Christmas running........the story so far!

I'm heading out in about an hour for my first post Christmas run back in Co. Kildare. It was lovely to spend Christmas with my family in Galway but it's good to be back!

I had a few days break from running before the big day, more by accident than design. Monday was our work meal out and Tuesday was last minute shopping day. Wednesday I worked until lunch and then drove down to Galway so didn't run then either. Anyway I'm calling this brief break a gift to my joints and muscles!

On Christmas morning I waited for the kiddos and my parents to get up (how times have changed!) and we took turns opening our gifts. It was lovely and we were all very satisfied with our presents but (and I know this sounds cheesy) it was one of the many times in the house I grew up in where I thought about how lucky we all are to have each other. I'm very lucky with my family even if we drive each other nuts the odd time. 

Me with some much appreciated new running gear - pardon the bedhead and glazed eyes! 

After a light breakfast I headed out for an easy 8-9 miles......not sure of the distance as I didn't bring a watch. It felt nice after the break but didn't have any desire to go faster!

St. Stephens Day dawned grey, cold, windy and wet all at once. I had committed to doing a local 5k fun run but was kind of regretting it now! However I knew I had to get some kind of decent tempo run in so I decided to do it despite the weather.
A three mile warm up succeeded in getting me soaked to my skin so that was fun. This was good in one way as I didn't mind taking off my soaking top layer for the run itself. I did get a few funny looks in my shorts and a thin training top in the freezing cold!
There was no proper startline as such so we set off together at the crossroads. One guy went off into the distance and a few girls kept pace with me on the first half a mile. I felt good so kept pushing up the first real hill and ended up out on my own. The first guy was a good way off at this stage so there was no interaction there. I kept expecting to hear footsteps behind me from some of the other men I had seen warming up, but none came.
The second mile was mostly uphill but I was feeling ok so I just tried to keep the pace even.

Mile three I suffered a bit, especially with nobody that close to follow and I had some silly thoughts about it not being a race as it wasn't timed so why make myself suffer and that sort of thing. The kind of thoughts you only have when you are pushing a bit and want the hurt to stop! I didn't slow down here but I didn't really speed up either which I should have.

I finished in 22:28 so was very happy with that for a tempo. It might not be a real race but I'll take second overall anytime I can get it! (i.e. probably never again!)

A brief pause for some water and two small cups of mulled wine and I was back on the road for my cooldown run home for a total of 8.5 miles for the day.

The next day I had meant to go for an easy recovery run of 6-7 miles. Unfortunately as I'm an idiot and have no sense of direction this turned into being on the road for 2.5hours!!! Who gets this lost in their own locality??
Also nobody even came looking for me so I take back all the nice things I said about my family but that's fine! All well that ends well!

I took yesterday off running and travelled back from the West. Ten easy miles today with the AC girls to get the week off to a good start. Roll on 2015!

Race recap - Naas Parkrun

And yes I know it's a timed run rather than a race but for the sake of consistancy I'm calling it a race recap. I had asked E from the club to give me a call some weekend if she was going to do Parkrun. This Wednesday at the track after she kicked my ass again she said she might be up for it this Saturday. She is much faster than me but coming back from having a baby so temporarily more my speed! She had run a good bit faster than me at the cross country over a shorter distance so I knew she would be a great pacer for me to push myself a bit over the 5k. Oh and she is also a sweetheart and it's nice to catch up with friends first thing on a Saturday so there is that too! Another lovely running friend O came along too but was just hoping to get around as she hasn't been training much due to some family stuff. It was so nice to catch up with her too. Have I mentioned I love my running friends? Probably many times, but I do!

So anyway Saturday dawned clear and not too cold (unlike last Saturday) and we arrived at Naas racecourse with about 15 minutes to spare. Not ideal for warming up but nothing I could do about it. I got to it straight out of the car while the others went looking for the loo and then we jogged up to the course together and around the long way to the start line. The warm up exercises were almost done by the time we got there so there was just enough time to shed layers and we were off!

