Happy Solstice

And so, finally, 2020 draws to an end. One thing we can all agree on, it was a truly shitty year, so good fucking riddance.

There might have been a few positives. No Christmas office party, for example, which is one major plus in my book. And the fact how I finally realised that working from home has plenty of plus points. But all in all it's good to leave this year behind us, write it off as a massive clusterfuck and move on to better things.

Mileage-wise it was another low for me, but I have the funny feeling that's just one more step on that particularly slope. By the time we hit New Year I'll be very close to 2300 running miles, and I'm not counting the cycling ones. I've gotten slower again, though I did manage a few plus points like a 5:54 mile, which was faster than any mile I've run for several years, and that 19:13 5k on the treadmill was better than I expected as well. As for races, I didn't realise how lucky I was to have signed up for Donadea in February, so at least I got one proper race under the belt before it all came crashing down.

For next year I'd love to catch up on all the races I missed out on this year but that would almost certainly a really bad idea. I no longer have the ability to do a marathon and recover quickly, so I will have to limit my races. So I guess that Ironman that was supposed to be this June but has been postponed to next August will be my focus for 2021; unfortunately I have no idea how I'll get the swim training done because I am not at all comfortable with going to a swimming pool for the time being, and swimming in the sea on a regular basis isn't all that high on my wish list either, to be honest. Make no mistake, I badly need to learn to swim properly before August and this will take some time, so that's something I need to figure out sooner rather than later.

I've been ticking over the last few weeks with most runs a 12 k loop around Bray, a shorter run when my legs felt particularly heavy and one longer run on Sunday, though nothing that I could call a long run in good conscience. The pace was generally somewhere between 8 and 8:30 minute miles, and a couple of attempts at a workout showed that I have serious issues when it comes to running faster.

For next year I do have one goal. I signed up for Ray's Marathon Challenge, a charity event with Ray D'Arcy as the figure head, but more importantly in support of LauraLynn, which to me is the single most deserving cause in Ireland, and one I really want to support. It means running at least 26.2 miles each and every week in 2021 (not in one go - that would kill me). I would really appreciate it if you could help out and donate, even if it's just a little bit. They have been really taking a hit with donations in 2020 and anything you can do to help will be highly appreciated.

Please follow the link to my donation page . Thank you!

I'm Still Here

Clearly there are still some of you out there reading this because I got admonished this week for not updating this blog often enough not just once but twice (twice!).

I guess they have a point. It's been a while. In my defence, there wasn't much to write about. I took it very easy the first couple of weeks after the marathon. You're supposed to take it easy after any marathon, even one where you didn't really push the effort and didn't feel particularly sore afterwards. And someone with my history of overtraining should definitely take it easy.

And then ... well, I just didn't feel overly motivated to push myself. There are still no races anywhere in the foreseeable future and it's hard to plan ahead. I'm kind of hoping that this easy year will have given my body the chance to repair some of the damage I did to it over the years, and when I finally can bring myself to push myself in training again I might see some improvements, but if that's how it will turn out, only time will tell.

Today was the first time I did double figure mileage, so this really was an easy period. Also, about a week ago I got the notion of adding some strengthening work by doing rope skipping, and on the second try I promptly felt a sharp pain in my right Achilles, so that's that idea right out of the window. I can still feel the Achilles occasionally when running, it feels a bit stiff and when running up a steep hill on my toes it feels like putting too much stress on the tendon, so I don't. Tendons heal slowly, though since it's not giving me any real troubles I'm not too worried about it. It just means that big hills or hill sprints are off the menu for a few weeks.

I guess it looks like it will be a few more easy weeks to see out the year. Then we all collectively forget about a truly shitty 2020 and start again.

Let's Be Grateful

 In a strange masochistic way, I always wanted to know what it would be like to run an entire marathon on a treadmill. I think it was Jo Fearon a few years ago when she ran 12 marathons on the 12 days of Christmas (she had to restrain herself to the marathon distance because she was nursing a baby at the time - talk about hardcore!) that started my curiosity, but knowing how miserable an experience even a single hour on the treadmill usually is I wasn't ever tempted to follow up on that in reality.

Two things have happened since that made the difference. The first was the emergence of online training platforms like Zwift with their virtual worlds tied to your own performance on a treadmill or bike trainer. It should not really make a difference, you are still working away without moving from the spot, but seeing your avatar moving along in a 3D world is a complete game changer. The second thing was obviously a worldwide pandemic that made it rather unwise to hold mass events, to be putting it mildly, and virtual events have taken over instead, poor replacements they may be.

I had waited for a long time to sign up for the virtual Dublin City Marathon, not really being tempted by virtual races, but eventually I did. I was a bit unsure where I should do my running; laps were an obvious choice, especially as it allowed you to stow away some sports drink, in the hope nobody would interfere with it, and I had the option of Bray's People Park (1 km loops), Shanganagh Park (2 km loops) and Boghall Road - Southern Cross Road (5 km loops), plus the distance it would take to run there and back home.

Then level 5 lockdown came to Ireland, and while all those options were entirely inside my 5 km radius and therefore perfectly within the guidelines, I opted to cocoon and went for the treadmill, though in all honesty more out of curiosity to finally grab the chance to see what it's like rather than an overblown sense of civil obedience. It also solved the drinks problem, all I had to do was to put them on the windowsill beside me.

Once all was in place, it was just a matter of starting the computer and the treadmill and start running.

