River Deep Mountain High

Once more, it was time for something different. last Saturday I had met Gary at the parkrun, and afterwards he asked me if I wanted to join him on a trail run the following weekend where he could show me round the local trail options.

Of course I said yes immediately.

The only slight problem is, Gary is a 2:30 marathon runner. In fact, if you search for the Top Irish marathon performances for 2017 at the AAI website, you will see his name there as the 19th fastest Irish marathon runner that year. Which means that he would have to slow down for me to keep up - and even so, his easy pace is probably closer to my tempo pace, and at times I'm sure he wasn't even aware that I had to work to keep up with him when he was just jogging along.

Anyway, we met a 9:30 in Shankill and immediately went uphill, and uphill, and uphill, and the up a bit further. On the plus side, teh views were amazing. On the downside I was fairly quickly wondering how long I'd be able to keep going. My climbing legs have completely gone awol this year, undoubted related to a distinct lack of climbing after I moved away from the Windy Gap, which did not help.

However, eventually I managed to settle into the effort and we made decent progress, though I'm not sure how Gary would have seen it. Going through a wood past Enniskerry the footing became very tricky and we had to climb under-over fallen logs, cross a couple of streams and not mind too much the drop to our right on a tiny trail. All that was fine. The horror came on the road in form of teh climb up to Glencullen. I know a few cars that wouldn't make it up that hill, and for a while I wasn't sure if I would either.

Well, I did make it up there, but form then on my legs were gone, and on each following climb Gary ran away on his own and had to circle back at the top waiting for me to catch up. Also, his repeated announcements of "yet another lovely climb" started to sound a bit less lovely with each repeat. And as for the "all downhill from here ..."

Anyway, I survived the run, but was grateful for the lift home because I didn't particularly care for the additional 4 miles run home. I guess we'll do it again. I've always been a sucker for punishment.

20 Nov

4.67 miles, 37:52, 8:06 pace, HR 145

21 Nov

10.21 miles, 1:28:32, 8:40 pace, HR 142

22 Nov

7.2 miles, 1:05:07, 9:02 pace, HR 134

23 Nov

10.2 miles, 1:27:03, 8:32 pace, HR 144

24 Nov

8.5 miles, 1:13:20, 8:37 pace, HR 141

25 Nov

15.87 miles, 2:33:39, 9:40 pace, HR 143

   mountain run with Gary

26 Nov

6.33 miles, 59:37, 9:25 pace, HR 128

   VERY easy recovery run

Sharpening

With Berlin getting close, the time had come to take some action.

First of all, I finally booked flight and accommodation. I'm not entirely sure why I left it so late. Before Irdning I tried to focus on just that race and not even think of anything else but it then took me almost 2 months to look ahead towards Berlin. Anyway, despite being late I managed to snag some reasonably cheap flights and beds.

The other thing is that I'm trying to somewhat sharpen up beforehand. It's a very simple program from MC. Easy / faster / longer, and repeat. The main problems so far are that 1) I run too hard on my easy days and 2) I run too hard on my faster days and 3) I run too far on my long(-ish) days.

I just need to stop trying to be clever. For my easy day this morning I thought it might be a good idea to scout out the trail from the promenade towards Bray Head. I've run up the Eastern slope a few times and wanted to see what's it like from the other side. Well, wouldn't you believe it, the thing is bloody steep, so steep that any notions of "easy" got lost very quickly. Ah well. At least I know what's it like now. And which turn NOT to take, unless you like climbing precariously and end up bushwhacking for a bit.

Yesterday was an interesting route, via the road to Greystones and back on the cliff walk, with a couple of miles on the beach added for supposed fun. The beach section actually wasn't all that much fun, too soft in places and the sidewards slope made my knees hurt, so I'll leave that out in future. And I had estimated this to be about 12 miles and got caught out when it was over 14. As it turns out, 12 would have just about been enough to tire me out and the last 2-3 were a bit of a struggle on tired legs and out of energy.

Ok, I better get that right, and quickly. Easy days easy. Faster days at the prescribed effort. And relax on the long days. And maybe keep the exploring for another time.

