The End Of The Year

I know there are more runners in Dublin than in Kerry, but I fail to understand how this is possible. Dealing with all the traffic, red lights and walkers/dogs/cyclists on the paths makes this a much less relaxing experience than a run around the mostly deserted roads of Caragh Lake. I can easily tolerate this for a few days, but I'm always looking forward to being back on my usual haunts.

There are good points here as well, of course, the existence of dedicated running clubs being one of them, but that's no use to me on my infrequent stays. The existence of a dirt track 4 miles from the in-laws house is another, unexpected, plus.

After a run on Thursday that went like most others in recent days – felt good during the first half, lousy during the second – I started to get rather worried about my recent state of fatigue. On the other hand, I did entertain the possibility of the problem being in my mind. An evaluation workout would hopefully bring some answers.

On the coach's advice I had postponed the evaluation on Tuesday and continued to run easily until the legs felt better. Today (Friday) I ran the first 4 miles with an average HR of 140 at a pace of 7:40, a much better set of numbers than on previous days, and this would do as my warm-up. For the evaluation itself I did 16 laps on the Kilbogget Park dirt track, though I used the Garmin to display distance rather than counting laps. The track is perfectly usable for a training run, even though it's ever so slightly disconcerting to see the surface covered in tyre marks and a few other signs of, er, misuse of the facilities, but at my time of 9 o'clock in the morning it's a good bet that the miscreants are all in bed. Running 16 laps takes a bit of getting used to, but after a while I managed to tune into The Zone and just ran at the correct effort level, the Garmin's HR alarm hardly ever being needed.

The figures for today’s evaluation were:

Mile 1        6:50 (HR 161)
Mile 2        6:54 (HR 161)
Mile 3        7:00 (HR 161)
Mile 4        6:58 (HR 161)

Time to 130     33

The pace is a smidgen slower than last time but faster than expected. I could not hold the pace quite as well as last time but it's still better than any evaluation before December. And the recovery time to 130 was the fastest ever, which I found really surprising. I have no real idea what that means as regards to my present state of fitness; that's where the coach and his knowledge comes in. All in all, the evaluation had gone much better than feared after feeling like crap for a week, ending the year on good terms. I've got high hopes for 2011.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

30 Dec

10.1 miles, 1:18:45, 7:48 pace, HR 144

31 Dec

12.55 miles, 1:35:45, 7:37 pace, HR 148
incl. 4 miles evaluation:
    6:50, 6:54, 7:00, 6:58; 33 seconds to HR 130

That Was 2010

This was supposed to be a post about my latest evaluation run, but that had to be postponed. Sunday's 20 miler was one of the toughest training runs I've done and left me severely exhausted (though I'm mostly blaming Saturday's run); when I inquired what to do the coach told me to run easily until the legs feel better, and that's exactly what I've done since. I left for 10 miles on Monday but cut it down to 8 after the legs felt really tired. I followed that with 10 on Tuesday but was knackered after 7 – though since I was already on my way back home there was nothing I could do but run home. I initially thought I felt better at the start of today's run, but after 4 miles into a strong headwind felt tired enough to turn around early once more and cut it down to 8 again. Funnily enough, the return leg felt much easier with the blustery wind now on my back, but I decided not to re-extend it. The last thing I want is to dig myself into a hole of exhaustion, and erring on the side of caution is definitely preferable. Later on we all jumped into the car and drove to Dublin to spend New Year with Niamh's family. I have started to wonder if the recent feelings of fatigue are just in my head. Maybe a change in scenery will do me good.

Since the year is almost at an end, I might as well do a review, and quickly look forward to 2011.

Miles so far: 2918, with about 20 still to come. That's actually the lowest mileage in a long time. I reduced my overall mileage when training for the ultras, otherwise the long weekend runs would have killed me. I'd try a different approach next time, to be honest.

Highlight: Running 5:15 in Connemara. It had taken me 3 tries to get that race right and it felt all the better for finally achieving what I felt was a very good time.

Single Best Moment: Crossing the finish line of the Dingle 50 mile Ultra. The euphoria of that moment cannot be surpassed. Better than sex. Better than drugs.

Lowlight: Getting injured twice in the last few months, first the Achilles, then the knee. I always prided myself in my very low injury rate for a marathon runner. Taking days off was a blow.

I'd set 4 goals for 2010: The major ones were a new PB in Connemara and finishing Dingle. Both were a complete success. The two minor goals were a new PB at one of the shorter distances and writing shorter blog entries. I failed in the PB task, but came reasonably close, missing my 5k time by only 7 seconds twice. Ewen will undoubtedly tell you that the blog posts one was an utter disaster.

