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

Time Travel

I know the blog updates are starting to slip. It used to be about every 3 days, then 4, then 5, and now 6. It’s a reflection of how busy I have been the last couple of weeks. My new job is still very new and there is still a ton of stuff to learn. I’m not stressed – you don’t feel stressed if you love what you’re doing - and I’m not working crazy hours but it all just adds up. Frequent blog updates are not the highest priority right now.

Things should calm down soon enough. I managed to figure out where to park the bike and where the showers are, and I might soon have a locker for my stuff as well, so things are clicking into place. At the moment I’m running very early in the morning, before heading into work, which works reasonably well as long as I keep going to bed early enough, which I’m getting better at. I’ll start running into work soon, which would mean 90 minutes longer in bed – that’s a massive difference.

The mileage has been slightly lower ever since Donadea. I haven’t hit 80 mpw yet. That’s fine of course, with all the stuff going on I wouldn’t want to overdo things. The most important thing is that I’m feeling good and the numbers are improving, so I’m definitely doing something right.

I had arranged to meet up with Julio on Sunday to go for a run, but since he intended to run 26k I did an early 5 miles jog, both to boost my mileage for my long run (albeit split in 2) and to check out what the conditions were like. The latter was definitely a good move as the park turned out to be unusable but I managed to find some ice-free and reasonably quiet roads, so once Julio arrived we headed via Cabinteely towards Leopoardstown, with a little bit of back and forward to get some extra distance. We were still 2k short when we got back home but Julio declined the suggestion of an extra loop, which was fine by me as the legs were definitely starting to feel tired after almost 20 miles for the day and plenty of hills, with a few snow-filled bits to boot.

I then took it very easy on Monday and still pretty easy on Tuesday, by which time the park finally started to become mostly clear of snow. I expected Wednesday to suck big time with a hangover but miraculously I didn’t suffer from any headache – quite the opposite, I felt really good and the miles just flew by totally effortlessly. I love it when that happens – I’m sure it used to happen a lot more frequently (the effortless run I mean, not the potential hangover).

I followed that up with another evaluation on Thursday. The park paths were almost entirely clear by now and there was very little wind, good conditions. The thing is, the evaluation always used to be a very moderate workout, not very hard and over quite quickly. That was then. These days it sure feels like a proper workout. After one mile I considered dropping out but couldn’t come up with any valid excuses so I soldiered on. Actually, it became easier once I finally managed to tune into the effort, though I was still glad to be done once it was over. Once I saw the numbers, however, I was pretty happy:

6:29, 6:40, 6:38, 6:36; 40 seconds recovery to HR 130

Improving numbers are always a good thing! Plus, they come from my Suunto watch. I used to wear both the Garmin and the Suunto on those workouts and noticed that the Garmin always was about 5 seconds per mile faster than the Suunto. I have no way of telling which one is more accurate, but that’s not my point. The thing is, had I worn the Garmin on Thursday it would most likely have shown a faster pace once again, in which case the numbers would be right up there with the best numbers I have ever produced – I’m several years older now so I take huge encouragement from that. I might just be able to catch up with my younger self again!

4 Mar

am: 5 miles, 43:00, 8:35 pace, HR 136

pm: 14.84 miles, 2:11:19, 8:50 pace, HR 129, with Julio

5 Mar

9.2 miles, 1:15:50, 8:14 pace, HR 132

6 Mar

10.25 miles, 1:21:16, 7:55 pace, HR 133

7 Mar

10.3 miles, 1:19:50, 7:45 pace, HR 137

8 Mar

10.15 miles, 1:16:13, 7:30 pace, HR 142

   eval in 6:29, 6:40, 6:38, 6:36; 40 seconds recovery

9 Mar

8 miles, 1:04:56, 8:07 pace, HR 135

   carrying a big parcel the last 2.5 miles

Where The Magic Is

I had actually been planning on cranking up the mileage again this week but Real World stuff is still happening and it was definitely better to play it safe and hold back a little bit. I'm in the first week of a new job with some intensive learning taking me totally out of my comfort zone (make no mistake, I like it that way), which leaves only so much room for running and other things.

I haven't got a locker yet and that will take another week to sort out, so running to work is out of the question at the moment but I'll probably start cycling there next week. A few of my equally new colleagues do, though most of them got issued with  considerably lighter laptops, which sure makes a difference. Still, let's give it a go.

I didn't quite do the miles but I figured I should do something about those slow legs of mine. My heart rate figures are excellent, aerobically I'm close to the best I've ever been. But as soon as I try to run a bit faster things start falling apart quickly. Maybe it's a sign of getting older; maybe my legs have gotten used to the slow pace; maybe it's even a good thing for an ultra runner. I've never been in such a situation before but I do think a bit more pep in the legs might be beneficial.

I did an evaluation on Thursday, which confirmed the above. The pace was a little bit slower but the consistency over 4 miles was probably better than ever before. Evaluation workouts measure a few things; actual pace was actually the one variable MC was showing the least interest in, consistent pace across the workout was far more important. A short recovery afterwards would have been good as well, though I think that's the 50k still in there - not a big surprise, only about 10 days later. I'll do another evaluation in a fortnight and see if that variable is improving. If not, I might have to take a step back.

I was back in Kerry for the weekend, this time thankfully without a 4.5 hours delay on the train. On Saturday I added a couple of 2-mile pickups, mostly to test how that would go. The first one was too fast. The average HR wasn't that high but in reality it was steadily climbing, from the high 140s at the beginning to the high 160s at the end (not helped by an uphill finish) and me gasping for breath (my asthma was acting up once more). I held back a bit for the second one and that was much more sustainable, and I could have held that for longer. Interestingly, it turned out to be 6:52 pace; I guess I'm actually not that far off sub-3 marathon shape, though I'd definitely need to get the legs used to that pace first.

We got away from the kids for a night in the swanky Europe hotel, which was very nice, which made the choice for Sunday's run an easy one. I headed up the Gap of Dunloe. It's an absolutely magic place, populated by Leprechauns and the views there are the best in the world. I don't know why it's not world-famous but it's definitely better that way, mass tourism wouldn't do it any good. The wind was rather brutal, especially since the valley itself forms a funnel, and it made for a challenging few miles but it was worth every step. I ran a little bit further, down into Black Valley, once I reached the top, mostly to enjoy the view, but had to turn around soon enough. Never leave the lady waiting for too long.

Back to the grind now. That's where the real magic is happening, day after day after day.

