Buckets of Rain

Mon: 40 min easy Complete. 8.52km. 
https://www.strava.com/activities/10291269888

Tue: 15 min WU, 5 x 1k @ 3:35 (60), 15 min CD. Complete. 3:30, 3:29, 3:29, 3:29 and 3:28. 12.02km total. 
https://www.strava.com/activities/10296564000

Wed: 40 min easy Complete. 8.41km. 
https://www.strava.com/activities/10302067445

Thur: 15 min WU, 2 x 7 min @ 4:05 km pace (60), 15 min CD. Complete. 10.12km. https://www.strava.com/activities/10307969386

Fri: off 

Sat: Jingle Bells 5k. Complete. 16:32 chip time. 13.27.km total.
https://www.strava.com/activities/10315395767

Sun: 70 min easy. Complete. 14.84km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/10320956051

Weekly Total: 67.2km.

This was one of the better weeks. I felt good after last weeks training and the overall fatigue seems to be lifting. Except for the higher heart rate (that is starting to come down slowly) and the lightened training load (that will slowly but surely start to increase), I am starting to feel somewhat normal. All thoughts this week were set on the Jingle Bells 5K and, save for it being a fucking 5k, it is a great race to ease back in. I know the route really well; I’ve suffered on the route; and it has about as generous a finish as you can imagine. More on the race later.

The only real session this week was on Tuesday and a return to KM repeats. It’s such a simple session and is applicable to any type of training, but I really love it. It’s been a staple in my training since I started being coached by Seán and it’s one I’ve seen most of his other athletes do at some point. Save for the 800m reps last week, I hadn’t turned the legs over at any decent clip recently so it was good to get some confidence from the repeats. There were only 5 but the recovery was also only 60 secs and, not being as fit as I would like, you’d always want more recovery. Tuesday felt like the first of the cold nights so I left the house wrapped up but after the first KM, I had discarded a big jumper and a beanie and was left with just the gloves and head torch. Jogging home afterwards I felt assured that I wouldn’t die on Saturday – what a place to be.

The rest of the week was fairly mundane. Saturday morning slowly came around and I felt ready to go. My mind was somewhat taken off the race as one of my good friends, Corbo, was running his first ever race. Recently retired from hurling and wanting to keep fit, he’s asked me to give him some guidance over the next couple months as he preps for Raheny 5 mile in January. Corbo was quite nervous about the race so chatting to him about his own running took me out of my own head.

I met Corbo at the Holer and we jogged down to the start. It was absolutely freezing, so much so I had flashbacks of me taking a pelvis breaking fall in the park this time last year with Barry. Thankfully, I didn’t crease myself this time but it wasn’t for the want of the frosty ground. We stopped beside the Popes Cross and tied up our hoodies and hats to a post. I made a decision to leave my gloves with my jumper and it was one I pretty quickly regretted when the race started.

We jogged down to the start line and I bid Corbo adieu as he settled himself in and I finished my warm up (Corbo ran a lifetime best of 20:39 and bought me a coffee after the race. What a dude!). I did 4 strides, much quicker than the pace I would run in the race, but it got the heart rate up and the legs turning over. By the time I was lining up, the crowds had gathered at the start line and I found myself a little further back than I would have liked. I quickly made myself think this is a good thing as “it isn’t like I’m racing anyway”, said my inner voice.

1st KM
The gun went and it felt like an age by the time I got over the timing mat. I very quickly now felt it was a bad decision being this far back as I had a whole host of folk in front of me who were going to be much, much slower than me. After about 100m’s, I ran to the left hand side to try get a clear line ahead. No dice. I zigzagged myself to the right hand side to try the same. No chance. I checked the watch now and I was running 3:40’s and for a few moments I panicked. Realising there was fuck all I could do as I was caught up in the pack, I just settled in and made a decision to stop panicking and just go with it. It was not lost on me here that I found the first kilometre of this race tough last year, as it is a slight incline and it was a bit breezy, so best to be conservative. The road did widen and I was able to start moving up. I reckon I must have taken close to 50 people in 400m, which is just insane. That isn’t for me going fast; at this point all our heroes at the front of the start line had started going backwards. My watched beeped at the Phoenix Monument roundabout – 3:23 for the first kilometre.

