Training Log Archive: ColmM

I was planning another late evening run. But it seems the workload has swallowed me up entirely. A shame, I was thinking I might hit 7hrs for this week.

DCU sprint race.
Happy to hold on, and take a win, feels like it's been a while since I've had a good sprint-o, and I need to get back into form. Today was a good step towards that at least.
Ran hard, and kept in front of myself the whole way around the course, so was mostly in control. Read the correct descriptions and that so no real issues for me. Number 10 I hadn't really planned ahead enough and had to chill 9, think I also took the wrong route to 10. Good race though, trickier than I was anticipating, and certainly a nice run.
Pace too was better than I generally am at for sprints. Lead over the others was good (~30s), but splits vs them are basically equal, except for eoinmcc, who was generally slightly quicker, despite illness. Gotta get my speed up. But everyone's improving and that's worrying.
Also caught a lucky break as Shane didn't get to run for some reason (?), and Darren didn't make it out either.
Splitsbrowser - crept in just under 1min down on superman.

Easy warm down with Conor when he finished. Glad he came as I reckon I could have been put off doing it.

Carrickgolligan. 3rd behind Roar and conör.
Most enjoyable evening out. Trickier than I expected. Bit scrappy in places, but that's Dublin night-o for ye.
Technically not a great race, but wasnt the worst until number 8.
Missed the small trail for 1, and realised quite late. Had trouble finding the very elusive pit at 3. But neither of those were massive, <1min each. Number 4 was alright. Didn't see much rc as I figured you had to take the straight route. When I got to the hill I decided to just follow the trail up to the top, then down the other side rather than contour through the Heather. My plan was generally to run safe, and it went fine on 4. Also planned the rest of the course on that leg.
5 I half-assed my route and cut off the path, struggled through the Heather and down a cliff (no worries), to end up in the wrong forest section. but it was obvious and actually nicer running here so. 6 I just went through the forest, maybe went a bit low at first as everyone else seems to have gained time here. Also tied my laces but that wasn't enough to justify the time-loss.
7 was grand. 8 I took the small trail through the semi-open. Cool-ass trail. Into the forest, drop a little, find Regina, find the wall, woot. Hea back up. Find some awesome man-made huts out of ferns. Explore and find secret tunnels roofed and fenced by more ferns. An underground network of homes. absolutely crazy stuff. Leave the homes, search again for 8, get it. Looks like I just took a slightly different line off the open to the one where I woulda seen it, ah well. 4 -4:30mins lost.
Through forest to 9. Running fine, but couldn't tell where the control would be and spent 30s past it trying to figure stuff out. 10, ah shit, another bad one. Cut off track, struggle through undergrowth, climb mpund, hit track, way too far left, back down and in. 45s.
Easy leg to 11, chilled it a bit as the fence on my right went on forever and I wanted to check all was right.
Another easy one for 12. Straight through the White to to the big track, shortcut along MTB track, then along the big track down to the control and cut into the forest at the right time. All good. And finish.
Very enjoyable anyway.

Heavy legs this morning. We'll put this one down to the bag.
Out to Near dundrum.

And home a little later.
Have been having a small feeling near my left shin, inside of the leg, think it's the front of the calf where it comes around. Alright, but I think a muscle know or something. Did a good bit over the week in general on it's feeling better.
Left quad and both calves are usually tight and I need to stretch em more.

Jog into college with my bag. Do some stuf before training.

9* 1min hill reps.
Small group out. Very windy made the reps really tough, think everyone was struggling. Just 4 of us left after the girls finished, and I couldn't get near their pace.

Jog back to sports centre with the others, got my bag, and continued on home. Found it tough with that wind.

Bit of a bite to the breeze this evening. Same as recently, short one again, wasted the evening's study hopes, so it's looking like a late one.

Jog into UCD, then joined the others for drills and that.

1600m, 1200, 1000, 800, 400, 200. 2mins rest after 16, 12, 10, and 1min rest from there on.
Legs felt good warming up and on the jog in. Decided that I wanted to go hard on the 1 mile, and then I'd do what I could after, contrary to most of the good lads who were starting easier and picking it up. Except Ruairí, who ran a blistering 4:45 for the first mile.
Anyway, took the first mile quite hard, and tried to keep a good pace afterwards. But I was dying, so it was a real struggle. Pretty sure my pace was slower on the 1200... managed through, but this session was way tougher tonight due to the tough start. Didn't help that everyone was running crazy fast tonight. First time I've had any of the girls ahead of me as Ciara was with me on 1km and ahead on the 800m.
Couldn't do any more than stride out by the time we got to the 400 and 200.

Times: 5:13, 3:59, 3:16, 2:32, 1:15, 0:32
Dist: 1.66km, 1.22, 1.00, 0.82, 0.41, 0.20.

Definitely faster though, as the times didn't diminish as much as expected, and still looked alright. Felt good on that 1 mile, and the time was nice! But it was too quick I'm sure. Still, speed is looking up.
Wrecked at the end though.

Last time I did this session the times were slightly quicker on the later ones, but the 1 mile time was much slower.

A couple of laps with just Tim, everyone else just did 1 for some reason. Then jog home. So a decent long warm down.

Same loop as last few days. Cut back at Milltown golfcourse though, as I got out later than the other evenings.
Legs still feeling very fresh which is nice, even up the stairway to heaven at the end.