21 Feb

10 miles, 1:20:35, 8:03 pace, HR 136

22 Feb

9.5 miles, 1:14:46, 7:52 pace, HR 141

   4 mile eval in 6:44, 6:44, 6:47, 6:43, 41 sec recovery

23 Feb

10.25 miles, 1:20:51, 7:53 pace, HR 138

24 Feb

12.65 miles, 1:34:08, 7:26 pace, HR 143

   incl 2 x 2 miles @ 6:25, 6:52

25 Feb

17 miles, 2:17:19, 8:04 pace, HR 142

Evaluation Time

It’s Friday yet again. Usually people are desperately looking forward to that day, and under normal circumstances I’m no exception to that. But it also means I have only two weeks left at my present job and I haven’t been here long enough to be looking forward to ending it all, it never had the chance to reach the point where I’m desperate to be getting out of here. As much as I am excited about my soon-to-be new job, I am really sorry to be leaving this one behind. I would have liked to remain a bit longer but the other opportunity was just way too good to be missed, some sort of once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Anyway, you didn’t come here to read my life story, at least not the side away from running (and if you did you will be leaving disappointed). For the most part I took it easy enough this week. I was a bit tired on Monday, partially because of Sunday’s long run but mostly because I had gotten to Dublin late on Sunday evening and simply didn’t get enough sleep, especially after that long journey. I do wonder if I would have been better off staying in bed and getting some more sleep but that’s just not the way I roll. If in doubt I always go for a run.

Having said that, I recovered soon enough. On Wednesday I did another double to and from work, which adds up to almost 20 miles for the day. I can tell that my legs are getting much stronger, those 2 runs seemed to take very little out of me when a few weeks ago the home run was always a bit of a struggle. Also, it was the last day of one of my colleagues, so they had 3 boxes of donuts for celebrations. Why is that relevant?

I am very disciplined in almost any part of life but my sweet tooth is a definite weakness that I can’t seem to shift. Leave me in a room with a box full of donuts and only one of us will emerge intact. The subsequent sugar rush fuelled my run home. Maybe that’s why I was a good bit faster than my usual pace which is when I’m running more or less on empty, though I’m sure the swirling wind was mostly on my back and helped as well.

The legs were okay the next morning but I still opted for a very, very, very easy pace, which must have helped because for Friday’s evaluation I was back in fighting form. My biggest issue was getting the HR up to 160, which was really hard work. However, once it got there it remained remarkably constant and I basically didn’t need the watch’s alarm at all. The figures came out as:

   6:37, 6:35, 6:45, 6:42 / 42 sec recovery to HR 130

which are very solid numbers and slightly better than last month. The recovery is a bit longer but it may be down entirely to a more precise measurement – I’m finally starting to get the hang of the watch again and all its buttons, even when out of breath after a sustained effort and the accompanying brain fog.

On the way home I went via the parcel motel and picked up 2 parcels and carried them home. One was much heavier than anticipated. Not sure how much that impacted on the HR or the pace but it was bound to have an effect – I sure was glad to be home from that particular run.

It’s gotten really cold again with temperatures very close to freezing point but a biting cold wind that makes it feel much colder. I don’t mind the cold at all – compared to where I grew up this doesn’t even qualify as winter but getting older sucks and my skin isn’t able to cope properly. It gets very dry and then develops little cuts, a few mm long, bleeding at times, which can be rather uncomfortable. My feet are particularly affected, they look like I had been walking on glass, barefoot. Yes, cream helps. No, as a bloke I keep forgetting to put it on.

29 Jan

10.25 miles, 1:24:27, 8:14 pace, HR 130

30 Jan

9.7 miles, 1:16:03, 7:50 pace, HR 137

31 Jan

am: 9.7 miles, 1:17:23, 7:58 pace, HR 139

pm: 9.67 miles, 1:13:15, 7:34 pace, HR 142

1 Feb

10.55 miles, 1:28:48, 8:25 pace, HR 131

2 Feb

9.75 miles, 1:16:11, 7:48 pace, HR 142

   incl. 4 miles eval @ HR 160 in 6:37, 6:35, 6:45, 6:42; 42 sec recovery to HR 130

Evaluation

I'm trying to do 2 workouts a week at the moment, covering 2 different aspects of speed. One workout is hill sprints, the other one is a more sustained effort. The second kind of workout seems to take quite some toll on my body; a few years ago I could recover relatively quickly; these days even 2 easy days seem to be insufficient at times. I do wonder if I should make changes - I don't ever want to dig myself into an overtraining hole again, and doing speed workouts that I could not recover from is exactly what caused me to fall into that hole 2/3 years ago.

For this week I decided to do another evaluation workout. This serves 2 purposes: it is a reasonably moderate workout that I should recover quickly from, better than from a set of quarter-mile repeats, and it also provides great feedback to where my form is right now (that's why it's called an evaluation workout, obviously).

It was still pitch black on Thursday morning, and I decided against the track but did it on a loop in Kilbogget Park that happens to be almost exactly 1 mile long and very flat. A few dog walkers were about but nothing that would have caused a problem with the workout. The recent rain had left a few puddles behind but again, nothing that would have interfered with the workout, apart from slightly wet feet.

Anyway, every time I run at HR 160 I find it much harder work than I can remember, and every time I feel like I will be struggling to even complete the workout, never mind trying to hold an even effort. However, every time it turns out that it's completely manageable and in fact, doesn't leave me anywhere near as tired as other speed workouts. The same happened again on Thursday morning, but I do wonder if it does indeed start getting a bit harder.

The paces for each mile were 6:36, 6:44, 6:49, 6:51, and the recovery to HR 130 took about 35 seconds. Those numbers are a bit worse than last month, for which I have 2 possible explanations. First, after some technical difficulties there is a slight questionmark over last month's numbers, though I still do believe them to be correct. Second, I am not entirely recovered from that infection I was fighting off after New Year. Also, it took me quite some time to feel recovered after last week's speed workout, so maybe recovery really is taking longer than expected, even though I'm trying hard not to overdo it.

Anyway, the numbers aren't bad, certainly better than a lot of times in the past, so I'll keep trying for a little bit longer before I make drastic changes,

I was back in Kerry for the weekend, which meant 2 more runs along/around the lake. There is just something about that route that never fails to provide a little extra spring to my legs, the lovely scenery apparently helping me along; I didn't even mind the rain and the wind, and the fact that the road was still waterlogged on Saturday and I had to run through ankle-deep puddles of almost frozen water. On Sunday the hamstrings were complaining of being overworked on every climb for the first 10 miles, until they finally gave up moaning and settled nicely in the second half of my run, I'm not sure how climbing hills can feel easier during the second half of a long run than during the first but that's exactly what happened.

Anyway, I'm back in Dublin now, and I will be here next weekend as well. I might brave another parkrun, hoping that it will work out better than my last attempt (I spent the night in hospital with chest pains). Let's see.

11 Jan

7.5 miles, 56:18, 7:27 pace, HR 148

   4 miles eval 6:36, 6:44, 6:49, 6:51, 35 sec recovery

12 Jan

10 miles, 1:20:44, 8:04 pace, HR 138

13 Jan

12 miles, 1:34:24, 7:52 pace, HR 140

14 Jan

18 miles, 2:23:45, 7:59 pace, HR 140

Man In Tights

Winter is here. We even have the fields covered in white, though in Dublin at least that's frost at the moment, not snow. We did have snow as well but it didn't stick. Now we just have the freezing cold temperatures and the icy road conditions (I like the former, not the latter). Nevertheless I get amused by Met Eireann's description of the present conditions as "bitterly cold". Not where I come from, guys. Bitterly cold to me is -20 degrees (ok, -15 qualifies as well) and temperatures around the freezing point are just  - Winter. Suck it up.

