I’ve run in worse conditions. Once. When it was hail stoning. While it wasn’t as bad as that, Wednesday’s weather was still rather appalling. Hurricane Gordon has come and gone, and in his wake, Hurricane Helene brought some more wind and rain – lots of it. Of course they aren’t hurricanes any more by the time they’ve crossed the Atlantic, but they are still powerful enough to root out trees – and, more importantly, to interfere with my training. I woke up several times during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday and kept listening to the storms outside. As much as I hoped they would abate by 6 am in the morning, that didn’t happen. So, out I went to fight the elements. After all, I can’t postpone a speed workout, can I? I can’t even think what the few drivers who saw me must have been thinking, but I don’t think it was very flattering.
The workout was challenging enough as it was; 6x1200 are hard work. After the fourth repeat I wasn’t sure if I would be able to finish, but somewhere I found some extra energy, and actually managed to run the last two at higher intensity (though if they were actually faster, I don’t know). This time I didn’t wonder if I had done enough. I knew for certain. Actually, this was the first time ever I was really satisfied with my work rate at a speed session. I knew I couldn’t have run any harder, and I definitely couldn’t have run any further. My quads were sore all day. But it was a good kind of sore, the one that tells you that you’re still stressing your body, and ensures that you will improve as a result. All in all I got a great feeling of “yeah! hardcore!” out of this workout.
Today was a much more civilised affair, both from the weather and the running point of view. I did 8 fairly easy miles, in my new shoes. There is just one thing troubling me now. I never used to get blisters. Now I’ve gotten blisters on each of the last three occasions when I started a new pair of shoes. The blisters on my left instep are neither big nor particularly painful. They won’t stop me from doing 21 miles tomorrow. But they’re quite annoying.
27 Sep: 11 miles, 1:26, 7:49 pace, including 6x1200 and an ex-hurricane
28 Sep: 8.2 miles, 1:11, 8:39 pace
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
One Last Push
The marathon is getting closer and closer. There are less than 2 weeks of full training before the taper, and I’m already dreading it. I guess it makes a difference from dreading my long run. However, there is still some intense training going on before I have to rein myself in. This week is yet another 70-mile week, and while I’m more used to that kind of mileage by now, it’s still a lot of running.
I forgot to mention one thing in my last post. My team in the office usually go out for lunch every Friday, and while I was sitting in the restaurant waiting for the food, a man came towards our table and apologized to me for nearly running me over one morning “a few weeks ago”. I was totally taken aback, and instead of saying how much I appreciated this, I stupidly made a lame joke about it. In my defence, I don’t even remember any near misses. There were one or two occasions when a car went closer and faster by me than necessary, but no really hairy incidents.
I started the week with a 15 miler on Monday, which went ok, though I did feel the effect from Sunday’s time-trial in my quads. However, I’ve done so many 15 milers by now that they don’t stick out as a special effort any more. It was pitch-dark when I started out, but I could soon make out some very dark clouds, and expected to get rained on once more. By some miracle that never happened; the conditions for running are excellent at the moment. Niamh freaked out when I came home though – I had blood on my shirt from my nipples again (actually, just the right one. I must be asymmetrical). That was weird though, because I hadn’t even noticed it. It just didn’t hurt.
I’ve bought another pair of runners, this time it’s the pair I’m planning to run the marathon in; a shiny funky orange pair of Asics DS-Trainer. Niamh did question why I needed yet another pair of runners, seeing as it’s the 4th “active” pair in the cupboard now (plus a few retired ones). She kind of accepted my explanation of needing a pair especially for races, and that owning 4 pairs costs the same as 1 pair in the long term, because they last 4 times as long. She didn’t argue, just went away with a resigned kind of look on her face. I guess she’s not a runner, then. Anyway, I wore them for the first time today on my 5-mile recovery run. I did notice that they have less heel support over the first mile, but got used to it pretty quickly. I will take them out for a few more and longer runs before I make my final decision if they will become my marathon runners.
25 Sep: 15 miles, 2:01, 8:04 pace
26 Sep: 5 miles, 45:56, 9:11 pace
I forgot to mention one thing in my last post. My team in the office usually go out for lunch every Friday, and while I was sitting in the restaurant waiting for the food, a man came towards our table and apologized to me for nearly running me over one morning “a few weeks ago”. I was totally taken aback, and instead of saying how much I appreciated this, I stupidly made a lame joke about it. In my defence, I don’t even remember any near misses. There were one or two occasions when a car went closer and faster by me than necessary, but no really hairy incidents.
I started the week with a 15 miler on Monday, which went ok, though I did feel the effect from Sunday’s time-trial in my quads. However, I’ve done so many 15 milers by now that they don’t stick out as a special effort any more. It was pitch-dark when I started out, but I could soon make out some very dark clouds, and expected to get rained on once more. By some miracle that never happened; the conditions for running are excellent at the moment. Niamh freaked out when I came home though – I had blood on my shirt from my nipples again (actually, just the right one. I must be asymmetrical). That was weird though, because I hadn’t even noticed it. It just didn’t hurt.
I’ve bought another pair of runners, this time it’s the pair I’m planning to run the marathon in; a shiny funky orange pair of Asics DS-Trainer. Niamh did question why I needed yet another pair of runners, seeing as it’s the 4th “active” pair in the cupboard now (plus a few retired ones). She kind of accepted my explanation of needing a pair especially for races, and that owning 4 pairs costs the same as 1 pair in the long term, because they last 4 times as long. She didn’t argue, just went away with a resigned kind of look on her face. I guess she’s not a runner, then. Anyway, I wore them for the first time today on my 5-mile recovery run. I did notice that they have less heel support over the first mile, but got used to it pretty quickly. I will take them out for a few more and longer runs before I make my final decision if they will become my marathon runners.
25 Sep: 15 miles, 2:01, 8:04 pace
26 Sep: 5 miles, 45:56, 9:11 pace
Sunday, September 24, 2006
One Long, One Fast
The best effect from my 23-miler from 3 weeks ago is that I’m no longer nervous before a 20 mile run. Never mind the boost it gave to my fitness and my endocrine system, the most pronounced effect was to my confidence. If you candle that distance without problems in training, a 20 mile run becomes just another long run, and a marathon is just a 5k added.
Kerry got off lightly on the night from Thursday to Friday. While the rest of the country had to deal with wind speeds of up to 120 kph, we just had a bit of a breeze, and by the time I left for my run just before 5 am, even that had subsided. What hadn’t subsided was the rain, and I was completely drenched within 10 steps. For the first few miles I was cursing the Irish weather and thinking how miserable it has been all week, when all of a sudden it stopped, before I even had reached the 4-mile point. Of course it didn’t make a difference to the fact that I was completely drenched; my feet were especially wet, one section of the road had been flooded up to 2 inches high. That’s not a problem if you’re in a car, but if you’re running, you’ll have to put up with wet feet for the rest of the run. My other problem was my stomach, which felt quite queasy. When I came back to our driveway after the first 10 mile loop, I ran past the water bottle. I didn’t feel thirsty at all, and the mere thought of drinking water nearly made me throw up. I ran a 5-mile loop to Ard-na-Sidhe and back, and then forced myself to drink maybe half of the 0.5-litre water bottle. I managed to keep it all in, and made it through the last 5 mile loop as well. The legs felt rather tired by then, but then again they had covered 30 miles within the last 24 (ok, 26) hours. At least I had followed Mike’s advice and ran slower than on previous long runs; the first 5 miles had taken 44:30, and all the following ones were about 42:30. The legs thanked me for that towards the end. I weighed myself after the run, because I was worried about the amount of water I had taken in; but I had only lost 2 pounds. I did have one painful reminder for the rest of the day though: bloody nipples. Ouch.
Saturday was a rest day once again. I felt fine about that, but on Sunday morning Niamh urged me to do “something” on future Saturdays, either go for a walk, or cycling, or swimming. She thinks I get Cabin Fever if I stay in the house for 24 hours. Hmm.
The schedule for Sunday called for a “8k-15k” tune-up race, but I don’t have a race anywhere nearby, and decided to do a time trial instead. If I did 2.4 miles warm-up, 6.2 miles at race effort and 2.4 miles cool-down, that would make 11 miles, and a good speed workout to boot. I followed the plan, and even though the legs were very stiff and unresponsive during the warm-up, I felt ok as soon as the time-trial effort started. I didn’t measure the distance, but I think it’s reasonably accurate. It wasn’t the easiest of course, with three hills (well, 2 hills with one of them covered twice, once in each direction), and I was definitely hanging on during the last 2 miles, but I managed to cover the 10k in just under 42 minutes, which I was pleased about. I did notice the difference between a race and a time-trial though, my average HR was less than during the half-marathon two weeks ago. It’s just not the same without the race-day adrenaline, and without the prey to chase in your sights. Oh, and my manager at work did overtake me about 2.5 miles into the speed part. But don’t worry, he was on a bike.
Weekly mileage: 70 miles
22 Sep: 20 miles, 2:52, 8:36 pace
24 Sep: 11 miles, 1:25, 7:43 pace, with 10k in 41:57, 6:45 pace (assuming the distance was accurate, that is)
Kerry got off lightly on the night from Thursday to Friday. While the rest of the country had to deal with wind speeds of up to 120 kph, we just had a bit of a breeze, and by the time I left for my run just before 5 am, even that had subsided. What hadn’t subsided was the rain, and I was completely drenched within 10 steps. For the first few miles I was cursing the Irish weather and thinking how miserable it has been all week, when all of a sudden it stopped, before I even had reached the 4-mile point. Of course it didn’t make a difference to the fact that I was completely drenched; my feet were especially wet, one section of the road had been flooded up to 2 inches high. That’s not a problem if you’re in a car, but if you’re running, you’ll have to put up with wet feet for the rest of the run. My other problem was my stomach, which felt quite queasy. When I came back to our driveway after the first 10 mile loop, I ran past the water bottle. I didn’t feel thirsty at all, and the mere thought of drinking water nearly made me throw up. I ran a 5-mile loop to Ard-na-Sidhe and back, and then forced myself to drink maybe half of the 0.5-litre water bottle. I managed to keep it all in, and made it through the last 5 mile loop as well. The legs felt rather tired by then, but then again they had covered 30 miles within the last 24 (ok, 26) hours. At least I had followed Mike’s advice and ran slower than on previous long runs; the first 5 miles had taken 44:30, and all the following ones were about 42:30. The legs thanked me for that towards the end. I weighed myself after the run, because I was worried about the amount of water I had taken in; but I had only lost 2 pounds. I did have one painful reminder for the rest of the day though: bloody nipples. Ouch.
