A happy Anniversary

On the 5th of July 2006 I entered my first ever road race, the Stryker 4 mile in Carrigtohill. I was training for the Dublin Marathon and as the race was on my doorstep I decided to give it a lash. My aim was to break 30 minutes and with a late surge I managed to run 29.39 which was good enough for 152nd place. Little did I know at the time that this whim was going to become an addiction of sorts!!
So back to the present - conditions were pretty muggy but it still was n't too bad a night for a race. They changed the start and finish slightly, for the better as it turned out. A lot of the usual speed merchants were missing so before the start I was reasonably confident that I could maintain my run of top tens (John Buckley 5K excluded). Was right in the mix for the first mile which was slightly uphill but when we got to the first real hill 3 guys got away so I stayed on the shoulder of the guy in fourth and was happy to let him lead the way. Then for some reason I found myself at the front of a group, not sure of how many but four or five from the cacophony of footfalls. I managed to get away a bit on the next downhill section but as the road rose again I could feel someone right on my shoulder. I pushed on as I could see my pace was at 5.29/mile and I was determined to break 22 minutes for the first time. As we entered the last mile my accomplice was still by my side and I was sure that he was going to come round me in the sprint so with 300 metres to go I gave it everything and a clubmate spectating told me I had 5 yards. I kept the head down as I could see by the clock I was on for a good time and in the end managed 21.48 and 4th place, another new PB & my best ever finish in a BHAA race.Was happy again with the splits (5.20/5.33/5.33/5.22) on what is a fairly hilly course.
Did a 10.6 mile point to point run today as my car is sick and I got a lift from work as far as Midleton. As luck would have it the wind was in my face but at least it was n't too strong I suppose. Was a bit tired after yesterday but not too bad...
Wed:Warmup:3.5 Race 4mile Cooldown:2miles
Thurs: 10.6 miles @ 7.01 HR144

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