15 Aug

4.95 miles, 40:31, 8:11 pace, HR 152

16 Aug

4.95 miles, 38:11, 7:49 pace, HR 156

   3 miles @ 7:22 pce, HR 163

17 Aug

4.8 miles, 38:52, 8:05 pace, HR 151

18 Aug

14.16 miles, 2:12:22, 9:20 pace, HR 148

   beach section & Cliff walk trail

19 Aug

5.75 miles, 1:00:52, 10:35 pace, HR 140

   Bray Head

Plateau

In the early stages of the week I couldn't make up my mind if I was recovering properly from the mountain or not. The legs sure felt a lot better on Monday than they had on Sunday but for some reason the HR was a little bit higher even though the effort had felt easier. But the difference was so
small I didn't think any more about it - these things can be affected by all kinds of external factors and we're talking about very minor blips here.

Tuesday was similar, the legs felt pretty much fully recovered but the HR was just a tad higher than I would have wanted.

At that point I decided I was overthinking the whole thing. A HR difference of one single beat is nothing, that's a rounding error. I might have hit a bit of a plateau at the moment but this happens. I'm taking it a bit easier right now anyway.

I did feel up to another trip up the Windy Gap. I have a rather long run on schedule for Saturday, so one climb would have to do. The legs felt a bit funny starting out but once I hit the steep slopes I pushed the effort a bit and they responded immediately. The weather was quite nice again, I had a good view towards the Reeks and my new mate Carrauntoohil, and Windy Gap just being Gap, really.

And on Thursday it was back on the road again. There was no trace of fatigue in the legs but I made sure to take it very, very easy anyway, with my eyes firmly fixed on Saturday.

17 Apr

7 miles, 54:16, 7:45 pace, HR 144

18 Apr

7 miles, 54:10, 7:44 pace, HR 143

19 Apr

10.7 miles, 1:31:12, 8:31 pace, HR 148

   Windy Gap

20 Apr

7 miles, 54:55, 7:51 pace, HR 141

Up

Ah well, I guess the form curve can't always point steeply upwards when you're in training ...

Actually, scratch that. Looks like it can.

Cian playing at a concert last Sunday

Alright, I've had a few days of rather heavy legs after the weekend but by now they have bounced back and the numbers are getting higher once again and so far there seems to be no ceiling in sight, unless I just jinxed myself with that last sentence.

It got a little bit better with every passing day, and after three easy days I felt sufficiently recovered to head back up Windy Gap once more this morning, this time carrying on over the pass itself and dropping down towards Glenbeigh before turning around for a second climb. It certainly lived up to its name today; the ascent from the Caragh lake side was one of my slowest and the one from Glenbeigh close to my personal best without even trying, but that one felt assisted by a magic hand relentlessly pushing me up. A little bit of wind is part of all the fun of course but I appreciated it being a dry morning. I bought new trail running shoes after my old ones had more or less fallen apart in Aherlow last September, a pair of Asics Tambora, the main draw being that they seem to be okay for both road and trail, but which probably comes with the drawback that they won't excel in slippery wet conditions. I guess I'll find out eventually.

Getting the right pair of shoes for trail running seems to be much trickier than for road running. I have worn dozens of different shoes from all kinds of brands on the road and was comfortable with almost all of them but neither of the 2 off-road shoes I've used so far (Inov-8 Talon and Inov-8 Terrafly) have been quite what I have been looking for. Let's see how the new ones work out, so far so good.

10 Apr

7 miles, 57:05, 8:09 pace, HR 135

11 Apr

7 miles, 55:34, 7:56 pace, HR 136

12 Apr

12+ miles, 1:50:07, 9:08 pace, HR 145

   Windy Gap

And It's The Back Again

On Monday morning I got up at the usual time and got ready for my run. Things were progressing like they do every other morning, me mostly on autopilot, until the point where I put on my socks (which happens just before going out, I do potter around bare feet before that). Just as I was balancing on my left leg to put on my right sock, just like I have done hundreds of times before, I felt like being stabbed in my lower back and for an instant a massive pain wave shot through my body.

