Doris And Ewen

Even though I'm running the risk of jinxing myself here, I have to say that February has been a great month. After months of rather limited progress the numbers are pointing upwards in a much steeper curve; my VDOT numbers went up by almost 3 points (I'd be world class by autumn if that kept going) and I'm generally feeling a lot better. While I had at least one family member feeling sick at any one time, my own immune system seems to have reached the stage where it can fight off those kind of infections without me even noticing.

"No more animals" I said. "No more stupid names" I said.
"Welcome Noodle" they said.

The evaluation on Wednesday wasn't great; how much of that was down to the wind and the slightly undulating road is open to question but I could tell straight away that the legs weren't quite right, so it definitely wasn't just down to external circumstances. On the plus side, and that's a big plus, this time there did not seem to be any soreness after that workout. I know the evaluation is a rather moderate workout (in fact, that's the very reason why I'm doing it weekly - I could not cope with strenuous workouts yet) but the previous 2 weeks I could definitely feel it in the legs subsequently. Not so this time, which I take as another great sign - my recovery is definitely improving.

On Saturday I ran the fastest "easy" run in a very long time. Thing is, I could have sworn I ran about 8-minute pace. Last Sunday I had run a bit fast but kind of knew that I was putting in a tad too much effort at times. Not so yesterday - this was a genuine easy effort all the way,

Ireland was visited by storm Doris on Thursday (the very reason why I had moved the evaluation to Wednesday), but that had mostly by-passed Kerry and what was visiting us was mostly gone already by the time I got up. It was a bit different on Sunday when storm Ewen made its way across the island, and this time I took the "gone old and soft" option and ran 9 miles on the treadmill instead. I think that was my longest treadmill run ever, though I can't be bothered to check back. And I managed to catch up on my downloaded episodes at the same time,

Anyway, the legs are definitely feeling good.

23 Feb

7 miles, 56:02, 8:00 pace, HR 147

24 Feb

8 miles, 1;03:46, 7:58 pace, HR 145

25 Feb

7 miles, 53:28, 7:38 pace, HR 151

26 Feb

9 miles, 1:12:30, 8:03 pace, HR 145

   treadmill

46

I'm supposed to celebrate today I suppose, though I don't really feel much like celebrating. If I were Grellan I'd go for a really long run or 3, but I'm not. So, as my 21st birthday repeats itself for the 26th time, I'm instead sipping green tea and generally feeling a bit sorry for myself.

As I've mentioned already, I keep underestimating the effect a workout will have on my body. Sunday's run had repercussions. As soon as I headed out on Monday morning the hamstrings felt like they had been cast in concrete. The plan had been for 10 miles but I turned around after 4. Last Saturday I had felt slow and the same happened again - only this time I really was dead slow. I got a bit of a shock when I saw the pace on the watch afterwards, basically 9-minute miles. I haven't run that slowly since, well, reaching Sparta. It's a good thing I did turn around early - I would have been late for work otherwise.

Tuesday saw the unwelcome visit of yet another major winter storm, Jonas, the same storm that had shut down the eastern united states for a while this weekend. It had lost much of its destructive power by the time it touched land in Kerry but it was still sufficient to keep me awake half the night. I tried reading once the ceiling had been studied in sufficient detail but eventually got up at 5 am and spent an hour on the treadmill, inadvertently doing my longest treadmill run ever - yet. It was during storm Desmond in December that I decided the get a treadmill - I'm daft enough to keep running no matter what and indoors is definitely safer at times. Thankfully the hamstrings felt much better - they had already felt better during Yoga Monday evening.

I had contracted a cold in hospital last week and had definitely started to feel better by the start of this week but on Wednesday morning just felt like crap again. Of course I still went running. That's my default action. I had already decided to do 10 instead of the originally planned 12 but when I still felt like crap after 3 or 4 miles I decided to go home instead and ended up with 5; slow ones at that.

I guess a bit of rest might be in store. I'll take a few days off, until I feel better. This is mostly to get rid of that cold but it should also serve to get me out of this little overtraining hole that I once again managed to dig myself into.

25 Jan

8 miles, 1:11:52, 8:59 pace, HR 128

26 Jan

8 miles, 1:04:51, 8:06 pace, HR 143, treadmill

27 Jan

5 miles, 42:21, 8:28 pace, HR 138

28 Jan

0

Water Running

Since they started to name storms this autumn, nature seems to regard this as a challenge. We've had 4 worthy of their own name already and it's still only the start of December. By that rate they're going to run out of letters before winter is over!

Thursday was almost reasonable and I used the opportunity to run beside the lake again rather than hiding in the Ard-na-Sidhe trees. In an attempt to get some zip into the legs I ran a Kenyan fartlek, though the Kenyan element refers strictly to the structure only, definitely not the pace. It simply means alternating running 1 minute hard and 1 minute easy, as ever bookended by an easy warm up and an easy cool down, of course. To help me, I have my watch beep at me every 60 seconds, though I only programmed 20 repeats into the watch. That's ok for 8 miles but not enough for 10, so that's one thing I'm going to change for next time. It's an easy way to get a decent amount of fast running into the legs and a good introduction to speed work (proper speed workouts are still quite some time away).

I felt pretty good on Friday and ran at a slightly faster pace, though nothing out of the ordinary. When I was in really good shape 3 years ago this would still have counted as my easy pace. The wind had picked up once more and I remained close to home, though I knew a lot worse was about to come.

Storm Desmond was by far the worst we've had so far this winter. The wind wasn't too bad but the amount of rain was just unreal. The forecast had been up to a full month's worth of rain in one day, though I think it wasn't quite as bad as that because it did ease up for a few hours on Saturday morning. This was the time when I managed to squeeze in 10 miles. Obviously I got completely soaked and the wind was bothersome but it could have been worse (a few hours either earlier or later and it would have been) and I have run through worse conditions. I played around with pace and effort and added a few surges and 3 of the miles were sub-7 pace, though how I am supposed to run an entire marathon at an even faster pace is a bit of a mystery to me right now - though that's perfectly normal at this stage of training.

Desmond finally relented at some point during the second night and Sunday morning was surprisingly nice. It was perfectly calm and even the sun was shining for a while. There was no excuse not to go running around the lake, so that's what I did. The weather might have been nice but the remnants of the storm were clearly still there. I saw a fallen tree precariously hanging off a telephone line and close to Blackstones Bridge, halfway around the lake, the river had formed a second lake that covered the road on 3 occasions, about 4 inches deep, enough to be well above ankle height and the only way through was to get your feet thoroughly soaked. I thought this was bad but worse was yet to come. The lake level was several feet higher than normal and on 2 occasions it covered the road knee-deep. At one corner there is a little wall separating road from lake, which was completely submerged. Running almost a quarter mile through knee-deep water is surprisingly tough - the feet are dragging through the water and the resistance requires hard work to overcome. At least it was safe enough to cross by foot - I don't think I would have driven my car through that. And the water was already receding very quickly. The high water mark was clearly visible and was at least a footy higher, and that could only have been a few hours earlier. I was rather amused to pass a "Road Flooded" sign a couple miles later - the section indicated wasn't even fully submerged!