I didn't get caught up too much at the start and settled in about 10 meters back from E and hoped I could hang on for as long as possible. The first mile was uneventful but I felt like I was breathing very hard already. Would I be able to keep this up or was I going to die in the second half? 7:14 on the garmin. Not too bad!
The next mile was a bit of a slog but I always find this middle one hard mentally. E seemed to be further away from me and I had to fight to keep the pace going especially on the parts of the course where we had a headwind. Mile 2 7:17. Was this a sign of things to come? Was I going to be slower again for the next mile?

At this point I started to really feel like I might have a bit more in the tank so I let myself push a bit more as I knew there was only a mile to go. How does that happen when you swear you don't have anything previously? Anyway I started to bridge the gap with E and was right on her shoulder for a while. She told me after she knew it was me as she recognised my breathing from the track! Anyway she gave me a "go on!" gesture with her hand and I thought she had lost it. There was no way I was going to be able to go past her was there? But her faith in me gave me a bit of a lift and I looked up and saw we were on the last bend before the long stretch to the finish. I might as well give it a try anyway.
I tried to relax and push hard at the same time if that makes any sense and my legs kind of took over. I used all my mental games to keep it going all the way to the finish line.........counting, swearing I could stop at the next fence post, promising myself I never had to run again after this. The usual! I didn't look at my watch here but according to garmin the third mile was 6:57 pace and the final segment was at 6:07 pace. I'll take that!

The time on my garmin at the finish was 22:06 so a PB by over a minute and on the same course too. The time Parkrun gave me was 22:02 but I don't think that can be right so I'll go by the higher one to be safe. E was a few seconds behind me for a post baby PB and O was about a minute after. Not bad for a bunch of old(er) birds!

Another DNS!

I should have known when my number didn't arrive in the post as promised that I should just give up on the Aware 10k in the Phoenix Park. Stubbornly I e-mailed the organisers on Friday and was assured I could turn up at the start line and collect a new number. So far so good! Right?

Saturday morning came too quickly and I reluctantly dragged myself out of my warm bed. I'm not one for lie in's but even a toe out of the covers confirmed it was a cold one. I pulled the curtains to see the surrounding countryside liberally dusted in white. Not snow but a hard frost. "At least it's dry and bright and still." I thought, trying to look on the bright side. Perfect morning for a race once I'm warmed up.

An hour later I was wrapped up and ready to go. Or would be once I got the windscreen defrosted. An impatient phone call from a friend J I was giving a lift to got me moving while trying to see out of one portion of my frozen windscreen. "Oh well! It's always a few degrees warmer in Dublin." I thought. Hmmm.

We arrived in Dublin relatively quickly and it wasn't until I went to park the car and it skidded a couple of feet that I realised how frosty it was on Chesterfield Avenue, the main thoroughfare of the park and the road a lot of the race was going to be on. I looked at J and got very worried for the first time that this race wasn't going to go ahead. My confidence wasn't helped by trying to get out of the car on the slippery roads.

Long story short, the race did go ahead but not with me in it. After a number of delays of the start to allow the course to defrost and warnings that the conditions were "very, very, very, very dangerous" (there may even have been another very) I knew this wasn't going to be a PB day for me. Considering that I'm mortally terrified of falling on ice I decided early on I wasn't going to run and encouraged anyone who would listen to do the same. We had already made the donation to charity. Why risk life and limb?

As we were there and dressed a run of some sort was in order so I let the much faster J drag me around on the grass of the Phonix Park for a bit of a cross country jaunt. It was heavy going and my hardish effort is a bit of a jog for him so it was a relief for both of us to get back on the now much safer paths later on for a faster final couple of miles. At least the morning wasn't a total write-off from a training point of view!

Race recap - Kildare Senior Cross Country

How can two races be so different? If last weeks 10k was a dream then today was a bit of a nightmare. Well I suppose you can't compare cross country and roads anyway but I think I could have paced this better.
It was a perfect morning. Dry. Not too cold. No wind. After a last minute bathroom (furze bushes) break we lined up at the start just on time for the off. And I decided I'd see what it was like to go out fast. Good idea right?