The first 5k were rather tedious. Time just didn't want to pass and I thought this was going to be a VERY long day. Mind, I have plenty of experience of very long days running and today wasn't going to be one of the tough ones, not really. Eventually I managed to tune out and get into the Zone, which helped a lot and made the next 90 minutes or so mostly just fly by.

The pacing was maybe a tad optimistic. I hadn't done any marathon specific training and was falling back on muscle memory, though I had covered plenty of miles in that last person standing challenge, which I reckoned would stand me in good stead, so I set the pace of the treadmill to 12 kph, 5 minutes per k, which would get me home just under 3:30. That was fine for the first 25 km and I was doing pretty well, mentally as well as physically. Of course, I've been in that game long enough to know that the first 25 k are not the ones that really count. And true enough, at that point I felt the first spasm in my right calf, the bane of my life, yet again. Fuck.

The treadmill adds another dimension to the cramps game, assuming that you don't want to be spat out at the end when you seize up, which could easily lead to further injury, something I was keen to avoid. So when I felt the second spasm I decided to play it safe and slowed down. At that point I still felt pretty good and managed to get another 10 k out of my legs but then the fun started again, and this time with rather more vehemence. I narrowly avoided an undignified treadmill exit out of the back end, but it was perfectly clear that the only way to avoid further drama was to slow right down, which I did, and I jogged home the last 7k in rather pedestrian fashion and finished up in 3:37:49.

To be honest, I was happy enough with that, not a complete disgrace and I was definitely feeling it for the last few miles and not exactly in perfect shape when I finally stepped off.

So, the Virtual Dublin City Marathon is done and I have satisfied my curiosity regarding treadmill marathons. And I got the badge on Zwift. 

The final verdict: In all honesty I'm not particularly keen to repeat the experience, I much prefer a real marathon. But you know, one day there will be the day when I cannot run any more. Today is not that day. Let's be grateful for that!

Cyberspace

Reality

Close

That Last Person challenge I mentioned dragged out quite a bit longer than I thought it would. I had resolved to stay in only for as long as I could do so reasonably easily but didn't entirely stick to that. We were down to the last three - in fact we were down to the last three for about two weeks, with everyone too stubborn (read: stupid) to drop out.

The one thing I wanted to get out if it was the motivation to run more than the usual 7 or so miles a day, and I sure got that. I never thought I'd ever run another 100 mile week ever again but turns out, I did. By that point I had a few niggles to deal with. The balls of my right foot were hurting at the end of each run, and it was fucking agony in one particular pair of shoes. The heel of my left foot was hurting for the first 2 miles of each run, and I think it got just a tiny little worse with each day, so I was definitely pushing my luck. Then again, pushing my luck in training is what got me to international championships, until my luck ran out that is.

I did a couple of runs on the treadmill when it was a bit too wild outside for my taste and in the end that's what cost me. On Wednesday morning I went on the treadmill yet again for a planned 25k. First of all, I was dead tired because running for 2 hours or more every morning had seriously cut into my sleep time the last couple of weeks. Secondly, for some reason I had miscalculated and stepped onto it 10 minutes late and I kept thinking how I would have to rush after the run to shower, breakfast and get ready for work. And then my right calf started to hurt, and the time was just crawling along.

After an hour I could not face it any longer and stepped off. Challenge over. Congratulations to Denise and Conor!

As it happens, for the rest of the day I was happy that I would not have to get up at 5 am on Thursday to run 30 k rather than disappointed about dropping out, so I was definitely at peace with it.

The calf still hurts, right where the Achilles attaches to the calf muscles, so it may be a tendon, muscle or maybe even ligament issue. I'm not too worried about it, I've run through way too many niggles in the last 15 years to worry about yet another one. 

I have kept the miles shorter since dropping out. I need the rest after the hefty recent mileage. And I'm still planning on doing the virtual Dublin marathon next week, so I guess it's some sort of taper time now. Running 26 miles on my own isn't all that appealing to be honest but I'm sure I'll get through. I've done worse.

Not on the EcoTrail

Today would have been the day of the EcoTrail Wicklow race, had it not been cancelled a few weeks ago. I had actually been reasonably optimistic that they would be able to hold it, since trail running is a socially distanced pursuit even when there's no pandemic spreading through the world, but of course in the end it wasn't to be. Such a shame - it would have been a gorgeous day, with clear skies and views for as far as the horizon stretches out. Just imagine the views from the Sugarloafs, or Djouce! I did get to enjoy a little bit of it as I met a work colleague, who moved here a few months ago, and we went over Bray Head and towards Little Sugarloaf, but had to turn around after an hour. Still, it was a very enjoyable 20k run, and who knows, with the weather about to turn and the days getting significantly shorter, it may have been the last of the nice days of the year.

Covid is of course a worry for all of us. With two kids in school and Niamh being a teacher they are having plenty of unavoidable close contacts, and the numbers in Bray are actually worse than in many parts of Dublin. It feels like it's only a matter of time until one of us tests positive, and my main worry is to spread it to the grandparents, who are in their eighties. Please don't let that happen!

As for running, with everything else cancelled I signed up to another virtual challenge four weeks ago, a last person standing one with the EoI running group. It's not the one where you run 4.5 miles every hour until everyone else has dropped out, it's about running a set amount of distance every day (well, they set it to 5 times a week), until everyone else has dropped out. At the time of writing there are still 9 of us in the running, out of the initial 15. A few years ago I would have declared myself the hot favourite for that kind of challenge, but those days are gone. We'll see how long I can hang on.