Saturday was a rest day once again. I felt fine about that, but on Sunday morning Niamh urged me to do “something” on future Saturdays, either go for a walk, or cycling, or swimming. She thinks I get Cabin Fever if I stay in the house for 24 hours. Hmm.
The schedule for Sunday called for a “8k-15k” tune-up race, but I don’t have a race anywhere nearby, and decided to do a time trial instead. If I did 2.4 miles warm-up, 6.2 miles at race effort and 2.4 miles cool-down, that would make 11 miles, and a good speed workout to boot. I followed the plan, and even though the legs were very stiff and unresponsive during the warm-up, I felt ok as soon as the time-trial effort started. I didn’t measure the distance, but I think it’s reasonably accurate. It wasn’t the easiest of course, with three hills (well, 2 hills with one of them covered twice, once in each direction), and I was definitely hanging on during the last 2 miles, but I managed to cover the 10k in just under 42 minutes, which I was pleased about. I did notice the difference between a race and a time-trial though, my average HR was less than during the half-marathon two weeks ago. It’s just not the same without the race-day adrenaline, and without the prey to chase in your sights. Oh, and my manager at work did overtake me about 2.5 miles into the speed part. But don’t worry, he was on a bike.
Weekly mileage: 70 miles
22 Sep: 20 miles, 2:52, 8:36 pace
24 Sep: 11 miles, 1:25, 7:43 pace, with 10k in 41:57, 6:45 pace (assuming the distance was accurate, that is)
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Gordon is Here
It looks like the present weather of rain, rain, and then some more rain is supposed to last for a few days longer. The reason for all that is what used to be Hurricane Gordon, who has by now crossed the Atlantic. It’s no longer a hurricane or a tropical storm, just miserable weather with gale force winds and lots of water. At least the wind seems to have subsided by now, but the rain is here to stay for a few days longer. Anyone interested in the Ryder Cup can see Gordon’s effect on that competition him/herself.
At least I’ve overcome my cold, despite running in the rain every single morning. I did do the planned speed work on Wednesday, 9 miles with 5x600. That didn’t seem a lot of ground covered whilst speeding, especially compared with Sunday’s 5x1000, so I added a sixth repeat, but then I definitely got the old feeling of enough is enough. As always, I’m unsure if I’m doing them at the correct intensity, but I estimate I’m doing them at roughly my 5k race pace, just as described.
Wednesday afternoon brought an unwelcome surprise; I had to fly to Dublin today for a work meeting, and then fly back to Kerry in the afternoon. I really didn’t want to, but wasn’t exactly offered a choice. It meant getting up at 5:40 to cover 6 miles before jumping into the car and driving to Kerry airport. The flights were a bit bumpy (thanks, Gordon), and the meeting was as pointless as I had predicted, making this a completely unnecessary trip. At least it meant coming home at 4:30, 90 minutes sooner than on a normal workday. I felt really stiff from sitting in airplanes and meeting rooms all day, so I decided to head out for another 4 mile recovery run, just to loosen up, and ignoring the fact that it was absolutely bucketing it down. As a matter of fact, Pfitz called for a double recovery workout anyway, so I was just following the schedule.
The second I came home I had to leave again to collect Lola from the next-door neighbour. I was still in my running clothes, and completely drenched. God know what he must have though of my appearance.
I’ve just heard that the calm winds at the moment are just the eye of the ex-hurricane. The weather forecast for tonight is pretty grim. I hope, I can still do tomorrow’s 20 miler.
20 Sep: 9 miles, 1:11, 7:54 pace, with 6x600 repeats
21 Sep am: 6 miles, 55:14, 9:12 pace
21 Sep pm: 4 miles, 33:49, 8:27 pace
At least I’ve overcome my cold, despite running in the rain every single morning. I did do the planned speed work on Wednesday, 9 miles with 5x600. That didn’t seem a lot of ground covered whilst speeding, especially compared with Sunday’s 5x1000, so I added a sixth repeat, but then I definitely got the old feeling of enough is enough. As always, I’m unsure if I’m doing them at the correct intensity, but I estimate I’m doing them at roughly my 5k race pace, just as described.
Wednesday afternoon brought an unwelcome surprise; I had to fly to Dublin today for a work meeting, and then fly back to Kerry in the afternoon. I really didn’t want to, but wasn’t exactly offered a choice. It meant getting up at 5:40 to cover 6 miles before jumping into the car and driving to Kerry airport. The flights were a bit bumpy (thanks, Gordon), and the meeting was as pointless as I had predicted, making this a completely unnecessary trip. At least it meant coming home at 4:30, 90 minutes sooner than on a normal workday. I felt really stiff from sitting in airplanes and meeting rooms all day, so I decided to head out for another 4 mile recovery run, just to loosen up, and ignoring the fact that it was absolutely bucketing it down. As a matter of fact, Pfitz called for a double recovery workout anyway, so I was just following the schedule.
The second I came home I had to leave again to collect Lola from the next-door neighbour. I was still in my running clothes, and completely drenched. God know what he must have though of my appearance.
I’ve just heard that the calm winds at the moment are just the eye of the ex-hurricane. The weather forecast for tonight is pretty grim. I hope, I can still do tomorrow’s 20 miler.
20 Sep: 9 miles, 1:11, 7:54 pace, with 6x600 repeats
21 Sep am: 6 miles, 55:14, 9:12 pace
21 Sep pm: 4 miles, 33:49, 8:27 pace
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Are we nearly tapering yet?
On each of my last three marathons, I have faced pretty much the same problem during my taper: I got sick. Before Belfast it was a stomach bug, before the 3-country marathon I had a cold, and before Connemara I caught whatever bug was going round the kids’ playgroup at that time. Why am I mentioning this? Firstly, because I’m already dreading getting sick during the taper again, and secondly because I’ve got a cold. It’s just a head cold, and I managed to drag myself out of the bed and onto the road every morning, but it was a struggle. I’m taking Vitamin C and Echinacea, and I tend to feel ok in the mornings (which is why I can still go out and run) and worse in the evenings (which is why I feel like crap right now). It passes the neck test, i.e. all the symptoms are at or above the neck (sore throat, stuffy nose, headache), but I really wished it went away. Or should I be glad to get it now, rather than 2 days before the marathon?
As I’ve said, my training hasn’t been affected yet. I managed 14 miles at a decent pace on Monday. In fact, I didn’t even try to run sub 8:00, especially considering that I had Sunday’s speed workout in my legs, but felt pretty good after a mile or two, when I forgot about my cold. The weather was fine for the first 12 miles, and then the heavens opened, leaving me soaked to the bones. Which isn’t the best thing to happen when you’ve got a cold already, but at least I was close to home at that point. The weather got worse during the day, and last night we had gale force winds and very heavy rain, which kept me from sleeping half the night. I kept thinking that I wouldn’t be able to run in that weather. It would have been far too dangerous. Whenever the wind blows like that, I find a few broken branched scattered on the road, and twice last year whole tree fell over. You just couldn’t risk running in those conditions. Luckily the storm abated at some stage in the middle of the night, and by 7am it was surprisingly calm, with no wind whatsoever. I went out for 6 recovery miles, which were definitely needed, because the legs were exceptionally stiff. I guess it’s a belated reminder from Sunday.
I was planning on another speed session tomorrow, but will have to wait and see how I feel.
18 Sep: 14 miles, 1:51, 7:55 pace
19 Sep: 6 miles, 55:17, 9:12 pace
As I’ve said, my training hasn’t been affected yet. I managed 14 miles at a decent pace on Monday. In fact, I didn’t even try to run sub 8:00, especially considering that I had Sunday’s speed workout in my legs, but felt pretty good after a mile or two, when I forgot about my cold. The weather was fine for the first 12 miles, and then the heavens opened, leaving me soaked to the bones. Which isn’t the best thing to happen when you’ve got a cold already, but at least I was close to home at that point. The weather got worse during the day, and last night we had gale force winds and very heavy rain, which kept me from sleeping half the night. I kept thinking that I wouldn’t be able to run in that weather. It would have been far too dangerous. Whenever the wind blows like that, I find a few broken branched scattered on the road, and twice last year whole tree fell over. You just couldn’t risk running in those conditions. Luckily the storm abated at some stage in the middle of the night, and by 7am it was surprisingly calm, with no wind whatsoever. I went out for 6 recovery miles, which were definitely needed, because the legs were exceptionally stiff. I guess it’s a belated reminder from Sunday.
I was planning on another speed session tomorrow, but will have to wait and see how I feel.
18 Sep: 14 miles, 1:51, 7:55 pace
19 Sep: 6 miles, 55:17, 9:12 pace
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Another Great Win
Not that it means anything to anyone outside Ireland, but Kerry have today won the All-Ireland Football Final, for the 34th time. The match itself was so one-sided it was embarrassing, and one couldn’t help but feel sorry for poor hapless Mayo (that’s what you get for playing with the Big Boys). From a sprting point of view, this was a good year. Munster won the Heineken Cup, Kerry won the All-Ireland, and if I manage a good time in the Dublin marathon, I won’t have any grounds for complaint.
I did my 17-mile marathon-pace run on Friday, as planned. I warmed up for the first 2 miles, and then pushed the effort into what felt like marathon pace. The moon was bright enough to make out the road, but not bright enough to read the numbers on my HRM/timer, so I had to rely on my own judgment. I got it spot on, when I got back home after 17 miles, 2:13 had passed, 7:49 average pace. Perfect. I felt really good at that point and could have gone on for much longer, I thought. It looks like I have already fully recovered from Sunday’s race, which amazed me.