Wrong! It was going quite well until about 1k in at which point I started to really suffer. This was going to be a long 4k! I managed to hold on to some kind of pace for the next 2k but after that I was holding on for dear life and not really caring if I made a holy show of myself. Tragic! I heard one of the other girls on the team approach from behind and then pass me at 3k and desperately wanted to encourage her but I just couldn't get words out.

I had nothing for a fast finish despite loads of great support coming towards the end.
The finishing chute was a blur with my vision greying out at the edges. I begged the girl in front of me to move on so I could fall onto the grass but that didn't work......or most probably I didn't actually say anything at all out loud, I just thought I did. What a wuss!

Once out of the chute I tried to lie on the grass but some club members were having none of it. Luckily for them I was too tired and sick to go for them! They definitely know better but I still think a little lie down on the cold wet muck would have done me the world of good. Or made me really sick. One of those.

In the end we got second team so pretty happy with that. I know I didn't have anything else in me but would love to be stronger for the team. Maybe next year!

The men had to do 10k which I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, especially as we had probably churned the course up nicely for them. They did amazing and also got second team and I must say it was a lot more enjoyable to stand watching and cheering with a cuppa and some baked goods than to run the damn thing. Post race drinks and a dissection of the whole thing later tonight in the pub! Yay!

In summary: Cross country sucks really really bad but being part of a club and part of a team is great!

Race recap - Clarinbridge 10k

So November has been eventful in my life outside of running. Lots happening on the personal and professional front, mostly good. All this has meant that I seem to be always in motion, going from pillar to post and rarely getting time to sit down and take a breath.
Most of this is through my own choice so I'm not exactly complaining (well only as much as any Irish person can not be complaining) but still, I'm looking forward to Christmas for a chance to slow down and take stock.

What I have been doing is lots and lots of running. My mojo seems to have survived the marathon and I'm feeling really strong. Fingers crossed this continues! Well at least until after the cross country tomorrow anyway.

Two weeks ago I set a new parkrun PB of 23.10 without breaking too much of a sweat. Last weekend I got to do my new favourite 10k in Clarinbridge and set a new PB there too. In fairness I haven't managed a 10k all year so the target was not that ambitious.

I was at home in Galway for the weekend to celebrate my cousins engagement. Catching up with friends and family was the priority not a race and to prove that I consumed plenty of wine and stole most of the naan bread while heads were turned. Runners need carbs right?

The day dawned frosty and bright and I wasn't hungover so I packed the kiddos into the car and headed off towards Clarinbridge in plenty of time (I thought!)
Unfortunately due to being stuck behind a van being towed and every Sunday driver in County Galway it was 12:10 before I arrived in Clarinbridge and the race was starting at 12:30! I darted in and registered, pinning my number on with trembling hands. I hate being late......and being late for me includes not being very early.

After a very brief warm-up I lined up well back in the bunch. It seemed to be almost all club runners and I hadn't a clue where I belonged so I didn't want to get in anyones way. We set off right on schedule and I held a comfortable 7:28 pace for the first mile. This felt easy but then it should do in mile one!
 We then moved briefly onto a forest path which was narrow in places and quite rough underfoot. I was fairly happy here as I'm used to rough ground and wanted to move on a bit faster but I was caught up in a bit of traffic. I wasn't confident enough to be aggressive here.
What if I pushed past someone aggressively and then then cruised past me a mile later? I'd feel like a total tool! Anyway this mile ended up at 7.45.....not too bad but would have like it to be faster. Thats me in the pic below in the background. I'm in my green singlet tucked in behind the lady in black and the lady in orange. Lovely running form as always! Photo stolen from Amphibian King West.

After this we moved back onto a wider path and onto the main road. It was good to have more space but it was mostly uphill. I remembered this section from the 5k series and knew there would be more hills whenever I thought it was over so I didn't let myself get psyched out. I started to push a bit to pick up the pace. This mile was 7.33. Still feeling grand at this point and was actually having fun!