Weighty Matters

Just so that this doesn't get misunderstood: I do not believe in dieting. I have never followed a diet and never will. I have never starved myself in order to lose weight (or gorged myself to gain weight, for that matter). I have, however, heard plenty of times that I was too thin, sometimes in slightly less flattering terms. It shouldn't be hard to grasp the basic fact: I am fairly lightweight because I burn a lot of calories exercising, not because I am eating less. In fact, one of my colleagues once nicknamed me "sugar rush", after seeing me tuck into more than my fair share of sweets on more than one occasion. And yes, chocolate is my weakness.

Ever since I started running my weight has always gone up and down with my mileage. When I did 100 mile weeks I found it impossible to eat enough to keep my weight level, and when I was in recovery mode after a race my weight always shot up accordingly.

This was always quite predictable and stable but recently I have noticed that my weight keeps dropping. Undoubtedly it has to do with the fact that I am exercising twice a day, running and cycling once a day each. I used to think of 142 pounds as my optimal race weight, though more often than not I was about 144/145 for my goal races. Still perfectly acceptable, and I never ever got below 142, until now that is. This morning I was 141, and I have weighed myself below 140 at times, though that was caused by being dehydrated after a run, not my real weight.

Anyway, I told Niamh she had to bake more. Surely I won't lose any more weight when I stuff myself with chocolate brownies or similar on a regular basis? She keeps protesting that she is baking plenty anyway. We'll see how this plays out. Having to eat more cake in order to keep the weight stable - I can think of worse!

Last weekend I overdid it a bit. The very hilly 19+ mile course I had plotted had been a couple of miles longer than expected (very sloppy planning by me, this hasn't happened before) and I was rather tired at the end. Oh, and my legs cramped violently an hour later when I put them up - calves, bottom of the feet, around the ankles, any muscle in the lower legs really, until I somehow managed to put my weight on it. Blimey! So much for my attempt to get on top of my cramping issues. I just read an article that cramping is correlated with the muscles not being strong enough and has nothing to do with dehydration, salt levels or magnesium. This matches perfectly what I have observed over the years, my cramping problems were always significantly worse when I wasn't in top, top shape, and I never found any of the other theories even remotely relevant. Still, I took it easier this week. Also, my Garmin said I was overtraining - I wasn't entirely convinced by that, but with my recent history of overtraining it was definitely preferable to err on the side of caution. The watch has me back in green now. Let's keep it that way.

And - It's Off

It's a prediction I would have preferred to be wrong about but as it happens I did call it right: The EcoTrail race has been cancelled. I think it may already have been cancelled when I wrote my last entry but I hadn't heard about it yet.

It had not been a difficult prediction to make and it definitely did not hit me out of the blue but I am still disappointed. I was really looking forward to the race. I happened to speak to Rene the other day and he will put on some "challenges" but I don't know what they will entail yet. I'll see.

The funny thing is, I only signed up to the EcoTrail after the Dublin marathon was cancelled, because initially I had not fancied putting myself through all that suffering yet again. Now that the EcoTrail is no longer on I have actually signed up to the Virtual Dublin marathon, so I've basically come full circle. I'm still not much of a fan of virtual "races", and I definitely won't be doing that one as a proper race (and I won't include it on my list of races on the right hand side) but it's all that's left this year, I'm afraid. 

Ah well.

As a result of all that I didn't head back to the mountains this weekend but did a flat(-ish) road run on Sunday for 2 hours. Grand. I love road running as well, after all.

We've had two Atlantic storms the last week, which is very unusual for August, and, having grown old and soft, did a few more treadmill workouts when the outside world did not seem too inviting. With Zwift, that is actually manageable, totally different to what treadmill running used to be. I also have a couple of planned workouts in my head for the treadmill for future rainy, stormy days; hours of uninterrupted uphill running isn't something I can replicate in the real world, and progression runs on the treadmill are a completely different beast to doing them on the road, so there's added value in that.

Sadly, my indoor cycle trainer seems to have died a few days ago. It had starting to get wonky a couple of weeks ago, the Bluetooth signal was no longer working but I managed to use it via ANT on my mobile, but now it's completely dead and resisting any attempts to send even a single signal, so I gave up on it and ordered a replacement. Actually, an upgrade. Half a year ago I wasn't sure if I would end up actually using it, so I had opted for the cheapest model that still satisfied my requirements, but after 6 months of virtually daily use, sometimes twice, I know it will be used and I'm going a bit more upmarket. 

Hill Training

Training keeps going really well, I am really pleased with how it is going. I haven't felt as good for at least three years, and my HR and pace numbers support that as well. It looks like I have, once again, accidentally stumbled into a training regime that works, though the final proof of that is of course still to come.

As always, it's not all plain sailing and I do have a couple if issues. A couple of months ago my right foot was a bit swollen and bit tender to the touch. Also, when running it felt like my socks were scrunched up underneath the balls of my foot. I have heard that Morton's neuroma feels like that but can't tell if it was that or not. However, it went away eventually. Then, one morning about 2 weeks ago I was walking up a couple of steps in my house and felt "something" give, but it was manageable. I went for a run and didn't even notice it but later that day my foot later started swelling up again and it became a bit uncomfortable.

That was two weeks ago and it seems to have settled down again. The foot is still a little bit swollen but I can only tell if I compare my two feet directly to each other. It doesn't hurt, and I can curl my toes again, which I could not do a week ago. So, all in all, not too bad, but something to keep an eye on.