Anyway, after taking a good look at my numbers and my training in the past few months I have come to the conclusion that while the base training is getting me into pretty good shape (as witnessed by running a surprisingly easy 3:10 Dublin marathon) this is just about as good as it gets and for further improvement I have to introduce a new stimulus. None of that comes as a surprise, I had been waiting for that point ever since I started training. If anything, I am surprised base training got me as far as that. Also, I didn't want to do any faster running until I was completely sure I had recovered from Dublin/Sixmilebridge, which seems to be the case now. My numbers are good. My resting HR has dropped as low as 36, which equals the lowest number I have ever seen, and that was while taking recordings in a seated position, not lying down. A low HR doesn't automatically translate into being in good shape and well rested but the other numbers, and most importantly the way I feel, supports the same conclusion.

As an introduction into faster stuff I did a set of hill sprints last Saturday, back home in Kerry, which enabled me to do them on the same hill I used to do them on in previous years. Then again, in my memory it had been much steeper and I was surprised how "easy" it felt. I still had the familiar tightness in my chest 20-30 seconds after each sprint, which I now attribute to my exercise-induced asthma, plus a wave of nausea, but I'm used to that by now. What wasn't quite so great was that my right calf started to feel tight; maybe I should have called it a day after 6 repeats rather than 8. The tightness stayed with me over the next few days when running (not noticeable at all otherwise) but it has gotten better. By Tuesday morning I could just about feel it during the first mile but after that it was gone.

The "long" run on Sunday was made interesting by some rather inclement weather, which prevented me from following my initial plan of running around the lake. I didn't want to be caught out on high grounds in a storm, so I remained reasonably close to home but still got one big hill in. I had to be home in time for Cian's birthday party and cut it short at mile 15, though in marked contrast to last week I was still moving well at that time.

Back in Dublin I did one more workout on Tuesday morning. I resurrected the Evaluation workout, which consist of running 4 miles at HR 160 (used to be 161 but I made a small concession to old age) while taking splits at each mile and basically measuring how much you slow down well you can hold the pace while running at the same HR. In this case I was less interested in the actual numbers but more interested in the fitness gains from a moderate workout. Actually, when I say moderate, it didn't exactly feel particularly moderate at the time. I paid the price for not having run at that effort level for many, many months and was breathing rather hard, and my asthma was noticeable as well but all was fine in the end. Then again, once I had finished the workout I very quickly felt fully recovered and rather good, so it can't have been that hard. Oh and the numbers - well, I'm having troubles getting them off my damn watch and Suunto's movescount website insists on rounding them to the nearest 5, so all I can say it was about 6:30, 6:30, 6:40, 6:40, with 40-45 seconds of full recovery for the HR to come down to 130. I need to bring my old Garmin 310 to Dublin with me, it works better for such a workout (the evaluation workout is the one reason why I kept it after replacing it 3 years ago with my Suunto, which is a better watch in all other aspects). Anyway, while I don't have the exact numbers that will do as a baseline. In fact, that's a pretty good baseline, I had not expected to be under 7-minute miles, certainly not for the 3rd and 4th miles.

7 Dec

9.35 miles, 1:13:26, 7:51 pace, HR 139

8 Dec

8.35 miles, 1:06:22, 7:56 pace, HR 141

9 Dec

8.75 miles, 1:17:08, 8:48 pace, HR 131

   incl. 8 x 8-10 sec hill sprints, 2 minutes recovery

10 Dec

15+ miles, 2:01:39, 8:04 pace, HR 138

11 Dec

8.35 miles, 1:06:18, 7:56 pace, HR 139

12 Dec

9.2 miles, 1:07:27, 7:19 pace, HR 145

   incl. 4 miles @ 6:36, HR 160, 40-45 sec recovery to HR 130

The Flow

Another week, another evaluation. Is it just my advanced age or is time really flying?

Following the twin storms last week the temperatures tumbled, just when I thought I was more or less done with winter. It's now bright enough in the mornings to leave the headlamp behind but it was cold enough the freeze the fingers inside my thin gloves on Monday.

Never mind, I like it cold. I just don't like cold rain showers - which, of course, were in store a couple of times as well.

I think 9 miles on the treadmill were slightly easier on the body than 9 miles on the road because the legs and the numbers were both surprisingly good on Monday. Tuesday was different, though at least the legs weren't quite as sore as the shoulders after the yoga teacher had let her sadistic streak shine through. It was a bit surreal, though - on the way to class I was listening to Queens Of The Stone Age's Go With the Flow, only for the teacher to announce that today we were going to try out "flow yoga". I'm not normally subjected to premonitions. Anyway, Tuesday's run was almost exactly the same pace as Monday's but with the HR 4 beats higher. I reckon the yoga had added 2 beats and the biting wind another 2 but that's just a wild guess.

And then it was evaluation day again. Early in the warm up I saw the HR in the 130, which I had not seen in a very long time, but of course I then had to raise it for the eval itself.

       
        Mile 1    6:58   HR 161
        Mile 2    7:06   HR 161
        Mile 3    7:12   HR 161
        Mile 4    7:06   HR 161
        Recovery to HR 130: 46 seconds

I'm getting a bit quicker and the 4th mile looks pretty good, though I can't quite explain why the 3rd one was so much slower. Actually, the pace during the 4th mile came as a major surprise because I had definitely started to feel the effort by then, something that's not usually the case during an eval. The recovery time to 130 was rather slow, probably reflecting the same issue. But, all in all, this is pointing towards improvement.

I think I'll move the evaluation back to Thursday in the coming weeks. The legs weren't quite there yet and I'm sure they would have been perfectly fine had I waited until tomorrow.

27 Feb

7 miles, 55:20, 7:54 pace, HR 144

28 Feb

7 miles, 55:25, 7:55 pace, HR 148

1 Mar

8 miles, 1:01:28, 7:40 pace, HR 152

   incl. 4 mile eval: 6:58, 7:06, 7:12, 7:06; 46 sec recovery

Aguero Scores Again

As soon as I finished Sunday's run and saw the pace on the watch I knew there would have to be some payback. As much as I wish for it, my recovery still isn't anywhere near where it used to be and, sadly, 9 miles at 7:42 pace isn't something I just recover from overnight yet.

Monday was still somewhat ok but I could definitely feel the effects on Tuesday. Mind, it wasn't only Sunday's run, I also had Tuesday's customary post-yoga legs, and the fact that I was fighting gale force winds didn't exactly help.

In light of that it probably wasn't the best week to move the evaluation to Wednesday but there is a storm warning for Thursday, and one of the lessons from the past I actually remember is that there is no point to an evaluation when you're almost blown off the road with each step.

