Heat

On Thursday lunchtime I was just about to head out of the door when Norbert crossed my path, and since running with a mate is more fun than running alone, we headed out together. Last time we did that I apparently wore him out, despite me insisting that he would set the pace, but wrapped in 4 layers as I was today, there was never a danger of that happening again. In fact, I was blowing hard by the time we finished while he was very much rating this an easy run - that's the difference a few extra layers on a warm day make.

All in all I did 6 heat adaption runs in a row. On Friday I checked the weather forecast for Irdning again and all of a sudden they changed the temperatures from 28 to 22 degrees! In fact, it might be warmer in Ireland than Austria that weekend. However, heat adaptation benefits you even on a cooler day, and there's still plenty of time for them to change their minds again.

By the looks of it it will be hot enough in Ireland the next few days that there won't be any need for extra layers for a run to count as a heat adaptation run.

I'm back in Kerry, like every weekend, though that will be the very last weekend I am making this trip. The leaving cert is finished, Shea is pretty happy and confident he'll get enough point for his course, and now the entire rest of the family are finally moving to Dublin. Thank God for that! I have gotten mightily sick of that road by now, and 8 hours of driving (or train) every weekend is just ridiculous, and not relaxing at all. I am looking forward to having proper weekends again, not that next weekend will fall into that category.

The legs felt just sh*te this morning, and I didn't even have the excuse of running in too many layers. So far I'm attributing this to taper madness and trying not to panic. Maybe the body is worn out from the heat training. Maybe I just need to take it easy from now on.

By the way, is that the most idiotic headline ever to appear in an Irish newspaper? They seemed to have completely missed the irony, which seems unbelievable, screaming as it is from the page.

21 Jun

6.5+ miles, 55:37, 8:28 pace, HR 152

22 Jun

5 miles, 42:28, 8:29 pace, HR 141

23 Jun

10 miles, 1:23:58, 8:23 pace, HR 140

The Heat Is On

or at least the heat adaptation I'm doing right now is, unlike the outside temperatures. Heat adaption means running wrapped in 4 layers and steaming from the inside, which also works when it's cool outside, though the one time when it was actually warm during my run (Tuesday evening) I sure noticed the difference.

I have done that kind of stuff before a race on previous occasions, though I have changed my approach after reading a few more articles about it. I now do a heat adaption run every day. Since I'm in my taper, the mileage has been reduced, and since heat training is adding a significant new stress factor, mileage has been reduced a lot to keep the overall stress levels down, though presumably a longer duration of the heat runs would produce better results with regards to heat adaptation.

Anyway, obviously the HR is going wild, so I'm not going to compare it with "normal" runs. Despite the slow pace, this feels like a real workout and after less than 2 miles the wish to stop the torture can already be overwhelming. Therefore I avoid doing them on a treadmill, even though the heat build-up would work even better there; I just know I'd step off early.

It actually feels the worst immediately after stopping, and on a couple of occasions I have felt close to fainting, though that seems to have improved already, so maybe the adaptations are starting to kick in. Temperatures are supposed to reach 25 in Ireland the next few days, which would help - the long-term forecast for Irdning is 28 degrees, though 10 days out that does not mean much yet.

Having said that, we're definitely getting close.

18 Jun

4+ miles, 33:10, 8:11, HR 148

19 Jun

4+ miles, 33:38, 8:18, HR 148

20 Jun

4.6 miles, 38:30, 8:22, HR 147

Frog In Boiling Water

When your weekend long run consists of 7 miles you know it's taper time!

When the coach told me last week to bin all workouts and keep the length of all runs to 7 miles I suspected that he merely took the lowest possible mileage he thought I would accept without revolting rather than base it on any physiological data. Anyway, I stuck to that.

7 easy miles on Monday home from work.

7 easy miles on Tuesday into work.

7 easy miles on Wednesday home from work.

7 easy miles on Thursday into work.

7 easy miles on Friday around some swanky parts of South Dublin.