I had a great run on Sugarloaf last week. Instead of tagging two or three different mountains as I had done for most of my mountain runs I ran three laps on the Great Sugarloaf trail, which is the steepest and most technical part of my mountain runs anyway. I was pretty happy how that was going, and I ran for close to four hours, so it definitely was a good workout in its own right.

This Sunday I did something completely different. It was something I had been planning for a while, and a first rainy Sunday in a while provided a good opportunity. I hopped on the treadmill (obviously using Zwift to alleviate the boredom), set the treadmill to 5% incline, and ran for 2.5 hours. It was meant as a strengthening session for the calves but actually they still felt pretty good even at the end, so I'll probably give it another go, this time with a steeper incline. It's something the treadmill is excellent for - I just don't have a mountain around me where I can run uphill for several hours without it flattening out.

On the downside, the new Covid restrictions that came in just the other day make me doubt if the race will still be able to go ahead. It will, however, not change my training. Of course I would prefer if there were a race at the end of it, but I'm not running to race, I'm running because I love it, and will continue to do so.

Hope Dies Last

I don't want to be too hopeful. The last two years my performances have completely tanked (after already declining for three years before that) and I have on more than one occasion thought I might have turned the corner, only to be taught yet another painful lesson at my next race. So, let's not jump to conclusions just yet.

However, there are definitely positive signs. I did a mile time trial a couple of month ago that was faster than any mile I had run for a few years, even if it was still slower than my 10k used to be. But that's progress. And now that I have committed to running the Ecotrail again, I can actually compare my training to last year and actually it's looking pretty good. 

I had been battling with the problem that my legs just could not take the training mileage any more but every time I reduced my mileage to get the legs back into recovery mode, my fitness completely tanked. I might finally have found the solution: cycling!

I have stumbled into this completely by accident. I have been cycling to work for a couple of years but cycling for about half an hour at a time just does not have much impact, at least not at my level. But when we went into lockdown back in March, I started to do far longer training rides, albeit virtually on the Zwift platform. Two months ago I actually started following a proper training plan that has three to five workouts per week and boy, some of those workouts are brutal! But I have to say I am impressed. The level seems to be just right - the workouts are challenging but (usually) doable. On more than one occasion I was convinced I would not be able to finish the workout and just kept hanging on by my fingertips but somehow managed to hang on. That's a well designed training plan - tough but just about manageable.

I had two failures: on one occasion my legs started cramping rather badly and I just could not continue. That had been after doing a 3 hour mountain run in the morning, so maybe should not have come as a complete surprise. The other occasion was just the other day when the legs just did not have any pep. Or maybe it was in my head but whatever the cause, I bailed out. All other workouts have gone okay, even if I ended up wobbling into the shower on jelly legs.

The main worry for the Ecotrail are getting those crippling calf cramps again. So far I'm doing alright during my run training but when I do a reasonably easy bike ride later that day I can feel the spasms starting (and getting off the bike can be a real trigger - ouch!). I never used to cramp in training, so that's a new experience but my hopes that working up right to my cramping point might improve my resilience have so far proved futile. I still have close to two months, plenty of time to work on increasing endurance. We'll see how it goes. I'm reasonably hopeful.

Breathless

We all know how this works. You intend to do something, put it off for a minute, then a minute has stretched to the end of the day, and then another day, and all of a sudden it's been weeks again since my last entry. Oops.

There were two running-related things worth mentioning since my last update.

First of all, Anto had been organising a whole set of virtual running events for about 2 months and the last one was to run 153 miles in 2 weeks. If you know that Anto's soul race is the Spartathlon in Greece you will know where the distance target came from. I did a quick calculation that this would translate into 11 miles per day, which sounded do-able, especially so since for the first of those two weeks I would actually be off work, having to take some holidays before they expired.

So I had a pretty good first week with close to 90 miles, just like in the good old days, including a long-ish run with Norbert along the narrow, winding country roads of North Wicklow. The second week was a bit slower because, unreasonably, they did expect me to do something again for my money, which cut into my available free time but I did enough to see out the challenge. Turns out it's a lot easier to run 153 miles in 2 weeks rather than all in one go, especially on my worn out old legs.

And, since I have signed up for the Ecotrail race, I reasoned I had to get back into the mountains and get used to trail running again. I had already done a few shorter mountain runs but it's time to get serious again and so I spent 3 hours in the local mountains last Sunday. I was more or less following the Ecotrail route round the Sugarloafs and Bray Head, which not only got my legs used to trail running but also re-acquainted myself with the race route. I used my mobile for navigation, which turned out to be a good move because there was at least one junction where I would have missed my turn otherwise. Even though I wasn't even doing the part of the race route with the best views, they were still breathtaking - I can see what attracts people to mountain running, despite my annoying habit of stumbling on the uneven terrain every now and then.

I also ran more than I hiked, something I probably did wrong last year. It can be very tempting to hike a lot on these trails but I managed to run most bits, apart from the really steep climbs or the particularly stony ones where I almost certainly would have face-planted otherwise,

I was pretty tired after 3 hours of mountain running but remarkably I did not develop DOMS afterwards, so I guess the training is going well so far and my mountain-specific fitness is already increasing. However, I also tried to do a bike workout later that day which was supposed to take 90 minutes but eventually my calves started cramping, and while I managed to nurse them along for a while I had to abandon ship after an hour. That's interesting - while I sure have had big problems with cramping in races I don't remember ever cramping in training. I guess it's a sign that I'm pushing the envelope, but after the massive cramping issues I've had in last year's Ecotrail and this year's Donadea I definitely need to work on my fitness to avoid yet another repeat.