Anyway, the legs felt really good and strong all the way. I felt really good on the long, steep climbs during the first 6 miles but that can sometimes be misleading and end in some miserable late miles. Not today, I ran 20 miles but could easily have run a marathon today and still felt good, despite working the legs fairly hard the last few days.

The flu seems to be behind me; I still have a cough when I get up in the morning but that eventually subsides and that's it for the day. It certainly doesn't have an impact on my running, not even at higher effort levels.

I have really come on a lot in the last few weeks. I have reached the stage where training doesn't feel like training any more because it feels so easy. The long mile are clearly showing their benefits.

3 Dec

10 miles, 1:15:44, 7:34 pace, HR 149

   Kenyan fartlek

4 Dec

12 miles, 1:32:01, 7:41 pace, HR 147

5 Dec

10 miles, 1:14:20, 7:25 pace, HR 151

6 Dec

20 miles, 2:35:09, 7:45 pace, HR 147

Weekly Mileage: 89

Attack Of The Purple Dinosaur

The weather has certainly been interesting the last few days, that's for sure. Storm Abigail wad followed by Barney and the weather front between those two had felt quite severe as well - there sure was not much of a respite for a wet and weary runner. The saving grace was that both severe storms had the good grace of hitting after I had already finished my morning run and blowing themselves out before the next run, but I've had more than a fair share of wind and rain in the last few days.

The legs felt pretty much dead on Monday morning so I took it exceptionally easy. Running on tired legs is not a bad thing in itself for an ultrarunner but you have to make sure it doesn't happen too often and it's always best to listen to your body and dial back the effort when needed, even by quite some bit as I did on Monday.

Tuesday did not start out well. It was pitch dark, I could not see a thing and got my angle wrong when running down our driveway and promptly ran right into a tree. Nobody witnessed it and nothing got hurt apart for a few scrapes but I finally relented and got out my headlamp (yes, I should have done that earlier). Things improved markedly following that calamity, the legs felt so much better and I decided to run a little bit faster. Nothing mad, always measured and in control but with the effort level just a tad higher to vary things. Things were helped by the fact that Tuesday morning had the best conditions for a while with little wind though that did not stop me from getting soaked because there simply was no getting away from the rain.

In marked contrast once again, conditions on Wednesday were atrocious. I got up very early, like in the good old days, to run for 2 hours. The wind and rain sounded ominous when I got ready and didn't disappoint either. The first few miles were almost acceptable but around mile 6 the heavens well and truly opened and it was bucketing it down. Add to that the strong gale force wind and you get the picture. It still wasn't the worst conditions I had ever run in but with the temperature dropping we're heading that way: once the rain feels icy cold we're at its worst. I had actually planned to run 15 miles but when I checked the watch after 10 I misread the numbers (which can happen quite easily  when it's pitch dark and you're running through a miniature hurricane) and thought I was running slower than expected and out of time, so I cut it short.

I had to get up just as early on Thursday morning but this time it was to drive Lola to the very early morning train in Killarney. I still had time to run 6 miles before work, which was twice as far as I thought I'd be able to, so that was an unexpected bonus. Because the run was so short I decided to spice it up a few times and put in quite a few surges and just generally played around with pace and effort. I managed to go out a second time after work but to be honest I didn't particularly enjoy running in the dark with considerably more traffic than I'm used to at 6 am, even if it's still a quiet country road.

What pleased me most about the last few days is the fact that 2 months after the Spartathlon the HR data has started to move fairly rapidly into the right direction. I think I'm finally getting over that race, though it will still take a bit longer until I can feel 100% recovered.

16 Nov

10 miles, 1:25:18, 8:32 pace, HR 134

17 Nov

12 miles, 1:33:43, 7:49 pace, HR 147

18 Nov

14 miles, 1:54:24, 8:10 pace, HR 143

19 Nov

am:6 miles, 45:30, 7:35 pace, HR 146

pm:5 miles, 38:57, 7:45 pace, HR 142

Rachel

Seriously, someone needs to have a chat with the guys and girls from Met Eireann and tell them that 2 degrees Celsius is not "bitterly cold", not by any stretch of the imagination; not even by Irish standards.

Until Wednesday morning, conditions were still fine for running; any excuses would just have been very poor indeed. Niamh doesn't particularly like it when I go running wearing my tights but at my time of day it's still dark outside and nobody can see me anyway.

Recovery from the marathon is going exceedingly well. Following my always-the-same method of recovery, I have run easy 5 milers for a few days until the legs felt okay again, and by Tuesday that was definitely the case. My HR for that day was also a lot lower than the days before, so it's not just my muscles that are recovering rather quickly. I'm not saying that I am fully recovered after only three days but I am recovered sufficiently to think about running properly again.

I do actually have one hangover from Saturday, namely my left knee. It did hurt a little bit after the marathon (actually, after driving back up to Dublin) but has been fine when running. There is, however, some discomfort after sitting in the office chair for too long at work. I can't feel anything wrong at any other time, just after getting up from a prolonged spell in a sitting position. That too goes away if I keep walking for a minute, so nothing to worry about.

Winter has been throwing a few challenges our way; temperatures the last few days have always been a few degrees above 0. There was a bit of slush on the road on Wednesday morning that used to be ice a few hours beforehand, but by the time I ran on it it was crunchy and no longer slippery, so that was still fine.

With storm Rachel approaching our shores it eventually turned into not-fine-any-more throughout Wednesday and now it sure looks like my run tomorrow will have to be cancelled. Since I am travelling on Friday, I am most likely going to miss 2 days of running in a row. Let's call it additional recovery, but I sure would prefer to add a few miles. What can you do. Running is an outdoors sport, and these things do happen.

Update: Met Eireann owe me 8 miles! The weather was fine this (Thursday) morning, I easily could have gone running. They clearly erred on the side of caution. by a significant margin, at least around here in Kerry. We had celebrations last night when the kids heard that the schools were closed, followed by bitter tears and screaming 10 seconds later when Maia realised that her ballet lesson would be cancelled as well. Sometimes you just can't win.

12 Jan

5 miles, 43:08, 8:37 pace, HR 140

13 Jan

5 miles, 41:21, 8:18 pace, HR 135

14 Jan

8 miles, 1:07:00, 8:22 pace, HR 136

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

Happy Solstice

Make no mistake, I am not complaining about the weather. We had a great summer followed by a nice autumn and we have had nothing to moan about (not that that would stop some people, of course). The last few days, however, have been rather wild and it's almost as if nature had decided to throw all the usual autumn/winter storms at us at once.

Right now it really seems to pay off that I always run in the morning. Two out of the last three days were mostly fine in the morning but running would have been too dangerous in the evenings. I know from experience that when the weather chart says "gale", I can handle it. "Strong gale" is rather uncomfortable but still doable, but "storm" means it's better to stay at home. Thankfully the latter is usually rare but has been seen all too often the last few days. One saving grace is that Kerry is in the South of Ireland - the North got hit a lot worse.

Thursday night did not sound promising but the storm abated just in time for my run and I got away lightly, apart from a hail shower over the last half mile, which inadvertently made a good training opportunity for a sprint finish; you never know when the need for that should arise again. As I laid out my clothes for Friday I doubted if I would be able to use them but once again the conditions in the morning were better than forecast and I made full use of it. For the first time in a few weeks I added a few faster miles to the mix. The windy conditions and the lack of an HRM made pacing a tricky affair. I did end up running just a little bit harder than would have been optimal, but the legs felt very good.