I also did 2 triathlons, which were great fun, but they reinforced the fact that I'm a runner, not a multi-sport athlete. I still would love to do an Ironman one day, but I would have to figure out a way on how to do the swim training. Driving more than one hour from and to Killarney for each swim day is just not on.

I'm more than happy with how the year has gone and I really think it was a good idea to step back from the marathon and concentrate on Ultras. Now I have gotten them out of my system for the time being and will have one more go at the marathon.

I have only one goal for 2011, and that is to break 3 hours. No other goals, no detractions, no excuses.

27 Dec

8 miles, 1:03:05, 7:53 pace, HR 141

28 Dec

10 miles, 1:18:40, 7:52 pace, HR 146

29 Dec

8 miles, 1:02:06, 7:45 pace, HR 147

Christmas

I used to hate Christmas, from the awful songs on the radio to the enforced happiness all around, but since the children have become old enough to enjoy it I have come round and the sight of children's eyes glowing in delight is worth the baggage. The kids must have been really good this year. When I saw the heaps of presents I remarked to Niamh that something must have gone wrong somewhere. Santa clearly was overly generous.

Obviously I was not able to go running early in the morning – family comes first and I would not have missed the opening of the presents for anything. The plan would have seen me running 20 miles but I simply did not have time for that, so I swapped Saturday and Sunday around. I know that 15/20 is not the same as 20/15, but sometimes Real Life just happens to interfere.

I left just after 10 o'clock and since I figured that the main road would be much busier than at 6 o'clock on my previous runs I decided to take my chances on the Caragh Lake road. My hopes that the recent sunshine would have softened the ice covering the road were dashed. It was about -10C, and ice does not soften in these temperatures. I managed to get into Killorglin without a fall but decided to stick to the main road after that and hope the traffic would not be too bad. I did 2 more miles towards Milltown before turning around. The Glenbeigh road was much busier than I would have hoped. Several cars were hooting as they went past. If that meant “hello Thomas, nice to see you” or “get off the road you moron” I could never tell. While running was definitely possible and I did not think the traffic was dangerous, I just could never relax and eventually I got fed up with it and took a shortcut home, cutting the run down by a mile.

Our outside water pipe froze that morning, leaving us with no water bar the water tank in the attic and we knew that would not last long. But we also knew that the thaw was predicted to come overnight; I reckoned we would easily manage until then, Niamh said she admired my optimism.

I did have one big worry though, my knee was swollen again by the evening. This time I'm pretty sure it was down to me kneeling on the floor for several hours, helping Lola building her new hospital (it's bigger than anything Mary Harney ever delivered). I slept with my knee wrapped in a bandage and of course I wore one on my run today.

The thaw came overnight, together with heavy rain and gale force wind. The children were not too happy to see their snowmen melting away and I was not too happy to see the water freezing on the road surface. Eventually I ventured out. The first 1.5 miles were just ridiculous, like running on a polished mirror but once I passed the school things improved and I decided to keep running. I had been running too fast on Saturday and I could feel the effect on my legs. After 6 miles I was already knackered and wondered how I would get through the run. The gale force winds did not help, each time I went against it it felt like climbing a mountain. At least it stopped raining after a few miles.

The idea was to run three loops around Killorglin, 5 miles each, and since it took me 2.5 miles to reach that loop this would add up to 20 miles. After the first loop (7.5 miles) I was sorely tempted to head back home but turned left after all for a second loop, but I really did not expect to be able to do another one. But somehow I found a few reserves of energy and when it came to decision time I turned left once more for more punishment. Eventually I remembered that I had brought an emergency gel and took that around mile 14, but to be honest it didn't do anything for me, the extra energy just seemed to burn up in empty fumes. I managed to drag myself through the final loop and on the way home found that the road surface had improved in the last 2 hours, it was almost runnable, though there were one or two hairy moments. There was plenty of discomfort from the knee but it did not get any worse throughout the run, and I hope plenty of icing afterwards will do the magic once more.

This was my first 20 mile training run in a very, very long time. I have not done 20 in training since before Dingle, back in August; that's a very long time ago. My overall mileage has been pretty decent in the last few weeks but there was a distinct lack of proper long runs. Let's hope I can add that on a consistent basis for the next few weeks.