The next two miles were more up and down but I was starting to believe I wasn't about to crash and burn plus I was loving overtaking people. Is that bad? It's a really nice mental boost. I couldn't believe how well I felt at this stage of the race. These two miles came in at 7:19 and 7:24.

At this point we re-entered the park we had started in and I knew it was mostly downhill from here. I seemed to still have loads in my legs and was having a ball! Mile 6 was 6.54 and I sprinted it in to finish in 46:11 almost 2 minutes off my previous 10k PB (which I have always had a sneaking suspicion was on a short course anyway)
My kiddos were waiting for me just after the line and I was able for a hug and a chat almost straight away.

So what do I take away from this race?
Well, I'm fitter than I've ever been right now. This marathon training cycle has left me in shape to PB at every distance and I feel like I'm getting faster and stronger every week.
I'm too easy on myself. I already knew my 5k PB was soft but this sort of made a mockery of it altogether. I'm not trying hard enough early enough as I'm so scared of blowing up.

In a 5 or 10k would it really be the end of the world to see how fast I can go? Someone with a lot more experience than I have pointed that out to me this week and I have taken it to heart. I need to stop looking at my watch and being scared of the paces I'm running at. I'm stronger than I think.

The recovery and the (non)plan

I have found the recovery from this marathon a lot more difficult than the last. Perhaps it's that I was able to give everything on the day and that's why I felt so bad after. Or maybe it was drinking shots on an empty stomach and being unable to eat anything but beige food for the next week? Lesson learned (you know I don't mean this!)

Either way I felt like dirt up until early this week and didn't even consider going out for a run. I had done a marathon shuffle around the block a couple of days after the race but that was it. Wednesday I decided with a bit of encouragement to return to the track. Not for a full session but for the company while running around the track very slowly 20 times. Beforehand I was sooo nervous. I honestly wasn't sure if I'd be able to run! Maybe I'd forgotten how to?
Luckily some friends were already there when I arrived so I had a little chat, explained what I was going to be doing and bit the bullet! Of course it was fine and I had a big grin on my face most of the time. So happy to be back!
The rest of the week was a bit up and down. I went out and did 8 miles on Thursday but felt like all the energy drained out of me 3 miles in and I immediately reverted to marathon shuffle. Friday I had planned to take off but it was such a nice day I jogged down to the bank and back, a grand total of two miles.

Saturday was a bit of a drama!
Hiking in Wicklow had been planned for but with the weather being so changeable we decided to take a safe option and meet in Dun Laoighaire and walk from there to the top of Killiney and back. If I had been heading for Wicklow I'd have brought a backpack with lunch, water and many many layers. I thought I was being sensible travelling light with my waterproof and a change of socks. Unfortunately we picked exactly the time when it was bucketing with rain to be in the most exposed areas and got completely drenched to the skin. We sheltered in a coffee house to dry off a bit but when the rain failed to ease off we had no choice but to head out into the pouring rain again. It's so hard to get warm again once your clothes are wet!

The rain did begin to ease on the way back and we were rewarded with this glorious sight.

Double rainbow!!!

I was ridiculously happy about this but then I'm easily pleased.

It probably sounds like this was a miserable excursion but it really wasn't. My friend G is wonderful company and we laughed all the way around.

When we got back to our start point it was time for us to go our own ways so I got on the next Dart to Pearse Street Station to change for my destination. I was cold on this but relieved to be on the way home. Unfortunately when I got to Pearse I found out it was going to be 45 minutes for my train. Noooo! I tried to make the best of this by getting a hot sandwich and coffee to warm me up (and did I mention I hadn't eaten lunch and it was now 4:30? Eejit!) but I must have been a sight in my wet clothes shivering in the station. I'm not sure if the train was just as cold or if I'd now passed the point of being able to warm up by myself but I thought the journey would never end. When I got in my car to make the 40 minute journey home I put the heat on full blast and it took me over half of the journey before I stopped shaking.
Question: So what's the point of this whole story?
Answer: To document the ridiculous things I do so that I don't do them again. What an idiot!!