I knew straight away that the legs weren't at their best and it didn't come as a surprise that the numbers were a bit worse than last week. It wasn't exactly the calm before the storm either; in fact it was windy enough to make me move the evaluation to a different section of road. It was a bit more sheltered there and the wind came mostly from the side but it wasn't as flat as I would have liked. Ah well, running is an outdoors sport and dealing with the weather conditions is part of the game.

I had one more slight handicap. Last night I was watching the Champions League match at the Etihad, which was a good move, really, as it was the most exciting match in the history of the competition, but I paid for it by banging my knee against the coffee table when Aguero scored. I was afraid it would swell up but thankfully that didn't happen. It still felt stiff the next morning (in fact, it still does now) but out on the road I didn't even notice it.

       
        Mile 1    7:04   HR 161
        Mile 2    7:10   HR 162
        Mile 3    7:17   HR 161
        Mile 4    7:21   HR 161
        Recovery to HR 130: 45 seconds

That's worse than last week but, as mentioned, entirely expected. We'll see how it progresses. If I could change one thing about my training last week I'd slow down on Sunday. Overall, though, that's not that big a deal.

20 Feb

7 miles, 56:31, 8:04 pace, HR 142

21 Feb

7 miles, 56:03, 8:00 pace, HR 149

22 Feb

8 miles, 1:01:26, 7:40 pace, HR 154

   incl. 4 mile eval: 7:04, 7:10, 7:17, 7:21; 45 sec recovery

Evaluating Progress

Usually I would be doing an evaluation every fortnight but for now we decided to go for a weekly session. The purpose is not so much to evaluate my form more often but to provide a moderate stimulus after all the easy running I've been doing, while still keeping an eye on my recovery and capacity for recovery.

Last week I did have some sore legs after the evaluation, so there is a definite need to be careful. On the other hand I managed to bounce back very well, so thing s are definitely improving. For the first few days of the week I seem to have settled into a slightly lower effort level with the HR distinctly lower than previously but somehow I'm still running 8-minute miles. Keep in mind that I'm not using my watch to guide the effort - I always run at whatever level comes naturally and only ever check the watch after arriving back home.

I had considered moving the evaluation to Wednesday but had my usual post-yoga legs on Tuesday and first wanted to make sure I had recovered and left it for Thursday.

Again, I used my old Garmin 310 for the evaluation. The Suunto seems to have issues with recognising u-turns and tends to cut off a few seconds each time. That's not a problem when running 7 miles with one u-turn in the middle but when you're doing an evaluation that consists of running half a mile each way four times then 2 u-turns per mile do add up and the Suunto data just doesn't seem to be very accurate in that respect.

Anyway, the Garmin's numbers came up as:

       
        Mile 1    7:03   HR 162
        Mile 2    7:13   HR 162
        Mile 3    7:10   HR 162
        Mile 4    7:11   HR 162
        Recovery to HR 130: 39 seconds

I had to promise not to focus too much on the numbers but they did make me happy nevertheless as they are so much better than last week it's hard to believe that there are only 7 days between the 2 workouts - faster, much more even and with a significantly faster recovery time. Now, if I had learned to run by just 1 single heart beat per minute less it would have been almost perfect.

13 Feb

7 miles, 56:44, 8:06 pace, HR 144

14 Feb

7 miles, 56:21, 8:03 pace, HR 145

15 Feb

7 miles, 55:58, 7:59 pace, HR 144

16 Feb

8 miles, 1:00:58, 7:37 pace, HR 156

   incl. 4 mile eval: 7:03, 7:13, 7:10, 7:11; 39 sec recovery

Analyse This

I don't think anyone can accuse me of being impatient during the present training cycle. After taking a month off late in October I started back on 19 November and for almost 3 months I have done nothing but easy running, the lactate test with the team being the one exception, and I wouldn't have done that one if left to my own devices.

This morning, after almost 3 months of jogging it felt pretty good to do a workout for once. A modest one of course. The evaluation workout is MC's preferred method to test training progress, and apart from providing a baseline of my present state of fitness it also should have provided me with a modest stimulus that will hopefully be felt in the near future.

The last month had been going very well and the numbers had finally shown signs of going noticeably upwards, despite me being hampered by a succession of mild colds. It therefore seemed safe enough to crank up the dial, if only very slightly.

The evaluation workout consists of a warm up and then 4 miles of holding the heart rate as steady as possible at 161 (that's for me, with a max HR of about 190). Then you come to a complete stop and measure how long it takes for the HR to recover to 130.

Because my Suunto Ambit 2, while being a very fine running watch in almost every other aspect, isn't particularly good with workouts, I dug out my battered old Garmin 310 for the morning (in fact, I wore both). I had two sources of slight stress: one, to remember to press the correct buttons on the Garmin at the appropriate times, which I just about managed with a few minor hickups along the way, and two, not to go into complete meltdown when analysing the numbers and comparing them to what they used to be like when I was in good shape (and younger).

Well, it ended up as follows:

       
        Mile 1    7:06   HR 161
        Mile 2    7:16   HR 162
        Mile 3    7:18   HR 162
        Mile 4    7:28   HR 162
        Recovery to HR 130: 53 seconds

Actually, considering the last few months that could have been worse. It was not the slowest evaluation I have ever done (close), it wasn't the biggest difference between the first and the last mile (close), but it was indeed the longest recovery time since records began (close). The idea now is to repeat the process and see the numbers improve as training progresses. If they don't then I'll have to change things, obviously. That's why you evaluate stuff, for objective feedback. It's preferable to guessing.

One quirky note: my fastest mile of the day was actually the second "warm up" mile because I had to work to get my HR up to 161. Usually I would have done 4 miles of warming up to enable me to gradually increase the HR but that would have resulted in too long a run. I'll have to tweak that format.

6 Feb

7 miles, 55:32, 7:55 pace, HR 151

   Super Bowl induced sleep deprivation

7 Feb

7 miles, 58:59, 8:25 pace, HR 144

   Feeling a bit under the weather

8 Feb

7 miles, 55:24, 7:54 pace, HR 147

9 Feb

7 miles, 53:52, 7:38 pace, HR 156

   incl. 4 mile eval: 7:06, 7:16, 7:18, 7:28; 53 sec recovery

Evaluation

I felt surprisingly good on Monday morning. I expected to be tired after a reasonably heavy workload over the weekend but in actual fact I felt really good. I had done Saturday's run in the hope that a few faster miles would start decreasing my HR, though Monday might have been a bit early to expect improvements already. However, the numbers were indeed pretty good.

Of course, things are never that simple. Tuesday was everything I had feared Monday would be like, and worse. The fatigue seemed to have finally caught up with the legs, which felt sluggish for the entire 10 miles. However, the conditions very much added to the misery. It was really humid. My top was utterly drenched in sweat and of course my HR was way higher. I found it pretty much impossible to stop the HR from beeping and after 6 miles I finally had enough and turned it off. I was frustrated enough to decide to take the alarm off the watch entirely. Until last year I always ran my easy runs entirely by feel. In the early stages of a training cycle the HR was invariably higher and it always came down after a few weeks. At the end of base training I would usually run at my MAF heart rate - it's just that I had approached that value from the top rather from down as you would normally do. I tried that other approach in the last 2 training cycles and the result haven't been particularly encouraging - training was very often rather frustrating and my race in Turin wasn't stellar (though not bad either).

