Running Fast, Slowly

The new year got off to a reasonably solid if entirely unspectacular start. I've re-started the run commute, but only one way at a time. The mileage will be slightly lower the next few weeks because speed work and long miles don't mix very well, and I want to get some speed into my legs now. There won't be the opportunity to do so later in the training cycle.

I need to be careful. After years and years of injury-free running I then acquired 2 injuries, both related to workouts. Plus, too much speedwork got me into an overtrained state that took a long time to get out of, and I sure don't want to repeat the same mistakes again.

Therefore, my speed workouts will not be spectacular, neither in length nor in pace. I'll try to run faster but not go to the well, and when I feel that the workout should be over, it will be over.

Case in point, I went to our local dirt track this morning. Since a track is 400 meters long, 400s were on the cards as it just makes things simple. There's no light available but it's an almost Full Moon and the night was clear, so a moonlit workout it was. Neither the early time nor the low temperatures were in my favour but you just get on with things. Since it was so dark that I couldn't see the numbers on the watch it was a workout entirely by feel. I also lost count early on and had no idea how many repeats I had done, but at some point realised I was tired because I had inadvertently jogged past the point where the next repeat should have started without realising, and a frazzled brain seemed to indicate that the workout should end soon. I finished with one last effort, a bit faster than the other ones, and went home.

To be honest I was a bit shocked to see such slow numbers. The first and second one don't mean much as I was taking my time to ease into the effort but then I still only ran at about 6:15-6:25 pace. Come to think about it, that is probably reasonably close to my present 5k race pace, which sounds like the right effort for 400s, but I used to run them closer to 5:30 pace, so that was a bit sad to see. But let me repeat what I said earlier, I'd much rather do an easier workout than dig myself into a hole again or get injured, and I think and feel I got the effort level right.

I just need to get used to being older, that's all.

1 Jan

10 miles, 1:18:02, 7:48 pace

2 Jan

7.5 miles, 1:06:10, 8:46 pace, HR 131

   hill sprints

3 Jan

9.7 miles, 1:15:21, 7:46 pace, HR 145

4 Jan

9.75 miles, 1:19:01, 8:06 pace, HR 141

5 Jan

6.7 miles, 57:14, 8:25 pace, HR 136

   9 x 400s, 200 rest

Weighty Matters

As I have mentioned on a couple of occasions, I'm presently trying to shed a few extra pounds. It's not that I'm particularly fat - my BMI is somewhere between 21 and 22, my body fat percentage close to 10% and my waist about 29.5 inches (much to Niamh's disgust). There doesn't seem to be much fat to lose, but I know from past experience that I race faster whenever I'm below 145 pounds. I started the New Year at about 152 pounds, and by cutting out chocolate and sugar (the occasional treat excepted) I'm right now losing about a pound per week, maybe a tad less, which is just about perfect and should get me to my desired weight in time. Things are all good on that front - certainly good enough to give myself a free pass for Pancake Tuesday tonight!

I can't complain fitness-wise either. Sunday's 20 mile long run passed by in no time at all, very much thanks to Sean for the company during the middle 10 miles. I did the same as for all other club runs, ran 5 miles on my own into town, joined the club for a comfortable 10 mile jog and then ran home again. The pace is a bit slower than what I would do on my own, but considering that I'm doing a couple of quality session per week that's probably a good thing anyway.

I must be in really good shape. I always used to notice the HR creeping up noticeably in the second half of a long run, something called heart rate drift (triathlon coach Joe Friel calls it decoupling). This is no longer the case, the HR remains steady even in the later stages of a 20 mile run, unless I up the pace. I had to be very patient in this training cycle and did a lot of aerobic running, waiting for a long time for improvements to show up. It has taken quite some time, but it seems to be paying off.

The cherry on top of the training cake is provided by speed work, which I tend to use sparingly, but right now I'm doing just that. I wanted to get a few faster miles into the legs (definitely with half an eye on Ballycotton, admittedly) and opted for quarter mile repeats. My 5k pace is about 5:45, which translates into 86 seconds, so that was the target rather than a balls-out effort that would leave me in a heap on the roadside. I used the first few to get myself into the proper rhythm and spooled them off one by one.  Quarter miles are mercifully short and I managed to recovery surprisingly well in the 60 seconds recovery breaks. I also got gradually faster as the session went on, which is definitely preferable to slowing down.

87, 87, 88, 84, 86, 86, 86, 85, 84, 82

More important than the pace is the fact that I managed to run in a reasonably relaxed and controlled manner. The breathing threatened to switch into hyperventilation on a few occasions, so I mostly focused on keeping that under control. Once more, I'm pretty happy with the workout. On the whole this is going well - I need to mind the legs though, they are definitely starting to feel heavy.

