ethicalrunner

running firenze 2010

Update - Weeks 11 & 12 / 16 Florence Marathon

Week 11 was notable for two damn fine reasons, a great training run and a really enjoyable x-country race.  On Tuesday I ran a 60' mixed tempo of 3:34 / 3:49 paces that brought me through 10 miles comfortably under the hour, about 4 minutes less than my actual PB for the distance. What was even better (madder) was I somehow managed to scrape it together at 6:30am in the morning before work. I love these mix tempo runs, when you do a standard long run at any up-tempo pace part of the work is having the mental strength to hold the one pace, but when every 5' you are dropping or upping the speed it means there's always something going on and the time feels like it passes quicker.

The primary consequnce of the early start was a total lack of ability to function in work - as in 100% brain dead and I spent most of the day in a "huh?" state of mind.

I finished the week with a run out in the Leinster Novice XC (results here) which were held in glorious sunshine in Belvedere House in Mullingar. It was my first time running in the Leinster Novice race and I hoped the county was going to be able to put a good team out and I'd be able to sneak in on their coat tails and pick up a medal of some kind (but preferably gold). Unfortunately our clubs better runners are both injured and one of the harriers runners didn't show - so while we had a team it wasn't a competitive one. The course itself was very dry; almost like road running, and the 6k distance had plenty of up ands downs and twists and turns. The route involved a small lap, a medium lap and then two big laps to finish.

From the off I took it pretty easy, probably a little too easy in retrospect. I knew the endurance and strength from the marathon training (in particular from the hills)  would stand to me as long as I didn't burn it up over the first 2k. As we completed the first small and medium lap, I was feeling pretty good and was counted in 49 / 50th place (of about 85 runners). I kinda sussed i was cruising a bit too much and  put the foot down a little from there and in the next big lap i went by about 18 runners and was called at 32nd. On the last lap I pushed pretty hard and got through another 10 - but with a couple of hundred meters to go - two lads went flying by me and I had little left to respond. With a hundred metres to go a quick check over my shoulder revealed no-one near me and it was a cruise to the finish line in 24th place; 3rd runner on the county team and pretty happy with the performance overall. Thanks to the wonders of our motorway system i was back in Kilkenny in time to go out with Siobhan to the savourkilkenny festival, where we enjoyed a lovely local "fifty-mile" meal.

Week 12 had none of the heady heights of the previous week; the Tuesday session was a comfortable track session of 800/400 combinations at 5k/3k pace; with loads (90") of recovery between them so they felt very good. I read a good piece of advice on running during the week and that was never to stray too far from either your speed or your endurance; and one of the real benefit's of Jon's training has been a schedule that works all the systems that need adaptation consistently. I also really like going to the track, it makes you feel like a runner and its nice to be in that zone. The Friday session was a long slow tempo / marathon paceish run of 80' at 4:00 in the middle of a two hour run and then sundays run was 2hr45' of easy running that i did with a friend in the lashing rain covering just over 36K. 

Week 13 could well be my last big week before Florence; and the training schedule for the week includes a tempo run on Friday that will hopefully break my half marathon PB by a minute or so. Luckily I have two great guys from the club coming out on the run with me so together we should have a good run and hopefully we can push each-other on and all run it well.

My marathon runners arrived in the post today; lovely (!) yellow and white brooks st4's came with a pair of replacement glycerin 7's for training and i'm pretty happy to see the back of the mizuno which just did't suit me at all.

 

 

 

Deadman's 5 Race Report

After the novelty of the 5,000m track race a couple of weeks ago, it was back to the familiarity of local road running on Friday the 11th. After finishing up a hectic week in work around 5ish, I had time to hop home, quickly grab my gear and drive the 30 odd miles to carrick on suir.

The race was the Deadman's 5, a 5 mile road race that is part of a four race series in Tipperary / Waterford and kilkenny. The race is great value for money, a €10 online entry fee brings you chip timing, good prizes, showers and food after in a local hotel called the carraig. The race runs flat for the first mile, generally uphill for mile two and three before downhill mile 4, and a flat mile 5.

Instruction from JB was to relax on the hills on mile 2 to 3 and aim for a pace of between 3:30 - 3:35, and a finishing time of 28:00 - 28:25. After a 20 min warm up, a record 190 people lined up for the off. The first mile leads you through the town and the three top runners quickly legged it off in the distance. I ran with two others, but a quick glance at my watch showed 3:20 pace for the first km, I also knew from the running style of the two lads ahead that they weren't going to be able to sustain their paces, so I took a quick glance over my shoulder and saw another group of runners just behind me so I eased off and dropped in behind them. Soon enough we came to the first of the climbs and our group of 6 caught and passed one of the two ahead of us, and as we went through mile two our group was down to four. Mile three is an up and down mile; gaining elevation throughout the mile though, I was just about still hanging on to the back of this group, working harder than I probably should have at that stage of the race, but I knew if I let a gap open that would be the end of any chance of gaining a place later. This entire section was run into a killer headwind that was really making me toil to keep the gap to 5 metres or so. As we approached the 3rd mile, i had closed the gap conpletely and was able to take a quick breather. Just after mile 3 the hills crest and it's downhill to flat the whole way home. As soon as we turned the corner and started the downhill run for home, the gap opened again and the group split with about 20 metres between the 5th place runner and me, mile four was a nightmare as I struggled to stop tying up, and rather than bring able to use the downhill to drop my average pace I was only able to average 3:35 k pace. I finished 12 seconds down on 7th place and nearly 20 seconds down on 5th, all of that 20 seconds lost on the last two miles.

So, pretty happy with the outcome, even though my training has been good recently my lifestyle has not. We've had 5 weekends in a row now that have been boozy and messy, my diet has gone to pot, and work has been heavy going. So, from today it's back to good life living, so that means no drink for a month, good diet, and lots of good rest. Hopefully there will be a little more fight in the dog come my next race on the 25th June.