25 Dec

14 miles, 1:45:45, 7:33 pace, HR 148

26 Dec

20 miles, 2:37:17, 7:52 pace, HR 148

Weekly Mileage: 84

Broken Record

It did not feel all that cold on Thursday, not colder than the day before, really. I had not looked at the thermometer and sometimes ignorance is bliss. It was not until 2 hours later when I saw the car's thermometer that I realised just how cold it had become. It originally said -13C but had switched to -12 by the time I had the camera out. A colleague who passed me in his car while I was running had the same number on his thermometer at that time - apparently he felt rather snug and warm in his car when he saw me. Another colleague had photographic evidence of -14C in Tralee (we're having a competition in the office hence all the photos), so I did not have the record for myself.

As ever the main road was the only possible running surface and I went down to Glenbeigh and then further on to Mountain Stage until I reached my turnaround point. I felt comfortable enough, as soon as you reach a certain effort level you feel snug and toasty, just the fingers are closer to frostbite than ideal. I ran at a reasonably easy pace, easier than the previous mornings.

The Deep Freeze did not let up and we had another bitterly cold night. I never thought I'd see temperatures like that in our Gulfstream-kissed little patch. One crank on the radio blamed BP's oil spill in the summer. Blaming the Brits is generally popular round here but to the best of my knowledge this is the first time ever they got blamed for our weather!

For once I had no excuses not to do a "Fast Friday" and I did a faster effort today. I paced myself by feel but set the HR alarm on the Garmin to help me in this. I thought it was my imagination when it got colder the closer I got to Killorglin, but later on the car's thermometer confirmed this, it was a comparably balmy -6C in Caragh Lake but a nippy -12C five miles further down in town, how extraordinary.The pace was 10 seconds per mile faster than what I would have expected. The coach may still give me a slap on the wrists for that, but I swear I ran well within myself and the HR never went beyond the set limits.

The thaw is supposed to come by Sunday, when the muppets on the radio will have to find something else to moan about. Personally I am loving these conditions, it's is so pretty outside and as long as our heating is working I'm fine with it. I don't want them to start moaning about the economy again, I prefer being cold to being broke.

Happy Christmas everyone!

23 Dec

12 miles, 1:32:38, 7:43 pace, HR 145

24 Dec

11.2 miles, 1:18:38, 7:01 pace, HR 152
   incl. 10 miles @ 6:57

Colder Than Ever

Your comments have been rather unanimous this time and believe it or not, on Saturday I had my mouse pointer hovering over the "Buy" button for a pair of Yaktrax, but then figured that the cold spell would be over by the time they arrived and they would just end up gathering dust in some corner.

Despite feeling a bit tired immediately after Sunday’s run, I soon forgot about it and went on with the rest of my day. Imagine my horror when I caught sight of my right knee in the evening and noticed that it was swollen again! I really had no desire to go through the same pain again as last time and immediately started treating it with ice, put on my compression sleeve and elevated it high on the sofa, which added rest to the equation because that’s where I remained for the rest of the day.

While I was absolutely dismayed with the state of my knee, it helped to understand it better, though it’s a bit early to detect a pattern after only two occurrences. Running on a slippery surface seems to add some extra stress that sends it over the edge. I never fell, I never twisted or bumped it, just the additional strain of slightly slipping at toe-off seems to be a bit too much.

Following plummeting temperatures the road was in rather desperate state on Monday and with the worried about my knee it seemed sensible to stay at home. However, after waking much too early and staring at the ceiling for far too long I decided to try something. I put on my rarely used off-road shoes to see if they made a difference. I followed the Caragh Lake road for one mile in one direction, decided that the surface was getting worse with each step, turned around, ran home, did the same for a mile into the other direction, decided it was not worth the risk and turned around for good. Just over 4 miles left me slightly wiser and still with an intact knee, but they had been enough for the heel of the left shoe to cut into my Achilles so much that it bled.

I kept applying the treatment and by Tuesday evening I could not make out any difference between the knees, briefly wondering if I had just imagined it all. I decided it was worth taking a risk as long as my knee was wrapped up tightly and set off towards Killorglin. The Caragh Lake roads was once more in a rather desperate state, so when I reached town I decided to change the route and ran back via the main road, which happens to be the only treated and therefore ice-free surface anywhere. At this time of the year and this time in the morning, traffic was very sparse, which made this less of a problem than it may sound – there were no more than 5 cars going the same direction I was taking, and it wasn’t exactly busy the other way either.

I had set off under a brilliant clear sky with a bright Full Moon and I was hoping to get a prime view of the eclipse. This started out well, by the time I was halfway through my run a quarter of the moon had slipped into the Earth’s shadow, but at that stage the big clouds appeared and that was the end of the spectacle, the rest was just a very dark morning. But the run went well, for the first time in almost a week I felt healthy and managed a good pace without pushing the effort. The surface of the main road was perfectly ice free and I thought I had finally cracked the conditions.