Saturday was my usual rest day, and the miserable weather ensured that I didn’t exhaust myself by working in the garden. On the one hand I was glad to make sure that I would get some recovery, on the other hand I couldn’t help but think of all the things I still have to do in that garden. All that gorse won’t leave on its own accord, unfortunately.
Since I felt fully recovered, I went ahead with a speed session on Sunday. After warming up for the first 3 miles, I pushed the effort to what should be roughly my 5k race pace, and held it for 4:10 minutes. I don’t get feedback on my actual pace, but judging from the distance covered, I’m sure it was pretty close to the 1000 meters per interval, as intended. I did 5 of those repeats, and then I had enough. Afterwards I had a few doubts if I had run them fast enough, but comparing that effort with what I put into my 5k races, it’s probably ok. Then again, who knows. And then again, Arthur Lydiard didn’t think exact paces or distances were important. Run those efforts until you’ve had enough, he said. I guess that’s good enough for me, then.
One or two people have commented that I might be peaking. I don’t know about that. I always thought that peaking comes from a few weeks of anaerobic work, and since I’ve not done much of that, I don’t expect to “peak”. I’m certainly in better shape than ever before, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’ve already reached a kind of high point. I guess I’ll find out soon enough. The marathon is still 6 weeks away; that means another 3 weeks of hard training and then the taper. I’m not looking forward to tapering, but I can hardly wait until I’m finally on that starting line in Dublin. I’m really looking forward to it.
Weekly mileage: 64 miles
15 Sep: 17 miles, 2:13, 7:49 pace
17 Sep: 10 miles, 1:17, 7:42 pace, including 5x1000 repeats
I did my 17-mile marathon-pace run on Friday, as planned. I warmed up for the first 2 miles, and then pushed the effort into what felt like marathon pace. The moon was bright enough to make out the road, but not bright enough to read the numbers on my HRM/timer, so I had to rely on my own judgment. I got it spot on, when I got back home after 17 miles, 2:13 had passed, 7:49 average pace. Perfect. I felt really good at that point and could have gone on for much longer, I thought. It looks like I have already fully recovered from Sunday’s race, which amazed me.
Saturday was my usual rest day, and the miserable weather ensured that I didn’t exhaust myself by working in the garden. On the one hand I was glad to make sure that I would get some recovery, on the other hand I couldn’t help but think of all the things I still have to do in that garden. All that gorse won’t leave on its own accord, unfortunately.
Since I felt fully recovered, I went ahead with a speed session on Sunday. After warming up for the first 3 miles, I pushed the effort to what should be roughly my 5k race pace, and held it for 4:10 minutes. I don’t get feedback on my actual pace, but judging from the distance covered, I’m sure it was pretty close to the 1000 meters per interval, as intended. I did 5 of those repeats, and then I had enough. Afterwards I had a few doubts if I had run them fast enough, but comparing that effort with what I put into my 5k races, it’s probably ok. Then again, who knows. And then again, Arthur Lydiard didn’t think exact paces or distances were important. Run those efforts until you’ve had enough, he said. I guess that’s good enough for me, then.
One or two people have commented that I might be peaking. I don’t know about that. I always thought that peaking comes from a few weeks of anaerobic work, and since I’ve not done much of that, I don’t expect to “peak”. I’m certainly in better shape than ever before, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’ve already reached a kind of high point. I guess I’ll find out soon enough. The marathon is still 6 weeks away; that means another 3 weeks of hard training and then the taper. I’m not looking forward to tapering, but I can hardly wait until I’m finally on that starting line in Dublin. I’m really looking forward to it.
Weekly mileage: 64 miles
15 Sep: 17 miles, 2:13, 7:49 pace
17 Sep: 10 miles, 1:17, 7:42 pace, including 5x1000 repeats
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Just One More Note
That’s the last entry about Sunday’s race, I promise. I’ve been thinking about the run, and how it had been my best race so far. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder where I could have improved. I don’t mean things like more specific training during the preceding weeks, or tapering for the race. I’m unlikely ever to focus on a half-marathon, therefore my preparation for this distance will always be compromised. I just happen to think that I could have improved a few small things during the race itself.
I started the race with a 7:20 mile. At the time I thought that was too fast and slowed down just a little bit. It’s difficult to say now if it was too fast or not. My average pace for the entire distance was actually faster than that opening mile, but the course had been climbing over the first mile. I think I pretty much went out at the correct pace, and slowing down might not have been necessary.
The one thing I definitely did wrong was at mile 7. I felt pretty good at that point, but decided against accelerating because I was worried about running out of steam somewhere on the next 6 miles. That was basically a lack of self-belief from my side. In hindsight I would have easily been able to withstand the higher pace from that point onwards.
The other thing that I could have done better is that I should have started my finishing kick a lot earlier than I did. I didn’t kick until I saw the 13-mile sign ahead of me. To be honest, I kind of forgot to kick earlier on. I had intended to kick with half a mile left, and when I saw the 13-mile mark I was like “Oops, forgot to sprint”.
I don’t want to sound overly critical. I am more than happy with my race. If I had done the above things better I might have finished in 1:34:xx. No big deal. I take all the positives, and will learn from those mistakes.
That’s it. I won’t bother you any more with this.
I did another 11 miler on Wednesday. It was supposed to be another easy run, and I duly covered the first half at about 8:20 pace. On the return leg I kind of zenned out once more and ran with my head in Lala-land, while the legs did their own thing. When I came back home, the time read 1:28, 8:00 pace overall. Oops.
I definitely took it easier today, but included 8x100 strides into my run. I ran the 7 mile-loop that I had avoided since my encounter with that herd of cows about two months ago. I figured they would have gone by now and the run should be safe enough. I was correct, and I suppose I can safely add this loop to my usual staple of routes again.
13 Sep: 11 miles, 1:28, 8:00 pace
14 Sep: 7 miles, 1:02, 8:51 pace, with 8x100 strides
I started the race with a 7:20 mile. At the time I thought that was too fast and slowed down just a little bit. It’s difficult to say now if it was too fast or not. My average pace for the entire distance was actually faster than that opening mile, but the course had been climbing over the first mile. I think I pretty much went out at the correct pace, and slowing down might not have been necessary.
The one thing I definitely did wrong was at mile 7. I felt pretty good at that point, but decided against accelerating because I was worried about running out of steam somewhere on the next 6 miles. That was basically a lack of self-belief from my side. In hindsight I would have easily been able to withstand the higher pace from that point onwards.
The other thing that I could have done better is that I should have started my finishing kick a lot earlier than I did. I didn’t kick until I saw the 13-mile sign ahead of me. To be honest, I kind of forgot to kick earlier on. I had intended to kick with half a mile left, and when I saw the 13-mile mark I was like “Oops, forgot to sprint”.
I don’t want to sound overly critical. I am more than happy with my race. If I had done the above things better I might have finished in 1:34:xx. No big deal. I take all the positives, and will learn from those mistakes.
That’s it. I won’t bother you any more with this.
I did another 11 miler on Wednesday. It was supposed to be another easy run, and I duly covered the first half at about 8:20 pace. On the return leg I kind of zenned out once more and ran with my head in Lala-land, while the legs did their own thing. When I came back home, the time read 1:28, 8:00 pace overall. Oops.
I definitely took it easier today, but included 8x100 strides into my run. I ran the 7 mile-loop that I had avoided since my encounter with that herd of cows about two months ago. I figured they would have gone by now and the run should be safe enough. I was correct, and I suppose I can safely add this loop to my usual staple of routes again.
13 Sep: 11 miles, 1:28, 8:00 pace
14 Sep: 7 miles, 1:02, 8:51 pace, with 8x100 strides
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Bad Dad, Thomas, Bad Dad!
I’m ashamed. I didn’t tell you that Cian is showing absolutely no signs of distress after Friday’s ordeal, that he’s right as rain, and that he doesn’t even seem to remember what happened. In fact, he was perfectly fine when I got back home after work on Friday. You sometimes think of your children as small and vulnerable, but they are amazingly resilient. I should have told you all that on Sunday. In the excitement of the race, I forgot.
Anyway. I’m still basking in the glow of Sunday’s performance, and long may it last. It feels great when a lot of hard work gets rewarded, and I’m also relieved that I’m really in as good a shape as I’d hoped (I’ve had moments of doubt).
I expected to be sore by Tuesday because of the long downhill stretch, and ran 11 miles on Monday, to get in some training miles before the legs got too sore. I didn’t run hard, just did the miles and cruised home again.
When I got up this morning I realised that my fears had been unfounded. The legs were still a bit tired from Sunday’s race, but not sore at all. I was quite stiff over the first half mile, but that improved, and I proceeded for an easy 8 miler. There’s not much to tell, except that the HR was very low. Could it be that Sunday’s race already has some effect on my system? I noticed the same thing after my last half marathon in May; within 2 days my HR was lower than previously for a given pace, and both times I was surprised that an effect would come through so quickly after the race.
Well, whatever. The original schedule called for an interval workout early this week, but I will be conservative instead and keep to an easy pace for the next two days. Then I’ll attempt a marathon pace 17-miler on Friday, but if I don’t feel recovered by then I’ll just make that a normal 17 miler. Up to Sunday I had assumed my marathon pace would be 8:00, which would just about get me under 3:30. After putting my time into a race predictor (yes, yes, I know. Don’t believe them!), and even more so after reading Mike’s and Mike’s comments, I think I might slightly revise that and declare 7:50 as my new marathon pace, which would be a 3:25 finish. Let’s hope I can pull it off, 7 weeks from now.
11 Sep: 11 miles, 1:33, 8:27 pace
12 Sep: 8.2 miles, 1:12, 8:46 pace
Anyway. I’m still basking in the glow of Sunday’s performance, and long may it last. It feels great when a lot of hard work gets rewarded, and I’m also relieved that I’m really in as good a shape as I’d hoped (I’ve had moments of doubt).
I expected to be sore by Tuesday because of the long downhill stretch, and ran 11 miles on Monday, to get in some training miles before the legs got too sore. I didn’t run hard, just did the miles and cruised home again.
