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Adamstown was fun and 1 more down

Adamstown Co Wexford today for the Leinster Intermediate. This is traditionally the least attended cross country race in the Irish calendar and today proved no exception. There was barley 60 on the line.

Adamstown is a nice course to the right of the cross roads as you enter the town. The mens race today was 10K, whilst the womans is only 4K. I cant help but feel that at some point someone made a mistake, the mens was run as a 10K rather than 8K and things have never moved back. The Dublin race is only 8K and the womens arce is usually half the mens race.

My race today started off faster than I had in recent races but I quickly settled into my familiar slow start pattern and had a few people go past. After the first 1K lap I found my feet. The course was solid enough, if were not for allot of cow shit runners could have been worn.

The course was short so 6  1.5K laps following the the initial 1K short lap.  After a few of the longer laps it felt like we had run allot more than we actually had. I was tired at the start of the race today  and it started to show after just four laps , legs started to feel heavy but I decided to try and pick off guys in front and use anyone that went past to gain ground. This strategy worked and apart from a group of three guys that got away on the 5th lap I continued to make up ground over the course of the race. Like my last cross country I finished without feeling like I might die. Whilst i think I’m running slower than I can at at the moment, I’m starting to think that comfortable fast running is best.

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Make or Break

The Wellington Testimonial in Phoenix Park.

Image via Wikipedia

The 2009 Dublin half marathon is tomorrow in the Phoenix park. I’m not crazy about the course change from last year. It has far too many bends and all the running on the path will slow me down significantly. Still my speed on uneven surfaces is another issue. I’m feel I’m full of excuses these days.

This time last year I was in a nervous state, 5 weeks until marathon day. Having just gotten my first injury from running which turned out to be a touch of achilles pain I was unsure of what to expect from the half. Still I lined up on the start line. This was actually only my 4th race but for the first time I felt confident enough to be up with the club running guys and girls. It was a tough race but I went around in 81 minutes which I was very pleased with on this tough course.

Now turn to 2009, my problem is although I know allot more about what I’m doing this year I feel deep down that I was enjoying things and even a bit fitter in 2008. For almost the entire year I have been having problems with my left foot. I have given it almost a month to recover on two occasions and the dreaded plantar facia still keeps coming back as a problem. I was running more last year but not running as fast. I’m now trying to figure out if I’m a tortoise or a hare. I’ve got the speed but with some endurance work as a base I tend to fall over after the first file if I go all out.

Lets see how I go tomorrow.My foot has been ok this week even though I’ve gotten 40 miles and 6 runs in for the past 3 weeks. But tomorrow will be my make or brake day. A mark in the sand of recovery or acceptance that I need to take a couple of months out and work to fix this problem. As with any runner my problem is that 2 months is a massive amount of time. It feels like I would never recover or get back to where I’m at now. I’m 28 next month and time for getting faster is closing in on me. This is probably not the case but picking a time to take that break is a tough decision.

Lets see if I cant go under 78 minutes in the morning and my 47th place from last year. If I go any slower than last year I’m going to be gutted but if I go anything under 77 I’ll be delighted. For a non runner 4 minutes probably doesn’t seem like much but to me it’s a massive difference in fitness and success.

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plantar

When I woke up today I was feeling particularly shit and a bit down on my running. After thinking everything was going great in June the past few weeks have not gone to plan. I’ve had to cut back the training allot and spend lots on physio visits. Thankfully owing to allot of stretching the plantar fascia is starting to heal after flaring up. It seemed that every time I pushed on I was taking a step backward. My back has goten very tight owing to my poor foot movement.

When I got to the park I didn’t realise how far up from the civil service the race start was. I got to the start with only a couple of minutes to spare and already dripping with sweat. Thanks fully when I stepped over the start mat it felt good. A little shoulder throwing and I was away. The first mile down the straight was completed in 5:43, thats 40 seconds slower than at the five mile a month ago. Didn’t think I could do a quick mile today. My plan was to go out slow and push on in the second half, hoping to make up some time on the Kyber Road. The half way point went by in 29:35.

Splits today were uneven:

5.43 – mile 1 – 5:43
5.36 – mile 2 – 11:20
5.58 – mile 3 – 17:19
6.11 – mile 4 – 23:30
6.04 – mile 5 – 29:35
5.39 – mile 6 – 35:14
5.50 – mile 7 – 41:05
6.20 – mile 8 – 47:25
6.27 – mile 9 – 53:52
5.41 – mile 10 – 59:33

Overall a little dissapointed that I thought I faded but actually had very uneven splits. Overall would have liked to finish closer to 58:00 but with the injuries it wasn;t a bad run. 5:58 average.

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