2nd KM
Now on Chesterfield Avenue, the race is starting to thin out. The packs of people that were 15 abreast on the road have dwindled down. I decide to tuck in behind a group of Clonliffe Harriers but not long after I do this, I feel I’m slowing down so I move aside and push up. I find myself with some Tullamore Harriers. Again, it feels like they’re slowing so I go round them on the outside. I almost regretted this as there was only space between me and the next group about 50 metres away, but there was one lone ranger from MSB, Oisín, who was soldiering along solo. I moseyed up to him and checked my watch – 3:20’s. Great. Let’s stick with him. We ran together for a minute and it felt smooth. That was until some aul lad on a bike cycled up alongside us and kept shouting “OISÍN RELAX! JUST RELAX! RELLLAAAAXXXX!!!”. This had the desired effect and poor Oisín spent most of the time looking confused and staring at the lad on the bike. Approaching the Ashtown roundabout, the watch beeped – 3:22 for the second kilometre.

3rd KM
I was a little miffed. I thought I had been running quicker but I must have slowed more than I thought when sitting with the other packs for too long. No matter because now is when you can start attacking the course. There was no wind and the third kilometre is all flat down the Ordinance Survey Road. I really found a groove here and started moving through the field. A Civil Service Harrier was basically doing the same as me so I made him a target to catch. I felt like I expended no energy on this kilometre and it was gone in an instant. Before I knew it, we were at the Furze Road junction and the watched beeped – 3:20 for the third kilometre.

4th KM
I took stock for a very quick moment. I am running well. I am enjoying this. I am not gassing out. I am not going to pass out. This is fun. My fingers are absolutely burning from the cold but we’ll worry about that later. Now I’m just going to start moving. As soon as I did that, I moved out from behind my Civil Service friend and another person we were with and went to put the hammer down, only for the Civil Service man to do the same. Delightful – let him do the work. He started motoring and then the decline starts coming. It feels magnificent. This kilometre, and the one to follow, are excellent. I run them so often, most of the time at an easy pace, and to be trundling down the Upper Glen Road now is some craic. The frost on the road made sure we kept the corners honest as there was a fair bit of it on the ground, owing to the tree cover. As we got out into the sunshine, the watch beeped – 3:15 for the fourth kilometre.

5th KM
It’s a great place to be knowing that you will make it home and now it’s up to you how fast you want to do it. I thought of last weeks post when I said I would run around 16:30 and I knew that was in reach. It’s hard to know what made me predict that. It definitely wasn’t based on any fitness and it didn’t come from muscle memory. The last 5K I ran was in Kilcock and I had a howler. Perhaps there is some sort of intuition where you have a sixth sense of how fast your body can go. I did know I could run that time but, at the same time, I didn’t really know. I wouldn’t be too keen on manifesting, I think that removes too much of your agency and doesn’t give you enough credit, but maybe that’s what this was. Anyway. The sun kept shining and the legs kept moving. My Civil Service Harrier was starting to slow slightly and when we took our final left turn, onto the flat and avoiding the frost, I looked at the watch quickly and knew 16:30ish was going to happen. Now it was just a case of how low could I get it. I started pumping the arms and putting the head down. In hindsight, it was probably about 50m’s too early because I felt crossing the line I was slowing down but was so stoked to see the watch beep for a 3:07 fifth kilometre and chip time of 16:32.

It’s a good platform to have now. A solid enough race result in a distance I find difficult at the best of times and with no solid training for that distance behind me. The course is generous, and calling it generous is being generous, because on a tougher course on Saturday, who knows how I would have gone? That is for another day – that day will most likely be in February when I make my oversees 5k debut in Seville. Seán was happy with the result too, considering all the hiccups recently, and gives us something good to work with. Plenty of learnings; one being to always wear gloves.