Another Race, Another 8th Place

Very happy with the way last night's race went, 8th place in 28.18 which funnily enough is exactly what the mcmillan predictor gave me when I put in my Fota time of 22.20 ( I only did this afterwards so it was n't a psychological thing). The race started fairly slowly so was right in the mix for the first half mile or so but when the pace picked up I consciously decided to let them off so's not too repeat the fading off of the last few races. Very quickly there was two groups of four ahead of me and I was exchanging places with a rising sun runner for 9th & 10th. Things stayed like this, with my companion putting in little surges until just after 3 mile when we came to the first real hill. I could see a guy in front fading and decided to up the pace so when we past him he wouldn't latch on. This also had the effect of shaking off the fella who was with me. After the brow of the hill I relaxed a little and could here someone closing on me but they didn't pass. Not taking any chances as soon as we hit 'the beast of Ballyandreen' I upped the pace again to burn them off. After the hill leveled off a spectator told me I had about 20metres, this was with about 3/4 mile to go. The rest of the race was pretty much downhill, I could see 2 guys in front of me but even though I was pretty sure I couldn't catch then I felt if I could close the gap a little it would mean there was less chance of anyone catching me. Whoever said running down hill was easy!! the last half mile was agony, trying to keep the legs turning over quickly but it was worth it as always. 20 seconds slower than my PB but on a much more difficult course so can't complain. My Splits were ( 5.35/5.24/5.43/6.18/5.15)
Felt tired when I ran this morning, knee was a little sore at the beginning but loosened out a bit as I went on.
Thursday: Warmup 2.4 Race Cooldown 2.2
Friday: 7.3miles @ 7.34 HR143

Build up to Ballyandreen

My 'home' Race takes place tomorrow night so even though getting into top shape is my number one priority I still want to put up a reasonable performance, not exactly for a crowd that will be roaring me on (there won't be) but just because I suppose if a race passes your front door (twice) one should at least put in a little extra effort. So for this reason the week so far has n't been as tough as I could have made it which is possibly a good thing rather than building back up the miles too quickly. Did an easy run on Monday on grass made more difficult by the gallon of Heineken I had on Sunday night (belated birthday party, kind of), followed by a session last night. Did 300's again and even though they were faster than last week, I could definitely feel Sundays 10K still in the legs so only managed eight in an average of 48secs. Did a very pedestrian 5 miles this morning at the beach followed by 5 minutes up to my waist in the sea afterwards - bracing to say the least. That'll be it now untill tomorrow night, just a bit of stretching to stay loose. Knee seems to be on the mend which is a good thing considering the up and down nature of the course.
Monday: 7.5miles @ 7.29 HR147
Tues: 1.4 warmup 8x300 2 cooldown
Wed: 5miles @ 7.37 HR145

Youghal 10K

Finished off the week with an easy 8 on grass of friday evening. Took Saturday of as I spent the day rotavating the back 'garden' so that was training in itself. Also had the Emer Casey 10K on Sunday so it was no harm to take the day off.
So onto the race: Had hoped to at least break 35.30 due to my performance thursday night on what I had heard was a fast course. Turned out I got 35.45 (8th) which was exactly a minute off my previous best. Again my splits were shocking (5.23/5.13/5.42/5.51/6.03/6.13/1.19) Didn't think I took off too fast but the second mile was downhill mostly so I made the best of it and caught a group of four in front of me. As soon as we hit level ground I left them go as I knew I'd blow up if I tried to stick with them. Was joined by two other runners but they quickly burned me off aswell. Managed to maintain the distance to these guys and didn't see anyone else for the remainder of the race. This seems strage seeing as I was so slow over miles 5 & 6. There was only a slight hill so I don't know what the explanation is for slowing down so much. I guess I'm used to racing up to 5 miles so this may have something to do with it.
Olympic silver medalist Sonia O'Sullivan also ran today, it was cool to toe the line with one of Ireland's greatest ever sportspeople.
Friday:8miles @7.29 HR145 Total for week: 39
Sunday:2.6warmup 10k race 2 warmdown

No PB but Close Enough...