It was pretty much the same on Saturday with the conditions once more windy but definitely manageable, something that would not have been the case a couple of hours later. I half expected the legs to be sluggish after Friday's faster miles but instead they felt fantastic and I got that "effortlessly gliding over the tarmac" feeling.

It was really dark this morning; of course, it was the shortest day of the year. It will get brighter soon enough, and with the Christmas holidays just ahead, things will get easier again.

I'm not feeling 100 percent at the moment, I had a sore throat on a few occasions and am lacking just a little bit of energy during the day, but it does not seem to have any noticeable effect on my running. With half the office coughing all day and the kids bringing home all kinds of germs from school, the situation is not entirely surprising. As long as it doesn't get any worse I'll be able to handle it (just like the weather, then).

The HRM is worse than ever before, it really seems to be beyond help and the HR graphs are all over the place. I have ordered a new unit and am awaiting its arrival with bated breath, though I don't think I'll get my hands on it before Christmas.

I haven't decided yet if I'll do any races over the Christmas/New Year period. Even if I do, I have no expectations after not doing any speed work, so that would all be mostly for fun.

19 Dec

8 miles, 1:01:16, 7:39 pace, HR 142 (est)

20 Dec

10 miles, 1:10:55, 7:05 pace, HR 158 (est)
   incl. 8 miles @ 6:59 pace

21 Dec

10 miles, 1:15:53, 7:35 pace, HR 146 (est)

Base Training

Runners in the South of Ireland will know that the Great Island 10-mile road race had been on in Cobh last Sunday. The strange thing was that we were actually in Cobh at the time – and I was not running! We had gone there purely because my offspring (well, 2 of them) insisted on visiting the Titanic's last port of call on the anniversary of the disaster. It would have been obvious to combine the museums with the race, but two weeks after Connemara I was in no shape to race 10 miles. Instead I got up at 6 am and jogged 12 at normal pace – a much more reasonable thing to do, at least in my world. But if you ever find yourself in that place, I can recommend the Titanic Experience. It is rather short (and even that is a bonus with 4 young kids in tow) but very well done, though some of the stories are rather harrowing, but that comes with the nature of the event.

The HR on my runs is slowly coming down and the pace seems to settle down a bit as well. On the downside, the legs feel a bit heavy at times, but how much of that is just in my head, I'm not sure. On Monday I cycled home from work and felt absolutely awful. I had to work twice as hard and it felt like one of those nightmares when you run and run and don't move forward, except on a bike. I thought my legs must be in absolutely atrocious state – until I came home and after a short inspection realised that the rear brake was wonky and one of the pads was rubbing against the wheel. The realisation instantaneously made my legs feel much better.

I’ve got three weeks until my next pacing gig, the Limerick marathon, which I of course first and foremost regard as a training run for Bangor. I need to get used to 8-minute pace again and I need to make sure I have a fully functioning Garmin, but I'm confident all these things will be in place come 6 May.

The most challenging thing at the moment is the weather. It has turned rather nasty and I was battling gale force winds and at times very heavy rain both yesterday and this morning. There have been a few hail stones as well, but even the rain feels painful against your face at those wind speeds. The cycling commute into work was interesting as well. Apparently it’s not going to change until the weekend. Maybe it’s just nature’s way to toughen me up a little before the Big One.

It looks like I have a very experienced crew for Bangor, which can only be a good thing. From what I hear the organisers will have plenty of provisions there and it is perfectly possible to run the race unsupported, but I think having someone there whose main job will be to tell me to HTFU and get the f*** out of that chair will make a real and significant difference. Also, since I'm a complete novice at that kind of thing, having someone with experience at my side will be invaluable.

I guess I can’t chicken out now.

16 Apr

10 miles, 1:15:26, 7:33 pace, HR 148

17 Apr

10 miles, 1:17:27, 7:45 pace, HR 150

18 Apr

10 miles, 1:16:22, 7:38 pace, HR 150

Taking It Easy

The coach sent me a quick email, telling me not to be too hard on myself as the last evaluation had been very good. He also told me to relax a bit for the rest of base training to be ready for the next phase. The last bit was very timely advice. My legs had been a bit sore every evening this week and I had already decided to cut the long run from 20 to 18 miles. After getting the coach's advice I cut down a lot more - I binned the faster run on Friday and cut the long run down further, to just one lap around Caragh Lake.

Conditions on Friday were not too bad but the wind must have been close to gale force. That's not really an issue, I have run in those conditions dozens of times and 8 miles at relaxed pace just seemed to float by. I was quite surprised to see 7:45 average pace at the end, the effort had felt easier than that, which can be seen by the low HR. Not that I'm complaining.

Saturday's weather was a different kettle of fish altogether. The twins had yet another CTY day on Cork which required an early enough rise for my run. Since I really did not fancy yet another 6 o'clock alarm call I had already decided to move the long run to Sunday before I had even seen the weather forecast. They always seem to wheel out Jean Byrne for the most severe forecast these days (and yes, Ewen, she really is our weather girl). A massive storm front was promising some, er, interesting conditions, and so it proved.

There was a second storm to handle when Maia's stomach revolted yet again. We thought she had recovered but were proven wrong and a rather rough night followed. I'll spare you the details, but it was not pretty.

I always use the Ard-na-Sidhe road when the wind speed goes past a certain point and the storm shaking the trees sounded quite scary at times, but my hour of running seemed to pass in no time at all and once safely back home I figured I had run in much worse conditions.

Since Maia needed recuperation and Cian did not fancy a long car drive, Niamh brought the twins to Cork and I stayed home with the other two. Good call. I was wrecked for the rest of the day and my stomach felt rather queasy at times. I was a bit worried but a good night's sleep got me over the worst.

On Sunday I was finally back on the long, steep Caragh Lake hills and was surprised to find the running rather tougher than expected. I made it up to the top in good time but it required more work than anticipated and my hip muscles kept hurting for the rest of the run. After 30 hours of storm weather the conditions were much nicer, pretty ideal for running in fact. Still, with my hurting legs I was looking forward to being done and pressed the effort a bit over the last 5 miles, averaging about 7:30 pace over some undulating terrain with a net uphill. It was fast enough to get the legs going without wearing me out. I was reasonably happy with my run, but I could clearly tell that my long absence from these hills has left the legs significantly weaker than I'd like them to be. A few more runs over that road will sort that out. After a few weeks I will be able to run up the hills without a bother again.

P.S. You can win a free Garmin310XT at Ray's blog.

14 Jan

8 miles, 1:02:02, 7:45 pace, HR 141

15 Jan

8.5+ miles, 1:06:17, 7:45 pace, HR 145

16 Jan

16.6 miles, 2:09:20, 7:47 pace, HR 145

Weekly Mileage: 73+

There Was A Storm After All

Wouldn’t you believe it, while the announced storm didn’t really happen at the weekend the weather made up for it yesterday, hitting us with winds of over 100km/h and if you don’t believe me, here’s proof. Cycling in those conditions is obviously not ideal, but I didn’t quite appreciate just how bad it was until I came out of a corner and that massive tractor on that narrow road seemed to fill my entire field of vision and for a second I thought that was it. Luckily he was stationary and I survived after all. Niamh was all set to collect me from work but conditions improved sufficiently for me to make my own way home, but cycling for 5 miles straight into a 60 km/h (38 mph) wind was, well, interesting.