This has happened before. In fact, this one wasn't the worst. Once it had hurt so badly I basically blacked out from sheer pain for a split second, so this was a mild one in comparison. I still manged to somewhat bend over, carefully, and put the sock on, and managed the shoes as well.

Running doesn't aggravate my lower back, so I went out for the run just like normal. In fact, it helped. Once the endorphins kicked in, the back was much more bearable.

In the office later that day I was uncomfortable rather than in pain. I managed to go to Yoga as well, and apart from the back no feeling quiet right when attempting a handstand (against the wall, don't get excited!) it was just fine. It was a bit better on Tuesday and another bit better on Wednesday, so I guess this will go away once more soon enough, but I know that there is some weakness somewhere and it does manifest itself in my lower back far more often than I would like.

The view from Windy Gap - not today, though

Anyway, like I said, I kept on running as if nothing had happened. Easy runs on Monday and Tuesday felt good and the legs seem to have gotten over Saturday's overenthusiastic pace very quickly, so I dared to head for the trails on Wednesday morning and went up Windy Gap for the first time this year. I didn't push the effort and running up to the Gap itself was challenging enough but I got through it in once piece and was actually quite pleased by how well it had gone. The light was still quite low. the overcast sky not helping, in the so there was not much of a view to be had, but that's not why I had gone up there anyway.

Running mountain trails has proven to be a very effective training tool in the past, even when preparing for a totally flat race, so I'll keep doing that. The Gap hasn't seen the last of me.

3 Apr

7+ miles, 57:01, 8:05 pace, HR 138

4 Apr

7 miles, 54:26, 7:46 pace, HR 142

5 Apr

10.7 miles, 1:35:38, 8:56 pace, HR 145

   Windy Gap

It's A Long Way To Tipperary

When the coach put a 40 mile training run onto my schedule, I had nightmare visions of stumbling around the local countryside on my own for hours and hours. Thankfully, I spotted the Glen of Aherlow Ultra race on some calendar, by some miracle on the same weekend that my coach had targeted. Even the coach agreed this was perfect. The race was 39.3 miles over 3 loops, though half and full marathon races were on as well, with a later start.

However, the timing around real-life issues was less than perfect. I'm in the middle of a training course at work that I found much more mentally demanding than expected and I was drained of energy every evening, The exam is on Monday - crikey! Add to that a bout of teenage drama at home and my mind wasn't exactly in the base place.

Getting up at 4am had Niamh worried but for once I decided to follow my own ideas. The drive to Tipperary was fairly uneventful, apart from finding out that the road between Mallow and Mitchelstown was closed and required a detour but thankfully I had a few minutes spare and still arrived on time.

Apart from the long miles ahead of me, I was pretty much out of my comfort zone because this was a trail race and I am very much a road runner! However, the IMRA have a reputation for being open and friendly, though they could do with making information a bit easier to come by. I only found out on Friday night that a rain jacket is required gear no matter what the weather forecast says and in general I found it very hard to get any info about that race.

Never mind, I was there. I had less time than anticipated and jogged half of the mile from the race HQ to the actual start so as not to be late, which was the first time ever I did a warm-up before an ultra.

I was under strict instructions to take it easy, REALLY easy, on the first loop. The race starts straight away with 3 miles of steep climbing. The fast guys took 5 minutes to disappear out of view, after which my competitive instincts realised they were unwelcome today and disappeared entirely (not that I would have had a hope to compete at the front anyway). A couple of looks at the HRM told me unfailingly that I was working much harder than it felt, even when I was genuinely trying to run as slowly as I could, and eventually I joined into everyone else's spirit and walked the steeper parts, though that still had the HR at a higher level than I would have preferred,

On top of the ridge I was in a group of 4. The footing was very tricky for well over 2 miles, which is the part that bad been described as "the awkward section", and yes, it really was awkward. I was glad I was in my trail runners, I don't know if I would have made it through in slippery road runners. After a long while, when we were already wondering why we had not seen any markers for quite some time, we came out to the first aid station at the road crossing and the second part of the loop was much more runnable. I (inadvertently) dropped my companions over the next few rolling miles, passing another aid station and then dropping for a few miles over various different surfaces back towards the finish area. I ran together with Gabhain and Stephen, though the latter pulled away before we go back to the start area.