2 Mar

20 miles, 2:41:48, 8:04 pace, HR 134

3 Mar

10 miles, 1:18:59, 7:54 pace, HR 133

4 Mar

7.5 miles, 56:22, 7:31 pace, HR 150

   10 x quarters in 87, 87, 88, 84, 86, 86, 86, 85, 84, 82; 60 sec recovery

Too Fast

I never thought I'd have that particular problem, but I really wish I'd learn to run slower in my interval workouts. I should know better, the coach had explained how most runners do intervals too fast and do not get the optimal benefits out of this workout, but it's one thing to know that in theory and a different one to implement that in reality.

The idea was to run a small set of quarter mile repeats at 5K pace, 5:50, with short recoveries of 60 seconds. Daniel's running formula had them a little bit faster, but I think he's talking 400s and a quarter mile is a tad longer which may make up the odd second of difference, not that it actually matters as my lack of pacing ability won't let me run them at the exact right pace anyway.

Halfway through the first repeat I glanced at the Garmin and realised I was doing about 5:20 pace, so I relaxed for the second half. Halfway through the second repeat I realised I was doing 5:15 pace, so I relaxed even more during THAT second half. The third was better, if still a tad fast, and I thought I'd cracked it and therefore did not check the Garmin until late into the fourth repeat when I was back on 5:20 pace again. The next 2 repeats were too fast by a significant margin again and at that point I pulled the plug and called it a day (after recovering while leaning against the nearest fence post, trying not to topple over, that is). I need to safe those kind of efforts for race day.

Considering how appalling the weather has been the last few days, I have gotten away rather lightly. Thursday's 8 miles were the only ones in pouring rain and I can easily deal with gale force wind, I have experienced that often enough.

Puck Fair was affected by the weather as well, but I managed to spend Thursday's lunch time with the kids, sacrificing myself for a few rides at the fun fair, but it wasn't enough to stop the complaints about not being allowed on this ride or him getting more candy floss or her being unfair ... kids these days, eh? The Caragh Lake road was much busier than usual because it serves as Killorglin's bypass to those in the know, but I survived that as well despite some of the lorry drivers mistaking it for a destruction derby race track.

My left achilles was a bit sore last night, but feels better already. I always seem to get achilles problems right before Dingle. After I even got a mention in Dingle marathon's facebook page, I better not let that get in the way of my pacing duties. But hey, there's always Grellan to fall back on, right?

11 Aug

8 miles, 1:02:35, 7:49 pace, HR 146

12 Aug

6 miles, 44:32, 7:25 pace, HR 156
   6x400 (60 sec rec) @ 5:45, 5:43, 5:45, 5:34, 5:39, 5:38 pace

Thank God I Did Not Forget

For some reason, 13 years ago to the day, Niamh lowered herself to my level by agreeing to be my wife for the rest of our lives. Amazingly, she still claims not to regret a thing. 13 years. It can’t be unlucky, can it?

Almost as amazing as her lack in taste (or is it sense?) is the difference in my legs compared to last week. Although I inflicted pretty much the same punishment during the weekend, the quads, which were in a sea of pain 7 days ago, are perfectly fine. Can they really have adapted so quickly? I’m a bit weary of this – after the Killarney marathon 2 weeks ago I thought my legs were super strong, only to be taught a humbling lesson one week later, and I know there is still work to do before I can confidently say that I’m prepared for 50 miles, but the signs so far are good.

My shin was still a bit sore on Monday and so I checked the mileage on the shoes I had worn on Saturday. Niggles like that are usually a sign that I need to take a pair of shoes out of rotation and indeed, there were 600 miles on those runners and the reward for several months of faithful service was a one-way trip to the bin. Luckily, I already had a replacement pair waiting in the cupboard.

6 very easy miles on Tuesday left me feeling fresh enough to attempt a speed workout this morning and I chose a set of 400s to get some proper leg speed. Since I had not run fast for a very long time and my legs were still bound to be affected from this weekend’s double workout (as well as the one from the week before, and probably the marathon from the week before that as well) I would have been perfectly happy with 90-second-repeats, but I got a nice surprise by consistently being a good bit faster than that. I did not run back-and-forwards like I normally do for short repeats, but ran along the lake instead, which meant some of the repeats were net-downhill while I had to pay back on others, which explains most of the time differences between the repeats.

91, 88, 84, 81, 85, 87, 87, 89, 84 (avg. 86.6)

I’m very happy with those numbers. I thought my fast-twitch fibres would have atrophied my now.

I also got 2 new shorts, which will hopefully go some way of solving my problem of bringing stuff along for long runs because they have no less than 5 pockets each. I haven’t tried them out on a long run yet, that will come on the weekend, but I was definitely impressed by the prompt delivery from the states. Some companies are good like that and if their shorts are as good as their service, I will be delighted.