Following the coach’s orders, the last two days were a bit slower than previously.

After feeling incredibly good on Wednesday it was back to earth on Thursday, but the atrocious conditions may well have played their part. Since I did not want to run back-and forwards on the same stretch of road for 12 miles I chose to avoid the Ard-na-Sidhe road but got reminded that there was a good reason why I tend to run there when the weather is bad, because running straight into a strong wind that belts heavy rain straight into your face really is as uncomfortable as it sounds. Still, you get a kick when you finish 12 miles in those conditions, knowing that everyone else was bunkering down. At least I do.

It was a bit calmer this morning, but I wasn’t too pleased to find it still raining when I stepped out of the house. I had been feeling great for quite a while, but today the legs were rather heavy and I took it easy. The wind was still a factor, but in contrast to yesterday running along Caragh Lake was tolerable. The legs might not have felt the most comfortable, but when I put the numbers into my newest toy, the VDOT spreadsheet, the resulting number was back to over 54, thanks to the low HR. Considering how tired I had felt early on, I had expected a lower number. What that means, or if it actually means anything, I don’t really know. There’s still a lot to be learnt.

There’s another 5k tomorrow in Killarney and while I’ll be there to run it I won’t be racing it. I’m still in my base training and not allowed to run all out. I’ll just try and have fun instead.

I eventually remembered that the Javelina Jundred 100-mile race had been held in Arizona on the same weekend as the Dublin marathon. The reason why I was interested in it was Ken Zamach, the guy I had shared much of the early miles with in Dingle back in September. Well, wouldn’t you know it, he had an absolute stormer of a race, finishing in fourth place, 3rd man. It did make me wonder, briefly, what I could do over such a distance. Running sub-20 should be well within my capabilities, but that’s where I stopped thinking. 2011 will be a marathon year and if I yearn too much after an Ultra I merely have to bear in mind what Dingle did to my Achilles. But it does answer Mike’s question if I got those Ultras out of my system for good, I suppose.

11 Nov

12+ miles, 1:34:55, 7:51 pace, HR 150

12 Nov

10 miles, 1:18:50, 7:53 pace, HR 144

Stormy Nights

We are just experiencing the worst storm of the winter so far, and the most important factor in running was to time your run in-between lulls, to ensure a safe return. Yesterday, Saturday, I was quite keen to get out early because the weather forecast had left us in no doubt that a serious storm front was on its way and expected to hit us by lunch time.

I set off on the Caragh Lake road initially, but the heavy wind changed my mind very quickly and I turned around towards the Ard-na-Sidhe road. I just about managed to resist temptation as I was passing our driveway, it would have been so easy to get back inside rather than battling the elements. Anyone seeing me out there would have thought I’m completely mad; but actually it wasn’t the worst weather I have ever run in by any means. 8 easy miles passed by fairly quickly. Considering that I had covered 19 miles on Friday, albeit in two runs, I felt surprisingly fresh. The most pleasing aspect of the run was the realisation that my dead-easy pace is zoning in on 8:00. There’s progress.

The storm did indeed come, and boy was I glad to be inside. Further north they apparently measured wind speed of over 100mph. Here it wasn’t as bad, but we did go past the 60mph point, and today there were a number of fallen trees on some remote roads. Luckily we got away without damage around here, but the storm outside was nothing in comparison to Hurricane Maia inside our walls. She woke at 1 am, just as I was drifting off to sleep, and kept us awake until 4:30! She just kept going and going, and didn’t take too well to us trying to get some sleep. Eventually I managed to rock her to sleep on my chest, but somehow she woke again less than 3 hours later, and that was the end of my night! At some stage during the night I made the final decision not to have any more children (Niamh has come to that conclusion 14 months ago. I’m just slow in catching up). Niamh managed to add a couple of hours sleep in the morning, but I didn’t. I predict an early night for myself.

Bleary eyed as I was, I did manage to get out for a run. For my speed work during this training cycle I’m trying something new, as described here and here. I ran one 30/30 workout last year and decided to give this a proper go. Once a week I’ll do one of those runs. I’m starting out with 30/30 (30 seconds fast, 30 seconds slow, that is), in a few weeks I’ll switch to 60/60, and closer to the marathon I’ll attempt 3min/5min. I believe this is compatible with Ron Daws’ training program. He gives plenty of options for speed training, including steady runs, 400s, or 200s. I only cover about 150m in 30 seconds, but I don’t think that’s a sticking point.

After a false start (it started hailstoning literally as I was leaving the house), I was on my way. (I still got a beaning later on). Today’s intervals were rather slow, about 6:10 pace on average, definitely slower that they’re supposed to be. Since this was my first attempt at that kind of workout, I’m not too worried. I expect to improve as the legs get used to that workout. In fact, this improvement is the entire point.

As Private once pointed out, I like to experiment a lot, and he’s absolutely right about that. This has backfired quite a few times (remember the Red Bull before the Dublin marathon? I do!), and this is yet another experiment. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I’ll see how it goes.

17 Jan

8.1 miles, 1:06:07, 8:09 pace, HR 135

18 Jan

8 miles, 1:01:12, 7:39 pace, HR 155
including 21x30/30

Weekly mileage: 87+

Anticipation

I bet a lot of runners for Monday’s Dublin marathon introduced a rest day yesterday, planned or not. I actually had a decent workout in mind, with a few miles at marathon pace and a couple of 800s, but when I woke around 6 am the house was being battered by the storm, which persuaded me to give this one a miss. Cycling into work was completely out of question. The wind was really gusty with wind speeds of up to 60mph – running or cycling would have been suicidal. Kenmare and Killarney, neither of them far away from here, got so badly flooded that they made it into the main evening news. As long as the storm blows itself out over the weekend, that’s ok with me. The conditions on Monday are going to be fairly cold but manageable. We will be fine.

As a result of the weather running amok my mileage has dropped off a cliff this week, which made this a more radical taper than originally anticipated. I guess I’ll see how I will feel on Monday, but in all honesty I don’t think a missed 8 mile run 4 days before the big day will have any measurable effect either way.

It was surprisingly calm this morning, and I managed to squeeze in 5 miles between two very heavy rain showers. After a warm-up mile I increased the pace to MP and intended to hold it for 3 miles. It felt much too fast, and the old doubts started creeping in. Then, with half a mile to go, it all clicked again and I cruised along, confidence restored. I went easy again on the last mile home, but when I glanced at the Garmin with half a mile to go I realised that I was jogging along at 7:00 pace, and my confidence for Monday soared. I spent the last few minutes forcing myself to slow down, and with 3 days to go it is time to get plenty of rest. Any miles yet to come will be very slow and easy, just enough to keep the legs moving.

I got two emails in the last few days, one from a John who wants to run under 3 hours and suggested working together, and one from a different John who knows yet another John who wants to run under 3 hours and suggested we should be working together. It looks like I won’t have to set the pace on my own, but things might be getting confusing with all those Johns around me.

