Rock & Roll 1/2 Marathon

This week is about getting ready for the Rock & Roll 1/2 Marathon on Bank Holiday Monday which also incorporates the National 1/2 Marathon Championships. Not sure about the whole lumping together of the events into one but as there was a reduced entry for AAI members and a chance to run through the streets of Dublin I signed up for it. Training this week as a result was a bit more low key.
Monday 29th July

10.47Km - Easy Run

Met up with Colm, Maurice & Deirdre and did a nice hilly route at an easy pace. Nice to get back out on the hills. Colm informed me he had pleurisy and was antibiotics. It sounded bad but he was flying. Must get some of those tablets off him before Monday :-)

Tuesday 30th July - Club session

The usual club session tonight consisted of a lap of the college to warm up and some stretching followed by a lap of bends easy/straights hard. The session was shorter tonight due to the race so it consisted of 2x1200m @ 5K race pace and then 5x200m stride outs.

I was working off pace for the 2x1200 and ran the first one in 5:07 which equated to 4:10 pace. For the second one I ran it the same pace but this equated to 5:02. It definitely felt harder and it was. Looking back on it I ran slightly further on the first rep as I was in the outside lane and then switched to the inside for the second rep which threw the data off. Bloody Garmins.

Finished off the with the 5x200m stride outs and a short enough cool down. 7.48K in total for the session.

Visited Mark Bermingham for a rub down as well and no major niggles or anything at the moment.

Wednesday 31st July

Rest day on the plan and that's exactly what it was.

Thursday 1st August - Tempo Run

Just under a mile warm up followed by a few stretches and I headed off with Rosemary for 3 miles at half marathon pace which is roughly a lap and a half of the college circuit. The average pace for these was 7:34 min miles but we both agreed we had struggled and there was no way we could tag on another 10 miles at the same pace the way we felt (this was the pace we had run in Bohermeen in March).

Finished off with a lap cool down to bring up 5.85 miles for the night.

Friday 2nd August

The plan called for 4 miles easy but I felt a rest day to try and get some life into the legs might be better. I always seem to run better when the legs are relatively fresh for a race. I did manage 18 holes of golf though ;-)

Saturday 3rd August

Rest Day. No point in overdoing it is there? Picked up number and a quick look around the expo in The Burlington Hotel.

Sunday 4th August

3.21 miles @ 8:28 pace. This consisted of around 20 minutes easy followed by 4x100m strides and a short cool down. Was having to hold back a bit to keep the pace down which is a good sign I suppose.

Monday 5th August - Rock & Roll 1/2 Marathon

13.16 miles in 1:37:52 (chip time)
Avg Pace: 7:26 min per mile

Having what felt like a bad race a couple of weeks beforehand in the Fingal 10K I was determined to try and enjoy this one and hopefully run a time similar to the Bohermeen 1/2 in March if possible. Gary had advised us on the Tuesday night of the importance of getting the pace right for the first 4 miles and having looked at the profile of the course this would be especially important for this race. After an early start I took my place at the front of Coral 2 with Rosemary both looking anxious as to what lay ahead.

Miles 1-4 (7:30, 7:35, 7:51, 7:35)

We had agreed with the 2 mile steady rise up through the park that we would try to have out average pace somewhere between 7:35 & 7:40 after 4 miles but no quicker. This worked out a treat as we held it back nicely for the first mile and didn't get caught up in the mad dash. This brought us down past Christchurch Cathedral and onto the quays heading towards the park. As we crossed the Liffey and headed in the main gates there was a nasty little climb which the legs definitely felt. The pace was starting to creep up but we didn't panic and just kept running at what we thought was the right effort. The drag up Chesterfield avenue went on but I noticed the pace had settled down as we reached the top of it and swung onto the back roads of the park.

Miles 5-8 (7:24, 7:16, 7:24, 7:28)

Our hope for these miles was that with a few nice downhills the pace would start to come down and that is what it did. We were running within ourselves and the pace was dropping which was exactly what we wanted. We exited the park after around 7.25 miles and the pace was down to 7:30 average. As we headed up towards Chapelizod along the outside of the park I was just thinking of trying to hold this pace or close to it for as long as possible taking each mile at a time. Legs seemed to be feeling pretty ok but again not sure how things would play out.

Miles 9-13.1 (7:26, 7:41, 7:12, 7:15, 7:13, 6:43)

The average pace had now dropped below 1:30 as we headed out of Chapelizod after 9 miles. Then came that nasty incline under the N4 flyover and again there was no panic just got up it at the right effort and settled back into steady effort afterwards. I knew this part of the route from Dublin Marathon and I seemed to remember there was a nice run down towards Kilmainham. I also noticed somewhere around here that Rosemary wasn't beside me or on my shoulder after the recent water stop. I had a couple of quick glances behind but there was no sign of her. When the next mile beeped at 7:12 I got a bit of a shock. I wasn't expecting that and wondered if would I pay for it. The only thing for now was to dig in for the last couple of miles. I got a nice shout from Colin Costello around here as well which gave me a boost. While my legs were getting heavier and every incline was hurting more as I headed up the South Circular road I was just intent on passing as many as I could and thankfully the pace was holding up. I felt like I was slowing but I was in fact running at 10K pace. I knew if I held it together for the last mile and a bit I should have a PB. There was a few twists and turns in the last mile which was tough as you kept expecting to see the finish line and there was another turn. Finally I turned the corner and Maurice Hackett & Kids were there to lend support. I tried to acknowledge them and then spotted the clock ticking up towards 1:38. I reckoned allowing for a few seconds delay crossing the line at the start if I put the boot down I could get in 1:38. Gave it what I had which was not much at this stage but was delighted to finish in 1:37:52 a PB of 94 seconds on Bohermeen.

This was the first race I had seen people holding sick bags at the finish and I nearly availed of one. I turned around to look for Rosemary and saw her powering to the finish. I looked at the clock and knew she was well inside her PB as well which was great. As we slowly but surely met up with the rest of the gang it was turning out to be PB central for everyone with some great improvements.

Even Gary O'Hanlon our coach ran a PB finishing in 3rd place. A sure case of practising what you preach...

I'm still in a bit of shock as I write this as to how well the race went. If only all races were like this.

Tuesday 6th August

4 miles @ 9:38 pace

Knowing I was going to be missing training this evening to have a filling and a tooth out I headed out this morning for a very easy 4 miles. Legs were feeling a lot better than expected. Maybe the DOMS are waiting to kick in still.