27 Jul

6.1 miles, 54:26, 8:55 pace, HR 127

28 Jul

8 miles, 1:00:08. 7:31 pace, HR 151
incl. 9x400 repeats (400 rest)

Fear!

Is there really no way I can gracefully pull out of this stupid triathlon thingy now? All week I have been praying for an unexpected storm front with gale force winds that would force them to cancel the swim section, but with half a day to go it looks like that’s not gonna happen. Instead we’ll have a clear, sunny day. That means I’ll be expected to swim from the mainland all the way past dozens of sharks to some island out in the middle of the Atlantic.

Of course I’m woefully underprepared. Swimming was nothing but cross-training to me, and cycling was mainly commuting to work, and even the running has been very low key because I’m still recovering from Connemara.

SLAP SLAP SLAP. Stop crying, you wimp!

Back to reality. On Wednesday I ran another interval workout, 10x400s again with plenty of recovery. I did 87,84,89,84,85,87,86,91,86,87, which makes an average of 86.6, almost a second faster than the previous workout. I call that a success.

Both yesterday and today were easy runs in light of tomorrow’s race. Just as long as I make it as far as the run! I put lock laces on my shoes last night and took them out for a spin this morning. The laces were fine, but I also tested running without socks and promptly got a blister on my left foot. Brilliant! I’ll take socks to the transition area, but still plan on doing without.

The targets for tomorrow are:

Bronze: Survive the swim
Silver: Don’t come out of the water DFL
Gold: Have fun!

19 May

8.1 miles, 1:00:26, 7:28 pace, HR 157
incl. 10x400 in 87,84,89,84,85,87,86,91,86,87

20 May

7 miles, 55:25, 7:55 pace, HR 142

21 May

5 miles, 39:23, 7:53 pace, HR 142

Yet Another Weekend

Since I was still stiff as a board even after an off day, Saturday became another easy day of 6 miles. These 6 mile runs seem to have become a staple of my running; I hesitate calling it training because I still remember the times when twice this would have been seen as an easy day. But it set me up for a workout on Saturday.

Following Michael's advice I kept my speed work short and sharp and only did 8x400. By some coincidence, Grellan's latest entry describes a set of 400s as well, and it's interesting to see the differences. For once, he did 10. Secondly, he ran them significantly faster than me; in Daniels' terms, his would have been at R-pace, mine at I-pace. Well, I intentionally held back at each one, running them at my 5K race pace, which equals to 90 seconds per 400, or maybe a second or 2 faster. Even though I didn't check the Garmin while running, that's pretty much the pace I managed to achieve. It was a rather windy day and the repeats kept alternating in and out of the breeze, which is why the even numbered ones were all about 3 seconds faster than the odd ones. With only 8 repeats on the menu, this was over soon enough, whether measured in time or fatigue. Opinions vary wildly, but plenty of people say this is how an interval workout is supposed to be done, at least an I-paced one.

More gardening work didn't help and tired legs led to another easy run on Sunday. I would have loved sleeping in, but at 7:20 Maia walked into our room and rather forcefully demanded breakfast; that was the end of my time in bed. As Niamh later said, just another 16 or so years of that to come.

I might have just complained about my legs, but actually there has been a major improvement this week. The Stick has seen a lot of action, so much so that Niamh commented that I'm sure getting my money's worth out of that thing. Rather than hurting a lot, the legs are now merely stiff from the previous day's training and I finally feel recovered from Connemara and Wexford (which, in hindsight, I should not have raced). With the triathlon coming in a week and the Cork marathon 16 days after that, this may be just in time, but I'm still more than a bit weary about the marathon. I seriously considered pulling out of the race altogether. I had wondered what pace I might be able to achieve, and after Wednesday's run 7:20 seemed optimistic. There will be a pace group going out for 3:15 (7:26 pace), but aiming for a 3:15 marathon seems a bit pointless. It's 10 minutes slower than my PB and I really cannot get excited about this. I feel my only options that seem worthwhile are either to race it and aim for at least 3:10, or jog it to 3:30 and call it a long training run. Anything in-between will take too long to recover from without the chance of providing a satisfactory outcome.

Anyway, let's move on. I also measured my resting HR today. I did the same last week and was shocked to see an inability of my heart to go under 49 beats. That's incredibly high for me. Luckily, my fears were somewhat allayed this morning with a reading of 40, and that coming a day after intervals which probably caused a slightly raised reading. As I've said, I've seen some real improvement this week.

Oh, and I did another open water swim in the sea today. I hope I'll be able to cope next Saturday.