When I got up this morning I realised that my fears had been unfounded. The legs were still a bit tired from Sunday’s race, but not sore at all. I was quite stiff over the first half mile, but that improved, and I proceeded for an easy 8 miler. There’s not much to tell, except that the HR was very low. Could it be that Sunday’s race already has some effect on my system? I noticed the same thing after my last half marathon in May; within 2 days my HR was lower than previously for a given pace, and both times I was surprised that an effect would come through so quickly after the race.
Well, whatever. The original schedule called for an interval workout early this week, but I will be conservative instead and keep to an easy pace for the next two days. Then I’ll attempt a marathon pace 17-miler on Friday, but if I don’t feel recovered by then I’ll just make that a normal 17 miler. Up to Sunday I had assumed my marathon pace would be 8:00, which would just about get me under 3:30. After putting my time into a race predictor (yes, yes, I know. Don’t believe them!), and even more so after reading Mike’s and Mike’s comments, I think I might slightly revise that and declare 7:50 as my new marathon pace, which would be a 3:25 finish. Let’s hope I can pull it off, 7 weeks from now.
11 Sep: 11 miles, 1:33, 8:27 pace
12 Sep: 8.2 miles, 1:12, 8:46 pace
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Blarney Half Marathon 2006
When I checked the weather forecast on Friday, it promised a very sunny Sunday and 21C temperatures. I guess everyone in Ireland was looking forward to a nice weekend. By Saturday, the meteorological services had changed their mind; Sunday would be overcast and drizzly. The whole of Ireland was gutted – except me, I was more than happy. Runners are of a different mindset than the rest of the population.
We set off at 8 o’clock in the morning, Niamh driving, me rather nervous on the passenger seat, and the kids in the back of the 7-seater. Within 10 seconds they had started a fight. It basically lasted for 2 hours, until we arrived in Blarney. It certainly served the purpose of taking my mind off the race, but, gracious me, they were relentless. I picked up my number, and Niamh set off with the kids for breakfast. She wanted to see me finishing the race, and asked when I would be there. “Start is at 11 am, I’ll finish at 12:38, I hope”. Off she went, and I got ready to race. There was one person I recognised, Derval O’Rourke. She’s from Cork, just down the road, but I doubt she was here to run the race. Her distances are 60m and 100m hurdles.
I didn’t do much of a warm-up, less than I had intended, really, and the call to the starting line came quicker than expected. I lined up somewhere in the middle. As soon as the gun went, I knew that I should have lined up a bit further ahead, because everyone around me was a good bit slower than me. I have to stop making that same mistake again and again. But it’s a small race, and within half a mile I was surrounded by runners who seemed to race at my preferred pace. I checked my time at the 1-mile mark. 7:20. “Too fast”. I actually said that out loud, because the guy running beside me gave me a funny look. I went just a tad easier until mile 2, 7:28 split. Still too fast, especially as we’ve been going uphill. Shortly afterwards I passed a runner who was breathing really hard, looked really tense and his cadence was extremely fast. “Relax!” I said. He looked at me. “Relax, you’re way too tense”. “I know, I’m going too fast”. I didn’t really have an answer to that. If he knew he was too fast, why didn’t he slow down, with 11 still miles to go? Unsurprisingly, he fell back soon afterwards. I hope he managed to finish. Mile 3, 22:10, I’m now on 7:40 pace. Well, it’s still uphill. Mile 4, 30:00 to the second, a 7:50 mile. Now I’m on 7:30 average, and slowing down, that’s not good. Then again, the course has constantly been climbing. There was no real hill, just a very gentle but noticeable and relentless climb. I can’t quite remember the next splits, but I’m definitely slowing down, the miles are closer to 8:00 pace than 7:00, even though the course seems to have levelled out, or at least the climb is less noticeable. By mile 6 we’re definitely climbing again, that’s the only real hill, but it’s a rather long climb, and we’ve already been climbing since the start. Well, I guess that means the second part of the course is downhill all the way, doesn’t it? By mile 7 we’re indeed heading down that hill again. I think about push the effort more, but it’s still 6 miles to the finish, and I don’t want to run out of steam. When I come across the 8-mile marker, one hour has passed and I’m still on 7:30 average, but I’m feeling pretty good now. From here on my cheapo HRM only shows the hour and minutes, so I can’t tell my exact splits, not that it has any influence on my running pace. I decide to finally accelerate and push past several runners. By mile 9 the time is 1:07, that’s good. By mile 10, it’s 1:13. Bloody hell, did I really just run a sub-7:00 mile? It was downhill, but I’m not even panting, though I’m pretty much at the edge. Mile 11, 1:20. Suddenly I realise that if I keep churning out 7:00 miles, I’ll finish in 1:35. That seems impossible, but I keep pushing. I forgot to mention that, but there were 3 runners early in the race that I had in my sights; a male runner in a red top, a girl in a blue one, and one fella in a fancy grey with bright yellow stripes one. They all pulled away, but for some reason they keep stuck in my mind. At mile 9, the red tank top is passed. Between mile 10 and 11 the guy in grey is caught. And what do I see there ahead of me? It’s the sky-blue yank top. One mile later and I’m past, but unfortunately now I’m out of prey. There are plenty of other runners, and I keep overtaking a few of them until the end, but not someone I recognise from earlier. Anyway, I forget to check my time at mile 12, but I’m still pushing it well. I finally give it a kick when I see the 13-mile marker ahead of me, and also start looking out for Niamh and the kids. They are nowhere to be seen, and before I really know it I’m across the line. I don’t see the official time, but my watch says 1:35, and I’m immensely pleased. I honestly thought 1:38 was ambitious, and I did not think I could run much faster than that. I won’t know the exact time until they publish the official results, but the average pace was around 7:20, which I’m more than happy with. 6 month ago that was my pace at those 4-mile tempo runs, and now I can hold it for a half marathon. Good Stuff. For the record, my average HR was 175, about 90% of my max HR.
I spot Niamh about 30 seconds after I finish the race, she’s trying to get to the finishing line. I call over and she’s a) very surprised to see me 3 minutes before I told her I’d finish the race if all goes well, and b) disappointed that she missed me. But it won’t be my last race, and she accepts that she’s got plenty more chances to see me.
We spend the rest of the afternoon looking around the rather famous Blarney Castle, which goes down very well with the kids, and which is a good cool-down for me. After a few hours of that, we head back home, mission accomplished.
There’s one more funny detail to bore you with. I don’t run with an mp3 player any more, but I always have a tune stuck in my head (Postman Pat, if I’m unlucky). Well, today at first I didn’t even recognise the one going round and round. Eventually it struck me, it’s Anyone But Me, from that guy. I knew he’s an inspirational runner, but I had no idea he’s now even providing the background to my best race so far. I’m not making this up. Honestly.
Weekly mileage: ~68 miles
9 Sep: 5 miles, 44:45, 8:57 pace
10 Sep: 14-15 miles, 13.1 mile race at 1:35:40, 7:18 pace. Yes!
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Update: That was quick, official results are here. I finished in 1:35:40, 139 out of 446.
We set off at 8 o’clock in the morning, Niamh driving, me rather nervous on the passenger seat, and the kids in the back of the 7-seater. Within 10 seconds they had started a fight. It basically lasted for 2 hours, until we arrived in Blarney. It certainly served the purpose of taking my mind off the race, but, gracious me, they were relentless. I picked up my number, and Niamh set off with the kids for breakfast. She wanted to see me finishing the race, and asked when I would be there. “Start is at 11 am, I’ll finish at 12:38, I hope”. Off she went, and I got ready to race. There was one person I recognised, Derval O’Rourke. She’s from Cork, just down the road, but I doubt she was here to run the race. Her distances are 60m and 100m hurdles.
I didn’t do much of a warm-up, less than I had intended, really, and the call to the starting line came quicker than expected. I lined up somewhere in the middle. As soon as the gun went, I knew that I should have lined up a bit further ahead, because everyone around me was a good bit slower than me. I have to stop making that same mistake again and again. But it’s a small race, and within half a mile I was surrounded by runners who seemed to race at my preferred pace. I checked my time at the 1-mile mark. 7:20. “Too fast”. I actually said that out loud, because the guy running beside me gave me a funny look. I went just a tad easier until mile 2, 7:28 split. Still too fast, especially as we’ve been going uphill. Shortly afterwards I passed a runner who was breathing really hard, looked really tense and his cadence was extremely fast. “Relax!” I said. He looked at me. “Relax, you’re way too tense”. “I know, I’m going too fast”. I didn’t really have an answer to that. If he knew he was too fast, why didn’t he slow down, with 11 still miles to go? Unsurprisingly, he fell back soon afterwards. I hope he managed to finish. Mile 3, 22:10, I’m now on 7:40 pace. Well, it’s still uphill. Mile 4, 30:00 to the second, a 7:50 mile. Now I’m on 7:30 average, and slowing down, that’s not good. Then again, the course has constantly been climbing. There was no real hill, just a very gentle but noticeable and relentless climb. I can’t quite remember the next splits, but I’m definitely slowing down, the miles are closer to 8:00 pace than 7:00, even though the course seems to have levelled out, or at least the climb is less noticeable. By mile 6 we’re definitely climbing again, that’s the only real hill, but it’s a rather long climb, and we’ve already been climbing since the start. Well, I guess that means the second part of the course is downhill all the way, doesn’t it? By mile 7 we’re indeed heading down that hill again. I think about push the effort more, but it’s still 6 miles to the finish, and I don’t want to run out of steam. When I come across the 8-mile marker, one hour has passed and I’m still on 7:30 average, but I’m feeling pretty good now. From here on my cheapo HRM only shows the hour and minutes, so I can’t tell my exact splits, not that it has any influence on my running pace. I decide to finally accelerate and push past several runners. By mile 9 the time is 1:07, that’s good. By mile 10, it’s 1:13. Bloody hell, did I really just run a sub-7:00 mile? It was downhill, but I’m not even panting, though I’m pretty much at the edge. Mile 11, 1:20. Suddenly I realise that if I keep churning out 7:00 miles, I’ll finish in 1:35. That seems impossible, but I keep pushing. I forgot to mention that, but there were 3 runners early in the race that I had in my sights; a male runner in a red top, a girl in a blue one, and one fella in a fancy grey with bright yellow stripes one. They all pulled away, but for some reason they keep stuck in my mind. At mile 9, the red tank top is passed. Between mile 10 and 11 the guy in grey is caught. And what do I see there ahead of me? It’s the sky-blue yank top. One mile later and I’m past, but unfortunately now I’m out of prey. There are plenty of other runners, and I keep overtaking a few of them until the end, but not someone I recognise from earlier. Anyway, I forget to check my time at mile 12, but I’m still pushing it well. I finally give it a kick when I see the 13-mile marker ahead of me, and also start looking out for Niamh and the kids. They are nowhere to be seen, and before I really know it I’m across the line. I don’t see the official time, but my watch says 1:35, and I’m immensely pleased. I honestly thought 1:38 was ambitious, and I did not think I could run much faster than that. I won’t know the exact time until they publish the official results, but the average pace was around 7:20, which I’m more than happy with. 6 month ago that was my pace at those 4-mile tempo runs, and now I can hold it for a half marathon. Good Stuff. For the record, my average HR was 175, about 90% of my max HR.