Got lashed on today too during my 8 miler so that's three soakings this week. It did add up to a fast finish so I can't complain too much.

I'm in the middle of writing my own new training plan to see me through the winter at the moment so I'll get back to that now. Something very satisfying about a new training plan with runs all ready to be ticked off!

SSE Airtricity Dublin City Marathon 2014 - Race Recap

So as I mentioned before the last few days before the marathon were not ideal. Our flight was cancelled and we spent Sunday morning trying to get through to the airline. Thank god for the youngest and her twitter account as we wouldn't have gotten to talk to anyone until the lines opened at 1pm if it wasn't for her! Anyway our rebooked flight wasn't going to leave London until 6 so I tried to rest up, hydrate and basically make up for spending the whole of Saturday on my feet.

The flight itself went fine and we were in the car within about 15 minutes of landing. From there I drove straight into the city to pick up my race number from my friend and then back on the M7 to be home for about 9pm. Not great but could have been a lot worse. Ominously it was still quite warm and very breezy at this stage but I tried to forget about this and concentrated on getting my race number pinned on and laid out the rest of my gear for the morning. I was so wrecked at this stage that I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I woke at about 5am and knew there was no point trying to get back to sleep at that stage. It was marathon day finally! Despite a total lack of interest in food I managed to force down two cinnimon raisin bagels with butter and honey along with a couple of pints of water and a strong black coffee. I felt ok. Not buzzing but fine. At this point I was still mad early so decided to throw on some BB cream, some blusher and a bit of mascara which is more than I usually manage on a work morning but what can I say......I was bored! Anyway it was worthwhile as my "glamorous" look was commented on by some club members who were out supporting. This possibly has more to do with the state they usually see me in than anything else!

Leaving the house was a bit of a drama as my parents had stayed the previous night to be close to the airport as they were heading off to the USA for 5 weeks. I did have to pretend I wasn't totally focussed on hustling out the door asap. I'm not positive I fooled anyone! As soon as I started my car I noticed the temperature gauge was reading 15 degrees and the sun wasn't even up yet. It was also quite blustery. Oh no!! The two things I had specifically said I would hate!

The trip up to Stillorgan Park-and-Ride was uneventful, as was the Luas journey in. Although I did feel for the poor souls who normally have the tram to themselves in the morning and were now cheek to jowl with a load of runners. At least we were clean and fresh smelling at that stage!

As soon as I arrived at the bag drop I knew that a final loo stop wasn't going to happen at the portaloos. The lines in the baggage area were huge and I remembered from last year that the lines in the wave holding areas were even worse so I hadn't a chance of getting there on time. Luckily I have a friend G who lives on Upper Mount Street which meant I was able to pop into her place for a proper loo. Heaven! I chilled out there until about 15 minutes before the start time and then made my way to the start area. A bit of bobbing and weaving later and I was up near the 3:50 pacers and just as I got there the gun went for the start of the first wave so I knew we only had ten minutes to go. I had my first gel and tried to relax.

The early miles - Start to the PP
The advantage of being in the first pace group at the start of a wave is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of congestion in the first few miles. I'm not the best at running in groups but I never felt boxed in at the start. I did feel that the pace was a bit fast right from the off and I was conscious that this should feel really easy at this stage and it never did.
In fact I was quite relieved anytime there was a bit of congestion and I got to back off the pace a bit. I didn't have the urge to chat to anyone around me either and usually I'd be quite talkative in the first few miles. It does usually take me a while to settle into a run and start to feel comfortable though so I decided to be conservative and see if my legs felt a bit springier later.
Most of this section was around the city on the way to the park gates so there was plenty to look at to keep the mind occupied and I tried to do this and let myself relax a bit. I was keeping the same distance from the pacers at this stage but was being passed constantly.