On Saturday I was back home in Kerry. I was looking forward to running along the lake again but changed that and did one more heat adaptation run. Technically it was my only heat adaptation run this time round but with the high temperatures for the week before I think I must have gotten some adaptation from that as well. Anyway, after checking my own blog on how to do it I wrapped myself in 4 layers (long-sleeved shirt, cotton t-shirt, fleece jacket, running jacket), donned hat and gloves, and put myself onto the treadmill with the window closed and a podcast in my ear. I chose the treadmill as it's safer than the road when you're wrapped up like that and since I easily tend to overheat on the treadmill anyway it makes it practical for such a workout. I started out very easy and set the pace to 6 mph - 10 minute miles. That was as slow as I could go while still feeling comfortable, though I am aware that it's still faster than what I will be doing in Belfast next week. I soon got hot and I did 50 minutes of that, slowly steaming myself. The heat inside my layers rose steadily but almost imperceptibly. I found the HR graph afterward very interesting, rising almost linearly from below 100 at the start to 150 at the end, apart from one, er, technical glitch a few minutes in. I ran as easily as possible, the treadmill made sure the pace was completely constant, and I was never aware that the HR was rising at all.

I stepped off after 50 minutes, trying not to stress myself too much with a week to go to race day. The leg muscles probably didn't even know this had been a run at all.

Sunday was more conventional, 7 miles along the lake. Actually I had planned to run only 6 but sailed past the 3-mile point, my mind too far tuned out to realise, so I ended up with 7 out of pure habit. Again, I ran as easily as I could without feeling uncomfortable. It was a tad faster than on the treadmill but still slow enough to fall into some sort of shuffling style. I'll be doing a lot of that next week!

I'm not 100% sure what kind of shape I'm in when it comes to running for 24 hours, but the numbers sure look a lot better than before Albi. Back then the last run had been 10 beats higher for a similar pace as today, and the one before that had been 45 seconds per mile slower for a higher HR - I guess I'll gladly take today's numbers.

22 Jun

7 miles, 55:57, 8:00 pace, HR 141

23 Jun

7 miles, 55:06, 7:52 pace, HR 143

24 Jun

5 miles, 50:00, 10:00 pace, HR 126

   heat adaptation run

25 Jun

7 miles, 1:01:34, 8:47 pace, HR 129

Tapering

As any runner knows, phantom pains are part of the tapering process. It just happens every time. A few weeks ago I did have some real discomforts, first from my left knee and then from my lower back but both have gone away (actually, the back is only 95% better) but this week I have felt some twinges in my right hip and my right shin and probably in some other bits as well - but I'm sure those are phantom pains without any real physical background.

I need to get my head sorted out. I have to ignore that some trained more than me and that I always could have done more. I have to focus on my strengths. The most important body part in a 24 hours race is not your legs, or heart or lungs, it's your brain, and mine seems to work well for that particular task.

I have generally been pretty calm with regards to this race; it has come round so quickly I barely noticed it was getting so close. I had Donadea and then the relay to worry about earlier this month, which didn't leave much time to worry about Belfast. But here we are, 2 sleeps to go. I had trouble falling asleep last night as thoughts of the race were doing their early rounds in my head but I did get an almost full allocation of sleep eventually, helped by the fact that I didn't have to get up until almost 7 o'clock - a veritable lie-in!

I've started gathering all the stuff I need to bring, mostly nutrition so far; proper packing will happen tonight and this really is about to get real!

Training this week was obviously just a case of ticking over. 4 miles on Monday, an hour on the treadmill wrapped in 4 layers on Tuesday for a last heat adaptation top-up, 5 on Wednesday and 3 on Thursday. Tomorrow I'll run another couple of miles if I wake up in time, none otherwise. I'll do half a day at work and then drive up North.

All running this week was really slow, practicing the ultra shuffle. It did take some getting used to, alright.

The weather forecast is cloudy with the odd light shower and little wind, which sounds pretty good. I don't think I'll need the heat adaptation. There won't be a repeat of the Bangor hurricane (mind, I handled that better than most so maybe I should have hoped for that) and no excuses.

And on Saturday we run.

http://athleticsni.org/News/Event-News/ENERGIA-24-HOUR-RACE,-VICTORIA-PARK,-BELFAST,-JUNE-2526.