That believe lasted until about 10 o'clock that morning when a look outside the office window revealed that it was snowing, and hard at that. It kept going for about 6 hours and by then the roads were once more covered in a big blanket of snow, including the main road. My hope that the snow would provide some traction was dashed – if there was some traction it was neglible.

This morning I started running alongside the lake but soon changed my mind and took a junction that would leave me over a hill onto the main road towards Glenbeigh. As it turned out, not even the main road had been treated but the cars had carved out two channels per lane into the surface and there was sufficient traction in those to keep running uninhabited. The traffic was sparse again and I even had the almost full moon for company and light. Once I passed Glenbeigh it was apparent that there had been a lot less traffic and the road surface became trickier but that was quite close to my turnaround point anyway. On the way back home a colleague passed me on his way to the early shift and later told me that his car thermometer read -9C (15F) when he saw me running. That's my reputation as the office fool sealed for another year. The weather station confirms that temperature reading, though I was surprised, I did not feel that cold. But I seemed to find it hard to relax, the effort was always a notch higher than normal; maybe I was subconsciously running a bit harder just to keep warm. The pace/HR relationship has been all over the place the last few days, but I put that down to the conditions entirely. It's hard enough to keep the training going at the moment. If there is any justice in the universe, I just have to get a good marathon in return.

20 Dec

4.1 miles, 31:23, 7:39 pace, HR 152

21 Dec

12 miles, 1:29:29, 7:27 pace, HR 145

22 Dec

10.75 miles, 1:20:43, 7:30 pace, HR 150

Iced In

Unlike the last cold spell which affected mainly the eastern part of the island, the present one dumped most of its load on the West and this time it's our roads that are converted into ice rinks. I cannot overstate how unusual this is. This is my eighth winter here in Kerry; until a year ago, I had seen snow here only once and that was gone within a day. Now we're in the middle of the third Big Freeze in 12 months, and for the third time the powers that be are completely unprepared and unable to cope. I just laugh when they say on the news that they have to stop treating secondary roads – the 5 miles between here and Killorglin have not seen a single grain of salt or grit, ever, and it's left to us to cope. The fact that there is no complete carnage on the roads is a tribute to drivers here. As much as I moan about the ones that can't be bothered to leave more than a couple of inches of space when overtaking or can't be bothered to dip their headlights in the dark for a mere cyclist, the majority is obviously able to manage highly dangerous road conditions for weeks just fine.

Anyway, we woke yesterday to yet more snow. This turned out to be a godsend. I set off for my long run at about 7:30 in the morning, planning to run the road to Killorglin and then somehow come up with a second loop to make up the miles. The road was covered in maybe an inch of fresh snow, covering the ice from the day before and it was only this new layer that rendered the surface runnable. I pondered which route to take and then decided to run around the lake after all. This turned out to be an inspired choice. While I kept running on virginal roads, the Killorglin road was made more and more impassable by every passing car, compacting the snow into perfectly flat and extremely slippery ice. I, on the other hand, really got to enjoy the scenery. The area is stunning as it is, but a layer of fresh and untouched snow added yet a new dimension to it, it was just breathtakingly beautiful. It took 14.84 miles (yes, I checked the Garmin) to come across the first other human being on my run (and that was a boy racer in his souped up car, obviously trying to find a quiet spot for spinning his wheels). The distance did not bother me, I was still feeling fine after 18 miles, but I was surprised to find the HR so high. I'm sure the running surface added a bit, but I'm also still affected by that bug I caught last week.

There was no further snowfall last night and this morning I was left to find some runnable road surface. The road into Killorglin was out and I decided to try my luck alongside Caragh Lake again. It was probably the best choice available. Parts of the road were clear, some were icy and on some I could still see my footprints from the day before! It was borderline, but as mentioned before, if in doubt I always go running. After 12 miles I started to feel rather low. My suspicion is that I ran low on glycogen – after yesterday's long run I may have been starting out with partially empty stores, especially since my appetite isn't great at the moment and the last 2 miles home were a bit of a drag. For once I was glad to be done, something I have not had to say for quite some time.

Say, is this normal or is it just our kids that are apparently unable to cope with Christmas? They know Santa is watching but they are constantly fighting, hurting, punching, screaming, crying, .... Niamh is seriously considering chucking out the presents and replacing them with a lump of coal and it has been the same every Christmas since ... since they have been old enough to misbehave, really.

18 Dec

18.1 miles, 2:24:27, 7:58 pace, HR 148

19 Dec

14.25 miles, 1:50:40, 7:45 pace, HR 145

Weekly Mileage: 83+ miles

Sick. Again.