Taking off the HR app immediately improved my spirit. I think that alone makes it a good choice. Despite that lengthy treatise I've just written, the actual difference will be quite minimal, I think. The majority of my runs will be exactly the same. But I no longer have to slow down halfway through each climb on each and every hill along the way,

On Wednesday I did an evaluation, 4 weeks since the last one. The number in may had been a bit sobering and I sure hoped for a good improvement. The weather wasn't great and as I lay awake in bed a few minuted before the alarm would have gone off I wondered if I should postpone it by a dat because the humidity would surely have a negative impact on the numbers but in the end I decided to go ahead as planned.

The legs felt a lot better than on Tuesday and the humidity did not affect me much . If it had an effect on the numbers it was a small one.

       
        Mile 1    6:56   HR 161
        Mile 2    6:59   HR 161
        Mile 3    7:03   HR 161
        Mile 4    7:07   HR 161
        Recovery to HR 130: 39 seconds

Those aren't exactly brilliant numbers. There is some miniscule improvement to May but not a lot. I did slow down by more than 10 seconds per mile and this wasn't exactly fast. On the plus side, I found the effort fast but reasonably relaxed and managed to keep the HR very stable, which was better than last time when I struggled to keep the HR at the right level and it had oscillated way too much for my liking.

I'm pretty sure the Cork marathon still has some effect, without it the number would have been better. However, if the numbers are still in the same ballpark next month I will most likely start to panic.

15 Jun

10 miles, 1:21:30, 8:09 pace, HR 139

16 Jun

10 miles, 1:20:36, 8:04 pace, HR 147

17 Jun

11.8 miles, 1:30:10, 7:38 pace, HR 151

   incl. 4 mile eval: 6:56, 6:59, 7:03, 7:07; 39 sec recovery

18 Jun

11 miles, 1:26:48, 7:53 pace, HR 144

Evaluation, Slow

Things started improving rapidly after Sunday's long run, just as I had hoped. The legs were still a bit heavy on Monday but I only ran 8 miles that day, which is unusually restrained for me, again. The real breakthrough came on Tuesday when I ran 10 miles and despite some fairly wild conditions with plenty of wind and some heavy rain showers, the legs felt great and the pace was 20 seconds per mile faster than for the same run just a few days earlier, for the same perceived effort and the same HR. It looks like it took 5 weeks to get the worst of Turin out of the system but that finally seems to be happening.

On advice of MC I ran an evaluation on Wednesday, when the weather had finally calmed down a bit. I already knew I was on the up but I wanted to put some cold and hard numbers onto the table (err, spreadsheet) to see where I was at.

The reason I keep wearing two watches for this type of workout is that the Garmin and the Ambit never agree on pace; the Ambit is always 5 or 10 seconds per mile slower, and if you don't believe me you can check out the respective GPS tracks here (7:00, 7:03, 7:06, 7:06) and here (7:08, 7:17, 7:17, 7:16). However, I have a whole set of old evaluations with the Garmin done over the years and want to be able to easily compare them, hence the continued use of the Garmin for evaluations.

Anyway, today's numbers came out as follows. In brackets are adjusted number, what the pace would most likely have been had I hit the target HR of 161.

       
        Mile 1    7:00   HR 162    (7:03)
        Mile 2    7:03   HR 162    (7:06)
        Mile 3    7:06   HR 162    (7:09)
        Mile 4    7:06   HR 161    (7:06)

The bad news is, that's my slowest evaluation in 4 years. The good news is that pace itself isn't the most important thing to look out for. The pace is relatively stable (yes, I've seen better) and the recovery time a lot better than I had dared to hope for (yes, I've seen better), so all in all a decent enough set of figures, though by the time I hit some resemblance of form they should be 20-30 seconds per mile faster, more stable still and with a shorter recovery time as the cherry on top. There is clearly a lot of work to be done yet. However, I do take solace from the fact that my evaluation is always reasonably close to my marathon race pace and therefore a 3:15 paced marathon should be perfectly doable in 2 weeks' time (and should not take too much out of me - thanks for your concern in that regard).

18 May

8 miles, 1:06:59, 8:22 pace, HR 140

19 May

10 miles, 1:21:49, 8:11 pace, HR 139

20 May

11.7 miles, 1:29:34, 7:39 pace, HR 153

   incl. 4 mile eval: 7:00, 7:03, 7:06, 7:06; 40 sec recovery

Identify, Determine, Evaluate, Act, and Learn

Following a rather heavy weekend load, Monday and Tuesday were always going to be easy runs, though I did raise an eyebrow after each run when I saw just how slow they had been. The HR on Monday was particularly low, I think I can already see the effects of the step up in training. From that point of view Tuesday was a step backwards as the legs had felt very heavy indeed and the HR was back at its previous level. I think it took those two days to get the weekend out of the system and on Wednesday morning I was ready to do another evaluation.

I sometimes have a hard time getting my HR up to the right level before the start of the evaluation but this morning I had a hard time nailing the correct HR during the evaluation itself. I was running just a tad too slow, not enough to have my HR alarm chime up all the time but enough to show a difference in the numbers. MC's formula for correcting HR deviations is 7 seconds for 2 beats (3 seconds for 1), and the adjusted figures are in the bracket.

       
        Mile 1    6:45   HR 159    (6:38)
        Mile 2    6:44   HR 160    (6:41)
        Mile 3    6:39   HR 161    (6:39)
        Mile 4    6:38   HR 161    (6:38)
        Recovery to HR 130: ~40 seconds

I have never had an evaluation where I had gotten FASTER with each mile. Maybe the cold temperatures had something to do with it as it was about -2C/28F and I needed to warm up to hit the right pace, but I had already done almost 4 miles of warm up before the start of the evaluation, which seems almost excessive as it is. The recovery time is more an educated guess because I got confused by all those shiny numbers on the Garmin while standing at the side of the road. Must be old age. Oh, and I did notice that the Suunto Ambit recorded the same miles as about 5 seconds slower each (or, more accurately, did record less than a mile per repeat), though I keep using the Garmin's numbers for the evaluations to make comparisons with previous efforts easier.

Anyway, the figures are pretty damn good, if I don't slow down during an evaluation that's an excellent sign and in fact I had gotten progressively quicker, though the adjusted numbers are more even. The heavy legs from Tuesday were quickly forgotten as one of those days. I am in good shape already and ready to push on.