20 Jun

4 miles, 37:17, 9:19 pace, HR 129

21 Jun

6.25 miles, 1:00:00, 9:35 pace, HR 133, heat adaptation, treadmill

22 Jun

5 miles, 42:46, 8:33 pace, HR 132

23 Jun

3 miles, 27:02, 9:01 pace, HR 131

Adapting

I've felt a bit tired the last couple of days, which is not what I hoped I would be feeling like to be perfectly honest. Since I have moved firmly into the tapering I haven't done any real workouts recently and I can only guess that the tiredness is a hangover from Donadea. Let's hope it will be gone a week from now.

In took it easy on Monday but the legs didn't really feel like running anyway. Taking it easy was always on the plan and I sure wasn't going to go against that.

On Tuesday I did something rather different. I'm not expecting a heat wave in Belfast but it's always better to be prepared (and I've just read an article that said that being heat adapted has advantages even in cooler temperatures), so I wrapped myself in 4 layers, put on a hat and stepped on the treadmill, making sure that the room's windows were all closed. 5 miles later I was steamed well through and called it a day. I'll do another of those adaptation runs this week, for an hour hopefully, but probably on the road because an hour on the treadmill is more than I care to take. One or maybe two more next week should see me well adapted. It may or may not make a difference but, like I said, it's always better to be prepared.

Today, Wednesday, I actually felt better again and the pace/HR confirmed that, though the legs are still not entirely happy.

My lower back is feeling a lot better, there is hardly any discomfort left. That's the most positive development of the last few days,

I'm not quite suffering from taper madness yet. Somehow it hasn't sunk in yet how close race day is already.

13 Jun

8 miles, 1:04:21, 8:03 pace, HR 137

14 Jun

5 miles, 45:44, 9:09 pace, HR 132, treadmill, heat adaptation

15 Jun

10 miles, 1:18:48, 7:52 pace, HR 139

Taper Madness

On Monday my right ankle hurt.
On Tuesday my left knee hurt.
On Wednesday my left calf felt very tight
On Thursday my left hip hurt.
On Friday my right hip hurt.
On Saturday my left hip hurt.
On Sunday my calves are both tight, my right hip hurts and my hamstrings are feeling tight.

Goodness gracious me, I do hate tapering!

On Thursday I did yet another heat adaptation run. It was hard work but I could tell there was some progress being made, so I was pleased with it.

On Friday I intended to run 10 miles. I got up in time and got ready, only to decide at the very last minute to cut it down to 8. The Spartathlon was only a week away, which must have been on my mind I guess. That was when I mentally accepted that I was tapering, I guess but I had been taking it reasonably easy for a while already.

On Saturday I once again donned the 4 layers for my heat adaptation run. I can definitely tell that my body is adapting: my HR is lower, my pace is higher and the required effort level well down. Heat adaptation is supposed to last for about a week; I'll do one more just to keep it all topped up.

I went up to Windy Gap on Sunday morning. Ideally I would have swapped the weekend runs around
but I did not have time for a mountain run on Saturday, real life not taking a break just yet. The weather was pretty wild when I left home and on the first climb up to Treanmanagh I was wondering what it would be like once I approached the Gap but in actual fact it calmed down considerably over the next few miles and it was almost pleasant. I took it easy and ran most of it on autopilot. If I can run that brutal climb up to the Gap on autopilot I must be in good form, I guess. On the way back home my calves felt unreasonably tight but when I tried to work on them with The Stick afterwards I could not feel any sore points.

This was the last run resembling a workout, I suppose. In 3 days we're flying out to Athens and in 5 days ...

17 Sep

8 miles, 1:05:32, 8:11 pace, HR 155

   heat adaptation

18 Sep

8 miles, 1:05:05, 8:08 pace, HR 139

19 Sep

8 miles, 1:04:52, 8:06 pace, HR 150

   heat adaptation

20 Sep

10.7 miles, 1:39:46, 9:19 pace, HR 142

   Windy Gap

Single Digit Countdown

I probably should not have been surprised but I was: my quads were surprisingly sore on Monday, obviously a direct result of Sunday's mountain run. The fact that I had run it all at a very sedate effort had not saved me from a fair amount of DOMS. It sure felt a lot more sore than after the Dingle marathon or the Achill Ultra.

I took it easy on Monday anyway as it was another heat adaptation run wrapped in 4 layers. There is definitely some progress being made on that front. The HR was lower than on the previous adaptation runs (though the run being half a mile shorter affects that as well) and I did not get that dizzy feeling after finishing, which is definitely a plus. I will do a couple more, to make sure I do not lose the hard-gained adaptations so far. How much this is relevant in reality - I guess I'm going to find out!