14 May

6.1 miles, 49:44, 8:09 pace, HR 145

15 May

7.1 miles, 51:12, 7:12 pace, HR 160
incl. 8X400 @ 88, 86, 89, 86, 91, 87, 87, 85

16 May

am: 6.1 miles, 50:10, 8:13 pace, HR 138
pm: 20 minutes OWS

Scrambled

My training is very much centered around my long runs at the moment, which requires reasonably easy training on the intervening days. As a result, I'm doing more than half of my mileage on the first 2 days of the week. The 5 remaining days are made up of 3 easy days and 2 fairly short ones with some faster running. One of these slightly more intense workouts were Thursday's mile repeats. On Saturday I did some 400s. The running as much, much faster than anything I will require during the ultra, of course. I can only hope they are right when they say this will strengthen my legs for the long miles to come.

Actually, I wasn't quite as apprehensive as I normally tend to be before speed workouts. 400s are over in less than 90 seconds, and even when the pain strikes you know it will be over soon enough. I only had 10 repeats on the program, and I knew I'd make those. Maybe it was my relaxed attitude, or maybe it was the fact that it was about 9 o'clock rather than 6 o'clock as it tends to be during the week, but I had a pretty good workout, certainly in comparison to many of my previous attempts at intervals. I needed the first 2 repeats to get into the groove, but from then on I was surprisingly consistent.

88, 86, 83, 82, 84, 84, 83, 86, 83, 84. I'll take that.

I had to mind Maia for a while during the afternoon, and when I turned my back for about 3 minutes she used the opportunity to cause maximum havoc in the kitchen. I found her cracking eggs on the table top. In an attempt to rescue as much as I could I gathered some of the stuff and chucked it into a pan, though she would probably tell you that she did all the cooking herself. She certainly enjoyed her scrambled eggs.


After an easy 5-mile recovery run in the morning I set off towards Killarney for another swimming lesson. Since I had not been in the pool for 14 days I felt rather rusty at first, but things improved after a while. Still, I'm under no illusion about the task ahead. I'll never swim like a fish, but if I can cover at least the required distance of a sprint triathlon without drowning I'll declare this a success. Up to then it's no more than cross training.

Maia must really have liked her scrambled eggs yesterday. I found her at the counter again, cracking an egg. Luckily this time I managed to stop her after only one egg. She still enjoyed that one, scrambled. Maybe she wants to be a cook. Or maybe she's just a toddler on the rampage. We've had some of those before.

23 Jan

8 miles, 1:01:42, 7:44 pace, HR 55
10x400 in 88, 86, 83, 82, 84, 84, 83, 86, 83, 84

24 Jan

am: 5 miles, 40:35, 8:06 pace, HR 140
pm: 80 minutes swim

Weekly Mileage: 71.5

Thank You

Even though it might sound like an Oscar speech, I’d like to thank you for the comments you left for my last entry. You guys are worth your weight in gold, every single one of you!

I had written most of that entry pretty much straight after Tuesday’s workout, but didn’t post it. On Wednesday I deleted the worst of the whiny passages, left others in, and that’s what you got to read.

Giving up was never on my mind; when I said I’m not going to run under 3 hours I never meant I wasn’t even going to try. It was more a resigned statement that even though I would try I could predict coming up short once more. On reflection, breaking three hours in Dingle was never likely anyway. The elevation profile of that race hasn’t changed. It’s just that the last 10k seemed to indicate that I was in better shape than I appear to be, and that’s why I was so frustrated on Tuesday.

I was thinking about adding some faster running, like mile repeats, but envisaged a gust of comments saying “why are you starting intervals 4 weeks before the marathon you idiot”, except that most of you are too polite to put the idiot bit into writing. Then Mike’s comment suggested doing just that, expect for 1000s rather than miles, and that’s what I ended up doing on Thursday.

It wouldn’t be me just to go out and do a straightforward set of intervals, so I checked JD’s book and copied a workout from on of his marathon plans with the same amount of time before the target race. 6x1000 at I pace (2 mins rest), followed by 4x400 at R pace (3 mins rest). A look into his tables gave my projected times as 3:41 and 82 respectively, which is 5:56 and 5:30 pace. Let’s all have a good laugh at that. One thing I have learned last year is that I am not one to hit projected paces in training and I decided not to worry about them, just do the best I could.

I guess jumping straight into such a workout isn’t what most coaches would recommend, but time is not on my side. I was not looking forward to it, though. My last thought before falling asleep the night before was a feeling of dread, which was repeated first thing in the morning.

After 2 miles of warm-up, the 1000s were upon me. Since I don’t have a track, I ran them on a reasonably straight piece of Caragh Lake road, though that has a little hill in the middle. Consistency on these workouts has never been my strong point, and predictably the numbers fluctuated like a seismograph at an earthquake.

