talking three figures for people passing me in the same area. I was pushing harder now, and thinking that if I kept HA at a reasonable distance, I might have a chance of beating the 20. Surprisingly, there was nobody else around that I recognised. As we worked our way out of the treelined chicane, I was passed by a guy in a Samsung Night Run top, and a wee bit ahead was a guy in some Kerry marathon top or other.

Five

Downhill we went. I was still wary of maybe going too hard too soon, given the lack of speedwork. I had in my head "just one 800 left, this is the last one, give it everything". Trouble was, it's been 3/4 months since I ran an 800 with the club. Anyway, I was gaining again on the two lads above, and caught a few others coming down the hill. Just before we turned left for the final 150m push to the line, the road kicked up a tiny bit. I negotiated the turn, and then started turning up the gas as I could see 19 on the clock ahead. I'm thinking, Yes, it's on! Go! Go! Go!

Just as I was going through the gap between Kerry guy and Samsung man, Samsung decided to dive right across me, and completely blocked my run. With Kerry guy on my left, I had nowhere to go, and ended up almost at a standstill. A clubmate was supporting here and gave me a shout to push again. I tried to repair the damage, but those two were gone, and another lad pipped me on the line, as I tried to regain momentum in a last gasp push, for what for me would hopefully be sub-20 glory. I crossed the line in 20:09 on the gun.

Post

At the finish I was absolutely fuming, as I tried to catch my breath on the rails, as Murph_D joined me, and scotindublin (who, unknown to me, had been following closely behind) gave me a shout. I reckoned I'd been cheated out of sub-20 by someone with absolutely no idea of etiquette. It wasn't like there was a prize at stake or anything. In the meantime, I met my mentors nop98 and Bungy Girl, who had a fine battle coming down the hill I also met denis_b again, and it was great to read of so many fine performances from the 2016 Novices Graduates later on.

Many hours later, my fears were realised, as the chip time came in at 20:03. It's a PB of over half a minute, but I can't help feeling I might have missed my best chance of beating 20 minutes this year.

Next

I haven't given up yet on that goal. There's a couple of parkruns where I can go for it, and maybe Clonliffe's Christmas Cracker race on the 27th, if I still haven't nailed it by then. We also have a club 10k XC race on the 18th. Thankfully that's a handicap race

Sun 4/12 - 3 miles @9:05 p/m

Poker and PB beers on Saturday night, along with lots of junk food, meant it was too early for me to join the club lads for any of the Sunday morning runs. It was closer to 11 by the time I got out. Due to college this afternoon, a rapidly shrinking time window meant I only completed two laps of Porterstown instead of the planned three. Still, a nice way to finish the week, and I felt a lot more refreshed afterwards. Looking forward to the next few weeks!