The PP to Chapelizod
Between the wind and the long incline I had decided before the race to take the park very easy. I tried to not expend any extra energy going up the hills and allowed my pace to slow fractionally here. I did try to find a group to block the wind for me a bit but as I mentioned earlier it wasn't that congested. Maybe if I had been right up beside the pacers I could have done that but I certainly wasn't wasting energy trying to catch them. At this point I was getting a bit concerned that the pace still felt quite challenging. During training runs I had had to hold myself back or my pace would drift towards 8 minute miles. I don't think I could have run an 8 minute mile yesterday at any time! I took my first gel on schedule at 5 miles. At this stage I had been through two water stations and was already starting to douse myself with water to cool down. This would continue all the way to the end!
Halfway through the park I was spotted by a group of supporters from the AC included the two girls I did my long runs with until they got injured. It was great to see them and they made me feel like a total rockstar shouting my name and generally making a spectacle of themselves. It was great!
The section where we exited the park briefly was downhill and I let myself speed up on these sections. I wasn't particularly worried about frying my quads on the downhills as I train on hills so I should be used to them by now. The crowds around the hills at Chapelizod really took the sting out of them although again I was being passed like mad on the uphills. Every time I felt like pushing on a hill I kept repeating to myself "Think of mile 22!"

The long stretch of death (Crumlin Road)
I hated the next section of the race last year when it came earlier in the race so I didn't have any illusions about the area from the park out the Crumlin road and up to Fortfield. I knew it was going to hurt so I just tried to do damage limitation. The wind was straight into our faces for most of this stage. The pacers were still in sight but I hadn't seen any signs from my legs so far that there was going to be any picking up of the tempo so I just concentrated on not messing up. The marathon tide was starting to come back the other way here so even though I wasn't speeding up I was passing people constantly which was encouraging for me but probably a sign that it was a hard day out there! I was delighted to see a club member with her 3 month old at mile 17. It gave me a real boost and at least made me try to look up instead of at my feet!

Regroup at Bushy Park
The section from Bushy Park to Milltown is a lovely part of the course. If only I hadn't been running a marathon I could have really enjoyed it! This bit was all about making sure I had enough energy for the hills. The legs were really starting to ache now but a respectable finish was starting to feel doable despite my lack of energy. I had let go of the pacers and was concentrating on running my own race with the legs I had on the day.

Milltown and UCD
I think I spent so long dreading the hills and the flyover that when they did arrive it was a bit of an anticlimax. What did I think was going to happen? Big boulders being rolled down the hill to crush me?
I used the same strategy of slowing down to conserve energy but it felt like I was flat out sprinting on both of these due to the amount of people walking. I honestly think it was about 4:1 ratio of walkers to runners. Walking was not the problem..........walking in a long line of five abreast is a problem if nobody can get past you! Got a great cheer from club members again here and T jumped in and ran with me for a bit although I don't think I was very good company. I apologised later!
I was so relieved to get past UCD I thought I was going to cry!

The last bit
The last part of the course is lovely and would be a delight if your body wasn't screaming at you to stop and walk. This was where the real countdown started and I had to use every trick in the book to convince my body to keep going. Again I can see by my splits that I slowed a bit here but runners were few and far between at this stage. I've never seen anything like it......but then again I was practically an extra on The Walking Dead last year so I can't remember much! When I got to 25 I was surprised by our AC coach out on the road shouting for me so that was a nice boost, although I was incapable of giddying up even for him. I must say I love the new finish. I loved being able to see it from quite a way out. The roar of the crowd really lifted me up in that last mile and I managed to get my head up and pick up my stride a bit. And after the longest 400m of my life I was finally on the finishing stretch, capable of soaking it all in and look around and together enough to put my arms up in victory crossing the finish line. A year later I finally got the marathon finish line I wanted!

Chip time 3:54:19
A 15 minute PB and quite honestly all that was in my legs yesterday. There is nowhere when I look back through my splits where I feel I could have gone any faster so this is absolutely the best I could do. It's not what I aimed for but there will be other days and I'm happier with this time than I thought possible. For now!