3:58, 3:48, 3:53, 3:56, 3:59, 3:51 (pace between 6:10 and 6:27)

Not exactly brilliant. But I tried. The 400s went a bit better.

88, 88, 84, 87 (pace between 5:39 and 5:53)

I went home feeling I could have done one or two more, but that’s what you’re supposed be feeling. The hamstrings were aching for the rest of the day.

I followed this today with 10 easy miles. The legs were predictably sore, and I picked up the pace on several occasions, which generally helps. It was maybe a tad fast for a recovery run, but I felt reasonably comfortable. Funnily enough, the quads seemed to feel better at 7:45 pace than at 8:20, or maybe they were just better warmed up at that stage.

Tomorrow will be easy again, and on Sunday I’m heading up into the mountains. If I don’t break my leg, it should be fun.

13 Aug

10.5 miles, 1:21:30, 7:46 pace, HR 152
incl. 6x1000: 3:58,48,53,56,59,51 and 4x400: 88,88,84,87

14 Aug

10 miles, 1:19:11, 7:55 pace, HR 143

Christmas!

A few days ago, TeddS left a comment:

I am interested in how you were able to go from "Connemara 26 Mar 2006 4:11:45" to "Dublin 30 Oct 2006 3:28:42."

And a bit later, Mick said:

I commend your commitment but wonder if the mileage is excessive? I say that as someone who does well to average 70k a week never mind 90+ miles :-)

Mick’s comment inadvertently answers Tedd’s question. When training for Connemara I ran a maximum of 55 miles per week in 5 days. For Dublin, 6 months later, I trained 6 days a week for a max of 70 miles per week. As you all know, I have since increased my mileage further, am running every day, and managed to knock another 23 minutes off my marathon PR.
I am well aware that others train less and that there are those who run faster race times on fewer miles. But my personal experience has been that the more miles I run the better I race. My take on that is that I have to run more miles to make up for a certain lack of talent. Then again, the fact that I’m able to run day in, day out no matter the circumstances is a talent as well. I tested the waters last summer with fewer miles and more speedwork, and I can honestly say that 90 miles at mostly steady pace is easier than 75 miles with 2 or 3 speed sessions. For someone who never ran that much, 90 miles a week might seem excessive, but I’m used to it and it feels easy enough. Honestly.

There is an Irish message board about running that I started visiting regularly recently. They had a thread about running over Christmas, and most runners seemed to say they would take one or two weeks off running. I can’t get my head around that. Over the holidays I can finally run close to 90 miles per week without having to get up at 5:30 all the time. I am not going to pass up on the chance of being both able to sleep and run.

After all that rambling I might as well mention my runs since the last post. I had gotten an early start on Christmas Day; last year the kids were up at some utterly ridiculous hour like 1 or 2 am and started opening presents. This year we made sure they would not be in place until 5 am. Luckily there is one adult in the family who thinks nothing of waking at that time. The timing was good, by 5:30 the boys were awake, and by 6 am the hall was covered three layers deep in toys, boxes and wrapping paper. Eventually we tried to get more sleep, but sleep was not forthcoming and eventually I set off on my run. I had planned no more than 10 miles and ran in the general direction of the city centre. After a mile I found myself on the marathon course and followed that for a while, but going the other way. I just kept going straight, and by the time I was supposed to turn around I was almost at Grafton Street so I kept going until I had passed through that.
Of course I got lost on the way home, but eventually found myself back on the marathon course, right at the point where things had started falling apart 2 months ago. I followed the course from Milltown to Fosters Avenue, and the hill that just about killed me at the race seemed hardly noticeable this time. I guess that’s the difference between hitting it after 11 steady miles rather than 20 fast ones. I got home after 13.5 miles and realised that I had inadvertently run tomorrow’s workout, 15 miles at steady pace, so I added a bit extra to complete it.

Subsequently I took it easier on Friday. I ran towards Cabinteely Park which contains an almost ideal hilly loop of about 1.2 miles. I ran 4 loops of that, and together with the way to and from the park it was 11 miles.

With a dirt track available, something I don’t have in Kerry, I opted for quarters today. The track is over 4 miles from here so I drove half the way, parked the car, and set off. I think this was the first time ever that I had driven to a training run rather than just leave from wherever I was staying. It is a clear but cold day today, the thermometer read –1C/30F at the start, colder than anything we’ve had in Kerry all year. At the track I shed the extra layers and ran 16 quarter repeats at 10k pace. I was surprised that the pace was almost exactly the same as last week; on a smooth and flat track I expected it to be a bit faster. However, I was happy enough with the workout. For a while I managed to pretty much tune out and just run the repeats without a thought in my mind. Eventually I returned to the Real World, ran back towards the car, and drove home. Family time was beckoning.