In case you’re interested, the coach thinks the faster pace on the previous evaluation was due to some sharpening effect from the 5k races in Killarney. But of course I do not want to have a sharpening effect right now, 4 months before the marathon, so the loss of pace over those two weeks is not really an issue. Instead I am working on my base fitness, and the fact that I was able to hold the pace so well for the 4 miles is very encouraging. There is definitely progress being made. I will skip all potential races for the next few weeks. Sadly, that means no Mallow date for me. A fast time in that race would be great but the only thing that counts is the marathon in April.

At the end of November I just about managed to avoid one of the bugs that did the rounds. I was the only family member not to get sick, just had a bit of a sore throat. This time round I was not quite so lucky. Lola picked up something and was off school for the first three days of the week and I was next in the line; by Wednesday my throat was sore and the following night was really bad. It did not help that Maia woke twice and took a long time to fall back asleep and that Cian had nightmares and ended up in our bed, in addition to me waking at least once every hour. Rest was not to be had and I decided to bin the run, but the ibuprofen I took around 4:30 must have been magic – when I got up at 6 o’clock I felt well enough to go running after all.

Now I fully admit that this might have been a very stupid thing to do (I know I’ve said that before). Three years ago I stubbornly went running through a gradually worsening cold until it had developed into a full-blown and very painful pneumonia that knocked me out for several weeks and kept affecting me for months. I certainly do not wish to repeat the experience, but my general mindset has not changed and if in doubt, I always end up running. I have not managed to string together a few weeks of uninterrupted high mileage recently and the lack of consistency is worrying me. So I went running.

I felt surprisingly good once I got going, but I made damn sure to run slowly and took it really easy. The first mile was no faster than about 8:30 and I only gradually accelerated as I warmed up. My one concession to sanity was to stay close to home and instead of running along Caragh Lake as I would have done otherwise I ran two shorter loops, to enable me to bail out in case I felt like collapsing. Luckily that was not required, but it was a forbiddingly dark morning. Without the headlamp I would not have been able to even make out the road. A cloudy, moonless night so close to Winter solstice does that, I suppose. All in all the run went surprisingly well, even though looking at the HR and pace numbers I guess the sickness added at least 5 beats.

In the office I had a hard time not to fall asleep at my desk at first but a few cups of coffee seemed to do the trick, but at the price of an unhappy stomach. I felt like crap all day and really did not expect to be able to run this morning, but 8+ hours of uninterrupted sleep were just the thing I needed. I was amazed at how well I felt when I got up.

Still, I decided to forget about “Fast Friday” and kept the effort easy. I'm pushing my luck enough as it is. The second cold spell arrived overnight, just as forecast, and the road were covered in fresh snow. It was pretty, and, most important to me, it was not slippery. I did not encounter a single icy patch, just left my footprints behind, something that looked nice on the way home, my own prints on otherwise untouched snow. The pace ended up being a good bit faster than expected, which really surprised me.

While Lola had been sick for three days, I think I got away lightly as I'm feeling much, much better already. At the very least it tells me that I did not prolong recovery by going running. Looking forward, the weather is still a factor. The roads may well be icy over the weekend and into next week. I won’t run on ice again, one blown knee is more than enough, thank you very much. I’ll assess on a day-to-day basis. I’d just like to string together a few weeks of consistent mileage, if that’s possible.

15 Dec

9 miles, 1:12:05, 8:01 pace, HR 140

16 Dec

11+ miles, 1:27:58, 7:59 pace, HR 145

17 Dec

10 miles, 1:16:52, 7:41 pace, HR 148

That Time Again

True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
Winston Churchill

I knew I had run a bit too hard over the weekend so I made double sure to slow down on Monday. It was really windy, which took me completely by surprise, the weather forecast had made no mention of it. The first half was into the wind and rather challenging (not to mention cold!) but obviously I got re-paid on the way home. For some reason it had taken me 25 minutes to get ready in the morning, which meant I had to cut the run short by a mile; I did not want to be late for work. The pace was the slowest in quite some time – a fact that actually pleased me. Mission accomplished!

My legs were surprisingly sore, I’m not entirely sure where that came from. The weekend runs had not been THAT hard. There was still some lingering effect on Tuesday morning, but I felt well able to do another evaluation run. These evaluations are the only time I’m allowed to run at a decent pace and I’m always looking forward to them. There is never a thought of “oh no, speedwork” as I used to in previous training cycles when intervals were on the program. They are a rather moderate workout, just challenging enough to leave you satisfied but never exhausted.

