"Burning drives me wild yearning for the snow child blind men cry but shed no tears see no evil but speak in tongues and hearsay all lovers leap 'cause there's no other way across waters deep fuel the fire and the fool is learning to run from flames of bridges burning"
Bridges Burning-The Mission
A couple of missed runs but still managed another triple digit mileage month b4 another missed podium at this weekends race......all grist for the mill for the Shamrock Warrior.........
Tuesday October 28th So stop me if ye've heard this one b4.......but I missed a training run at lunchtime because of work......... hence why my week began on Tuesday
As I say when it happens my running schedule has to fit around my work schedule not the other way around.......however that said I would've liked to have gotten out Monday as it was the 41st anniversary of the auld fella dying and it would've been nice to honour his memory w/ a run period but especially over 5 miles as that was the distance he chased me and his godson Liam home in the middle of a particularly rainy night back home in Berrings County Cork in August of 72...........were he still alive today we'd probably joke about it but trust me it was no laughing matter that night, I was convinced he was going to kill the pair of us
As for Tuesdays run I went the untimed route and even though it was a day later than I had hoped for it was good to get any lingering crap out of my legs from Sundays race,at 55 degrees and overcast it was short sleeve weather the thought I might get away w/ sleeveless the final week of October was wishful thinking
Wednesday October 29th On the 38th anniversary of leaving home in South London for Philadelphia a run for the record books
I was planning to make this a tempo run to begin w/ but I decided it would be a tempo run on the hills, last week in a quasi tempo run over the hills I went 41.24.8 off 8.17 mile pace w/out truly droppin' the hammer today I was channeling my inner Thor" to me,my hammer!!!!"
A brisk opening mile on the Parkway in 7.43 I then dropped an 8.03 on Lemon Hill, I clocked 19.57 at the the turnaround near Lemon Hill Mansion, if I hadn't gone off half cocked this was going to be fast 8.31 at mile 3 one final downhill on Lemon Hill Dr/Sedgley Dr b4 an uphill on Kelly Dr upto the Art Museum,7.54 I knew this had potential to not only be fast but maybe sub 40.......
7.30 for the final mile 39.41.9 off 7.55 mile pace AND for good measure a negative split out in 19.57 back in 19.44.......no wonder I looked like the Cat that got the Canary all afternoon at work........ also I was now at 98 miles for the month, another triple digit mileage month was there for the taking w/ two days to spare..........
Friday October 31st So I'd know most of the week that Thursday was going to get rained out which meant Friday would be my last chance to get miles in to maintain my run of triple digit mileage, that couple w/ it being Halloween or Samhain as we refer to it back home and the fact the new Florence & The Machine album "Everybody Scream" not only got released but was having a listening party on South St after work probably all put a little pep in my step at lunchtime
While not as blisteringly fast as Wednesday 42.58.5 off 8.36 mile pace ranks as my third fastest time on this course over the last three weeks, it was also another negative split out in 22.23 back in 20.35
#103 miles for the month, glass half empty less than August #105 and September #110, glass half full first time since November/December 23 January 24 I've logged back to back to back triple digit mileage months.....for the record my record is four months as in February 24 I added a fourth triple digit mileage months so no prizes for guessing that triple digit mileage is firmly in my sights for November...
Sunday November 2nd The Bridge Run 10k in Camden has become a regular fixture on my race calendar the past few years and is already penciled in for 26.....shit last year I ran it a week after the Dublin Marathon such is my love of this race!
Sadly 10k has almost become obsolete in the realm of race distances,back in the day it felt like the distance du jour as there we several 10k ran throughout the year,these days not so many,my theory was then and is now most weekend warriors knew they couldn't bluff their way through 6 miles.......however if ye make it a 5k and 3 miles more participants are likely to sign up, kind of a win/win except for runners like me who really enjoy 10k, I usually earmark the Bridge Run 10k to be my seasons best given it's later in the year and the training has hopefully been done,plus first Sunday in November weather tends to lend it's self to great race weather
This was another year when the weather gods smiled on the over 1700 runners who showed up at 8.30am on the Camden side of the Ben Franklin bridge, 46 degrees and sunny but given the opening three miles are all over the bridge and back and the final mile is along the Delaware River I opted for a base layer under my customary Shamrock bandana, Palestine running vest and Ireland shorts #Represent
7.42 for the opening mile which is mostly uphill, over 5 miles last week at Radnor my mile pace was 7.41 so I'd started how I meant to go on,6.57 for mile 2 which is mostly downhill once ye crest the top of the bridge and begin your way down to the Philadelphia side b4 making a sharp turn and heading back up hill to the Camden side of the bridge
7.14 for mile 3 they hadn't put clocks on the bridge for fear of the wind maybe blowing them over so I was having to do math on the fly to workout my overall time......math isn't my strong suit period as was underlined during the week when I realized my trip to Dublin that I've been counting down to since it was 29 weeks is actually 6 weeks not the 7 I had it at..........ok I can't do basic math but my go to defense in a case like that is"in my defense I was left unsupervised and it was a full Moon".........
7.00 flat at mile 4, 28.53 off 7.41 mile pace I was thinking high to mid 44 mins so now it was a matter of hanging on, I was kinda in "no mans land" there was a cluster of runners ahead of me if I could reel them in
7.47 at mile 5 I was afraid I was going to give some time back but as long as mile 6 didn't get away from me something in the 44-45 min range was there for the taking,7.35 at mile 6 as I dug in, a few runners had gotten by me in the last mile I was determined not to let anyone else pass me,I love races that finish on a track, probably harks back to days as a track athlete and I made sure whatever was left in the tank got left on the track......
45.43.1 off 7.20 mile pace, not only a seasons best but also my fastest 10k in two years since I ran 45.15.7 probably here, 114th out of 1702 runners but for the second week in a row 5th in my age group,meh! big whoop I missed the podium again, last week I was a tad salty at missing the podium as the prize in the age group award was a medal, I don't know what they were giving out here, a mug, a glass.....I don't need either to me it the prestige of "being on the podium" the prize outside of a medal is neither here nor there, last year at the Penn Relays 5k I finished 3rd in the age group and my prize was a pair of plastic Penn Relays Sunglasses.......I don't they ever made it out of the box they came in........
The bigger takeaway from this week is that three months of 100 plus miles is beginning to yield negative splits and fast times in training and my races,motivation to keep my foot down this month, three races to go another triple digit month and hopefully three fast times over 5k, 10 miles and 8 miles
No comments:
Post a Comment