We had some wonderful days. I hope you enjoyed Christmas as much as we did.

25 Dec

15.1 miles, 1:57:05, 7:45 pace, HR 150

26 Dec

11 miles, 1:29:48, 8:09 pace, HR 148

27 Dec

10 miles, 1:17:07, 7:42 pace, HR 162
16x400(100) at 6:22 avg

Summer Holidays

One week of holidays is not a lot – time has flown, and I can't believe I'm basically at the end of my time off already. We will stay in Valentia for another week, so Niamh and the kids will have one more week of holidays, and I will commute from Valentia to Killorglin. I know, it's rather unusual to be able to commute from your holiday destination, but that's the way it worked out for us when we bought our house, just 25 miles from where Nana and Gaga had their holiday home. I got loads of sleep this week, and I did indulge myself with plenty of coffee, chocolate and other things – hey, this was my week off. In fact, I'm surprised I only gained 3 pounds. I feared a lot worse.

Running last week was a mixed bag. My set of 14 quarter repeats went very well; so well that I started to think I am getting the hang of this fast running business. I started a bit fast and slowed down slightly over the last few repeats, but I was rather pleased with the workout. However, Thursday's mile repeats brought me back to earth with a bump. The plan was to do 5 repeats, but unfortunately I was totally knackered after three. The fourth mile was against an increasingly strong wind, but how strong that wind really was and how much it was a mental block is up for debate. Anyway, I started that repeat at 6:30 pace but could not sustain it, and despite trying to push harder, I was running as slowly as 7:30 at the end. I managed to pull myself together for the last one, and only ever concentrated on running towards the next target – to the next pole, to the next driveway, around that bend ... until I was done.

I think my problem was lactic acid. I have the basic speed, and the quarters are going well because 3 minutes break between each is enough to recover. However, the program is less generous with the mile repeats, and 2 minutes break is obviously not enough. If there were more repeats on the schedule I might do them with 3 minutes break next time, but the workouts will change now, the quarters are going to be replaced by 1000s and the mile repeats are going to be replaced by continuous runs at 10k pace. My first thought was that I would not be able to run those workouts; if I can't do them with a break in the middle, how could I possibly do them in one go? Then I remembered that I have a 5 mile race on Sunday week, which will take place instead of that tempo run. Somehow I'm able to run fast enough if there is a number pinned to my shirt. Funny that.

The long run yesterday was much better; Niamh looked at me as if I were deranged when I told her I was going to run towards Finnian's Bay. There is a mountain inbetween, and Niamh's comment was that she doesn't even want to drive up there; as it turned out, I underestimated how steep the road was (up to 18% according to the Garmin???). I managed to drag myself up to the summit and started the descent on the other side, but when I saw that the other side was even steeper I turned around immediately because I didn't fancy two of those hills in quick succession. I didn't even get to relax on the downhill because it was too steep for that, I had to break all the time.

I started to make little deal with myself on the way home. Going straight home would have yielded 16 miles, not a lot. I thought that an extra 2 miles out and back each way would get me to 20 miles; then I lost heart and thought one mile each way would do. Then, while running that extra stretch, I did a similar game as on Thursday – just run to the next pole; then the one after that; then the next driveway; then past that tree. By pushing that way I managed to get myself past the 20 miles mark. Good enough!

11 Aug

8 miles, 1:03:56, 7:59 pace, HR 139

12 Aug

am: 10.8 miles, 1:24:57, 7:53 pace, HR 147
14x400 in 83, 84, 83, 85, 82, 85, 85, 86, 84, 87, 85, 90, 82, 86
pm: 6 miles, 46:07, 7:42 pace, HR 145

13 Aug

8 miles, 1:03:52, 7:59 pace, HR 139

14 Aug

9 miles, 1:08:39, 7:38 pace, HR 155
5x1 miles in 6:13, 6:38, 6:19, 7:04, 6:28

15 Aug

20.35 miles, 2:45:31, 8:08 pace, HR 146

16 Aug

8.06 miles, 1:03:40, 7:54 pace, HR 139

A Dip

I hope I have not overdone it a little bit at the end of last week; mile repeats followed by a race followed by a long run followed by a quicker-than-planned 10 miler did not leave much room for recovery. I felt pretty much beat up on Sunday, and decided to make doubly sure to take it really easy on Monday's run.

Monday was a bank holiday, and after returning home late from Nana and Gaga's 40th anniversary celebrations, we slept in. I did not get up until after 8 o'clock, and then only because Maia cried and wanted her bottle. For the next hour I did nothing more than make breakfast for the boys and watch/play with Maia, while Niamh slept on. It was while sitting on the couch and keeping an eye on the baby that I strapped on my HRM and noticed a HR of 38. That's the lowest reading I've ever recorded, and I wasn't even lying down at the time. I guess my CV system is still developing.