2 Feb

10 miles, 1:24:31, 8:27 pace, HR 132

3 Feb

10 miles, 1:26:37, 8:40 pace, HR 139

4 Feb

11.8 miles, 1:29:09, 7:33 pace, HR 148

   incl. 4 mile eval: 6:45, 6:44, 6:39, 6:38; 40 sec recovery

Evaluate Your Base

Monday morning was somewhat unreal. The Moon had just dipped below the horizon but still bathed the scene in an otherworldly grey light. As I ran along the lake I could see a cloud forming above the water, which looked even more alien, illuminated in the ambient light. When I passed a house, 2 or 3 dogs started howling; not barking, howling at the moon. With all the cliched horror film settings firmly in place it was no wonder I got completely spooked when a bright light appeared behind me, throwing all kinds of shadows right in front of me. v er fefe ghtr

Of course it turned out to be a car, snapping me back to reality pretty quickly. Still, I wonder what John Carpenter would have made out of all that. It didn't require a lot of imagination, all the basic ingredients were there.

I was still left with a little bit of a mystery, namely why the pace had been quite so slow. That one remained unsolved.

I had been planning on doing another evaluation on Wednesday, 2 weeks after the last one. However, the weather forecast spoke against that, heavy winds plays havoc with the pace and invalidates the numbers, so I moved it forward by a day to Tuesday morning.

This was only 5 days after the 10k race and I expected to see some sharpening effect (that's an unwanted effect at this stage), and I'm not sure what effect it had that the damn cat had woken me at 2 am, leaving me unable to sleep for the next 2 hours (I often tend to have trouble sleeping at or around Full Moon).

Unlike Monday, this time the Moon was still above the horizon, bringing a surprisingly bright silvery light to the proceedings. Lovely.

I sometimes have a hard time getting my HR up to the right level before the start of the evaluation, not so this time. I'm not sure if that's a bad omen or not, but the real feedback comes from the 4 miles of evaluation, of course.

The numbers in brackets are adjusted pace, 3 seconds for every beat off the 161 target.

       
        Mile 1    6:50   HR 161    (6:50)
        Mile 2    6:52   HR 160    (6:49)
        Mile 3    6:51   HR 160    (6:48)
        Mile 4    6:52   HR 161    (6:52)
        Recovery to HR 130: 39 seconds

Two things spring to mind immediately: that's about 10 seconds per mile slower than last time (it's the numbers I would expect to see without a sharpening effect). Secondly, that is by far and away the most even set of number I have ever produced.

The recovery is almost the same as last time. I sure have seen lower figures but it's in line with expectations.

Despite having done that for a few years I am not an expert, but I think these numbers indicate that my base training can come to an end.

There was one extra bit of potential trouble. My hamstring was just fine but my calves started to get very tight on the third mile. It did not influence the evaluation but the 4 miles home were rather slow and awkward. I'm pretty sure that's a sign that my lower legs haven't quite recovered from the race yet. A few more days of easy running are in store.

My left calf was still a bit tight on Wednesday morning, but much improved already and it actually loosened up after a couple of miles, so I think I'll be okay. The pace was modest but the weather was rather wild; sometimes that can get to me but some morning I just love it. Today was the latter; battling the elements was fun.

5 Jan

10 miles, 1:26:43, 8:40 pace, HR 135

6 Jan

11.8 miles, 1:29:30, 7:36 pace, HR 146

   incl. 4 mile eval: 6:50, 6:52, 6:51, 6:52; 39 sec recovery

7 Jan

10 miles, 1:23:58, 8:24 pace, HR 136

Evaluating Christmas

The high winds had prevented me from running an evaluation last week and conditions were still on the challenging side of the spectrum on Monday and Tuesday, but the forecast for the Christmas Days was better and I figured I should seize the window of opportunity. Tuesday evening I still wasn't quite sure if the wind would be quiet enough but conditions were actually beautiful and close to ideal.

I had troubles getting my HR up initially. I guess I'm no longer used to running anything faster than snail's pace.

The numbers in brackets are adjusted pace, 3 seconds for every beat off the 161 target.

       
        Mile 1    6:38   HR 161    (6:38)
        Mile 2    6:42   HR 161    (6:42)
        Mile 3    6:43   HR 161    (6:43)
        Mile 4    6:51   HR 160    (6:48)
        Recovery to HR 130: 38 seconds

The numbers are a bit slower than the previous evaluation. Because I have significantly dialled back the training intensity since then that is a) expected and b) okay. After running so slowly for a few weeks the pace felt faster than usual, but even so the evaluation is still a very mellow workout. The recovery time is a bit higher than I would have expected (maybe because last time it was so low) but it's not an outlier either.

I had been rather looking forward to this, just to get a break from the relentless drudgery that Maffetone training can be at times. Just to get the legs moving for a change was basically a Christmas present to myself.

Since nobody is reading this due to Christmas, and the ones who do should be with their families instead, I'll leave it at that. Merry Christmas!

22 Dec

10 miles, 1:25:14, 8:31 pace, HR 137

23 Dec

10 miles, 1:24:24, 8:26 pace, HR 135

24 Dec

11.9 miles, 1:28:57, 7:28 pace, HR 146

   incl. 4 mile eval: 6:38, 6:42, 6:43, 6:48, 38 sec recovery [cleaned up paces]

Evaluation Surprise

After feeling a crash coming on during the second half of Sunday's run, I knew I had to take it easy. It wasn't just potential overtraining that was on my mind. I also had a bad headache on Sunday evening, and with Lola having been sick for almost 2 weeks I pretty much expected to wake up coughing and feeling like sh*t the next morning.

Even though I didn't sleep very well, that turned out not to be the case. I definitely did not fell 100% on top of the world but there was no sign of coughing or the muscle pain that goes with most sicknesses, so I did my normal 10-mile morning run, though I did make absolutely sure I was taking it very, very easy.

That went well, and I repeated the same on Tuesday morning; I still wasn't feeling all that great but once again the run was fine. I was a bit shocked when I saw just how slowly I had run, but that was a good thing really. Your easy days should be easy, something I'm guilty of neglecting at times as much as most runners.

My hamstring had started hurting again after the fartlek workout last week but gradually improved again, and those two easy runs seem to have been just the ticket. There was not a beep of discomfort left in the hamstring on Wednesday, so I went ahead as planned and did an evaluation workout.

I presume you know the format by now, otherwise you can read back on all the other evaluations I have done over the years. The numbers in brackets are adjusted pace, 3 seconds for every beat off the 161 target.

       
        Mile 1    6:31   HR 160    (6:28)
        Mile 2    6:36   HR 160    (6:33)
        Mile 3    6:39   HR 161    (6:39)
        Mile 4    6:42   HR 161    (6:42)
        Recovery to HR 130: 28 seconds

The numbers are nothing short of spectacular. The one fly in the ointment is that I'd prefer the pace to be more stable, but apart from that ...wow! Not only was I running over 10 seconds per mile faster than last time round (20 days ago), my recovery time is in fact the fastest recovery in my entire evaluation history, which is made even more remarkable by the fact that it's still only 17 days ago that I ran a double marathon at a fairly competitive pace.

It wasn't all happy and sunshine; my left calf felt very tight, uncomfortably so, though obviously that did not interfere with my running. The 4 miles of cool down felt a lot longer than usual, due to the calf as well as some fatigue, and was unusually slow at 8:12 pace. I've jogged home at 7:30-ish pace on occasions.