I knew already that the figures would not match the ones from a fortnight ago, but they were better than 4 weeks ago, and better than I expected. I have no idea where the “you don’t lose fitness over three days” saying comes from but take it from me, it’s complete bullshit. I’m hopeful that by the time the next evaluation comes round I will be back to on pace, as long as the injury does not come back and as long as the next predicted cold spell will leave the roads in a runnable condition.

Anyway, the figures for today’s evaluation, run on the same stretch of road as last time, were:

Mile 1        6:51 (HR 161)
Mile 2        6:53 (HR 161)
Mile 3        6:56 (HR 161)
Mile 4        6:55 (HR 161)

Time to 130     36

The pace was a good bit slower than last time and the recovery to 130 took longer but I’m very pleased to see how well I was able to hold the pace. Again, I let the coach do the interpretation but I think the stable pace is a very encouraging sign. I might have lost some speed over my short enforced absence, but other factors are better than ever. Conditions were absolutely perfect for running, by the way; temperatures about 2C/35F, very little wind, a lovely star-spangled clear sky. I love it!

13 Dec

9 miles, 1:12:01, 8:00 pace, HR 143

14 Dec

11.7 miles, 1:25:13, 7:17 pace, HR 151
incl. 4 miles evaluation:
    6:51, 6:53, 6:56, 6:55; 36 seconds to HR 130

Restart

It's been a very busy weekend. Because Niamh had to get the twins to their CTY course (the last one for this term), I had to get up early to run. What's new. Since I'm still not trusting my knee I cut the long run down to 15 miles, just the one loop around Caragh Lake. If things keep going well I will get back to my pre-injury mileage next week. The roads are clear of ice at the moment, but if you believe the weather forecast it might be back next week, so better make use of the conditions right now. Last year I used to feel low around the 12 or 13 mile mark on my long runs. This has definitely not been the case in this training cycle. I was back home after 15 miles, just under 2 hours, perfectly fresh and fine; I felt like I could do it all again right there and then.

Instead I ran after Maia for the next few hours and when Niamh came back from Tralee I went Christmas shopping, which was at least as tiring as another loop around the lake. Unusually for me I had checked out prices and availability before setting off, and I had done it early enough to be able to fall back to online shopping for stuff I could not get my hands on (online shopping for toys is extremely frustrating because for some absolutely incomprehensible reason Amazon don't deliver toys to Ireland). Anyway, we're now prepared for Santa.

Talking about Santa, that's exactly who we went to see on Sunday evening¬. The trip to Crag Cave with their play area and Santa's grotto has become an annual ritual and the kids would start revolting at the bare suggestion of not going. Before all that I had to run of course, and since Niamh's presence was required at Cromane's cake sale I was out early once more. One day I'll get to sleep in, I'm sure. Ideally, Friday/Saturday/Sunday would consist of a fast 10 miler, a long run and a medium long run but I have cut corners due to my knee, so Saturday was a mere 15 miles and today 13. All these runs went well enough but I was a bit disappointed to see rather high HR values today and yesterday, which might be a sign that Friday's run was a bit too fast. My resting HR was 46 this morning, shockingly high compared to the 37 I measured a fortnight ago. Before my knee gave out I was marvelling how quickly I was improving, now my numbers are similar to those from 3 or 4 weeks ago and I'm basically catching up, trying to get to the same level again. It's important to remember that I got there by running easily – pushing hard is counter productive at this stage. That's the one lesson that has been loud and clear in the past few weeks and I'm well advised to heed it. As frustrating as it is to run slower than just over a week ago, that's what I have to do.

11 Dec

15+ miles, 1:57:58, 7:50 pace, HR 149

12 Dec

13 miles, 1:39:59, 7:41 pace, HR 150

Spring Marathon

Not only have we just spent several thousand Euro re-building our house (roof repairs, new heating system, wall insulation, attic insulation, plumbing, ...), now the most incompetent government in history decided we all have to pay a few thousand Euro each per year to chuck them into the Black Hole those wbankers have created. After initially being all gung-ho on a foreign trip for my spring marathon (she even checked out apartments in Barcelona), Niamh sensibly decided we can’t afford a family trip to the continent. After playing around with the idea of running either Limerick or Belfast, I rejected them both (the first got really bad reviews for last year, the latter one I swore never to run again [though I reckon I'm quite likely to break that oath one day]) and decided to fly to Rotterdam on my own. After all, that was my preferred marathon all along, due to its reputation as a fast course. And then .... then I came up with one more destination.