I spot Niamh about 30 seconds after I finish the race, she’s trying to get to the finishing line. I call over and she’s a) very surprised to see me 3 minutes before I told her I’d finish the race if all goes well, and b) disappointed that she missed me. But it won’t be my last race, and she accepts that she’s got plenty more chances to see me.
We spend the rest of the afternoon looking around the rather famous Blarney Castle, which goes down very well with the kids, and which is a good cool-down for me. After a few hours of that, we head back home, mission accomplished.
There’s one more funny detail to bore you with. I don’t run with an mp3 player any more, but I always have a tune stuck in my head (Postman Pat, if I’m unlucky). Well, today at first I didn’t even recognise the one going round and round. Eventually it struck me, it’s Anyone But Me, from that guy. I knew he’s an inspirational runner, but I had no idea he’s now even providing the background to my best race so far. I’m not making this up. Honestly.
Weekly mileage: ~68 miles
9 Sep: 5 miles, 44:45, 8:57 pace
10 Sep: 14-15 miles, 13.1 mile race at 1:35:40, 7:18 pace. Yes!
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Update: That was quick, official results are here. I finished in 1:35:40, 139 out of 446.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Family Drama
I’m taking it easy for the last few days before the half, or at least I’m trying to, because the legs are not always following the head. One thing that’s not quite working according to plan is a certain lack of sleep, which may or may not be related to the Full Moon, which has caused problems in that department before.
I did 5 miles on Thursday, with 8x100 strides thrown in. Now that is something I never quite managed to get my head around. How can running strides be compatible with a recovery run? However, Pfitzinger seems to really like this combination, all of his plans have that kind of workout towards the end of the training, and who am I to argue?
For today I had planned 11 miles, and accordingly set my alarm clock for 5:55. When I woke at 6:07 I realised that something had gone wrong. I couldn’t quite figure out what, but the realisation hit me half an hour later, during the run. I had inadvertently set the alarm for 5:55 pm rather than am. Damn those fancy modern digital radio clocks! However, I only had to cut the run short by one mile, so no damage done. What could have caused damage was my pace on the return leg. I had done the first 5 miles in about 41:30, but only took 37:30 on the way home, which is a bit faster than I should have done 2 days before a race. Ah well.
It’s not really relevant to this blog, but at 5 am I spent 20 minutes with Lola looking at the moon and the stars. She couldn’t sleep and was scared, so we just sat there for a while, and enjoyed the scenery outside the window. It was lovely from a father-daughter kind of view, even if the timing was a bit odd.
Niamh called me an hour ago; Cian had been attacked by wasps in the neighbours’ garden. She heard the kids screaming, and by the time she got to Cian he had at least 8 wasps on one leg, 5 or so on the other, and plenty more swarming all over him. He got stung about 10 times, and was screaming in panic. Niamh herself got stung 2 or 3 times while rescuing him. It must have been rather dramatic, but she went to the Doctor, and he was already calm and collected. Niamh says he’s already in good form, but she herself is traumatised. Goodness!
Anyway, the race is on Sunday. I’m aiming for sub 1:38. I’ll let you know how it went.
7 Sep: 5 miles, 46:30, 9:18 pace, with 8x100 strides
8 Sep: 10 miles, 1:19, 7:54 pace
I did 5 miles on Thursday, with 8x100 strides thrown in. Now that is something I never quite managed to get my head around. How can running strides be compatible with a recovery run? However, Pfitzinger seems to really like this combination, all of his plans have that kind of workout towards the end of the training, and who am I to argue?
For today I had planned 11 miles, and accordingly set my alarm clock for 5:55. When I woke at 6:07 I realised that something had gone wrong. I couldn’t quite figure out what, but the realisation hit me half an hour later, during the run. I had inadvertently set the alarm for 5:55 pm rather than am. Damn those fancy modern digital radio clocks! However, I only had to cut the run short by one mile, so no damage done. What could have caused damage was my pace on the return leg. I had done the first 5 miles in about 41:30, but only took 37:30 on the way home, which is a bit faster than I should have done 2 days before a race. Ah well.
It’s not really relevant to this blog, but at 5 am I spent 20 minutes with Lola looking at the moon and the stars. She couldn’t sleep and was scared, so we just sat there for a while, and enjoyed the scenery outside the window. It was lovely from a father-daughter kind of view, even if the timing was a bit odd.
Niamh called me an hour ago; Cian had been attacked by wasps in the neighbours’ garden. She heard the kids screaming, and by the time she got to Cian he had at least 8 wasps on one leg, 5 or so on the other, and plenty more swarming all over him. He got stung about 10 times, and was screaming in panic. Niamh herself got stung 2 or 3 times while rescuing him. It must have been rather dramatic, but she went to the Doctor, and he was already calm and collected. Niamh says he’s already in good form, but she herself is traumatised. Goodness!
Anyway, the race is on Sunday. I’m aiming for sub 1:38. I’ll let you know how it went.
7 Sep: 5 miles, 46:30, 9:18 pace, with 8x100 strides
8 Sep: 10 miles, 1:19, 7:54 pace
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
All's Well
Thanks for all your concern, folks, I can assure you I’m feeling absolutely fine again. I googled the web for some background information on dizzy spells, and the most likely explanation is low blood sugar. I definitely wasn’t dehydrated, but I hadn’t eaten since lunchtime, and since the football was basically the second speed session of the day, I probably ran low. I’ll learn from this. I won’t be playing this Thursday (though for a different reason), and I’ll reconsider doing speed work on Mondays if I’m playing later that evening. I’m not yet prepared to give it up. In fact I think that it might be a useful workout, at least during the anaerobic phase of your marathon preparation.
After all my cockiness about how my easy pace just keeps dropping and dropping, Tuesday’s run was rather pedestrian, and back at the “old” recovery pace. Fine, the legs definitely needed some easy going after Monday. I wore the Nike’s for the first time. Reviews often mention that the toebox in Nike shoes are often smaller than other manufacturers’. I can vouch for that now, my toes felt somewhat squashed. However, the first run in a new pair of shoes is usually less than pleasant, and I’m hopeful I’ll grow into them. Case in point, when I wore my present pair of Asics Nimbus for the first few times, they made a mess out of my feet. Now they are snug like a rug, and are totally comfortable on long runs.
I’m racing a half-marathon on Sunday, and decided to make a few adjustments to this week’s training. I switched my long run from Friday to Wednesday, and shortened it from 20 to 18 miles. Thus, it meant getting up at 5 am this morning, which was more difficult than anticipated. I had gone to bed at 10 o’clock, but wasn’t able to fall asleep until nearly midnight, and then I woke twice during the night. When I finally made it out of bed I felt ok, but the lack of sleep will hit me later today. Leaving the house was delayed when I saw Niamh’s notice asking me to put some bread mix into the bread machine and turn it on – but since that meant wonderfully self-baked fresh bread for lunch, I was only too happy to oblige.
The run was rather unremarkable. The legs felt rather tired initially, and I thought I might be in trouble during the later miles, but I still felt strong towards the end. The first 2 miles were slower, about 9:00 pace, an the rest of the run was pretty much at 8:00 pace, maybe even a tad faster in places. As I’ve said, I still felt good at the end, but when I stopped, the quads immediately felt quite sore. I think I just about went to the edge of what I could do while still feeling good. Any more, and it could have gotten ugly.
I’ll take it easy for the rest of the week, probably something like 5-11-5 and then the race on Sunday, and it will still get me close to 70 miles for the week.
5 Sep: 6 miles, 56:11, 9:21 pace
6 Sep: 18.2 miles, 2:27, 8:04 pace
After all my cockiness about how my easy pace just keeps dropping and dropping, Tuesday’s run was rather pedestrian, and back at the “old” recovery pace. Fine, the legs definitely needed some easy going after Monday. I wore the Nike’s for the first time. Reviews often mention that the toebox in Nike shoes are often smaller than other manufacturers’. I can vouch for that now, my toes felt somewhat squashed. However, the first run in a new pair of shoes is usually less than pleasant, and I’m hopeful I’ll grow into them. Case in point, when I wore my present pair of Asics Nimbus for the first few times, they made a mess out of my feet. Now they are snug like a rug, and are totally comfortable on long runs.
I’m racing a half-marathon on Sunday, and decided to make a few adjustments to this week’s training. I switched my long run from Friday to Wednesday, and shortened it from 20 to 18 miles. Thus, it meant getting up at 5 am this morning, which was more difficult than anticipated. I had gone to bed at 10 o’clock, but wasn’t able to fall asleep until nearly midnight, and then I woke twice during the night. When I finally made it out of bed I felt ok, but the lack of sleep will hit me later today. Leaving the house was delayed when I saw Niamh’s notice asking me to put some bread mix into the bread machine and turn it on – but since that meant wonderfully self-baked fresh bread for lunch, I was only too happy to oblige.