My Suunto Ambit has a "recovery time" feature, and it accumulates if you train again before your recovery time has expired. After Sixmilebridge it was up to 120 hours, from that race alone. Following an easy recovery week, it was down to 40, but after last weekend I was back to 80 again! I don't know how this is calculated (HR is involved, I know that much) and I would certainly never let a generic feature on some watch dictate my training, but the jump in recovery time did have me worried, alright. However, I prefer the feedback from tried-and-tested things like an evaluation workout, which has the added bonus that I know where the figures are coming from and is also subjective to me (because I compare them to my previous history).

All in all, this is going well.

P.S. Since I do have an evaluation workout programmed into my Garmin but not the Suunto, I wore both watches on Wednesday. The evaluation mile paces are from the Garmin. the Suunto would have had them about 5 seconds per mile slower. Also, the Suunto gave me 11.7 miles at the end compared to the Garmin's 11.8. I always suspected the 310 to slightly over-report distances (and thereby displaying a pace that was a bit too fast), ever since I started using it 3 years ago because it generally tended to report slightly longer distances than the 305 I used to have before. However, I'll keep using the 310 for evaluations, solely to make comparisons with historical evaluations easier, and the Suunto for all other runs.

1 Dec

10 miles, 1:20:58, 8:06 pace, HR 134

2 Dec

10 miles, 1:21:53, 8:11 pace, HR 131

3 Dec

11.7 miles, 1:28:32, 7:34 pace, HR 144

   incl. 4 mile eval: 6:28, 6:33, 6:39, 6:42, 28 sec recovery [cleaned up paces]

Another Evaluation

The weekend hadn't been particularly tough, but since I still have the Dublin marathon in my legs it didn't need a tough weekend for the legs to feel a bit tired. Accordingly I took it very easy on Monday (as I do virtually every Monday), and felt all the better for it on Tuesday.

Even teh weather was better on Tuesday and it was a clear, crisp morning illuminated by a very bright moon as I set off from home. I felt really good and the legs were itching to run a bit faster but I made sure to keep them in check. It would have been a great run but was unfortunately blighted a mile from home when my hamstring started hurting once more. It wasn't bad but it did remind me of the morning a few weeks ago when the hamstring started hurting a tiny bit and 2 miles later I was in agony. Luckily I was only a mile from home this time and it didn't get any worse, but I was definitely worried. I could also feel it for the rest of the day and started icing it again in the evening.

I have one theory regarding that hamstring, namely that it might not be the actual muscle itself that is affected but the sheath surrounding it, because it feels somewhat similar to the Achilles issue I've had in the past. That could be bad as sheath tissue does take longer to heal, but then again I managed to run through all of my Achilles niggles without too much trouble. It may well be wishful thinking but right now I still believe the odds are in my favour that this will go away eventually as well.

It's been 3 weeks since the last evaluation, but I've run the Dublin marathon in the meantime, so I already knew there would not be a smooth progression showing in the numbers from the last one. Because of the hamstring issues I wasn't sure if I should go ahead but then decided to be bold rather than fearful.

Another unexpected hurdle was thrown by my GPS gadgets. Evaluation is the one workout that requires a GPS device. I don't have the Suunto set up for that, so the old, trusty Garmin it was. Unfortunately, I had to reset it the day before the Dublin marathon which wiped all the data from it, including any custom workouts, and was unpleasantly surprised by an empty selection option this morning. 6 am when you're about to leave for your run is not the time to start up the computer and sync the watch which would have taken 10-15 minutes that I did not have, so it was all done manually. Not a big issue, but I also lacked the HR alarm that normally goes off whenever I run too slow or too fast during the evaluation, so it all was a bit more uneven that usual.

Never mind.

“First get your facts; then you can distort them at your leisure”
Mark Twain

The numbers in brackets are adjusted pace, 3 seconds for every beat off the 161 target.

       
        Mile 1    6:44   HR 161    (6:44)
        Mile 2    6:50   HR 160    (6:47)
        Mile 3    6:46   HR 162    (6:49)
        Mile 4    6:51   HR 161    (6:51)
        Recovery to HR 130: 38 seconds

The pace drop is remarkably stable, at least when you're looking at the "cleaned" numbers. Overall, those are actually pretty good numbers. I am still dealing with some fatigue from the marathon, but not as much as might be expected. While I have seen better figures with regards to all variable(pace, stability, recovery), that's a nice set of numbers 16 days after a marathon that had been tougher than expected.

However, my main reason for being cheerful is that there was not a beep from the hamstring.

Thursday was only 8 miles at a very easy effort. I'm doing a mini taper before the Double in Sixmilebridge on Sunday.

10 Nov

10 miles, 1:19:16, 7:56 pace, HR 140

11 Nov

10 miles, 1:17:29, 7:45 pace, HR 142

12 Nov

11.8 miles, 1:25:29, 7:15 pace, HR 150

   incl. 4 mile eval: 6:44, 6:47, 6:49, 6:51, 38 sec recovery [cleaned up paces]

13 Nov

8+ miles, 1:02:41, 7:47 pace, HR 140

Late Evaluation

I was a bit worried about the conditions on Tuesday morning when the remnants of Hurricane Gonzalo were paying us a visit after crossing the Atlantic. The wind did wake me up a few times during the night, though it never sounded too alarming, I have certainly seen worse. By the morning even those winds had mostly died down and conditions were pretty good actually, and apart from a few broken branches there was no sign of any nightly incidents. 10 miles near Ard-na-Sidhe it was.

I had been planning on doing an evaluation for a while yet. First I pulled my hamstring, which luckily did not put me out of action entirely but a couple of weeks of very easy running seemed the prudent thing to do. Then there was the raised HR when I was seemingly fighting off some bug, and then there were a couple of days of high winds. The evaluation works by running at a set HR (161 in my case), so a raised base HR would falsify the data and make comparisons with other evaluation impossible. Same goes for high winds, and I have learned that there is not much point in doing an evaluation under either circumstances, even less so when both factors apply.

However, by Wednesday morning all had settled down again and I was ready to go when the damn Garmin beeped sadly at me with a low battery warning (it must have turned itself on after charging - this has happened several times before, sometimes I notice it, sometimes I don't). For a normal run I might consider going without watch (ok, I did that about once in the last five years) but for an evaluation that's not an option, so I charged it for about 10 or 15 minutes before finally heading out.

Initially I was still going to go ahead as planned but after a couple of miles, and already warmed up and raring to go, I decided that there was not enough time because Niamh has to leave early on Wednesdays and I have to be back in time, so I switched plans mid-run and just did 10 easy miles. In some ways it was a waste of a good run because I felt absolutely awesome and had that effortlessly-floating-over-the-tarmac feeling and was tempted to knock out a few 6-6:30 miles but managed to control myself, mostly because the Dublin marathon awaits on Monday.