Photo by the MMRA

We all picked a different strategy for the big climb of the second loop and straight away walked most of it, though my HR was still way over 150! The sun came out and it got actually rather hot, so I was glad I now carried a bottle with me, in contrast to the first loop. I also took on a few extra calories and after a while they must have kicked in because running eventually became much easier and I definitely started to enjoy it a lot more. There was a turn-off towards the right about 4 miles in which I did not remember from the first loop, but wavered between spotting places that looked familiar and thinking that I had not been along this route before. I was pretty sure that things were different this time round when I got to a jeep road that was very runnable, because in the first loop the miles towards the first aid station had been a horrible scramble through muck. This was confirmed when I reached the aid station from the jeep road; I could see the trail where I had emerged from the first time round. I talked to the  guys manning the aid station who thought that I must have take the long way round in the first loop but looking at my GPS I didn't think so. Anyway, they told me to go on and not to worry about it.

The next few miles seemed strangely unfamiliar again, except that this time I was pretty sure I must have run along here before as the markers were so obvious. The legs felt surprisingly good but I still took it very easy, there was no point killing myself in a training run and messing up the training for the Euros. However, I was cruising along at a decent enough pace, even if the HR was still much higher than I would have thought. I eventually caught up with Stephen, a lot later than I would have expected. I told him the same story about that missed turn in the first loop, though dismissed his suggestion that keeping quiet was an option. So when we got to the start area once more, I talked to the officials there. I estimated I had cut off about half a mile, maybe a tad more, though with the awful footing on that section the time difference was probably not that great. I did offer to run an extra out-and-back bit but they eventually told me to just carry on on my third loop and not do anything about it for now, so go onto the third loop I did.

This kept playing on my mind, though I tried to put it away and just get on with the race and actually enjoy it. I'm used to pushing as hard as I can on races, even very scenic ones, which leaves very little scope to actually look around and take in the views, so this made a nice difference (however, the views were not as good as in Kerry - sorry!). The sun was still shining, which would have been an issue had I been racing as it would have provided much scope for suffering, but at my much lower effort today this was much more manageable. It also provided the benefits of somewhat drying out the mucky trail and footing actually became slightly better. The legs did feel the effort of over 30 miles on unaccustomed territory but overall I was feeling better than expected, really. I started passing a lot of runners, though I think they were all marathon runners on their second loop. At the aid station the marshall asked if I was an ultra runner (they kept notes to make sure nobody was missing), while calling the other runner "ordinary", which was a bit harsh - he was still doing a rather tough trail marathon!

I was a bit worried about my shoes - I wasn't 100% sure if they'd fall apart before the finish.

I think my shoes have had it

Catching up with and passing about a dozen runners made for a fun game for the last few miles which passed the time. I was still feeling good, though I started to stumble over rocks with increased frequency, every time just about managing to avoid a fall, close as it was a few times. When that happened after about 35 miles a spasm shot through my calves - I was heading towards cramping territory again, though I only had a few miles left, most of them downhill, so I never had to deal with actual cramps. In fact, when we left the trail for about half a mile on the road I could feel the muscles relax and managed to do some actual running at a decent clip - smelling the barn undoubtedly helped. Then I got to the end, reminded them once more about my missed turn on loop 1 but they told me to just finish and leave it at that.

I just managed to sneak under 7 hours - my slowest 39 mile race by over an hour, though with all the others having been road races that doesn't mean much. The winner, Barry Hartnett, had only taken just over 5 hours - that is just mind boggling, an absolutely outstanding performance!