3 days to go. We’re driving up to Dublin tomorrow (the weather forecast is atrocious), and I will hopefully manage to relax on Sunday. And then …

23 Oct

0

24 Oct

5 miles, 35:16, 7:03 pace, HR 160
incl. 3 miles at @ 6:49

After the Race

Thanks everyone for the nice comments, they are all very much appreciated. The more I think about the race the happier I am with it. McMillan's running calculator has this as my best race ever, but the WAVA calculator rates it slightly less than the 10k I ran last year in Adare. When I crossed the finishing line I was disappointed to miss 65 minutes, but I have come to the conclusion that it was never on the cards. It all comes back to the pneumonia.6 weeks is not a lot of training by any means, and taking that into account I think I ran as well as I could. I have been wondering if I could have kept up with Grellan and Brendan when they pulled away from me at 3.5 miles, but looking at my heart rate chart tells me that my heart rate was already way too high. It had gone all the way up to 187 on the second mile, 97% of my max, and so far higher than is recommended for a 10 miler, it's off the scale. In light of that I'm surprised I managed to hold on as well as I did.

Grellan pointed out that I am on one of the race photos after all, a rather dark one though. I'm the one in the yellow singlet, Brendan is two steps in front of me. It must have been taken around the 3 mile marker, probably just as I was realising that I was falling apart.

Since this was only a preparation race for Connemara, I didn't hang around for recovery either. My first plan was to run a long run on Monday, following the possibly dumb theory that running on tired legs is good ultra training. However, the weather forecast had left no doubts, there were storms of serious magnitude on the way, and I wondered if I would be able to run at all. I woke at 5:30m which would have been enough time for 15 miles and turned around straight away, the wind and rain sounded just brutal. I did get up about an hour later and braved the elements for 7.5 miles. The legs were just as stiff as expected, but I managed ok. So much so, in fact, that I added 4 miles at lunchtime on the treadmill in the gym, while watching the world almost get blown apart outside.

The wind was even worse today, but I was determined to get my workout done anyway. The sound of the rain was discouraging as I was about to venture out, so I waited 5 minutes, and luck was on my side as the rain gradually lessened, enough to be able to go out. By some miracle I managed to avoid all puddles on our driveway and went on my way relatively dry. Unfortunately by mile 5 a torrential downpour started, and within half a minute I was soaked to the bones. I contemplated turning back home after the first loop, but just as I reached the junction in question the rain stopped again, and I headed towards the second loop. The wind never ceased, and it was bad, no doubts about it. I looked up the data in the weather pages afterwards, and it reported gusts of up to 100km/h (62mph). I don't think I had to face gales quite as bad as that, but it was challenging all the same. It seemed to brighten up later on and I cycled to work, but in the afternoon Niamh called me and basically forbade me to cycle home, it was too dangerous. She gave me a lift instead. The conditions are finally supposed to improve during the day tomorrow.

I'm planning a long training run on Saturday, or maybe Sunday. One of those runs only ultra runners do, 4 hours or so, slowly, just spending time on the feet. First I need to convince Niamh, and then I have to hope for better weather. The forecast is unsure, it depends on who you believe.

The heart rate for the runs since the race has been really low. I have noticed that phenomenon before; after each race my heart rate drops a level. I think that's a good thing. I would race more often if there were more races available.

10 Mar

am: 7.5 miles, 1:05:47, 8:46 pace, HR 140
pm: 4 miles, 34:40, 8:40 pace, treadmill

11 Mar

14.1 miles, 2:00:31, 8:32 pace, HR 138

Happy Birthday Again

The fun and games just don't stop at the moment. Maia is only 5 weeks old, and it’s already time to celebrate the next birthday, Cian was 4 on Saturday, a big party was had in Glenbeigh sports hall, and everyone had a great time. The cake looks spectacular, doesn’t it? Usually if you buy a cake like that it looks cool but tastes like nothing, but that one was actually really nice. Of course, my resolution to stay off the sweets will have to take a temporary break, especially because we have loads of party food left over, and then it’s Christmas, and that’s not the time for an ascetic life style.

Because I had felt so fresh after last week’s long run, I decided to extend my run on Friday. I resolved to run my normal 2 loops around the Devil’s Elbow, and then decide if I fancied another 3 miles. I didn’t use to be able to do that because I used to leave the house in time so that I would be back home at 7:45 to get the kids ready for school, but with my 4 am starts I now have spare time to play around with. The weather keeps being challenging, the storm still hasn’t stopped, the only thing that changes is the amount of water that accompanies the wind. Cresting the hill during the loop had the wind coming from the side and it felt like I was about to be blown off course, but there were sheltered part along the way, too. At the end of the second loop the next rain shower began, just to test my resolve of running another 3 miles, but I had long made up my mind and did indeed turn around for some more punishment. I tried to run the last 6 miles strongly again, but somehow the legs would not cooperate, and I never got faster than 7:40 pace. I didn’t feel particularly tired, and I felt like I could have run for quite a few more miles, just not any faster. Still, that was my longest run since the marathon in October, and I’m just pleased to have in under the belt. There will be times when the weather is less challenging, and maybe then I’ll be able to crank up the pace a bit more towards the end.

Saturday saw me out again to more or less the same conditions. I didn’t get as much sleep as I would have liked, because at 5 am Shea had gotten the fixed idea that he had to wake up his little brother to wish him all the best for his birthday. We managed to stop the little maniac, but he repeated the same stunt 30 minutes later, and this time he succeeded in waking Cian, and from then on sleep was a scarce commodity. “at least he never does it 2 days in a row”, Niamh said. I managed 12 miles, with 12 sets of strides, and felt pretty good.

The weather forecast for Sunday was especially dire, storm gusts of up to 130 km/h(80 mph) were predicted, and I was worried about my workout. Running obsessed or not, when it becomes dangerous to be outside not even I am stupid enough to force a run. It sounded pretty bad the few times I woke during the night, but the wind seemed to abate a bit in the early morning hours. Shea again woke at 5 am (so much for Niamh’s prediction), but at least this time he seemed happy enough to play on his own, mostly with the toys Cian had gotten the day before. I normally try to have a fast run on Sunday and cranked up the pace a bit, and it felt pretty much like last week’s run. The pace wasn’t bad compared to what I used to run, but I’d like to get closer to 7 minutes per mile. At the same time, I don’t want to race my workouts, and if the pace doesn’t come by, I’m not going to force it. It will come down over time.

7 Dec

20 miles, 2:38:05, 7:54 pace, HR 144

8 Dec

12 miles, 1:34:19, 7:51 pace, HR 144
including 12x100 strides

9 Dec

10 miles, 1:11:36, 7:09 pace, HR 155

Consecutive Days of High Winds: 10
Consecutive Days of Rain: 7

Weekly Mileage: 96

Turbulences

The first of this season’s winter storms blew over us this weekend, and severely tested my enthusiasm for running, but I’m happy to report that I made it through, and the forecast for Monday is predicting seriously improved conditions. I’ve run through worse last winter, and in all likelihood I’ll run through worse conditions again, so it was basically an introduction into winter running.