So, eventually, on Thursday I finally managed to run another evaluation, a whopping 54 days since the last one. Generally I want to run one every fortnight, so basically  I missed no less than 3 evaluations in a row due to various reasons, though in fact I do have an excuse for all of them - Dingle, hamstring and virus.

It was still a bit windy on Thursday morning, definitely a little bit more than I would have preferred but what can you do. I followed the exact same routine as usual, about 4 miles of warm up where I do pick up the pace a few times to gradually bring the HR up. The last quarter mile before I start the evaluation is slightly uphill, which helps to establish the HR at the right level.

      
        Mile 1    6:33   HR 161
        Mile 2    6:46   HR 161
        Mile 3    6:39   HR 161
        Mile 4    6:46   HR 161
        Recovery to HR 130: 36 seconds

Looking at the figures now, they do paint a pretty nice picture. The overall pace isn't as important as you might think, though of course a fast evaluation is always nice to have. The slowdown between miles 1 and 4 is more important and is in fact a tad higher than I would have liked (it was only 10 seconds last time). The recovery afterwards is again a bit higher than last time, though 36 seconds is still a decent figure, better than average.

Overall I'd say I'm coming along nicely but with definite room for improvement. I guess room for improvement is a good thing at that stage of training. Considering I am nowhere near peak shape, these are highly encouraging numbers.

Despite just saying that the overall pace isn't that important I have found that my marathon race pace tends to be within 10 seconds of the evaluation pace, so I guess I am probably in shape for a sub-3 marathon, there or thereabouts. Mind, since I haven't done any running at that pace that statement might not necessarily hold true due to lack of specific marathon fitness, but I expect to find pacing 3:10 on Monday perfectly doable.

20 Oct

10 miles, 1:17:53, 7:47 pace, HR 139

21 Oct

10 miles, 1:16:30, 7:39 pace, HR 140

22 Oct

10 miles, 1:15:57, 7:36 pace, HR 141

23 Oct

11.75 miles, 1:25:41, 7:17 pace, HR 148

   incl. 4 mile eval: 6:33, 6:46, 6:39, 6:46, 36 sec recovery

Evaluating Patience

I got a reminder a few days ago to keep doing the evaluation workouts and gather feedback from them. I was planning on doing them anyway, but a few jolts to the old, failing memory never do any harm. The general plan is to evaluate once every fortnight or so; the last one was three weeks ago, but with the Dingle Ultra in-between, that's ok.

The main idea of the base phase is to recover from the previous peak and the physical stress that accompanied that. If you're doing that right, the body will bounce back in a stronger fashion than before and you will be able to improve year on year on year. Obviously, there will eventually be ceiling as you get older, but one of the lessons I have learned over the last few years is that you should never put any limitations on yourself - your true capabilities are way beyond what you imagine, the big thing is to realise that.

Anyway, after two very easy days on Thursday and Friday, during which I felt really good, I did another evaluation on Saturday.

      
        Mile 1    6:45   HR 161
        Mile 2    6:45   HR 162 (6:48 adjusted to HR)
        Mile 3    6:52   HR 161
        Mile 4    6:53   HR 161
        Recovery to HR 130: 30 seconds

Evaluation is a rather mellow workout and actually quite fun. I get to run faster than on any other day of the week but still slow enough not to get into pain territory. Having said that, towards the end of the third mile I started getting tired and got a bit worried what that would do to my pace, but in the end it remained remarkably stable - but of course there is still room for improvement. Overall it was a smidgen slower than last time but the pace was a bit more stable and the recovery time was excellent, one of my lowest values ever. It confirmed what I had felt already, namely that I have recovered astoundingly well from Dingle, which really did not seem to take much out of me. With a bit of a break before my next event there is now plenty of time to just keep ticking off the miles and enjoy the fact that I keep getting faster week by week without ever feeling like I'm working hard.

Training at this point doesn't feel like "proper" training because you never work particularly hard, which in years past had me wondering if I should be doing more. It's a case of trusting the (former) coach and his system. These days, old wise and grey I can look back and see the results that it has given me so far and yes, this is clearly working remarkably well. Keep in mind that right now you're not just training for you next race, you are putting layer after layer of training to build on year by year. It's a game that requires a lot of patience and will take years to come to full fruition, but it's definitely worth it.

18 Sep

10 miles, 1:19:43, 7:58 pace, HR 137

19 Sep

10 miles, 1:18:45, 7:52 pace, HR 137

20 Sep

11.8 miles, 1:27:03, 7:22 pace, HR 149

   incl. 4 mile eval: 6:45, 6:45, 6:52, 6:53, 30 sec recovery

21 Sep

10+ miles, 1:17:47, 7:28 pace, HR 142

Weekly Mileage: 73

Evaluation

I think my training would be much easier if the week had 8 days; it would be so much easier to do all those decent workouts and still have plenty of time for recovery. But of course, that's kind of the point of my training: you keep a certain amount of pressure on the system, enough to get adaptations but mellow enough to allow recovery.

As I keep reminding myself, my 45th birthday is only a few months away. Us geriatrics don't recover as well as those whippersnappers. Mind, as it turns out, with a little bit of intelligence put into a training plan I'm still able to beat my younger self.

Following Wednesday's mountain run I took the customary two easy days. Both of them went very well, though it is rather telling that I ran a little bit faster on Friday but with a lower HR than on Thursday, on the same course under pretty much the same outside conditions.

I did some forward planning for next week, and that's when things got a little bit tricky with only 7 days available. I want to do a mountain run on Tuesday and then take it easy for 3 days before Dingle, which left no time for an evaluation workout that I wanted to do before the race, so I decided to squeeze one in on Saturday instead.

      
        Mile 1    6:42   HR 161
        Mile 2    6:47   HR 161
        Mile 3    6:50   HR 161
        Mile 4    6:52   HR 161
        Recovery to HR 130: 33 seconds

While these are clearly not the best numbers ever, I was quite pleasantly surprised. For a first evaluation at the start of a training cycle these numbers are excellent. The pace is faster than expected, 10 seconds slow-down not too bad and the recovery time is good. I'm quite pleased, I must have done more things right than wrong since Belfast - though I'm possibly about to chuck all those good things overboard by running Dingle, but I'm still firmly committed to that race.

My lesson from last week was that I shouldn't run too hard the day before a long run; I was clearly pushing my luck. Thankfully the evaluation is a rather mellow workout that doesn't require much downtime and my legs were just fine on Sunday. I ran more or less the same route around the lake as the week before and felt an awful lot better, even if the pace was almost identical. I think I took it a little bit easier at the beginning which had a positive effect on the later miles, but I just felt much better overall. That's good, a positive run before an ultra is definitely a plus.

28 Aug

10 miles, 1:19:05, 7:54 pace, HR 140

29 Aug

10 miles, 1:18:09, 7:50 pace, HR 138

30 Aug

11.8 miles, 1:28:39, 7:30 pace, HR 150
     incl. 4 mile eval: 6:42, 6:47, 6:50, 6:52, 33 sec recovery

31 Aug

17 miles, 2:14:54, 7:56 pace, HR 144

Weekly Mileage: 81+