Maia and Ryan

Ok, let’s get the formalities out of the way. Someone asked to see more pictures of Maia, and I don’t need to be asked twice (be warned). I’m only too happy to oblige, and here are some more.



Next, to the running. It’s been three days since my last entry. On Friday I once more set the alarm for 4:15 for another loop around Caragh Lake. In the evening, Niamh had said she wouldn’t tell her parents at what time her husband is getting up. Apparently she’s worried about what they might think, and the fact that they’re going to be asleep for another three hours even after my return is a bit mind boggling. The weather was a bit better than on Wednesday, but I still got wet at some stage. We’ve had a very mild autumn after that awful summer, with the temperatures around 10C/50F, so I can’t complain too much. The run went well, I’m now routinely running that loop in less than 2 hours without even trying. Again I ran the last few miles stronger, and accelerated more on the last mile. A lorry came up the road behind me and I tried to reach our driveway before it caught up with me, which I managed with a couple of seconds spare, which explains a mile in 6:34. It’s amazing what a bit of competition can do. I’ve done the 15.5 Caragh Lake loop three times this week; next week I’ll add the extra loop around the Devil’s Elbow into the mix on one or two occasions, and then my mileage will have reached its target of 90 mpw.

For Saturday, Jeff had a great idea, and completerunning.com advertised it, and I just had to take part myself. As you all know, 2 weeks ago Ryan Shay lost his life after 5.5 miles in the trials marathon, and Jeff’s idea was to run 5.5 miles on Saturday in memory of Ryan, or to run a longer run and dedicate 5.5 miles to him. I thought it appropriate to run 11 miles, the first 5.5 in memory of Ryan, and the next 5.5 dedicated to my baby daughter Maia, who had been born the day before his tragic death. One half of the run for a life lost, one half for a life gained. Poignantly, I came across 2 dead birds on the road during the first half of my run, and gently pushed them to the side of the road. It was quite windy and after 3 miles it started raining. I was tempted to go home when I passed our driveway halfway through, but I still had a job to do and went out for a second loop. I also included 10x100 strides into the second half of the run. Nobody said I couldn’t incorporate a proper workout into the run, and, in fact, I think Ryan would have approved (and Maia wouldn’t object either). Rest in peace, Ryan.

Today’s run was rather mundane in comparison, just a plain old 10 mile run, but I included a 2 miles time trial into it. The idea was not to run 2 miles at race pace but at a good aerobic effort and compare how it the times and recovery develops over the weeks. Last time I botched the workout a bit by looking at the HRM every 30 seconds. This time I ran it mostly by feel, and only checked the HRM 2 or 3 times per mile. I still got it slightly wrong on the second mile, I had taken it a bit easy on the uphill section and promptly forgot to push it more on the following downhill, but it still doesn’t quite explain why the second mile was 20 seconds slower than the first one. I didn’t feel tired, the run wasn’t fast enough to wear me out after 2 miles, or at least so I though, and I’m scratching my head trying to explain the time difference. At least the recovery was quick, the HR was down to 120 in less than 45 seconds, and only a handful of seconds later it was at 110.

I’ll go ahead with another week of very early runs, and see if I can manage it. I didn’t manage to get more than 6 hours of sleep most nights, which isn’t enough. I’m feeling refreshed now because I managed almost 9 hours both Saturday and Sunday, but I’ll have to see if I can handle a second week of sleep deprivation. The weather forecast for the next few days is rather foul, which doesn’t help.

16 Nov

15.5 miles, 1:57:22, 7:34 pace, HR 147
last mile in 6:37

17 Nov

11 miles, 1:27:39, 7:59 pace, HR 145
Ryan Shay Memorial Run, including 10x100 strides

18 Nov

10 miles, 1:16:37, 7:39 pace, HR 149
2 miles TT @ HR 165 in 6:34,6:54, recovery 120/44,110/52

Weekly mileage: 87.5