The run was rather unremarkable. The legs felt rather tired initially, and I thought I might be in trouble during the later miles, but I still felt strong towards the end. The first 2 miles were slower, about 9:00 pace, an the rest of the run was pretty much at 8:00 pace, maybe even a tad faster in places. As I’ve said, I still felt good at the end, but when I stopped, the quads immediately felt quite sore. I think I just about went to the edge of what I could do while still feeling good. Any more, and it could have gotten ugly.
I’ll take it easy for the rest of the week, probably something like 5-11-5 and then the race on Sunday, and it will still get me close to 70 miles for the week.
5 Sep: 6 miles, 56:11, 9:21 pace
6 Sep: 18.2 miles, 2:27, 8:04 pace
Monday, September 04, 2006
Of Recovery and Scary Events
After Friday’s epic run, I felt I deserved to stay in bed all of Saturday, just to recover. Of course, what you get isn’t what you deserve. I did manage somewhere between 8 and 9 hours of sleep, but woke at 3:30 am and couldn’t fall asleep for an hour; for some reason, I kept thinking “insomnia is a sign of over training”. But eventually, I managed to go back to sleep again.
I spent 4 hours on Saturday in Killarney doing a very big shop. I think from a recovery point of view that was a good move, though my bank manager would probably disagree. I managed to sneak into the Nike factory store, where I managed to find a new pair of runners. Just the day before I had read a glowing review of the Nike 360 shoes, and when they had a pair for the price of 95 Euros (reduced from 180 Euros), I couldn’t resist. I haven’t worn them for a run yet, and I am aware that the reviews are mixed, but for that price I was definitely prepared to give them a go.
I went back out on the road on Sunday for a nice and relaxing 6 miler, or so I thought, but when I came back I realised that the pace had been a bit fast. The HR was way down though, and I don’t want to run slower just for the sake of it, when the effort is very easy anyway. It’s a sign of how intense the week has been when a mere 6 miles over the entire weekend was enough to give me a weekly mileage of 70. We also went for a long family walk through the woods towards Glencar. The scenery there is absolutely stunning, and even the kids were so thrilled about walking in a magic wood that they didn’t complain once about being tired.
Monday morning was a return of the speed session, but the schedule called for only 5x600 repeats. I originally intended to run more than that, but after the fifth fast section it was HOK* time and I really had enough. I’ve obviously still got the 23 miles in my legs, and the fact that 2 of the repeats were up a hill didn’t help either.
When I came back home, Cian demanded paper and a crayon. What he eventually produced was this portrait of me – not bad for an artist of 2 years, 8 months and 26 days, is it? In the evening I agreed to play an hour of football (that’s soccer for those of you on the wrong side of the Atlantic). I know that Mike had warned me that football and marathon training are incompatible, but I didn’t want to miss the first game after the summer break. I probably should have heeded the advice though. After about 45 minutes I suddenly felt very dizzy. I had to lie down there and then, or I would have fainted. I felt my heart, and it beat extremely fast, and very shallow. Putting my feet up helped immediately, and I felt much better within a few seconds, but it was still a scary experience. Anyone with half a brain would have stopped there and then, but for some reason I went back for more after a short break, and for the rest of the game I was ok. I’m not sure what caused it, but I’ll think twice about playing football after a speed session again.
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* HOK = Hands on Knees
Weekly mileage: 70 miles
3 Sep: 6 miles, 52:45, 8:45 pace
4 Sep: 9 miles, 1:15, 8:20 pace, with 5x600
I spent 4 hours on Saturday in Killarney doing a very big shop. I think from a recovery point of view that was a good move, though my bank manager would probably disagree. I managed to sneak into the Nike factory store, where I managed to find a new pair of runners. Just the day before I had read a glowing review of the Nike 360 shoes, and when they had a pair for the price of 95 Euros (reduced from 180 Euros), I couldn’t resist. I haven’t worn them for a run yet, and I am aware that the reviews are mixed, but for that price I was definitely prepared to give them a go.
I went back out on the road on Sunday for a nice and relaxing 6 miler, or so I thought, but when I came back I realised that the pace had been a bit fast. The HR was way down though, and I don’t want to run slower just for the sake of it, when the effort is very easy anyway. It’s a sign of how intense the week has been when a mere 6 miles over the entire weekend was enough to give me a weekly mileage of 70. We also went for a long family walk through the woods towards Glencar. The scenery there is absolutely stunning, and even the kids were so thrilled about walking in a magic wood that they didn’t complain once about being tired.
Monday morning was a return of the speed session, but the schedule called for only 5x600 repeats. I originally intended to run more than that, but after the fifth fast section it was HOK* time and I really had enough. I’ve obviously still got the 23 miles in my legs, and the fact that 2 of the repeats were up a hill didn’t help either.
When I came back home, Cian demanded paper and a crayon. What he eventually produced was this portrait of me – not bad for an artist of 2 years, 8 months and 26 days, is it? In the evening I agreed to play an hour of football (that’s soccer for those of you on the wrong side of the Atlantic). I know that Mike had warned me that football and marathon training are incompatible, but I didn’t want to miss the first game after the summer break. I probably should have heeded the advice though. After about 45 minutes I suddenly felt very dizzy. I had to lie down there and then, or I would have fainted. I felt my heart, and it beat extremely fast, and very shallow. Putting my feet up helped immediately, and I felt much better within a few seconds, but it was still a scary experience. Anyone with half a brain would have stopped there and then, but for some reason I went back for more after a short break, and for the rest of the game I was ok. I’m not sure what caused it, but I’ll think twice about playing football after a speed session again.-------------
* HOK = Hands on Knees
Weekly mileage: 70 miles
3 Sep: 6 miles, 52:45, 8:45 pace
4 Sep: 9 miles, 1:15, 8:20 pace, with 5x600
Friday, September 01, 2006
23 Miles!
Have you ever watched Disney’s version of Aladdin? When he frees the Genie for the first time, he shouts “10000 years! It gives you such a crick in the neck!”. Well, when I finished today’s long run, I felt like shouting “23 miles! It gives you such a pain in the hamstring!”
Let’s start with yesterday, though. The schedule called for 8 miles with 10x100 strides thrown in for good measure. As soon as I left the house, I wished I had run the 15 miles from the day before a bit slower, because my legs felt rather dead. I was immediately worried about my long run, but was hopeful that I would have fully recovered by Friday. The first stride outs felt rather awkward; it’s very difficult to get a fast turnover if you’re feeling stiff. But after the second or third, the legs started responding in a positive way, and I ended the run feeling much better than at the beginning.
This left me with today’s 23 miles. As you all know by now, I was rather nervous about this. I’ve never run 23 miles in training before, and even though I was confident that I would be able to handle it, I still felt apprehensive.
I went to bed at around 10 o’clock – I had been busy until then and couldn’t get finished any earlier. Luckily, I fell asleep very quickly, which meant I got a bit over 6 hours of sleep before the alarm went off at 4:15 am. When I ate my breakfast cereal, all of a sudden it started raining heavily. Oh please, no. I don’t want 23 miles on soggy feet! It was like Mother Nature telling me “what you’re about to do is stupid. Go back to bed.” I didn’t heed the advice, and went out of the door. I left 2 water bottles, one singlet wrapped in a plastic bag and one gel at the driveway and headed off. The rain had nearly stopped already, and the running conditions were ok – I could have done without the blustery wind, though. The first 9-mile loop went ok, the weather was fine apart from one or two showers along the way. On the way out I used my headlamp (for the first time since the winter), and that took some time to get used to. I turned it off after 5 miles, because it was getting bright enough to make out the road without help. When I neared our driveway, my intestines woke up, and I had to do an unscheduled pit stop back home. I desperately hoped the kids wouldn’t wake up, because then I would have to give them breakfast, and the break would be much longer. Luckily, nobody stirred.
I set out for a second 9-mile loop, still feeling ok. I grabbed a water bottle and carried it around with me for about 1.5 miles, where I left it at the roadside to pick it up on my way back. When I came close to the turn-around point of that loop, I started to feel tired. After all, I was already past the half-marathon distance at that stage. It did rain more on this loop than on the first one, and the wind was stronger as well. I just concentrated on running, one step at the time. With one mile of the loop left, I realised that I had run past my water bottle, and completely forgotten to pick it up. Damn. I wondered briefly if I should head back and pick it up, but decided against it. It’s still there for all I know, I’ll pick it up this evening.
The end of the second 9-mile loop was a kind of test. I knew that I might be tempted to bag the rest of the workout if I was tired, but actually I felt very well. I changed my shirt, picked up the second water bottle, and triumphantly looked at the gel. “I don’t need you!”. The third loop was only 5 miles, my old trusty route to Ard-na-Sidhe, which I must have run about 100 times in the last 12 months. I knew I would make it. It’s just 2.5 miles out, 2.5 miles back, and then I’m done. I enjoyed the first 5 minutes running in a dry top, and then the heavens opened, and I was drenched again. The downpour lasted for over 2 miles, so much for a dry top. I did wait for fatigue to strike, but it never really came. Andrew said we do those long runs for the last mile, and eventually I got that far. At that stage my left hamstring, which had sent out the odd twinge, started hurting a lot more, and I sure was glad to be close to home. I’m confident that I would have been able to continue on for 3 more miles, had this been a marathon, but might have aggravated something in the process. As it was, I reached our driveway still in decent shape, in a time of 3:12.
The first 9 mile loop had taken 1:16, 8:26 pace. The second loop 1:15, 8:20 pace, and the third loop, 5 miles, 41 minutes, 8:12 pace. Wow, I actually managed to accelerate all the way to the end. That’s encouraging. And while you should never predict your race time from one training run, those 23 miles would most likely have set me up for a sub 3:40 finish in a marathon. I’ll certainly take plenty of encouragement from that.
Monthly mileage for August: 284 miles. That’s one lousy mile less than for July. Damn.
31 Aug: 8 miles, 1:08, 8:30 pace, with 10x100 strides
1 Sep: 23 miles, 3:12, 8:20 pace
Let’s start with yesterday, though. The schedule called for 8 miles with 10x100 strides thrown in for good measure. As soon as I left the house, I wished I had run the 15 miles from the day before a bit slower, because my legs felt rather dead. I was immediately worried about my long run, but was hopeful that I would have fully recovered by Friday. The first stride outs felt rather awkward; it’s very difficult to get a fast turnover if you’re feeling stiff. But after the second or third, the legs started responding in a positive way, and I ended the run feeling much better than at the beginning.