DOMS

Jesus, has it been 4 weeks already? I know time flies as you're getting older but this is going at hyperspeed.

The one thing I had genuinely forgotten about mountain runs is that your quads get shredded on the downhills and then you're in for a couple of days of pain. Which is, of course, exactly what happened to me after my first sojourn into the Wicklow mountains, tentative as it was. I repeated the same loop 2 weeks later, and while the DOMS struck again they were nowhere near as bad as the first time round, so I guess things are adapting already. Unfortunately the weather has turned again after a few days of nice sunshine, and there is not a hope in hell I'll go running in the mountains when there is a possibility of thunderstorms. Mind, my road runs are starting to accumulate a lot of elevation as well ever since I discovered a few new routes towards Enniskerry, which should hopefully help, but I know from personal experience that the only thing that properly trains you for a mountain run is a genuine mountain run.

Last week Niamh mentioned that this will be the first year in a very long time when I'm not doing any races, as the day of my cancelled Ironman passed, though I did remind her of the fact that I had done Donadea in February, so it's definitely not going to be a year of not racing at all. However, I did not hold out much hope for an autumn race, with DCM being cancelled long ago and the lockdown still in place. However, someone pointed out to me that the Ecotrail race was still on, at least for the time being. Initially I wasn't interested - I had done it last year and the pain of all those hours nursing my cramping legs across those mountains was still too fresh in my mind, and I sure thought I'd had enough of that kind of stupid masochism.

Then it was still on, and a few friends signed up, and then Norbert pretty much talked me into it, and so, eventually, I dug out my credit card and signed up. While there is no guarantee that it will indeed go ahead, I think there is a good chance that it will. Trail running makes it so much easier to enforce social distancing - hell, you'd be hard pressed to violate social distancing at times as you struggle across empty spaces far removed from civilisation for hours on your own. The only problem is, now I need to get fit for yet another 50 mile race, this time with mountains. I managed to drag my sorry arse across the Donadea loops in a sorry state, but there is no way you can fake your away across the mountains that way, so some serious training will have to be done. Let's hope the weather will improve. As I said, there's no way I'd head into the wilderness on my own in bad conditions. Growing up in the mountains does teach you a few things that won't leave you, even decades later.

And thanks for the shoutout this morning "how's the rubbish marathon going!". It's actually still nice to get recognised from time to time :)

I Pity The Fool

Last week I finished off the 8 week 5k training program I had been following on Zwift. It was very strange in 2 completely separate ways - firstly that I was doing it on a treadmill and secondly that I was doing a 5k training program at all - me, the ultra runner with the Diesel engine and without a single fast twitch fibre. Anyway, I finished it off with the obligatory 5k time trial, obviously with a fair amount of trepidation, and ended it with a 19:16 treadmill TT, a pretty decent improvement compared to the 19:44 I had done 4 weeks earlier as part of the boards.ie TT.

As it happens, the community on boards.ie had gotten the taste for virtual races and today was the second installment, and this time it was the mile! That's even more fish-out-of-water territory for me, so of course I jumped at the chance and signed up (while trying to ignore the fact that Anto has been organising a series of virtual ultras all along).

I knew what to expect.

I was already chancing my luck bombing along at 5k pace on my home treadmill, so for that one I was definitely heading outwards, and the flattest piece of road anywhere nearby is obviously the Prom, though I avoided the Prom itself because, you know, people and social distancing, so I ran on the bike path parallel to it and don't worry, I jumped off onto the road whenever a cyclist was nearby.

The fact that my first glance at the watch in desperation was as early as 0.18 miles wasn't a good sign, though in my defence I was a bit paranoid about missing the turnaround point.

A 19:16 5k would translate into a 5:33 mile, though taking my speed-deprived legs into account you could probably add a few seconds to that, but even that always sounded way too optimistic - at the GOAL mile half a year ago I wasn't even able to break 6, so in the end I was actually pretty pleased with 5:56, faster than my previous fastest mile at the 2018 GOAL mile, and let's completely ignore the fact that I used to run a lot faster for 5Ks. Getting old sucks, but I think I might have mentioned that before.

Hey, it's good to be alive and we're having the sunniest spring in Irish history, which makes the lockdown so much more bearable.

Stay safe.

Still Alive

So I haven't written a single post about running since February, about 3 months ago. What happened? Nothing in particular, really. I just didn't feel like it any more. In fact, even in the weeks before that hiatus I sometimes had to force myself to sit down on a Sunday and write at least a short post about my running week, just to keep the blog going.

And then I ran Donadea, with very modest expectations, and I managed to do significantly worse even than that. It didn't come as a complete surprise, the body had been rebelling against running in the weeks before the race, I had to stop training or I would have run myself into the ground entirely and I ran the entire 50k basically on muscle memory, so the fact the the legs started cramping violently towards the end was always on the cards.

I could say I was licking my wounds afterwards, but that wouldn't be entirely correct, it was more mental than physical. Still, my calves were really sore for a full 5 days, which is the longest I have ever had sore muscles after a race (well, maybe with the exception of Sparta) and then I had a bit of a head cold. I know what you might be thinking but I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with Covid; it was very mild, mid-February was too early to be in with a realistic chance to catch Covid here in Ireland and nobody around me got sick afterwards, so it was just one of those respiratory issues that do tend to come occasionally following long races.