Yes, I think my shoes have had it

Actually, partially to make up for the lost distance, and partially because the coach had originally written down 40 miles, I jogged the extra mile back from the race finish to the village, which means I got a cool down as well, a first for an ultra. I got a much harsher second cool down as well because the showers only had freezing cold water! They more than made up for that with the delicious post-race beef casserole (I had a second helping) followed by some cheesecake. It's a shame I had to decline the free beer as I was driving straight back home.

Obviously I would have preferred not to have taken a shortcut, accidentally as it was. I find it amazing that all 4 of us in that group missed the markers - of course it meant the first runner missed it and everyone else just followed blindly. The organiser were a lot more relaxed about it than me - I guess because I was not in the running for any prizes it did not matter all that much and I think the IMRA are a more relaxed organisation anyway. Anyway, if you fancy a few hours on lovely trails and excellent organisation, and don't mind getting dirty, this race is well worth checking out.

17 Sep

Glen of Aherlow Ultra

39.3 miles, 6:58:53, 5th place, avg HR 144

A Different Stimulus

Very deliberately, this week's training was very different to the previous three. After a bout of heavy endurance training I am now trying to give the body a different stimulus.

The first few days were all about recovery; (almost) 3 marathons in a row are bound to leave some fatigue in the legs and while I might be flirting with overtraining I'm obviously trying not to overstep the mark. Once I felt better, which happened sooner than expected, I did a few extra things: first there were hill sprints on Thursday, which went reasonably well and doesn't ever seem to cause soreness the following days, no matter how sore the legs are for the rest of the day itself. After a few I start to get some tightness in the chest about 20 or 30 seconds after the sprint itself and I start to feel nauseous, which is generally the signal to pack it in for the day.

I followed this up with a parkrun on Saturday. It's been almost a year since my first and up-to-now only appearance at a parkrun. Back then I had gone with eldest daughter Lola but that was also the day I started feeling my injury, though I'm fairly sure the parkrun itself had a very minor role in this. This time round Lola declined my invitation and I went off on my own. With Alan in attendance, who had a few years ago paced 3:15 in Cork with me but who has gotten amazingly good since then, nobody else needed to worry about winning finishing first, but that was never my goal anyway, I ran at slightly below race effort, though it was still enough to put some pain on. I finished in exactly 19 minutes on my watch on a rolling course, though they took a second off in the official results, which gave me a sub-19, not that that is anything to write home about.

Despite some hesitation if it really was a good idea, I added a few more miles in the afternoon, and to ensure that the effort would remain very easy I did it on the treadmill, despite the sunshine outside.

I did manage to soak up plenty of rays on Sunday morning to make up for that by running on the mountainy Kerry Way trail over Windy Gap into Glenbeigh and then back again for a second climb, Since the legs left me in no doubt that the race parkrun had left its mark I kept the effort as easy as possible, though "easy" is relative on a mile-long climb that averages 17%.

The mileage has been fairly low this week due to the recovery part. I'm going to crank this up again but will try and make sure it will be done mostly at easy effort. Belfast is only 5 weeks away. There are really only 2 weeks of proper training left!

My left knee is a little bit sore. Not bad but obviously I don't want it to get any worse. I'll take it easy on the squats and the other S&C training for a bit.

19 May

7 miles, 1:03:35, 9:05 pace, HR 137, hill sprints

20 May

am: 8 miles, 1:02:58, 7:52 pace, HR 143

pm: 4 miles, 34:11, 8:32 pace, HR 130, treadmill

21 May

am: ~7 miles, including Killarney parkrun in 18:59, 6:12 pace, HR 173 (3rd place)

pm: 5 miles, 44:33, 8:54 pace, HR 136, treadmill

22 May

12+ miles, 1:54:45, 9:27 pace, HR 143, Windy Gap

Weekly Mileage: 68

Support

I sure cannot complain about the help I've been getting recently. I have Derek's expert advice on how to deal with the injury, recently I got a phone call from Gerry Duffy no less, making suggestions about fitness gains from cycling (he's been there himself) and MC is still keeping an eye on my training as well.