Screw the government and screw Europe’s worst finance minister for the second year in a row. We might as well spend the last of our money on ourselves before it gets completely wasted on yet more banking dept. Vienna is where Niamh and I met 17 years ago and it’s going to be where I’m going to break 3 hours in the marathon on 17 April 2011, ojalá. And Niamh and the kids will be there with me.

The knee is in a funny state. It does not hurt any more but the last couple of days it was still slightly swollen, though today I can’t make out a difference to the other knee any more. I’m wearing a €6 knee wrap from the pharmacy, just in case, but if that makes any difference I can’t tell. Then again, I have run through plenty of pain in the past, especially where my Achilles is concerned, and that always turned out well. So I’m running with a possibly wonky knee, even if I don’t entirely trust it.

I have definitely lost some fitness over my 3 days of not running. I have a spreadsheet that I'm using to compare HR/pace combination from day to day, and the figures are definitely worse since my little break, though the graph is pointing upwards again and I’ll get back to where I used to be in no time. Since Vienna is 4 weeks later than Killarney would have been I have time for a longer base phase, giving me more than enough time to catch up.

Thursday’s run was a little bit better than the previous ones and today was better still as my fitness is picking up again. It was “Fast Friday”, but I made sure to run slower than the 6:51 from a fortnight ago when I definitely pushed too hard; setting the HR alarm on the Garmin helped, though ideally I should be able to tell from listening to my body alone but unfortunately I'm definitely not that much in tune with it. I lost concentration between miles 6 and 8 and let the intensity drop but picked it up again for a stronger finish. The temperatures today were no less than 10 degrees higher than before (from -4 to +6C) and all the ice is gone from the roads. I’m curious where my marathon pace is going to end up; it should definitely be faster than those runs with the HR in the mid 150s. The coach is promising gains of 15-20 seconds per mile during the peaking training. That would be scary fast and almost too good to be true. But he’s been right about everything so far, so I'm definitely looking forward to it. At the moment things are easy. The hard work is yet to come and I'm actually looking forward to it.

9 Dec

10 miles, 1:16:00, 7:36 pace, HR 149

10 Dec

10 miles, 1:11:39, 7:10 pace, HR 156

GET OUT!!!

Word in the family is that I get grumpy and much less pleasant to be around when I'm not able to run in the morning. While I don’t really notice any difference myself, I am inclined to believe them. By Monday evening, Niamh had had enough. “Get out and run or else”.

I wasn’t entirely convinced it was a good idea as my knee was still swollen and felt stiff, even though there was no pain to deal with any more. However, with the family’s peace at stake I sacrificed myself and headed towards Ard-na-Sidhe on Tuesday morning for an easy 5 mile run.

They say you don’t lose any fitness over 3 days, but I'm not convinced. Even after such a short break the legs feel tight and the HR ends up elevated and this time was no exception. But I know that as long as I don’t suffer another setback what little fitness I have lost will return just as quickly.

I did not feel any adverse reaction, but I could not fail but notice in the evening that my right knee seemed to be a bit more swollen than on Monday. Maybe it’s because I was not icing it as much, but the main suspect is the fact that I ran on it, simple as that.

I still went out again this morning, for 8 miles. I hold up my hands, this is OCD behaviour and if my knee falls apart again it will be entirely down to me, no excuses. There’s no need to comment on how stupid I am, I’m perfectly aware of it. The run was fine again, a bit faster than yesterday and feeling a bit better, but with the same worries about my knee hanging over me.

On a much cheerier note, Cian’s long awaited seventh birthday has finally arrived. I missed the party but there were plenty of sweets left and the party was a great success, which is entirely down to the skills of his mother who once more came up trumps with yet another spectacular cake. Life’s not easy for Cian – sandwiched between two older siblings who love to beat him up if they think they can get away with it and a younger sister who gets most of the affection, he’s in a bad position. But he is cute, affectionate and very smart and he is the only one who promised to run a marathon with me one day. Seeing him as the only one of the kids who prefers watching telly to playing outside I’m not entirely convinced, but let’s wait and see.

7 Dec

5 miles, 39:21, 7:52 pace, HR 148

8 Dec

8 miles, 1:01:11, 7:39 pace, HR 149

Injury Update

I had planned to do both the office party on Friday night and the race on Saturday morning, but both only half-hearted. I ended up doing neither. My knee was too sore to move and I stayed glued to the sofa. It was very strange, I felt reasonably comfortable either sitting or lying down, but every time I got up my knee would be so sore for about half a minute that I thought I would pass out from the pain. Then the pain would subside and I was again reasonably comfortable walking around. It was the shifting of position that was brutal.