Mind, I'd love it to have been Covid. A degree of immunity after a nothing illness would be great.

Anyway, I stopped running entirely for about 3 weeks and then I only picked it up very slowly, only a few days a week and only short distances at that. And then, of course, we got locked in, all of us.

I was actually in a very good spot, much better than most. I still had the treadmill that I had bought back in my competitive days, and it was still there, albeit much under-used. And since I had signed up for the Ironman here in June, I had purchased an indoors bike trainer in February, which turned out to be excellent timing for completely unforeseen reasons.

Now, I hate running on a treadmill as much as the next man, and the indoors trainer wasn't any better, but in the intervening years someone invented Zwift, and as it turns out it makes all the difference. It really is a complete game changer. Up to then I had once managed to last an entire hour on the treadmill and that had been pure mental torture. Now, being able to see your avatar on a screen and even run or cycle together with others, that mental boredom is gone and training indoors is actually fun. Not as good as running outside but fun nevertheless.

And then there's another thing. Ever since I started running 15 years ago I was always training for my next race, and of course it was always at least a marathon. And races of shorter distance were always just training races as part of the build-up. I always had the thought at the back of my mind that doing a training block aimed at a shorter distance, say a 5k, might be beneficial but there was always that next goal race on the horizon, so I never did one. Until now that is. Since all my long races have been cancelled, all of a sudden I had time and opportunity to do something completely different. I picked up an 8 week 5k training plan from Zwift and started pounding the treadmill in earnest, with intervals, hill sessions, tempo runs and what not. It's pretty good, much more fun that I would have expected a 5k training plan to be, still very challenging at times, just what you'd want it to be.

I did a 5k TT halfway through, which was definitely not on the plan but it was organised as a virtual race by someone on boards.ie, and managed to go sub-20, which would have been my fastest 5k in about 2 years, though I'm pretty sure 5k pace on a treadmill is easier than on the road, so how that would translate into an actual race I don't know, and I won't know for a long time either.

By the way, I'm definitely not sponsored by Zwift.

Last week they finally started to ease the lockdown restrictions and all of a sudden Enniskerry, Little Sugar Loaf and Bray Head are all in my zone, which makes running outside feasible again. The Prom would be as well, though from what I've heard it's too crowded to feel safe, so I won't go there. But it felt sooooo good to cover some real ground rather than a virtual one. Still, I'll finish that training program, and I'll definitely keep using Zwift for cycling. I can't see racing coming back this entire year, so it's really just to have fun, keep fit and remain healthy.

All the best.

Stay safe!

My Friend Michael

I do apologise in advance. I have been silent for 10 weeks, which has never happened before, and now I'm coming back with a real downer of a post. I just had to get that off my chest.

In all honesty, I didn't know Michael all that well. It was his wife that I had known for many years, and Michael came along much later. But we did meet on a few occasions and several years ago they stayed with us for a couple of days when some of us did the Valentia triathlon, down in Kerry. We got to talk a good bit and I knew him a little better after that.

The one quality I admire in people almost more than anything else is resilience. Michael had tons of that. He really had the odds stacked against him. He was born blind, caused by a genetic condition which he shared with some of his siblings. That alone would have been enough to stop almost everyone. Not Michael. He didn't let that get in his way. He became a successful athlete, doing triathlons and marathons and more, training when he could, despite the obvious obstacles.

He also met a wonderful, supportive partner, married her and had 2 children. And then, as if being blind wasn't enough, he got cancer. He didn't take that lying down either; he fought it with all he could. When things got worse, he opted for a dangerous operation rather than let it all drift away, which was of course typical of him. He was never the one to give up, no matter how hard it was.

Actually, the operation seemed to work, he got another lease of life, could see his little girls grow up for a bit longer, but then it all came back and this time there was to be no stopping it. The cancer had come back, he was told he had less than a year to live and this time there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.

Michael passed away last night. My thought are with his family, particularly his wife and his girls, the youngest of whom is probably too young to ever remember him in years to come.

Life can be so fucking unfair! Good bye, Michael. You were one of the most inspirational people I have ever met. I will miss you!

Teamwork

Not for the first time it struck me how many people are involved in your race experience. I know running is a solitary pursuit at the majority of time and racing is an event where you concentrate solely on yourself, but in actual fact there is so much more to it.

So, while perfectly aware that I'm bound to forget some people, the following have had a real, positive effect on last Saturday.

Julian, for giving me a lift, which saved me from having to rent a car for the day, with the expense and hassle that comes with that.

Anto, for putting the show on the road 10 years ago and he has given it a personal touch that may rub some off wrongly but is highly appreciated by most.

All the volunteers who gave out numbers, put up tents, tables, chairs, finishing gantry and then spent hours handing out drinks, giving encouragement and so on. But out of all of them particularly Sharon, with her lovely smile making the pain of each lap melt away instantaneously.

Alex, Alistair and Tim, top 10 runners who all had time to shout out some encouragement while lapping me like I was standing still.

All the other runners who did the same, at a slightly slower pace but still fast enough to lap me at least once and still make a nice comment. Ray, Brian, Charlotte, Susan, Ger, Dave, ... Good to see you, I wish I could have joined you rather than see you pass by.

Gary and Ollie, great pacers, top job.

Anne, while I had hoped not to see her at all out on the course, but thanks a mill for handing me that bottle full of coke when she saw I was struggling. It didn't help, but you know, I very much appreciate the kindness.