I just checked through my running log for the year and the last time I had done an interval workout was back in March! Obviously that's not ideal but I required a very long recovery period after the championships and then I got injured - in fact, the very workouts that caused my injury, the hill drills, were supposed to get the leg muscles ready for some fast work. MC sent me an email with the suggestion of doing some longer intervals with the aim of increasing my efficiency. There is no doubt that my efficiency is in dire need of improvement, right now I am running a minute slower than before my injury, at the same effort level and HR! Still, I was a bit apprehensive of running 2 minutes faster than normal, not because the pace would have scared me but because I did not know how my hip would react.

The prescribed pace was certainly nothing to write home about - 2 years ago that had been my marathon race pace! Straining to run the same pace for half mile repeats drove home the message how much I have regressed, but then again I get that same message on every single run at the moment, and I very much expect decent gains to come quickly (that's the advantage of being at the bottom!). 4 x 800 is not much of a workout, especially as I kept the recovery long as well (another half mile), but that kind of work need to be introduced gently. The plan was to run 6:30-6:40 pace. I struggled with pace judgement early on, but that improved quickly. As for the actual paces I ran, there's some confusion. The Suunto website, where the data got uploaded initially, mentions lap paces of 6:31, 6:36, 6:35, 6:32, but the same data in strava gets reported as 6:31, 6:30, 6:27, 6:23. I did not keep a close eye on the numbers when I was doing the workout but from what I saw the numbers on the watch were matching the strava figures; why Suunto's watch would report quite different numbers than their website I don't know. Obviously it doesn't matter much - it's the training effect that counts but my geeky maths OCD self is a bit thrown by those contradictory numbers.

Derek had suggested running on no more than 3 consecutive days, so I was already pushing my luck with 5 straight days as it was! However, since the hip is getting better by the day, even after sitting in the office chair for too many hours, I think I can get away with a little bit more. However, having to drive to Killarney early Friday morning provided a decent excuse to take a rest day (I still cycled).

After that rest day I did once again push my luck over the weekend. I headed up towards the Kerry way on Saturday morning, intending to get a few climbs into my legs for the first time in ages to start building some much-needed leg strength but had all the best intentions of taking it easy. Well, the effort was easy, I can still attest to that, but the longer I ran the better I felt so when I reached the trail junction towards Windy Gap I indeed started heading upwards, curious to see how long I would last. Well. I lasted until the very top and even then I wasn't particularly tired. The hip never bothered me in the slightest, which was a major plus. I took it even easier on the descent to protect my hip and ran home. I did the homewards leg mostly on autopilot, which meant I can't have been very tired.

The hip was perfectly fine initially but I started feeling it about 6 hours after that run. Not bad, but noticeable. As a result I ditched any fancy notions of running around the lake on Sunday and did 2 loops through Killorglin instead, which gave me the option of going home early if my hip was acting up. Turns out the hip was fine but the quads were a bit achy right from the start, obviously a result from yesterday's sojourn, and never got better. By mile 10 I was rather tired, by mile 12 I started feeling the hip, once again not bad but noticeable, but by then I was on my way home anyway. The last few miles dragged a bit, but that was part of the plan anyway. A little bit of suffering is good.

This was a decent enough week, but compared to what I would have done without the injury it was still minimal. My hip feels fine, it's the loss of fitness that is my biggest problem. I still have a few weeks to make some gains - not enough to catch up but I'll see what can be done.

20 Aug

7.5 miles, incl 4 x 800 @ 6:31, 6:30, 6:27, 6:23 pace

22 Aug

11+ miles, 1:45:48, 9:26 pace, HR 148

   Windy Gap

23 Aug

15+ miles, 2:11:24, 8:45 pace, HR 141

Pleasantly Tired

With the back-to-back marathons still only a week ago I had a fairly low mileage weekend. I wasn't even remotely tempted by the 3-in-2 weekend in Ballina, but kudos to all who did that one. I opted for a couple of back-to-back workouts instead.

After an easy Friday I was ready for a few faster miles on Saturday. Normally that would have meant a 10 mile loop through Killorglin with 8 miles at tempo pace, but we had a yellow wind warning and the strong gale force winds would have meant 5 miles where 6-minute miles would have felt reasonably easy and 5 miles home where 8-minute miles would have been a challenge, so I opted for a different workout.

