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 :)

Oops I Did It Again

I used my weekend in Kerry to get a couple of nice runs in.

The first one, on Saturday, was an evaluation workout, back at the road where I used to do them before running laps in a Dublin Park. It was a very calm day - I felt a bit of headwind going both directions, so I guess it wasn't really wind. The workout was alright - getting the HR up to 160 was easier than it felt in Dublin, but that might have been because my pace was a tad slower than last time round. Basically, it felt a tad easier but it also was a tad slower. I presume I still had last week's marathon in the legs, despite the fact that the legs feel absolutely fine.

I awoke on Sunday to a gloriously sunny morning, so I ditched the usual long run and headed up into the mountains instead. It meant fewer miles but it still took close to 2 hours, and it definitely provided a new stimulus to the muscles. I was actually very pleased by how (relatively) easy the big long steep climbs felt. I did two climbs up to Windy Gap, once each from each side, and was tempted to do at least one more but decided that 2 climbs would be enough for a first outing.

Good call.

On Monday I was really surprised to feel a little bit of DOMS, but it wasn't particularly bad and I did my usual 10 miles, albeit at a slow, easy pace. However, throughout the day the aches got progressively worse and by evening I had long come round to the idea of doing an easy week. I had already planned on doing a bit of a mini-taper before Sunday's race but now I'm extending it from 3 to 5 days.

What I did was not set the alarm at all, and if I sleep in then I would ditch the run and get some much-needed sleep instead, but as it almost always happens I wake up early and go for a run after all. However, I left it at 4 miles, and very, very slow ones at that, but the pain in the quads is quite noticeable today, 2 days after the mountain run. Cassic DOMS. So now I find myself with rather achy legs, 5 days before an ultra.

Oops.

24 Mar

12 miles, 1:27:22, 7:16 pace, HR 147

   4 miles eval in 6:36, 6:39, 6:43, 6:50, 40 sec rest to 130

25 Mar

12+ miles, 1:50:05, 9:03 pace, HR 139

   Windy Gap x 2

26 Mar

10 miles, 1:25:30, 8:30 pace, HR 128

27 Mar

4+ miles, 37:17, 8:59 pace, HR 123

Tough Week

Tullyvale

Well, it didn't start out all that tough, after a night in a 5-star hotel, though actually there were some repercussions from that as well. You see, we had dinner in their fancy restaurant. My starter was a pannacotta for a whopping 11 Euro, which in reality consisted of 2 tiny blobs the size of a finger nail. The main course was equally microscopically portioned, though they seemed to think it's ok to compensate for the minuscule portion with a gargantuan price by charging over 30 Euro - thankfully our meal was included in the package, but at that point I was distinctly unimpressed. However, that's where they made up for it. Desert was a desert buffet, and bloody gorgeous it was too. So I had some of this and this and this and this and of course a spoonful of that as well, and when I had eaten all that (remember, I was still starving after dinner) I went back and had a portion of those as well.

New neighbours

The next day I had gained 3 pounds. And they took about 5 days to come off again. I know a little bit of physiology and I understand that sugars (ok, glycogen) are stored with three times the water in the body, so I hadn't pigged out on 3 pounds of sweets, but it was still a whopper of a weight gain for one single binge.

Anyway, to the rest of the week. I'm in the second week in my new job and it was a really intensive training week. I was utterly drained every evening. And of course everyone knew about the weather system closing in from the East. Monday was fine, weather-wise, though my legs were suffering from DOMS after the steep road at the Gap of Dunloe, so I took it very, very easy. By Tuesday I was starting to wonder if the weather reports were just kidding but by Wednesday it had hit us, and the reports sure were not exaggerated. The paths were covered in 2 inches of snow, which was perfectly fine to run on and easily provided sufficient grip. It actually was great fun.

Caragh Lake

My approach in those situations is to head out for my run as usual but see what the conditions are like and make a judgement call. Be prepared to go home if it is dangerous but don't stay at home just because someone else says so - especially as here in Ireland some can get downright hysterical from even a dusting of snow at times.

The fun factor had decreased by Thursday because the snow from earlier had frozen and now the path really was treacherous. I managed to find one spot that was still somewhat runnable, though - the dirt track in Kilbogget Park, so I ploughed my way through a number of laps, until the wind started to pick up, I got cold and since I had already started to get bored with doing lap after lap I went home early.

Friday morning was in the middle of a red alert but I made the same assessment and judgement call again. With the snow about ankle deep on average, driving would have been lethal, so from that point of view the red alert was perfectly justified. However, it was perfectly fine for running. It wasn't slippery at all, and even if it had been you would have landed on a soft bed of snow. What you had to forget about was pace - running in snow basically adds a resistance element to your run, which quickly makes it feel like a proper workout even at snails pace. I ploughed my way through a few miles, having the entire Kilbogget Park to myself and tons of fun - I really enjoyed it, at least for the first half. After that the wind picked up, so much that my deep footprints got all wiped out within one single lap, but I got home just fine.

Millie's first ever proper snow

It was different again on Saturday - still plenty of snow, but even though the wind made it feel freezing cold it was clearly warming up as the snow started to turn into slush. After helping a neighbour push his car over a couple of snow drifts on the road I was on my way. The footing was fine, there was no ice, though I did have a few unsteady steps at times. The going was still slow but not quite as slow as the day before, with parts of the path being almost clear and others still halfway up the shin in snow. By the end of the run my legs were really tired, the added resistance clearly taking its toll, but happy to have gotten out all the same.

Stay at home if you think it's not safe, go running if you honestly deem it to be ok and be prepared to cut it short if it's not. Proper equipment can make all the difference, if you have things like yaktrax you can run on icy roads as if nothing had happened (unfortunately mine are in Kerry - doh! - but it turned out to be fine).

26 Feb

10.3 miles, 1:26:17, 8:23 pace, HR 133

27 Feb

10 miles, 1:19:08, 7:55 pace, HR 135

28 Feb

10.5 miles, 1:28:01, 8:23 pace, HR 137

   2 inches of snow

1 Mar

6.6 miles, 58:57, 8:56 pace, HR 134

   snow and ice

2 Mar

10.1 miles, 1:39:29, 9:51 pace, HR 135

   ankle-deep snow

3 Mar

10.75 miles, 1:43:35, 9:38 pace, HR 139

   snow and slush