And so on. If I didn't mention you, I apologise. I just realised there are way more people involved than even I thought.

Any muscles that are not my calves felt perfectly fine afterwards. Well, maybe the hamstrings were a bit heavier than normal the next day, but otherwise there was just nothing.

My calves, however, were really sore, even 5 days after the race they were still not right. I can't remember ever having such a long time with acutely sore muscles. to be honest, it kind of puts me off running - it's the thing about the weakest link in the chain again; if the weakest link is so much weaker than the rest, that sucks. Maybe some specific strength training might help, though I am a bit skeptical about that one.

I'll see. I'm signed up for some more races already, so I'm sure I'll do them as well. It wouldn't be me to just throw in the towel.

This Used To Be So Much Easier

I was a tad nervous going into this year's Donadea, knowing full well that a tough day was ahead of me. I basically stopped training about 5 weeks ago when I realised that it was only getting me tired and hurting and I was getting slower and slower, so I decided there was no point to it and maybe even potentially damaging to my long term health.

However, I'm still as stubborn as ever and since I was already signed up, and places are hard to come by and the transfer window had long closed, there was never any question of not taking up my place rather than waste it.

It was my fifth time at that race. Going into it I had two sequences going: 1) I had finished slower and slower with each attempt and 2) I had always finished under 4 hours. There was not an ounce of doubt that sequence one would be kept going and sequence two was going to not just fall but be blown to smithereens.

I chose what I felt was the conservative option and started with the 4:30 pacers, which in fact brought some comments from fellow runners what I was doing back here, but I know my glory days are gone. As was perfectly predictable, it was very, very, very comfortable at the start, so easy that I almost felt strained - to keep running so slowly, that is. We chatted away, Gary and Ollie doing a great job as pacers, but I found running in a tightly packed group a bit uncomfortable, you just can't stride out properly when you're packed tightly on a fairly narrow path, so when after about 2 or 3 lap I got slightly ahead of the group at the start/finish area, I kept going just a tiny bit faster than the guys. It was never my goal to run away from them and chase a glory time - I merely found it easier to run just ahead of the group, nice chaps as they are. There were still plenty of friendly faces around and I chatted for quite some time to Barry, who was in a similar position to me: once a good runner but a bit burned out now, but still enjoying a day like today. In my case, as I told him, it was basically running a race too far - except that it clearly had been more than just one race.

Anyway, I felt very comfortable at that pace until 30k, which I had always felt was the minimum distance that I had to run comfortably in order to still be guaranteed to finish under the 5 hours cut off even if things were to fall apart completely. Not that I had ever been worried about missing a cut off, not in any race in the past, and not today either. But things did indeed start to fall apart here. At the very first climb, inside the first k of loop 7, both of my calves started to spasm, the first sign of a cramp.

Cramp. The bane of my running life. Cramping calves have destroyed many a good race of mine. I have cramped in about half of my races, and I never managed to figure out what exactly is causing it, though there was always a strong correlation to not being in top shape, which is why those cramps did not come as much of a surprise - today was always a question of when I was going to cramp, not if.

On the plus side, countless of miles on cramping legs have given me plenty of opportunity to learn how to nurse my legs along. The first, and by far the most important thing, was to slow down. There was no point in trying any heroics. I had to slow down or else those cramps were going to stop me in my tracks. So I slowed from 26/27 minutes per lap to 30 minutes, which got me through the next 2 laps and a bit. I had spasms shooting through my legs throughout but never a full cramp, and could keep going reasonably well. The 4:30 group passed by very quickly, and Gary asked if I wanted to hop along but I knew my legs would explode straight away if I tried, and therefore declined. (He also made some joke about me once being a superstar and now ... ah well)

That strategy got me to 41 km, almost the marathon point. And even though I thought I had a handle on things, at that point my legs just started to cramp really violently, and boy did that hurt! I had no choice but to walk off the cramps whenever they struck (basically on every incline, and on plenty of flat bits as well) and very, very carefully re-start running whenever I felt I was going to be able to, with plenty of very painful restarts along the way.

It wasn't the best fun I've ever had, though there was a funny moment towards the end of lap 9 when I passed by the loudspeaker belting out "encouragement", or at least Anto's version of it, and it said "Hey, I said no compression socks", which was funny with me waddling by in my gorgeous new bright pink patterned compression socks, purchased solely for this very race (btw, they were utterly useless as far as compression was concerned, I wore them purely for show. Considering my cramps, maybe I should have worn proper socks instead, it may or may not have made a difference)

The last 2 laps went by at snails pace, 34 and 33 minutes each, and looking at the results I would have finished a whopping 50 places ahead had I kept running at my earlier pace. Energy-wise I was perfectly fine, I wasn't even particularly tired, from that point of view I could have gone further and faster, but it was clearly a case of the chain only being as strong as its weakest link, and the weakest link turned out to be very weak indeed.

In fact, by the time I had finished 8 laps I was already past by personal best (!) and by the time I finished lap 9 I was already significantly past my up-to-now personal worst (!!!). Jesus!

Anyway, I eventually managed to drag my sorry arse over the line in 4:47:17, much slower than even my very modest expectation had been, but at least finish I did, and there's yet another t-shirt in my collection. Not sure how many more there will be, to be honest. This running crack isn't quite what it used to be.

Having said that, if you're not a burned out has-been, do yourself a massive favour and sign up for next year. It is such a super event! The vibe at that place is just brilliant and you will have the time of your life!