The Ard-na-Sidhe road always provides a little bit of shelter, at the very least it takes the worst of the sting out of the wind. It is just over a mile long which makes it suitable for mile repeats but it's not particularly flat which makes it a bit more challenging. I ran 2 miles in each direction, with the odd numbered ones with the wind but slightly uphill and the even numbered ones against the wind but slightly downhill, though the wind was so strong that it definitely had a greater effect than the gradient that day.

6:13 (168), 6:19 (171), 6:17 (170), 6:18 (166)

I got the first two slightly wrong by running too hard, especially towards the end, but the last two felt just spot on, just the right intensity level I wanted to hit. I don't do a lot of speedwork, usually just 2 or 3 sessions closer to a race when I want to sharpen up, and I never try to give it my all. Running their speed workouts too hard is one of the most common mistakes runners make and I generally try to avoid falling into the same trap myself.

The legs definitely felt the effort for the rest of the day and I binned an eventual second run that day. Playing with the kids was a better way to spend the Saturday in every regard possible.

On Sunday I ran up to Windy Gap again. It was an unexpectedly beautiful day, even if it was still fairly cold and windy nearer the top of the mountain, as the name implies. Two weeks ago I had felt like dying on that climb so I decided to run up once and see how I would feel, and only if all systems were green would I descend into Glenbeigh and tackle the mountain once more from the other side. I was actually surprised by how well I felt (I was tired but nothing like last time), so I did indeed do the second climb, alright. I didn't particularly push the effort, there is no need to do so on such a prolonged and very steep climb, and once more felt okay when I reached the top, though I was not at all tempted to add a third repeat.

The mileage over the weekend was only just a touch over 20 miles, which I'm sure is a lot less than most or all of my fellow competitors have been doing, but I feel more tired than if I had done a long run today. I did 52 miles last weekend and I'll do another marathon next week, so the long runs are there as well; this time was more a "quality" based weekend, though I hate that term.

I was still recovering from Limerick this week. Next week will see bigger mileage again.

6 Mar

8 miles, 1:02:54, 7:59 pace, HR 143

7 Mar

8.25 miles, 1:01:32, 7:27 pace, HR 155

   incl 4 x 1 miles in 6:13 (168), 6:19 (171), 6:17 (170), 6:18 (166)

8 Mar

12.15 miles, 1:53:54, 9:22 pace, HR 147

   Windy Gap x 2

Weekly Mileage: 61+

Life, Real

By Monday I was very happy with my training and how my fitness was developing. The miles just flew by and felt rather effortlessly and the slightly faster pace over the weekend did not seem to have any lasting effects.

Real life has a habit of interfering with running life, which is just unavoidable for any amateur in sports, I suppose (actually, professionals aren’t immune either). For a change it wasn’t one or more of my 4 children that caused issues but my work life. A very long daytrip required a very early start, and even though I cut the run to a mere 5 miles, pretty much the minimum for me, I still had to get up at 5 am. A rather long day later I arrived home late and as tired as can be expected.

The legs felt rather sluggish on Wednesday morning, but they often do that at the start of any run. With the way my schedule has evolved I tend to do head up into the mountains on Wednesday and I did not think a few sluggish legs would cause any more trouble than usual. Trying to learn from my mistake last week, this time I brought a headlamp, but it turned out to be surprisingly useless. It was perfectly adequate on the road but as soon as I hit the trail I experienced for the first time myself what I had read about plenty of times from other nightly trail runners, namely that a headlamp does not provide any depth perception and therefore I was still unable to properly make out the uneven surface. Cue plenty of stumbles and slow pace and one painful twist of the ankle, basically a repeat of last week. The situation actually improved significantly when I finally turned off the lamp because then I got a better feel for the surroundings than when I had focused on that tiny speck of light bobbing in front of me. I guess I need to move the trail run to the weekend, when I tend to run later during the day in much better conditions.