After all those workouts I was actually looking forward to a bag-standard 10 mile run on Tuesday. I don't know how often I have run those 5 miles along the lake and back again but it must be in the hundreds, and yet I still enjoy the scenery and it never feels old. Only problem was, I have run 8 miles so often in recent times that I automatically turned around at the 4-mile point without thinking and it took me another mile to realise that I was supposed to run out for another mile. Ah well. I tagged on another out-and-back mile back home instead, no matter.

Wednesday was one last interval workout. Since the race is getting rather close I decided to deliberately run a bit slower than last time and rather teh 6:30-6:40 pace slot. I almost managed it during the first repeat; after that I concentrated on running as relaxed as possible instead of pushing the effort and wouldn't you believe it, I was actually running faster that way despite it feeling easier. It would have been an epiphany except that I have experienced it before and the lesson never seems to stick. I also cut the recovery even further, down to 0.15 miles which really did not feel very long. I started feeling the effort at the fourth repeat and even more so at the fifth and decided to call it a day there and then because you should always end an interval workout when you still have at least one more interval in you, even more so 9 days before your goal race. It was definitely the right call.

14 Sep

7.5 miles, 1:02:39, 8:21 pace, HR 151

   heat adaptation

15 Sep

10 miles, 1:21:29, 8:09 pace, HR 145

16 Sep

7 miles, 55:49, 7:58 pace, HR 151

   incl 5 x 800 @ 6:29, 6:26, 6:19, 6:25, 6:22 pace

The 12 Days Of Sparta

The mileage this week was a rather modest 56 miles. Just looking at that number you might think I was recovering from Dingle and/or have started my taper, but in actual fact you'd be wrong.

Almost every run this week was a stressor, though I made sure to stress different elements on consecutive days. As for the taper, since I haven't done any training that would require tapering, this will be a rather short one. I've still got one week of training left, though I won't be doing any mad stuff. I'll then take it easy the last few days before the race but that's it.

The legs felt surprisingly fresh on Friday when I would have expected them to be stiff and tired after Thursday's intervals. I did another heat adaptation run, hoping that it would work despite the heavy rain. I wrapped myself into 4 layers once more but tried to take it a tad easier than on Tuesday when I felt I had gotten into slightly dangerous territory. This work is exhausting! The heart rate shows how hard I had to work despite the slow pace and I was definitely glad to be back home. Once I stopped running I had the same lightheaded feeling as on Tuesday, despite thinking I had taken it easier. Also, my HR was actually higher than on Tuesday, so something in my body did not agree with the easy effort. However, I recovered quickly and had none of the confused state that had scared me a bit two days earlier.

I did my standard 10 mile run on Saturday, the same run that would be the run-of-the-mill run in my training, except that I had not done one in months due to the time out with injury. Despite all the progress I have made over the last few weeks it did show that I am still a big bit off top shape - I could have sworn I was moving faster than 7:55 pace, pushing sub-8 still requires more effort than I would have thought. I'm really surprised that I managed to run Dingle at that pace last Saturday and how easy that had felt - race day adrenaline is powerful stuff!

Probably the 2nd best sight in the world! - Photo by Nick Papageorge

To cap off the week I ventured into the mountains once again, despite the heavy rain. There were no views to be had this morning (what a shame!) but that's not what I had come for. I needed to get some more strength into those calf muscles. The left calf has felt very tight all week but some work with The Stick three times a day seems to have gotten me over the worst. Anyway, I took it very easy on that mountain, I wasn't out to break any records. The heavy rain has left its marks, I actually came across a spot where a very recent landslide (maybe as recent as last night, it looked rather fresh) has redecorated the road - I did wonder if it was safe to continue but thankfully the rest of the way was unaffected by anything. The plan had been to spend 2 hours on that mountain. I expected that road to take a few minutes less but due to the slow pace I hit the time almost exactly. Yes, I can run faster than that but today was all about time on feet and getting some strength into the climbing legs.

Sparta is getting close.