It started early on Friday, at 4 am. I could hear the wind and rain rattling the windows, but once I tentatively set my foot outside the door it wasn’t as bad as it had sounded. Still, the wind was going to be a real problem, and during the first mile I decided to change my route. The hills on the eastern side of Caragh Lake are totally exposed, and I didn’t fancy five miles of brutal headwinds, so I chose to run two loops around the Devil’s Elbow instead. The loop part of it is a bit over 5.5 miles, and the out-and-back section from our house to the start of the loop is just under 3 miles, which makes it 8.5 hilly miles, and if you run it twice it adds up to 17 miles, exactly the same distance I had planned on running that morning (it’s a good thing I can work out the math in my head at 4:20 while battling the brewing storm). The loop includes a rather brutal climb of over two miles, which obviously I had to do twice. Last year I used it as a measurement of my fitness, if I could reach the top without being completely out of breath I was in good shape. I surprised myself, even on the second loop I ran this basically on autopilot and never went into the “this-is-too-steep-please-let-it-stop” mode. In fact, I felt as fresh as a daisy after coming home. Looking at it from one angle I could say that I must be in good shape already, but on the other hand I wondered if I’m training hard enough. When you’re feeling so fresh after your long run it’s probably a sign that you should run longer. I know I said only last week that I intend to stay on that mileage for a while, but Friday’s run made me change my mind. I think I have to start running 20 miles once a week to get the best out of my training.

As an aside, after battling wind and rain for over two hours, I didn’t fancy doing it again on the bike, even for a short 20 minutes ride. I asked Niamh to drive me into work, and I got a lift from a colleague on the way home. I clearly still have some bounds.

Saturday’s weather forecast was especially brutal, but I got lucky. Shea had woken at 6 am, and by 7:30 all the kids had had their breakfast and I was free to go for a run. By pure chance this coincided with a lull in the storm. During the night I had woken several times from the sound of hailstones banging against the window, but by the time of my run the rain had almost stopped, and I just had the wind to battle against; but of course I didn’t escape the showers entirely. Nevertheless I had managed to find just that little window in the storm, because shortly after my 90 minutes of fun the hail returned, and the conditions were atrocious for the rest of the day. Everyone I met moaned about the miserable weather, but I was happy to have gotten my run in anyway.

Today, according to the weather page, the wind speeds were generally around 35mph, with wind gusts up to 55 mph, which pretty much tells you what it was like once again. Strangely enough, the rain had ceased, and I didn’t even get rained on (though it returned later on with a vengeance). Sunday is usually the day of a tempo run, and I ran at a reasonably strong effort. To be honest, I was disappointed with my pace; I had expected to run the 10 miles a minutes faster. I don’t know how much of that was due to the miserable conditions, but even taking them into account I would have thought I’d be able to run close to 7:00 pace. I guess I’ll see what the next tempo run will bring, but I certainly won’t fall into the trap of racing my workouts.

P.S.: Guess who gave her Daddy a big smile yesterday. I’m so happy!

30 Nov

17 miles, 2:12:36, 7:46 pace, HR 147
last 3 in 22:00 @ 7:20

1 Dec

12 miles, 1:34:31, 7:52 pace, HR 144
including 10x100 strides

2 Dec

10 miles, 1:11:29, 7:09 pace, HR 155

Weekly Mileage: 91.5 miles
November mileage: 362.5 miles

Double whammy

I decided to up the ante once more and increase the distance for my double header. Last week I did 17 and 20 miles, this time I was aiming for 20 back-to-back. This would finally get me into long runs that cover the ultra distance, albeit over two days.

Things didn’t start out too well Thursday morning. Actually, my first mistake was going to bed late on Wednesday. I was just about to hit the hay when I realised that football was on TV, and against all expectations the Bolton vs. Arsenal FA Cup match proved to be too riveting to go to bed. As a result I got less than 6 hours of sleep. Then the zip of my running tights broke just as I put them on (the one over the right calf). I tried to fix it there and then but only managed to completely destroy it in the process. Luckily I had a second pair washed and dry. Then Shea woke and I got into an argument with him (“Turn off your bedside lamp again”. “No, I’m not comfortable”. “Turn it off”. “No, I’m not comfortable”. “It’s too bright”. “No, I’m not comfortable”. “You’ll wake up Cian”. “No, I’m not comfortable”. …) I gave up on the stubborn mule (he fell back asleep again for 30 minutes, then got up – at 5:30, to his mother’s disgust.) Eventually I managed to leave the house, 10 minutes late.

The weather forecast had predicted heavy rain, and they were right on that score. What they didn’t anticipate were the gale force winds. I did what I always do in those circumstances, I chose to run the devil’s elbow loop rather than around Caragh Lake. The loop is 5.5 – 5.6 miles, it’s 1.5 miles away from our house, so 3 loops and the there-and-back section make up more than 19.5 miles, and a detour on the way home would get me to a round 20. The loops include a big and steep climb, and to run this 3 times would be a good challenge. I managed the first loop without too many problems, but the wind got worse and worse, and during the second loop it became nearly unbearable. Right on top of the crest it came exactly from the side, and I had to lean into it, while trying not to trip over my own feet. At the same time the rain got blown straight into my side, and that hurt. It might be a sign of selective memory loss, but I decided those were the worst conditions I ever run in, apart from two hail showers (but those lasted only for a short time). The second loop took me about 49 minutes (nearly as slow as 9:00 pace) and I decided to reroute, as a third loop in ever worsening conditions did not seem particularly palatable. Instead I ran back home and added an out-and-back section to Ard-na-Sidhe into the mix. After 15 miles I really started to feel like crap, I felt totally out of energy and had to force myself on every step. I did time myself for those final 5 miles, and how I managed 8:10 pace I will never know. I practically had to crawl once I got home; I was utterly drained of energy and seriously doubted my ability to do another long run 24 hours later.

During the day it became obvious that I wasn’t ok, apart from a runny nose, stiff neck, headache and feeling cold (but no temperature) I had absolutely no appetite, when usually I’m ravenous after a long run. I did force myself to eat plenty of food, I felt I had to fill my batteries somehow. I know that the immune system tends to be suppressed after a long run, which might have caused the symptoms, but all the kids were complaining about various aches and pains throughout the day, so I guess it’s something that’s doing the rounds in our house at the moment. Niamh didn’t even want me to go to work on Friday, never mind running, but I promised I’d be sensible and see how I felt.

I was very tired, went to bed at 9:30 and was fast asleep by 10 o’clock. I slept like a baby until the alarm went off at 4:45, for the second morning in a row. I felt much better, and decided to head out. The conditions were much better than the previous day, no wind and no rain, but I decided not to run the Caragh Lake loop but to head for the devil’s elbow instead, because if I felt I had to bail out I would never be further than 4 miles away from home. I started slower than yesterday at 8:30 pace rather than 8:20, and just kept going steadily. The climb was a challenge each time, but to be honest it wasn’t too bad. I had expected to really hurt on the third ascend, but it was definitely manageable. Midway during the second loop the rain returned, but due to the low winds it was no comparison to Thursday’s conditions. All in all I was ok, considering how bad I had felt all of yesterday. It was quite slow, not that pace particularly matters on that kind of run. The last 3 miles were dragging a bit, and I was definitely glad for it to be over and done with.

I’m still not 100% ok, but I’m glad I did go out today. The way I figured, running when feeling crap and devoid of energy should be good ultra training, as long as you don’t do any additional damage to yourself. I kept checking my HR, and it was always quite low. Maybe it was stupid to run 20 miles like that, but given the same circumstances, I think I would do it again.