The steep climb up to Windy Gap seemed to feel worse than usual, though I keep thinking that every single time. However, this time I really started to struggle early; by the time I reached the top I was not just exhausted but lightheaded as well. I think a lack of fueling from the day before had come back to bite me. I did consider turning around but I tend to be stubborn and thick headed so I proceeded with the original plan and headed down towards Glenbeigh before turning around at the gate to climb back up. Someone pointed out that “you can literally see the horned evil of the hill” in the elevation profile, which had me giggle. The way I see it, every climb up that hill will get me another place in the championships next year -  at least that’s what I keep telling myself to keep me going when the legs turn to lead and the lungs are filled with acid and I’m still only halfway up the hill. Surprisingly, the second climb felt better than the first one despite being longer and on even more tired legs, and I seemed to improve as the miles ticked by. Funny how that works, sometimes.

--

I filled in a race registration form for next February, and for the first time had to put “45” into the “age at race day” field. That’s right, I’ll be in a new age group category soon. It might make it easier to pick up some geezer prizes, or it may not. However, a few years ago I sure expected to be very much on the way downhill at such an advanced age, with maybe just an eye on some age-group PBs because my “young” ones were out of reach by now. I’m very happy to say that day has not arrived yet, all my PBs are fairly recent (at least for distances I have raced recently) and I sure haven’t given up on improving any of them just yet.

22 Sep

11.3 miles, 1:27:08, 7:43 pace, HR 140

23 Sep

5 miles, 38:35, 7:34 pace, HR 139

24 Sep

12.3 miles, 1:54:58, 9:21 pace, HR 148

Windy Gap x 2

What A Thing To Train For

Well, plenty of comments on my last post and not one of them contained Rory McIlroy kind of abuse, great :). What struck a chord was "what a thing to train for" as well as "Unreal that you have the chance to run for any country", which is absolutely true.

I very vividly remember my 4:36 marathon in Belfast in 2005 (though there were some minor mitigating circumstances) when the thought of ever running a sub-3 marathon seemed less likely than reaching the Moon one day, and a 3 hour marathon still only leaves you in the "club runner" category. To actually have a realistic chance of being selected to represent your country is just ... wow!

I actually try not to think too hard about it. I am actually fairly confident that I will indeed get selected (I think only 3 Austrian men have the national A-limit this year and I'm one of them), but what if I get injured or sick? Better not to dwell on it. My injury history is pretty damn good, in fact I don't know any other runner who gets injured less (and no, I didn't just curse myself, I've been saying that for years already) and I very rarely seem to get sick either, so I guess my chances of indeed standing on the start line for the Big Boys' dance are looking good.

I hope I won't wake up any time now and it was all just one rather elaborate dream. Mind, if it is then it's been going on for quite some time now.

Anyway, recovery from Dingle has been going rather well. Running 50 miles over a very hilly course is a serious enough undertaking but I seemed to have taken it in my stride. The pace over the weekend has already gone sub-8 for an easy run, though I made very sure to run very easily on Monday, just in case. I certainly could not feel any ill-effects on Tuesday, but the mountain run on Wednesday did not go entirely without a hitch. Despite the forecast of a beautiful warm sunny day it was very overcast and as a result much darker than expected. It wasn't a problem on the approach roads, but as soon as I hit the trail it became an issue. Visibility was poor enough for me not to spot a few holes and I got a fair amount of rather unexpected bumps. The steep climb up to Windy Gap itself felt as hard as ever, but with the footing being so unsure it is hard say how much of the fairly slow pace was down to heavy legs and how much just to visibility. Anyway, I got up and down without any falls, which is probably as good as it gets on a day like this. I had been intending on doing these mountain runs all through winter, weather allowing, but for future runs I will either have to bring a headlamp or I'll have to move them to the weekend when I tend to run a couple of hours later and light conditions are bound to be much better.

15 Sep

10 miles, 1:20:34, 8:03 pace, HR 136

16 Sep

10 miles, 1:18:49, 7:52 pace, HR 142

17 Sep

10.8 miles, 1:33:01, 8:36 pace, HR 145

   Windy Gap