Race Report #25: How the hell am I going backwards?!

It was a perfect evening for racing in Irishtown yesterday, not too warm with a slight breeze. I arrived early enough to the track so I got to flake out on the grass and watch some of the earlier races before heading off on my warm up. I have to say on the warm up I felt very good - relaxed with a bit of zip in the legs. With 10 minutes to kick off I changed into my spikes, did a few strides before going back to my flaked out position on the grass.

The race itself went out just as I hoped. I tucked in right behind the leader within the first 50 metres. During the opening laps I felt so comfortable, it didn't feel like I was racing - 75 seconds for the first two laps - just what I wanted to see. Even on the third lap it felt easy, my breathing was a little laboured but I could sense that while the leader was still running strong the guy on my shoulder was struggling.

Unfortunately it turned out that it was a race of two halves. The second saw the wheels come off completely - while I knew I was struggling out there I didn't realise how badly until I heard my time at the end. I came off the track tired but happy that I was at least moving in the right direction. Then on my warm down I heard my time - 2 seconds slower than 10 days ago. How did that happen? I was convinced it was faster. I ended up 30 seconds off the winner and considering I was right behind him for the first half it really sums up how badly the second half went. He didn't run any faster at the end, he was just able to hold the pace better than I could.

Surprisingly I'm taking more positives out of this than the last time. Next time out I know I'll hold that pace for a lap or two longer and hopefully when it really starts to hurt I can go with it. If not I will the time after that. There's only a few of these track races left and one things for certain, I'm going to get a PB from at least one of them.

No Pressure

While out taking some lovely shots at the Dublin Grand Prix of Race Walking yesterday I bumped into Jerry Kiernan. I was only talking to him briefly but mentioned that I was planning on racing a 3000m race this Wednesday and that I had a bit of a shocker last time out. When I told him the meet was in Irishtown he informed me that it was just a walk down the road from him and that he'd be out to watch it. Not only that but he said we'd sit down beforehand and go through my race plan and the splits I'm to hit.

"You'll hit them splits. Don't worry about what anyone else is doing in the race, do your own thing and you'll get a tidy PB. That's all there is to it. It's easy."

So a pep talk from an Irish Olympian right before I go out and race on Wednesday. No pressure there then!

Upcoming Races

Over the last few days I haven't been certain as to when I'd race again. I wasn't thinking of a prolonged absence, far from it, I kind of thought it may be best to give it a few weeks before throwing myself into the mix again - grab a few good training sessions, get the confidence back and then race. From the 1st July to the 5th August there's five 3000m races out there that I could enter. Realistically I'm only going to jump into four of them, but which four I've no idea. Last night I was out at the IMC races in Irishtown taking a few photos. The weather, crowds, ambiance and the speeds everyone raced at reignited the flame - I'm fairly sure I'll jump straight back on the horse and race next Wednesday. I have to run it by CR first but I can't see him having an issue with it. The other thing I have to see is how my hamstring feels after some fast 400s on the track tomorrow - it's been a tad tight for the last few days.

Upcoming Races
1st July - Dublin Graded Meet 3000m
9th July - Club 3000m Champs
15th July - Dublin Graded Meet 3000m
25th July - IMC 3000m
5th Aug - Dublin Graded Meet 3000m

Race Report # 24: It's gotta get bad before it gets good

Photo by Danial Kowalczyk

“That was a negative, and right now I need two positives. One to cancel out the negative and another one, you know, just so I can have a positive.”

Miserable and unexpected. That's how last nights race went. On a day when I hoped to hit a big PB, the last thing I'd have thought is that I'd run slower than I'd ever run for 3000m, and by a long way at that.

During the warm up I felt grand, showing no signs of what was about to unfold. The plan of 75 second laps would be tough, but I was confident I could do them. As we lined up all was still good, right until the gun went. Everyone shot off at a ridiculous pace. I tucked in at the back and got dragged through the first 200m, labouring a bit and then I saw the clock. Woah, 34 seconds... slow down, slow down now!! I went through 400m in 72/73, still slightly faster than I'd hoped. Everyone else on the otherhand went through in 66-68s. Good God, I'd run faster in the first lap than any race last year and I was already about 5 seconds behind second last. My thought process was that the pace was so fast that some people would have to come back to me. At 800m I was bang on target pace but even further behind. The realisation that no one was coming back hit and I lost the mental battle. Everything went further downhill from there.

In the end, even if I'd have hit my race target I'd still have ended up last by a good 5 seconds. Instead I was last by 200m. If I'd run the same time as last year I'd have a bit annoyed and probably looked at any number of excuses. But this? No reason I can think of can excuse this. The main plus I'm taking out of it is that I won't run slower than that again this year.

Question mark

If it's possible for me to run 26 miles in an average time of 6:13 a mile, how likely is that I'll be able to run less than 2 miles with an average of 5 minutes a mile?

Answer over the weekend.

How did I get by before?

Reading books about running has never been high on my agenda. Running for at least an hour a day is enough for me without running creeping into my running free hobbies. To date I've read one book about running - What I talk about when I talk about running - which meant that last week's impulse purchase of not one, but two running related books still has me slightly shocked. The book depository, by the way, has free delivery on books worldwide! I don't think I'd ever have found such random running books in my local Waterstones. Both books arrived to my door in less than a week - Result!

These new running books have also got to know their place. Under no circumstances will they get the chance to replace my normal book reading. I'm almost 500 pages through David Simon's beast of a book "The Corner", so I can't let anything slow that progress down! Running books can be read at times when I wouldn't normally read and have time to kill... like yesterday, on my two buses to training. Tonight, it was on the two buses to Santry to watch some racing and on Saturday it'll be on the two buses to get to my race. All of a sudden everything seems to be two buses away, yet none of the destinations are more than five miles from my door. The investment of a motor of some kind is going to be needed very shortly.

Now I've started into "Eating for Endurance" and I'm quite puzzled how I managed to function before. Damn that food pyramid - I'm almost certain that I'm not eating enough of any of the levels besides my trusty carbohydrate layer at the bottom - bread and grain I'm well up on - dairy, fruit and meat all seem to be a bit light. That's what I figured out after chapter one. There's about 9 more chapters - if every one makes me think about restructuring my diet it could be a very different Private around these parts in a few weeks.

One for me

Week one of the first full week back training since the marathon is just about done. Last night I hit the track for a few 400s. With no watch, since I threw it away after 5km in the marathon, I went totally by feel. The aim was to get 10 done with the recovery set as "whenever I feel ready to go again". As I was a bit rusty on the track I'd have to imagine that the times were fairly scatter gun. The first one went off a bit fast, I could feel it at 100m. Then when I tried to readjust and go a bit slower it felt like I was going waaaaay to slow, even though it was probably about right but just seemed slow because I started fast... god dammit, I hate working out pacing!

The 400s were probably slower than what I was running last summer on the track, the recovery could well have been longer, although for the most part the recovery didn't seem that long, but the bonus of the session was the fact that I went past 10 reps. It may only have been by one, but considering last summer I was doing 400s on the track for a good 4 months and never got past 10 I'm taking my one. I could probably have done another one or two but the aim of the session was to feel comfortable with the track rather than killing myself (I did that on Tuesday). One week to my first track race of the season and that one little, extra 400m has given me that bit of extra confidence that I'm that bit stronger than this time last year. Granted confidence changes from one training sesssion to the next, so chances are it could taking a shoeing in the race or the first time I start timing the 400s and recoveries the week after. For the moment though I'm heading into tomorrows 15 miler in high spirits!