There is a great advantage in training under unfavorable conditions. It is better to train under bad conditions, for the difference is then a tremendous relief in a race.

Emil Zatopek

15 Feb: 19.5 miles, 2:44:43, 8:26 pace, avg. HR 147
16 Feb: 20 miles, 2:53:41, 8:41 pace, avg. HR 144

Contrast

They told us the storm was coming on Wednesday, and they were right. Tuesday was indeed only a taster of what was about to hit us, and when it did hit, it hit hard. Having said that, looking at the news and seeing the trail of death and destruction that that particular storm has caused all over Europe I think we have gotten away lightly. I mean, it was pretty bad with the usual stuff, fallen tree, local flooding and electricity cuts, but considering that many parts of Europe had to withstand hurricane levels of wind speed I think we escaped the worst.

I still got a lot of funny looks every time I confirmed that I had indeed been out running Thursday morning. In order to avoid any danger from falling trees and branches I had decided to run on the western side of Caragh Lake which is out in the open. Of course it meant running straight into the wind on the outward leg. I did manage ok during the first 2.5 miles, the water witch provides some shelter, and while I clearly struggled to get into tempo-run territory, it went ok. Then the road takes a turn, and from then on it’s 2 miles straight against the wind. To make things worse, the rain had re-started by then, and it came down nearly horizontally, and straight into my face. That hurt, and I tried to shield my face with my gloved hands, but it’s impossible to run that way. When I reached the 3-mile point I could no longer remember why I kept torturing myself that way and turned around. It felt a lot easier on the way back, but I kind of forgot that this was supposed to be a tempo run. I did remember again about a mile from home, and upped the pace once more. To make up for the shortfall I added an extra section in the woods, and it was a lot better there, and I didn’t notice any real wind damage. Running there would have been the better option, I guess. The faster 2.5 or 3 miles towards the end of the run constituted a proper tempo run, but all in all I felt this was a wasted effort.

I was a bit apprehensive about today’s long run, not because of the planned 22 miles (I’ve gotten used to long runs by now) but because I was afraid of similarly bad conditions. I resolved to run 3 loops around the devil’s elbow (plus 2.5 extra miles somewhere) if the wind was too strong, but I was very pleasantly surprised at 4:15 in the morning when I woke up and couldn’t even hear the wind. I had set the alarm for 4:30, but woke from the sound of Cian crying. I managed to get him back to sleep, and despite better judgement went back to bed for 10 more minutes of sleep (which felt like about 10 seconds). Mindful of yesterday’s atrocious conditions I wore two layers on top as well as extra warm gloves, but that proved to be a mistake. Since the wind was nowhere near as bas as feared I did my extended Caragh Lake loop (17+ miles) and added an out-and-back section to Ard-na-Sidhe at the end. I usually check my time after the first 3 miles; it is always a good indicator of how I’m doing. Well, my pace continues to drop, I had averaged 8:33, and it was a sign of things to come. The road was deserted (well, duh, at this time of night) and I ran mostly with my light turned off. Despite it being New Moon I was still able to make out the road, and what more do you need to see? Well, I did have three moments when I wished I had it turned on, once when I somehow managed to step off the road (no harm done), once when I stepped right into a big, deep puddle, and once when all of a sudden several big white shapes appeared right in front of me and nearly tripped me up (a flock of sheep on the middle of the road, but they were more startled than I was). Between miles 11 and 16 I felt truly fantastic and ran at a very good clip, and I had the feeling I could keep this pace forever. This turned out to be not the case; after climbing a hill of maybe half a mile the legs felt a lot heavier, and I slowed down again. I passed our driveway to go for the out-and-back section, and I soon felt a lot worse. Around the 18.5 miles point I was truly knackered and wasn’t exactly looking forward to the rest of the run, but that was the low point and I somehow started to feel better again after that. The next crisis came at around 20.5 miles when I got rather hungry (remember, I don’t eat a thing before running), but by then I was close enough to home to ignore the pangs. I finished the run in less than 3 hours, which surprised me. I’m pretty sure that I had indeed covered 22 miles, but 8:05 pace sounds very fast. Even if I somewhere missed half a mile and only covered 21.5 miles, that would still make it around 8:15 pace, which isn’t bad either. Having said that, I do think my original calculation is accurate, and that’s what I put into the log.

There’s another bit of good news, I’ve now lost all of the extra Christmas weight and I’m back on my pre-marathon weight of 149 pounds. I didn’t diet or even watch my food intake, but I guess the high mileage took care of that automatically. Great!

And I think I did work out one thing that had been puzzling me for a few weeks. If you remember back a few weeks ago, I got completely wasted on a 15.5 miles run in Dublin just before the New Year. I couldn’t quite explain why I felt so bad, and thought I was running right at my limit. I’ve come to the conclusion that the change in diet was responsible. Niamh is a vegetarian, and subsequently a vegetarian diet is what sustains me for most of the year. Whenever I come to Dublin my mother-in-law insists on stuffing me with meat like a goose in the mistaken belief that I must be craving things like pork, beef, mutton and, over Christmas, turkey. I guess next time I just have to tell her that I prefer Niamh’s vegetarian options. I hope she can take the shock.

18 Jan: 8.25 miles, 1:00:50, 7:22 pace, avg. HR 156
19 Jan: 22 miles, 2:58, 8:05 pace, avg. HR 148

It's Raining, it's Pouring

For once the weather didn’t change – it stayed as bad as it was for two more mornings. Now, Saturday afternoon, it has brightened up, and tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day - with scattered showers; they obviously don’t want us to be spoilt. The next storm front is predicted for Wednesday. Is there no end to it? Michelle asked if I think the weather is related to global warming. Yes, I definitely do. I don’t buy that bullshit about cyclical weather developments, there’s nothing cyclical about the amount of greenhouse gases we’re pumping into the atmosphere.

But this is a running blog, and I’ll refrain from voicing political views. As planned, I did my 20-mile run on Friday. I initially set my alarm for 4:30, and just as I was about to fall asleep I decided it wouldn’t take me that long to run 20 miles, so I reset it to 4:40. The weather was just as bad as on Thursday, or maybe just a tick less so if you believe the weathermen. Nevertheless I felt good as I set off. Last time I ran this route I started the first 3 miles in a very pedestrian 9:20 pace, this time I still wasn’t exactly flying out of the blocks, but 8:45 was a good bit faster. But it was at that point that the road turned into the wind, and up the major climbs. I struggled against the forces of nature, and it was hard work. For the next 45 or so minutes I followed the road up and down, but with a net elevation gain of about 200 meters, and all of it right against the storm. I was mightily relieved when I finally reached the woods of Ahane, the previous 5 miles had been pure evil, but from there on it was much easier. For the next 5 miles the road was reasonably sheltered, and when I got out into the open again the wind was mainly at my back. At about the 10 miles point I suddenly started to feel rather weak, my legs turned into jelly and my stomach complained about the lack of food. I had been a bit nervous about running 20 miles on an empty stomach, but cranking up the music to maximum level distracted me sufficiently for the hunger to go away. The rest of the run went very well indeed. I’m not entirely sure about my pace for the last 8 miles, but it was definitely sub-8 pace, and I felt very good all the way home. Andrew and Mike have reported similar pace increases on their long runs, but they usually accuse each other of cranking up the effort. I have but myself to blame; but I felt really good. My achilles did start hurting after about 18.5 miles; that’s the first time it started hurting while out on the road, which is a bit worrying, but funnily enough by the time I got back home the pain had gone away, and I haven’t felt anything since.