11 Sep

8 miles, 1:06:49, 8:21 pace, HR 154

   heat adaptation run

12 Sep

10 miles, 1:19:18, 7:55 pace, HR 146

13 Sep

12.15 miles, 2:00:13, 9:53 pace, HR 145

   Windy Gap x 2

Recovery? What Recovery?

Recovery from Dingle was swift - in fact I barely noticed that I had a marathon in those legs. Sunday was still a bit stiff, alright, but by Tuesday I could no longer feel any trace of that race.

Two weeks from now I will be in sunny Greece. Usually I would state at this point that the training is done and the hay in the barn but with all the time I missed during the summer it really does not feel that way. I sure don't feel I particularly need a taper because I have not done any training that would require me to rest from. Obviously, cramming in long miles and tough workouts at this point is not an option either. Instead, I'm trying to get some last minute adaptations going that will hopefully assist me in my Spartan quest.

Heat adaptation is often neglected but will certainly be a requirement for someone used to training in about 10 degrees in Ireland when preparing for a race in Greece where the temperatures are presently at 31C/88F! On Tuesday I wrapped myself in 3 layers (long sleeved shirt, fleece jacket and running jacket) and a hat (lesson learned from the previous run!) and set off. I actually felt ok, was a little but warm but not exactly hot and the HR wasn't particularly high either: from the number alone (138) I would not have been able to tell if the very slightly elevated figure was caused by the marathon or the extra layers. It was only in the last mile when I increased the effort a little bit that I actually started to feel warmer than usual.

I wondered if that run had actually brought on any adaptations so I set the bar higher for Wednesday. I wore 4 layers (long sleeved shirt, cotton t-shirt, fleece jacket and running jacket), added gloves, ran for longer and at a higher intensity. Truth to be told, I might have overdone it a bit (now where have I said that before!). I was getting hot and steamy straight away, started to feel the effort by half way and was actually having to work damn hard just to get home. That's when I realised that I had been pushing my luck: I got light headed when I bent down to take off my shoes, I started feeling cold even when still wrapped in 4 layers and I generally got a bit confused (forgot to take off the HRM chest strap, mislaid the watch, put the shower on cold). I also kept sweating buckets for half an hour after finishing the run; my core temperature must have been seriously high. I guess I got away with it and afterwards figured as far as heat adaptation was concerned it was probably a very successful workout but this could be dangerous and a bit more caution would definitely be a good idea.

The legs had not been taxed by that run but I sure had put my body under a certain amount of stress so I wondered if it was a good idea to do a workout the next day. Then again, if in doubt I tend to go ahead and run, and that's what I ended up doing once more. I ran a set of half mile repeats, something that worked very well a few weeks ago and really seemed to bring me on, so I was keen to keep them going, despite my recent ultra/marathon combo. I reckoned I could always run a bit slower, maybe 7-minute pace, but started running the first repeat entirely by feel and only checked the pace halfway through: 6:19! Ok, relax a bit for the second half. The next one went similarly: I would start by feel, eventually checked the watch to find I was running a bit fast and then relaxed and concentrated on form and breathing for the reminder. The last 2 were at a slightly higher effort but still very much in control. I also cut down the rest interval to about 0.2 miles, about half of what I had given myself last time, but that did not seem to make any difference, I felt well recovered at the start of each faster segment. As ever, strava and movescount are reporting markedly different paces for the same workout; at least one of them is doing an appalling job! This time, however, the numbers I remember from the watch during the workout are closer to the movescount rather than the strava ones. I have no idea what pace I actually ran, only that it felt just right!

Wowzers, that went well! One lesson from Mystery Coach had been that when you get into form "the mind is winding up to ignore fatigue", which is great for racing but not so great for training as it can easily lead to burnout and overtraining if you're not careful. With 2 weeks to go, however, that's a great state to get into! I might be getting into shape just in time, lost summer or not.

7 Sep

5 miles, 43:58, 8:48 pace, HR 134

8 Sep

5 miles, 42:50, 8:34 pace, HR 138

   heat adaptation

9 Sep

8 miles, 1:07:13, 8:24 pace, HR 153

   heat adaptation

10 Sep

7.5 miles, 59:13, 7:54 pace, HR 151

   incl 6 x 800 @ 6:27, 6:18, 6:14, 6:20, 6:03, 6:07 pace