After an easy run, slightly hampered by wind and rain, I continued to have an easy day; the original plan had been to drive to Valentia Island for the third day in a row, but nobody really fancied yet another trip in the car, so we stayed put and relaxed instead.

Despite this easy day the legs still grumbled when I set off this morning. I wasn't exactly looking forward to the workout, a set of quarter miles, but felt fresh enough to attempt them anyway. The target pace was the same as last week, but I had 12 repeats on the schedule rather than 10. It didn't sound like much more, but somehow I was ever so slightly apprehensive. Last week I did them while running towards Cromane, today I just ran back-and forwards on our road; it's reasonably flat, but has a bit of a hill in the middle. Not much of a hill, maybe 10 feet high, but even that is a formidable challenge while running as fast as you can, basically.

86,84,82,88,84,85,85,86,87,87,89,84

I was happy enough with the times. A slight loss of concentration caused a slow 4th repeat, and I obviously concentrated a bit too much on form and too little on effort on the second-last one. I had to work hard over the last 4 repeats, and was more than happy to be done with at the end, where I duly assumed HOK position.

In all honesty I'm neither looking forward to Thursday (more mile repeats), Friday (long run), nor next Tuesday (quarters again). I'm not sure if I've turned lazy all of a sudden, but the hard days just seem to be really hard at the moment.

A little dip in motivation is probably just a normal part of marathon training.

4 Aug

8 miles, 1:07:48, 8:28 pace, HR 134

5 Aug

am: 9.5 miles, 1:17:42, 8:11 pace, HR 145, incl. 12x400 @ 85.5 avg.
pm: 5 miles, 39:17, 7:49 pace, HR 137

Nibble, Nibble Little Mouse

Just to clarify a few things about my new diet, it's not entirely raw food. I mostly followed the recommendations in that book, where the author suggests getting 50-75% of your food in raw form, which suits me very well. It means we can still have the usual family dinner together, without me easting something else, or forcing the raw food on Niamh or the kids. And there is definitely no question about me having less energy. The way the 17-miler on Friday went I'd say the opposite is the case. However, I get the sneaking suspicion that Niamh must have thought I was getting too thin as well, because how else can you explain this:



I could not resist! And as if that wasn't adding sufficient calories, then last night's meal surely did the rest. We celebrated our 11th anniversary with a night out at Jack's Restaurant in Cromane. The food was spectacular, as was the bill. We both very much enjoyed our evening out, which made it totally worth it. We took a taxi home, and in the morning I ran back to the restaurant to collect the car. Niamh had to agree that from time to time it can be handy to have a runner in the house. Anyway, my weight is back up where it came from.

The running over the past few days has been very good. Normally I would feel like this when the marathon date is getting close, approaching my peak fitness. I surely hope that this doesn't mean that I'm peaking early, with 13 weeks to go. On the other hand, if I'm not peaking yet and there is yet more to come then it means that I have never even remotely approached my real peak. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Sunday was an easy run, and I duly ran the first mile in about 9 minutes with heavy legs, but then started to feel better and better, and by the time I came home I had pushed the average well below 8:00 pace, and I even added an extra loop to the run because I did not want it to end.

Monday was fairly similar; over the past few weeks I always felt beaten up on Monday, and the runs were slow enough to reflect the fact. Yesterday I somehow felt much better (maybe because I didn't race for a change?), and again I pushed the average pace below 8:00 pace, without straining at all. In fact the heart rate was so low that I initially though my HRM was malfunctioning.

I iced my achilles injury several times on Sunday, which seems to have done the trick. While the issue is not entirely resolved, it feels a lot better already. I have to admit I'm very relieved.

I've now moved into the second phase of the marathon training, and the hill repeats got replaced with 10x400 repeats, to be run at 3k pace with 3 minutes rest. This made it a very similar to last Thursday's fartlek workout, and I felt well prepared to do it. What could have caused a problem was the aforementioned night out, especially the fact that we had shared an entire bottle of wine between the 2 of us, which in reality meant that Niamh drunk a quarter of the bottle, and I the rest. However, it seems like the quality of the wine reflected the price tag, and I didn't have any hangover to speak of. The fact that I had only gotten about half my usual amount of sleep, and that it was raining heavily did weigh on my mind, but since I had to run to Cromane anyway to collect the car meant I didn't even have a choice.