This left me with today’s 23 miles. As you all know by now, I was rather nervous about this. I’ve never run 23 miles in training before, and even though I was confident that I would be able to handle it, I still felt apprehensive.
I went to bed at around 10 o’clock – I had been busy until then and couldn’t get finished any earlier. Luckily, I fell asleep very quickly, which meant I got a bit over 6 hours of sleep before the alarm went off at 4:15 am. When I ate my breakfast cereal, all of a sudden it started raining heavily. Oh please, no. I don’t want 23 miles on soggy feet! It was like Mother Nature telling me “what you’re about to do is stupid. Go back to bed.” I didn’t heed the advice, and went out of the door. I left 2 water bottles, one singlet wrapped in a plastic bag and one gel at the driveway and headed off. The rain had nearly stopped already, and the running conditions were ok – I could have done without the blustery wind, though. The first 9-mile loop went ok, the weather was fine apart from one or two showers along the way. On the way out I used my headlamp (for the first time since the winter), and that took some time to get used to. I turned it off after 5 miles, because it was getting bright enough to make out the road without help. When I neared our driveway, my intestines woke up, and I had to do an unscheduled pit stop back home. I desperately hoped the kids wouldn’t wake up, because then I would have to give them breakfast, and the break would be much longer. Luckily, nobody stirred.
I set out for a second 9-mile loop, still feeling ok. I grabbed a water bottle and carried it around with me for about 1.5 miles, where I left it at the roadside to pick it up on my way back. When I came close to the turn-around point of that loop, I started to feel tired. After all, I was already past the half-marathon distance at that stage. It did rain more on this loop than on the first one, and the wind was stronger as well. I just concentrated on running, one step at the time. With one mile of the loop left, I realised that I had run past my water bottle, and completely forgotten to pick it up. Damn. I wondered briefly if I should head back and pick it up, but decided against it. It’s still there for all I know, I’ll pick it up this evening.
The end of the second 9-mile loop was a kind of test. I knew that I might be tempted to bag the rest of the workout if I was tired, but actually I felt very well. I changed my shirt, picked up the second water bottle, and triumphantly looked at the gel. “I don’t need you!”. The third loop was only 5 miles, my old trusty route to Ard-na-Sidhe, which I must have run about 100 times in the last 12 months. I knew I would make it. It’s just 2.5 miles out, 2.5 miles back, and then I’m done. I enjoyed the first 5 minutes running in a dry top, and then the heavens opened, and I was drenched again. The downpour lasted for over 2 miles, so much for a dry top. I did wait for fatigue to strike, but it never really came. Andrew said we do those long runs for the last mile, and eventually I got that far. At that stage my left hamstring, which had sent out the odd twinge, started hurting a lot more, and I sure was glad to be close to home. I’m confident that I would have been able to continue on for 3 more miles, had this been a marathon, but might have aggravated something in the process. As it was, I reached our driveway still in decent shape, in a time of 3:12.
The first 9 mile loop had taken 1:16, 8:26 pace. The second loop 1:15, 8:20 pace, and the third loop, 5 miles, 41 minutes, 8:12 pace. Wow, I actually managed to accelerate all the way to the end. That’s encouraging. And while you should never predict your race time from one training run, those 23 miles would most likely have set me up for a sub 3:40 finish in a marathon. I’ll certainly take plenty of encouragement from that.
Monthly mileage for August: 284 miles. That’s one lousy mile less than for July. Damn.
31 Aug: 8 miles, 1:08, 8:30 pace, with 10x100 strides
1 Sep: 23 miles, 3:12, 8:20 pace
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Midweek Report
That’s an interesting observation from a psychological point of view. In my last post, I told you about my encounter with those dogs, and about my best ever tempo run to date. The running effort was basically ignored – everyone went on about the dogs. There might be a lesson in there.
Anyway, I did go to the Garda station (as we call the police here), and was basically told that they are not responsible for dogs, the Dog Warden is. And I need the name of the owner; otherwise he won’t be able to do anything about it. This rather annoyed me, to be honest. They basically ask me to find out more details all by myself before anything will be done. Anything else would probably disturb their cosy workday.
Let’s get back to the running, shall we? I did 6 easy miles on Tuesday, and even though there was nothing to report, really, I did notice that my pace for recovery runs has increased a little bit, as has the HR (it’s still within the accepted limits). I’ll make an effort to slow down again. The very very very easy level for recovery runs has really served me well.
I had to get up at 5:20 am this morning to get in my mid-week 15 miler. I didn’t even need the alarm clock, at 5:18 I woke up all by myself; my biological clock seems to be working very well these days. The weather wasn’t too inviting, it was raining just a little bit, just enough to make it more difficult to turn the door handle and head out into the open. Once that hurdle was surmounted, the run went very well. I did the first 2 miles at about 8:40 pace, by 5 miles I was down to an average of about 8:10, and by mile 10 I was at sub 8:00 average pace. All this was done in what I would call my natural pace. I didn’t run hard, but relaxed, but still putting in some effort; the HR was about 10 beats higher than for a recovery run. Personally I feel very comfortable with this approach, even though I’m running at or even above the upper limit of the usually recommended pace for long runs. I just happen to think that this effort level works very well for me.
That’s all very well, of course, but I’ve still got that massive 23 miler ahead of me on Friday. I’ve been dreading it all week. In fact, I’ve been dreading it since last week. By the end of today’s run, I did ask myself, could I continue for 8 more miles. Well, I felt very comfortable, so the answer was yes, but I was still glad that I didn’t have to do it at the time.
When I got back home, Niamh took one look at the rain outside the window, and commented that she couldn’t understand how I just ran for 2 hours. In the office, someone said basically the same thing. Non-runners just don’t get it, do they? A slight drizzle doesn’t particularly affect your running, it might even make it easier because of the cooling effect. You just have to manage to turn the doorknob. Once that is accomplished, the hardest part of the workout is behind you.
29 Aug: 6 miles, 53:34, 8:55 pace
30 Aug: 15 miles, 1:59, 7:56 pace
Anyway, I did go to the Garda station (as we call the police here), and was basically told that they are not responsible for dogs, the Dog Warden is. And I need the name of the owner; otherwise he won’t be able to do anything about it. This rather annoyed me, to be honest. They basically ask me to find out more details all by myself before anything will be done. Anything else would probably disturb their cosy workday.
Let’s get back to the running, shall we? I did 6 easy miles on Tuesday, and even though there was nothing to report, really, I did notice that my pace for recovery runs has increased a little bit, as has the HR (it’s still within the accepted limits). I’ll make an effort to slow down again. The very very very easy level for recovery runs has really served me well.
I had to get up at 5:20 am this morning to get in my mid-week 15 miler. I didn’t even need the alarm clock, at 5:18 I woke up all by myself; my biological clock seems to be working very well these days. The weather wasn’t too inviting, it was raining just a little bit, just enough to make it more difficult to turn the door handle and head out into the open. Once that hurdle was surmounted, the run went very well. I did the first 2 miles at about 8:40 pace, by 5 miles I was down to an average of about 8:10, and by mile 10 I was at sub 8:00 average pace. All this was done in what I would call my natural pace. I didn’t run hard, but relaxed, but still putting in some effort; the HR was about 10 beats higher than for a recovery run. Personally I feel very comfortable with this approach, even though I’m running at or even above the upper limit of the usually recommended pace for long runs. I just happen to think that this effort level works very well for me.
That’s all very well, of course, but I’ve still got that massive 23 miler ahead of me on Friday. I’ve been dreading it all week. In fact, I’ve been dreading it since last week. By the end of today’s run, I did ask myself, could I continue for 8 more miles. Well, I felt very comfortable, so the answer was yes, but I was still glad that I didn’t have to do it at the time.
When I got back home, Niamh took one look at the rain outside the window, and commented that she couldn’t understand how I just ran for 2 hours. In the office, someone said basically the same thing. Non-runners just don’t get it, do they? A slight drizzle doesn’t particularly affect your running, it might even make it easier because of the cooling effect. You just have to manage to turn the doorknob. Once that is accomplished, the hardest part of the workout is behind you.
29 Aug: 6 miles, 53:34, 8:55 pace
30 Aug: 15 miles, 1:59, 7:56 pace
Monday, August 28, 2006
Twice Bitten
On previous cutback weeks, I didn’t really notice the fact that the mileage was lower. The long run was shorter, but apart from that they always felt like normal weeks. Well, last week was different, I certainly noticed the drop in mileage from 68 to 55, and my legs immediately snapped back into action. I probably shouldn’t have increased my pace, but I never felt like running faster, the effort was the same as for the equivalent (but slower) runs in higher mileage weeks.
Anyway, I intended to finish the week with 6 easy recovery miles on Sunday. For the first 2.5 miles, it was a perfectly unremarkable recovery run like I’ve had countless ones before. Then, as I was passing one particular house, 4 dogs shot out, all of them barking viciously, and obviously in aggressive mood. I did what I always do when dogs come out barking, I run at the far side of the road in the hope that they realise that I’m not aiming towards their territory. 
That almost always works – not for those, though. They did go for me, and one gave me a very nasty bite – I didn’t even manage to kick it in revenge, but eventually I managed to get past them. Up to then my heart rate had been well under 140, but from then on, and for the rest of the run it was between 155 and 160; I was far too worked up to relax. My route also led me past the same house again on the way back (there was no real alternative, unless I wanted to run 9 miles instead of 6), and I picked up a stone in the hope I could throw it at one of them, just in case, but that seemed pathetic even as I picked it up. Luckily, the owner must have noticed something and locked them inside, because when I passed their house again there was no sign of them.
When I told Niamh about this afterwards, she told me that a friend of her who lives close to that spot, has a neighbour with a pack of vicious dogs, and the situation is so bad that nobody can walk past the house without being in real danger of being attacked. It seems rather obvious that these are the same dogs I had my encounter with, especially as this was already the second time I got bitten by one of them. I might contact the police about it, but I haven’t managed to talk to Niamh’s friend yet.