So did the 'Cheetah Run' Last night and I must admit I was reasonably happy but not delighted with my Performance. Managed an official time of 22:20 although I clocked it as 22:18 which was good enough for 10th place. What a crowd though - 650 runners in total so the start was pretty much pandemonium. Was on the second row of the grid and nearly came a cropper a few times in the first few hundred metres, but once the crowd spread out it was actually really nice racing on closed narrow roads. My race plan beforehand was not to go out too hard as I had done in the track races and was adamant that I would hit the first mile marker in around 5.30. Looked at the Garmin after around half a mile and was right on target but the next half mile was downhill quite a bit so ended up going through in 5.15. I also had speeded up a bit to get into a group with four others and stayed with them for the next half mile or so. At this point two of them got away and we dropped another so I was on my own with a guy from leevale who finished a bit behind me in the county 5K two weeks ago so I felt if I stuck with him he would fade in the end as I was going almost flat out at this stage. I seemed to be getting ahead on the hills which were numerous in the second half but all were quite short but as soon as we were back on the flat he was overtaking each time. Alas with about 3/4 of a mile to go he got away - I thought I might of caught him on the last and steepest hill but he had too much time on me at this stage. Instead I had the familiar sight of being past by a certain runner from Youghal AC who always seems to pass me in the last mile of races. Managed to keep a decent enough clip over the last few hundred metres though as I felt there was a few more guys bearing down on me and of course I knew I was on for a pretty decent time. Overall not bad considering the lack of training recently, hopefully if I can knuckle down to some decent injury free weeks of training the PB's will follow...
Splits as always don't make for pretty reading, although in my defence all the hills were in the second half (5.15/5.26/5.43/5.46 and 8secs for the last bit)
Incidentally during the warm down got similar stomach cramps as after the session on tuesday so it mustn't have been the cake after all. Started taking a multivitamin with iron in it so maybe thats the cause, next time out I'll try not taking the tablet untill after any high intensity work.
Warmup: 2miles @8.08
Race: 4miles
Warmdown:1.8miles @8.20

Session on

Finally managed to get broadband down in the depths of Ballycotton so no excuse for not posting regularly from now on, we'll see how long it lasts!
Have started back regular training now even though my knee is still giving me trouble. It's not sore enough to not run on it so hopefully if I keep doing the exercises given by the physio it'll sort itself out. Did 6 miles on monday at probably too fast a pace, due to seeing my pic in the 'Echo' (Cork rag) and got a bit excited, ah the vanity! Don't know exactly what pace I was doing though as the Garmin was misbehaving due to heavy tree cover in the woods I was in.
Did a session on tuesday on a grass track in Midleton with a few from the club. Did 12x300m in about 50sec avg. which is nothing to write home about but it was always going to be slower than the track. Had two slices of Cake (it was my birthday, only 3 years to go to Masters!!) at lunchtime and cramped really badly at end and was n't able to do a proper warm down.
What I must say though is there was a 14 year old girl doing 250's with us & she was keeping pace with the best guys there (one of whom broke 15mins for 5K on Sunday) Is this the next Sonia O'Sullivan I wonder...
Was very stiff yesterday so just did 3.9miles at probably the slowest pace I've run in 2 years. Doing the Eagle AC Cheetah run this evening so it was probably no harm in taking it easy...
Interesting to see how it goes, I won't even bother making a prediction but I'd say my PB of 22:04 is pretty safe!
Mon: 6miles @7.19(wrong!) 153bpm
Tue: 12x300m with 150 recovery. 7miles total
Wed:3.9miles @8.04 133bpm

Have a break...

Ran the County 5K last Sunday & managed to shave 2 seconds off the previous weeks time giving me 16.57. My 1mile splits were shockingly inconsistant though (5.13/5.24/5.44), although I kinda have an excuse as the masters 3k was run in conjunction with our race so I went with a group of them for shelter but as soon as they finished I died a death. Really had to push it at the end but glad I did as I suppose there won't be another track race untill next year. Came 5th out of 8.
During the warm down my left knee which has been at me pretty much since I came home got really sore, so much so that I had to slow to a walk going up some steps. Went for physio on Monday & she did some work on it & strapped it and gave me some exercises. I told her about my ongoing IT band problems & she suggested that my Glutes were weak so gave me some exercises to strenghten them as well. She also said to take some time off so I didn't do anything untill today.
I guess I should have taken it easy today & gone for a light jog but there was a 1 mile race in Ballinhassig so it was too tempting an opportunity for a PB to pass up. Sure enough I managed to knock 16 seconds off (5.13 set on the track) with a 4.57 getting second place into the bargain. Really had to push it to hold off the 3rd place guy and I'd say another 50metres and he'd have had me. The course was downhill in places but we had a stiff headwind to deal with.
Will hopefully start back proper training tomorrow. Marathon dreams are well shattered at this stage, starting to think it's not worth it if it i keep getting injured...

Munster 5K track championships

Finished 11th (last!) in the Munster 5000m track championships this afternoon. To be honest though I was quite pleased with my performance as I managed to break 17minutes (16.59.75!) for the first time. Was my 2nd track 5k since I came home & managed to knock 17 seconds since the IUAA championships last weekend. Have been running very badly since I came home so hopefully I'm heading in the right direction. The county 5k is on next Sunday so hopefully can shave another few seconds off...