400s at 5:41 pace means running them in about 85 or 86 seconds, and what I produced was this: 87,82,85,88,84,85,88,83,85,83, with an average of exactly 85. I still felt good after the last one and could have gone on further, but I was out of time. I'm not sure if less waterlogged roads would have produced a faster time, but with no wind to speak of the conditions were very favourable, really. I was happy enough with the run, but got a lift from Niamh into work, so as not to arrive at my desk drenched like a drowning rat. To safe Niamh from having to pack the entire family into the car to collect me, I ran home in the evening – which was excellent timing, because the schedule had prescribed a double for today, and circumstances just kind of fell into my lap.

27 Jul

11.2 miles, 1:26:10, 7:41 pace, HR 144

28 Jul

8 miles, 1:02:40, 7:50 pace, HR 138

29 Jul

am: 9.1 miles, 1:09:29, 7:38 pace, HR 152
incl. 10x400 in 87,82,85,88,84,85,88,83,85,83
pm: 5 miles, 37:46, 7:33 pace, HR 141

Weekly mileage: 68.5

A Spent Weekend

Is it a crime to be relieved that the weekend is almost over? You, know, I like staying away from work for a couple of days a week as much as the next guy, but honestly, this is killing me. Working in front of the computer screen is a lot less exhausting than working in the garden for almost the same amount of time. Presently I'm relieved that tomorrow will be Monday. I think another day of slave work would kill me.

Until that great 800s workout about 10 days ago I used to dread intervals. I just could not get them right, I'd start at what seemed like reasonable pace, and then I'd fall apart, time and time again. Then I had one good workout, and all of a sudden things seem to drop in place. I opted for 400s yesterday, just to do a different kind of distance for a change. I thought 12 would be a good number to do, and that's what I programmed my Garmin for, with 90 seconds of rest between each. The first 3 were easy, and I thought I'd fly through this. The next ones a lot tougher, and I started sucking air, and the last 3 were a quest for survival, pushing hard and desperately hoping to reach the end soon. I kept telling myself that 400 meters is really short, and that I would always be able to push on to the end, but it didn't really feel like that. Then, after the 12th, I felt that I had not yet left everything out there, and did a 13th, this time stopping the lap button manually. If I had planned a different number to start with, say 15, then I'm pretty sure I would have done all those, but the 13th was already a bonus, and with running being done very much in my mind I gave up after that one, assuming HOK position, trying not to keel over. The times for each interval were 89, 90, 88, 90, 85, 89, 88, 90, 88, 90, 85, 92, 86, and now seeing that the 12th one was getting slower I was probably right to call it a day when I did. The HR did drop back into the 140s after each run, which was a nice surprise. I was quite pleased with the numbers and the way the workout went. The fast guys amongst you might not be impressed with the pace, but keep in mind that my 5k PR is 19:16, which is 6:12 pace. Actually, this probably only shows that my 5k PR is rather soft. It's almost a year old, and I should be able to better it in July.

After slaving for hours in the garden afterwards I expected to sleep really well, but my hay fever kept me from doing so. I eventually got up in the middle of the night to take some antihistamines. When I told Niamh she stated that it must have been really bad; she knows that I generally avoid taking tablets as much as I can.

Anyway, I eventually managed to sleep until about 7:20 when the boys woke up, which always signals the end of my night. I fixed them some breakfast, and then separated them, Shea in the kitchen doing some colouring and Cian in front of the telly, because they could not even look at each other without starting a fight. That tactic worked for once (Niamh and Maia slept until 9), and I set off for my run. I had originally planned a trip to the Kerry Way, then thought I should run the Kerry Way the other direction towards and beyond Glenbeigh, because I've never gone past that, and then opted for a third route, towards the neighbouring village of Cromane. There is a nice lake there, which Niamh once suggested might make a nice running background, and which I had never followed up. I was also treating this as a scouting mission. I'm planning 17 miles at marathon pace next week, and the mountainous Caragh Lake road isn't really ideal for that purpose. I could run three out-and-back segments to Ard-na-Side and the Devils' Elbow, but that's a bit boring, and I was hoping to find a new route. What I saw looked good, though Cromane is a bit of a maze with roads criss-crossing each other, and it's really easy to get lost if you're not familiar with the area. I guess the lake helps with navigation, but I didn't see much of it, the road mostly kept its distance. But I think I will indeed give it a go next week. Anyway, the run today was fine, rather uneventful, apart from the fact that a few times I had to guess which way to go. I'm very pleased about the fact that I managed to run sub-8:00 pace at 140 HR. I vaguely remember being able to do so just before the Loch Ness marathon, which probably means I'm in very similar shape right now. Things are falling into place just in time.

I spent the entire afternoon in the garden again. I'm utterly knackered now. How can a few hours in the garden be more exhausting than running 20 miles over hilly terrain?

10 May

9.6 miles, 1:14:26, 7:25 pace, HR 151
incl. 13X400 (90)

11 May

12 miles, 1:35:39, 7:58 pace, HR 140