Photos by Anto Lee

8 Feb 2020

Donadea 50k, 4:47:17, 143rd place, 13th M50

M50

Exactly 10 years ago I was actually looking forward to my "significant" birthday. It was exactly at that time that the silverware started flowing - for the next few years, from almost every race I did I brought home some sort of trophy, usually in my age group but sometime even outright.

The glory years lasted about 5, 6 years, and then the decline became too obvious to deny, and since then things have gotten worse rather quickly.

I don't mean to whine or complain, getting older is part of it all and overall I am very happy how things have gone for the last 30 years, and anyway, my running had reached highs I had never even dared to dream about, so what's there to complain about?

However, I was a lot less excited about turning 50. I guess I've reached the stage that most people seem to hit at 30, when the new digit at the front of your age suddenly has become alarmingly high. Ah well. Time to face the fact that I might have started the middle third of my life.

And I've got to run 50k on Saturday. Oh f... But the fact that the distance matches my age is just coincidence. It's my 5th time doing that race.

Ouchy

Last Saturday I headed down to Shanganagh Park for the weekly parkrun. I'm not entirely sure why, I think it was that I felt good on Tuesday when I did a couple of faster miles and decided I may as well do the same with company, so off I went on Saturday morning.

It was a freezing cold day, there was frost all over the place, including the road, and there was a big patch of solid ice where usually the puddle is in park (and you do cross that patch 3 times in the parkrun, so definitely one to be careful). Obviously I have been around here for long enough to know that these things never start on time but that day they were a whopping 13 minutes late to get things going, which is almost Kerry-levels of timekeeping, or lack of it. If I had known about the delay I would have done a few little runs to keep warm but as it was I, and everyone else, was just standing around in the freezing cold, and when we finally got going I immediately noticed that my calves felt very stiff.

That feeling went away, and I did the parkun at about 85% of effort, enough to feel the muscles working but low enough not to feel wiped out, though I still tied up badly in the last k, and obviously I posted my slowest ever parkrun time but that's ok, there will be worse to come. However, as soon as I started my jog back home my calves were hurting straight away, and things didn't improve.

In fact, on Sunday there were so sore that I binned my morning run, and I changed my plan to go cycling instead when Niamh suggested to do a swim, so that was my workout for the day, imitating a lead balloon, and a particularly uncoordinated one at that. I survived; barely.

Anyway, the caves were still sore for about 3 more days. It felt very much like DOMS, but since it started straight after the parkun there was no delay involved, but I have no real idea what exactly was wrong, except that it did sort itself out eventually, no lasting harm done.

Parkrun is a fantastic institution and I would never complain about the volunteers who keep it going, they are delivering a fantastic service to so many people, but whatever the problem was on Saturday, they came damn close to do me in.

Quiet Time

There's not much to report, apart from the fact that I have indeed managed to stick to my new resolution of running less so far. I'm not cutting down entirely; I ran on Tuesday lunchtime with some work colleagues and then twice on the weekend, though my weekly mileage of about 15 miles is the lowest in a long time, and I have no intention of changing that approach any time soon.

I got a bit of a surprise on Saturday when I set a PB on a Strava segment, entirely by accident - I thought I was running at an easy effort, genuinely, honestly! Obviously it was on a stretch of road where I had never run anything approaching fast pace before but it still caught me completely off guard. Maybe the rest that comes with such a low mileage is really working. I guess that's what tapering is all about.

I still intent to run in Donadea in less than 4 weeks; it's probably not a great idea but it sure won't be the dumbest thing I have ever done, I have gotten away with way worse in the past. I try and think of it as an extreme taper - well, actually I don't, not really. I have no illusions about my chances of posting a decent time, I expect to finish in around 4:30, and just to keep that in context, I have never finished above 4 hours before. There will actually be a 4:30 pace group but I have no idea if I will try and go out with them or not, I will probably decide only on the day.

Actually, I do enjoy the fact that my legs are not hurting every day. Maybe I could get used to that. if that's such a good thing I'm not sure, though. A bit of discomfort is a good thing after all.

Resolution

To say that I'm not a big fan of New Year's resolutions would be quite the understatement but this year I'm going against my own beliefs and came up with a resolution, albeit a few days late:

Run less

Yup, pretty much the opposite of what most people would resolve, which is why I'm pretty happy with it after all.

It didn't come quite out of the blue. For the last 4 years I have been feeling less and less like a runner almost with each passing day - well, obviously there are better days sprinkled in between, but overall the decline has been rather alarming, not just in my performances but in the way running has felt. I just can't run properly any more, and it is getting worse.

I took 3 days off over Christmas because I had a slight head cold, nothing serious, and I did a few miles when I got back on my feet, and I felt absolutely awful. It hasn't gotten much better since. I ran 10 miles at some point, very slowly, and still felt beaten up for a day or two afterwards. I tried a long-ish run on Sunday, still nothing amazing at maybe 15 miles, and at mile 5 I was already struggling and had to cut it short.

It feels like overtraining, though where from I'm not sure because I swear I haven't done much training in the last few weeks and months - I used to do twice that and felt good! Anyway, it had been nagging at me for quite some time anyway, I need a break from running.

It's not as easy as it seems. I use running for mental health benefits at least as much as for physical improvement and I need my exercise, literally. I'll try and do more cycling and see if that does the trick, and the odd run every now and then hopefully won't do any harm.

Ah fuck, I have a 50k in 5 weeks. I even skipped a trip to Seattle for it!

Ah well. Happy New Year!