I was mightily pleased with that effort, and surprised how easy it felt. I had expected a struggle over the last 2 or 3 miles, but the fatigue never struck. For my next long run I’ll probably go for something like 22 miles, which would take me about 3 hours. I’ll decide later in the week.

It was still wet and stormy outside this morning, which made me change my plans for today’s “recovery”. I had planned an out-and-back run along Caragh Lake, but after fighting 5 miles against the wind on Friday I didn’t fancy a repeat effort and headed for the devil’s elbow loop instead. When running counter-clockwise the trees will shelter you against the headwind on the first part, and when you leave the forest behind you the wind will be mostly at your back. The drawback of that route was that it included the steepest climb of all my usual running routes, but I was willing to accept that if it meant not having to run against the storm. For a recovery effort I probably ran a bit too fast, and my heart rate was a bit higher than I would have planned, but I blame the elements on that. On a nice day a stroll along the side of Caragh Lake would have been more of a recovery run. I also encountered the pack of dogs that had attacked me twice before, but I did notice that the biggest one wore a muzzle – that’s already better than back in August. Back then D had commented that she loudly shouts “no” when a dog charges towards her. I did follow the advice and guess what? It worked. Thanks D, you most likely saved me from another bite.

Shortly after coming back home Niamh plundered my wallet and set off towards Killarney with Lola for a girls’ day out in the shops, leaving Daddy behind to look after the boys. Which would be easier if that didn’t include a toddler who hasn’t quite got the hang of the toilet yet. I guess the challenges aren’t just confined to the road.

12 Jan: 20 miles, 2:45, 8:15 pace, avg. HR 149
13 Jan: 11 miles, 1:31, 8:16 pace, avg. HR 147

Contrasts

It’s business as usual, the weather changes from day to day, and every good day has to be paid off with a bad one. The contrast was never so stark as in Wednesday and Thursday.

I went to bed with some trepidation on Tuesday night because the storm outside was getting worse and worse. But when the alarm went off at 5:30 on Wednesday morning and I looked out of the window, I could not have been more surprised. A perfect night sky with a brilliant moon awaited me. It was like once of those runs under the moon light I enjoyed so much last year, and which I really treasure in my memory. I definitely missed those this winter, and I very much enjoyed it. Even the running effort seemed easier. I repeated the same workout I had done 7 days earlier with 2 loops around the devil’s elbow, which should be around 14 miles. I checked the map website and it came up with 14.2, but let’s not be too nerdy about the distance. I ran at an easy effort, but upped the pace a bit over the last 3 miles. It was a really enjoyable run.

But boy did I have to pay for it today. The weather had turned once more, and the weather warnings of “gale force winds and severe gale force winds” were certainly no exaggeration. Apart from severely hampering my ability to run a good workout the storms also knocked out electricity all over the country, caused plenty of local flooding and sunk a fishing boat off the Wexford coast, tragically killing all 5 crew members (those fishing accidents seem to be happening at an alarming frequency in the last 2 years. Or is that just my perception). Anyway, I tried to have a 3/4 effort tempo run, but once more didn’t quite succeed. Running against the wind and rain was as hard as running up a steep hill, and it completely killed my pace. After fighting the elements for what had seemed a very long time I turned around to have the storms blow me home, but I didn’t quite succeed in getting the effort up to the desired level. These tempo efforts are a bit hit-and-miss from me, but I do usually get one good tempo run per week, just not always on the day I had planned. When I got home I was thoroughly frustrated, not only because the weather had interfered with my running, the wind had kept blowing the earphone from my ears. This really pissed my off so much that not even swearing loudly helped to vent my frustration.

The weather forecast for tomorrow isn’t exactly great, but at least the worst of the storm is behind us. It will still be very gusty, but I’m planning to do 20 miles no matter what, and I’m looking forward to a proper long run. I haven’t run more than about 17.5 miles since the marathon, and it is high time to get into the 20s. After all, that’s just half the distance of the ultra in April. Blimey, that’s only 11-and-a-half weeks away. Better get going!

10 Jan: 14 miles, 2:02, 8:42 pace, avg. HR 144
11 Jan: 8.25 miles, 1:01, 7:23 pace, avg. HR 159

Ugh

Marc asked a question about my scheduling. Well, for the time being I'm increasing my mileage by about 5 miles/week, and the long run by 2 miles/week, and each week is planned around those parameters. I will continue to do this until I'm around 75 miles, and from then on I intend to run 60-90-60-120-60-120/180-90 minutes each and every week (that's from Lydiard's book) "for as long as possible". If that seems to become too easy I might increase my mileage to pacify Mike and Andrew, but to be honest I doubt it. I might include a hill phase, but I haven't come to a decision yet. That's most of the plan. I don't think I'll be doing much speedwork, if any. I'm training for an ultra, and speed won't be on top of my agenda.

Phil, on the other hand, was more concerned about my far-North geographical location and the cold weather that goes with it. Rest easy, Phil, not only do we get mild winters because we live right beside the sea, we are also bang in the middle of where the Gulf stream hits, thus raising the average temperature to a much higher level than other areas at the same latitude. At the moment the temperatures in the morning are generally around 8C/46F, but that's not taking wind chill into account.

Yesterday the weather Gods had some mercy on us, and while it was very windy, it didn't rain at all during the whole run. I still got wet, because one of the flooded sections in the road that I had encountered the day before was still flooded, and my feet got wet and cold. At least I only had to cross it once on my way around the water witch. And while you should never compare workouts with previous runs, I couldn't resist and look at last week's logs. Yesterday I ran the whole loop 90 seconds faster than the week before, and I don't think I ran any harder. The weather was nicer, but I do think that my conditioning is on the way back up again, and my recovery from the marathon is basically complete. Sunday's race might have had a positive effect on my legs, too.

To describe today's condition, let's just quote from the weather station, shall we? "Stormy over much of the country today, with damaging gusts of 100 to 130 km/h, but not quite so windy in northern parts. Widespread showers of rain or hail, with scattered thunderstorms, and some heavy downpours. Highest temperatures of 8 C to 11 C.

Severe Wind Warning
Gale force southwest winds through Munster, much of Leinster and possibly parts of South Connaught with damaging gusts of 120 Km/h in places."

For once they were right. Kerry is part of Munster, and we took the full force. I have never run in such a heavy wind. I didn't even dare running in the wood because I was afraid of falling branches, and preferred to battle the elements out in the open. I can tell you, when the wind blows the rain into your face at such force, it hurts. On the other hand it was much easier after the turn-around point; I was practically sailing home. Then, back home and in the shower I noticed some minor damage to the skin on various parts of my body. I'll spare you the details, but next time the conditions are as bad as that, I will change two things: I will wear long sleeves, and I will wear a second set of underwear. Let's leave it at that.

6 Dec: 6.75 miles, 55:45, 8:15 pace, avg. HR 155
7 Dec: 9 miles, 1:13, 8:06 pace, avg. HR 161, included 7x100 strides