I tried to rest as much as possible on Saturday, but you can only rest so much if you share the house with a bossy wife 4 young children. I had to look after the younger two when Niamh brought the twins to their CTY courses, which required a lot more walking around the house than I would have liked. However, after a lot of icing and trying to rest as much as I could I eventually noticed at bed time that the swelling must have reduced; after looking grotesquely deformed all day I could make out the shape of my knee underneath the skin again, so I knew things were improving.

I took it easy again on Sunday, at least as much as I could under the same constraints as on Saturday, but the difference to Saturday was quite spectacular. The swelling had gone down substantially overnight and I could move around again without pain. A major plus, I can assure you. I had planned on going to the doctor on Monday but now I don’t think I’ll bother. This is clearly improving all by itself and I don’t see the need of spending upwards of €50 for consulting the expert.

I carefully and slightly reluctantly prodded the affected area and located a sore spot right at the outside of the knee. While the whole area is clearly swollen, the rest of it is not actually sore, just one hot spot, possibly where the lateral collateral ligament ("fibular") connects to the fibula, but my entire knowledge of the knee is based on wikipedia, so I may well be wrong.

I have no idea what exactly caused the problem. I certainly did not fall on the ice, I did not twist the knee at any stage nor was there anything else that would have caused a trauma. I woke on Friday with a barely noticeable twinge that I did not think much about, went running, cycled to work and one hour later I was in agony. I was seriously despondent on Saturday, thinking I would be out for several weeks, losing all the fitness just as I was feeling on top of the world. I really do not think it was an overuse injury. I have run both further and harder in the past than during the last few weeks; in fact, training had never felt so easy, so much so that I felt like I was not really training at all, things were happening so easily. To lose all that was a massive blow, but on Sunday my world became a much happier place again.

I still did not run. Monday’s cycle into work was a bit of a test that went well enough. I had no problem getting into work, the knee held up well and there is no real pain. But there is still some swelling, it still feels warm to the touch and while it does not hurt it feels a bit stiff. The last thing I want is another setback, but at the same time I’m aching to get out on the road again. The cold spell is supposed to be over by around Thursday, and while I'm no expert I do suspect that the low temperatures and/or running on ice have something to do with my problem. As much as I loved running in the fresh mornings, what I have just been through was not worth it.

Ice Outside, Ice Inside

I felt a bit tired on Wednesday, probably a hangover from the evaluation, so I took it nice and easy. The temperatures were as cold as Monday, -7C, but two thin layers on top and running tights had me almost too warm. I like my cold, apparently.

I felt a tad better on Thursday and extended the run by a couple of miles to 12. Since it had been dry all week here in Kerry (very much in contrast to just about the entire rest of the country) the roads have improved day by day. There were still a few icy patches but I knew where they were and could slalom around them even in the dark. Which, incidentally, is exactly what I did.

Things changed overnight though. Westerly winds took over again, bringing rain clouds from the Atlantic, pushing the dry, cold air away. It was raining a good bit at night and the rain froze on the roads, covering them with a layer of very thin but extremely slippery ice.

I got up just after 6 and felt a little twinge in my right knee. I compared the knees to see if it was swollen but could not decide, which probably means that it was swollen. Twinges like that come and go and I did not think much about it. Running outside was challenging. Read, it was a really stupid thing to do. Virtually every step felt like my foot was slipping in the ice for a couple of inches and how I managed to stay upright for the entire run is beyond me. The road really was one gigantic ice rink, something that became much more apparent once it became lighter and I could actually see where I was going. However, I made it home without any incidents, but my knee started hurting a bit more once I was finished. I still did not think much about it, got to work (which was difficult but I made it) and within one hour I was in pure agony. When I checked the knee again it was definitely swollen, red, throbbing and warm, and putting weight on it was almost impossible. I made it to 3 o'clock but then went home because I could not stand it any longer (not a problem. It’s the evening of the office Christmas party and most of my colleagues were already in the pubs by then).

Right now I'm hoping Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation will do the trick, but no luck so far. Just yesterday I was thinking how much I appreciated being fit and uninjured. I’m supposed to run the last race of the Killarney 5k series tomorrow, but I cannot possibly see me making that. Looking at the weather forecast, it is quite likely to be cancelled anyway. After running all the other races, including one 2 days before the Dublin marathon, it would be incredibly annoying to miss out on the last one, even though I ran all of them with the brakes on and never raced outright.

1 Dec

10 miles, 1:16:51, 7:41 pace, HR 142

2 Dec

12 miles, 1:30:37, 7:33 pace, HR 144

3 Dec

10 miles, 1:18:24, 7:50 pace, HR 143