This week has different challenges, mostly related to Pfitz’s seemingly insane schedule. I had a sneak peak at the rest of the training, and this really seems to be the most intense week of them all. It started with a 12-mile run, 7 miles of which at threshold pace. I know I have been whinging about the long distance of the threshold sections before, even if it was only for 5 or 6 miles. This time, 7 miles felt definitely manageable, and I was zooming along at previously unknown speed. I very nearly managed 7:00 pace, and that on a fairly hilly course. This must be the effect of the cutback week, and especially the two preceding easy days. I just hope that it didn’t take too much out of my legs, and that they will bounce back into action before Friday. I will need them then.
My injury to the calf/achilles seems to have gone away. There was still some pain in the left hamstring, especially when I was running hard downhill, but I’m confident that will go away, too.
Weekly mileage: 55 miles
27 Aug: 6 miles, 53:15, 8:52 pace
28 Aug: 12 miles, 1:38:08, 7:35 pace, with 7 miles at 7:02 pace
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Late update: I've uploaded two (crappy) photos of my bite mark.
Anyway, I intended to finish the week with 6 easy recovery miles on Sunday. For the first 2.5 miles, it was a perfectly unremarkable recovery run like I’ve had countless ones before. Then, as I was passing one particular house, 4 dogs shot out, all of them barking viciously, and obviously in aggressive mood. I did what I always do when dogs come out barking, I run at the far side of the road in the hope that they realise that I’m not aiming towards their territory. 
That almost always works – not for those, though. They did go for me, and one gave me a very nasty bite – I didn’t even manage to kick it in revenge, but eventually I managed to get past them. Up to then my heart rate had been well under 140, but from then on, and for the rest of the run it was between 155 and 160; I was far too worked up to relax. My route also led me past the same house again on the way back (there was no real alternative, unless I wanted to run 9 miles instead of 6), and I picked up a stone in the hope I could throw it at one of them, just in case, but that seemed pathetic even as I picked it up. Luckily, the owner must have noticed something and locked them inside, because when I passed their house again there was no sign of them.When I told Niamh about this afterwards, she told me that a friend of her who lives close to that spot, has a neighbour with a pack of vicious dogs, and the situation is so bad that nobody can walk past the house without being in real danger of being attacked. It seems rather obvious that these are the same dogs I had my encounter with, especially as this was already the second time I got bitten by one of them. I might contact the police about it, but I haven’t managed to talk to Niamh’s friend yet.
This week has different challenges, mostly related to Pfitz’s seemingly insane schedule. I had a sneak peak at the rest of the training, and this really seems to be the most intense week of them all. It started with a 12-mile run, 7 miles of which at threshold pace. I know I have been whinging about the long distance of the threshold sections before, even if it was only for 5 or 6 miles. This time, 7 miles felt definitely manageable, and I was zooming along at previously unknown speed. I very nearly managed 7:00 pace, and that on a fairly hilly course. This must be the effect of the cutback week, and especially the two preceding easy days. I just hope that it didn’t take too much out of my legs, and that they will bounce back into action before Friday. I will need them then.
My injury to the calf/achilles seems to have gone away. There was still some pain in the left hamstring, especially when I was running hard downhill, but I’m confident that will go away, too.
Weekly mileage: 55 miles
27 Aug: 6 miles, 53:15, 8:52 pace
28 Aug: 12 miles, 1:38:08, 7:35 pace, with 7 miles at 7:02 pace
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Late update: I've uploaded two (crappy) photos of my bite mark.
Friday, August 25, 2006
It's Getting Nippy
It looks like summer 2006 is indeed a thing of the past. The temperatures have dropped, especially early in the morning. I’m still running in singlet/t-shirt and shorts, but yesterday I was half-tempted to turn back after a mile and get a pair of gloves. I can’t really believe it, it’s still August after all, and August is supposed to be part of summer, isn’t it?
Anyway, I keep churning out the miles, and I do notice the difference between a cutback week and a 68-mile week; I feel very fresh at the moment, and I did notice that my pace has increased a bit for each run. I guess that will drop back again, because next week is a humdinger of a week, and I don’t want to wear myself out even before the long run.
Thursday’s run was a 9-miler with 10x100 strides in the middle. I did notice that those strides feel easier than they used to, even though I probably run them for a slightly longer distance and maybe a tad faster than, say, 2 months ago. They used to wear out my legs, and these days I hardly feel anything afterwards. The only drawback is that I feel slightly silly if someone’s nearby watching me – which thankfully is rare at my time in the morning.
Today’s long run wasn’t very remarkable either, a mere 14 miles, which is shorter than the 15-mile midweek runs on normal weeks that took some time of getting used to. The weather wasn’t great; it was drizzly and very windy, which meant that I felt quite cold, at least initially. A bit of rain doesn’t bother me (which is a Good Thing really, for someone living in Ireland, especially on the West Coast), but rain and wind together are an unwelcome pair. But I guess the lower temperatures were the main reason why I ran it even faster than the previous runs this week, without actually upping the effort.
My left leg is still in a bit of a mess. On Wednesday I was sure that it was getting better, and on Thursday I felt hardly anything, but today the pain came back. I’m still undecided if it’s in my achilles or in my calf; maybe it’s where the two connect, and that’s why I can’t quite work out where exactly the pain is coming from. It’s not stopping me from running, and I’m still quite sure that overall it is improving. To make matter worse, though, my left hamstring started hurting too. Most likely it’s a follow-on injury, though at the moment I don’t even call it an injury, it’s more a bit of a twinge. Tomorrow is a rest day, and Sunday’s run is an easy 6-mile recovery run, and I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll feel better after that, because another 70 miles week is lying in wait, and I don’t even want to think about that mad 23 mile long run that is scheduled for Friday, so let’s pretend I didn’t even mention it.
24 Aug: 9 miles, 1:13, 8:06 pace, including 10x100 strides
25 Aug: 14 miles, 1:50, 7:51 pace
Anyway, I keep churning out the miles, and I do notice the difference between a cutback week and a 68-mile week; I feel very fresh at the moment, and I did notice that my pace has increased a bit for each run. I guess that will drop back again, because next week is a humdinger of a week, and I don’t want to wear myself out even before the long run.
Thursday’s run was a 9-miler with 10x100 strides in the middle. I did notice that those strides feel easier than they used to, even though I probably run them for a slightly longer distance and maybe a tad faster than, say, 2 months ago. They used to wear out my legs, and these days I hardly feel anything afterwards. The only drawback is that I feel slightly silly if someone’s nearby watching me – which thankfully is rare at my time in the morning.
Today’s long run wasn’t very remarkable either, a mere 14 miles, which is shorter than the 15-mile midweek runs on normal weeks that took some time of getting used to. The weather wasn’t great; it was drizzly and very windy, which meant that I felt quite cold, at least initially. A bit of rain doesn’t bother me (which is a Good Thing really, for someone living in Ireland, especially on the West Coast), but rain and wind together are an unwelcome pair. But I guess the lower temperatures were the main reason why I ran it even faster than the previous runs this week, without actually upping the effort.
My left leg is still in a bit of a mess. On Wednesday I was sure that it was getting better, and on Thursday I felt hardly anything, but today the pain came back. I’m still undecided if it’s in my achilles or in my calf; maybe it’s where the two connect, and that’s why I can’t quite work out where exactly the pain is coming from. It’s not stopping me from running, and I’m still quite sure that overall it is improving. To make matter worse, though, my left hamstring started hurting too. Most likely it’s a follow-on injury, though at the moment I don’t even call it an injury, it’s more a bit of a twinge. Tomorrow is a rest day, and Sunday’s run is an easy 6-mile recovery run, and I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll feel better after that, because another 70 miles week is lying in wait, and I don’t even want to think about that mad 23 mile long run that is scheduled for Friday, so let’s pretend I didn’t even mention it.
24 Aug: 9 miles, 1:13, 8:06 pace, including 10x100 strides
25 Aug: 14 miles, 1:50, 7:51 pace
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Change of Plan
I had planned to stay in Valentia until Wednesday, but we decided it would be better if I didn’t drive back down on Tuesday and stayed in Caragh Lake instead. This suited me fine, as it meant an extra 45 minutes of sleep before today’s run, and I wasn’t going to turn that down.
I did 6 easy miles on Tuesday, which of course turned out to my last run in Valentia for a while. Running there is quite nice, the scenery is spectacular on a nice day, and there is a good mix of flat and hilly runs. The downside is that you are constantly being battered by the wind. The weather comes straight from the Atlantic, and there is nothing to stop the wind all along the way. In fact, Tuesday’s was the only run there when the winds was reasonably calm.
When I started out this morning for my 11-miler, I wondered why the legs felt so heavy. I felt like I was attached to some balls-and-chains (no married jokes, please), until I finally remembered that I had done some speedwork on Monday, and the effects were clearly there today. I managed to drag myself along for the entire run, despite being tempted to turn around for all of the outbound section. When I checked my time afterwards I noticed I had done sub 8:00 pace once again. I probably should keep the pace a bit more relaxed on those kinds of runs, especially when I’m not feeling at the top of the world.
Anyway, Niamh and the kids are probably back home by now, and I’m already halfway through my first week back at work. It’s raining outside (that started shortly after my run – lucky escape), and everyone in the office is miserable because summer is over. Ah well.
22 Aug: 6 miles, 55:54, 9:19 pace
23 Aug: 11 miles, 1:27, 7:54 pace
I did 6 easy miles on Tuesday, which of course turned out to my last run in Valentia for a while. Running there is quite nice, the scenery is spectacular on a nice day, and there is a good mix of flat and hilly runs. The downside is that you are constantly being battered by the wind. The weather comes straight from the Atlantic, and there is nothing to stop the wind all along the way. In fact, Tuesday’s was the only run there when the winds was reasonably calm.
When I started out this morning for my 11-miler, I wondered why the legs felt so heavy. I felt like I was attached to some balls-and-chains (no married jokes, please), until I finally remembered that I had done some speedwork on Monday, and the effects were clearly there today. I managed to drag myself along for the entire run, despite being tempted to turn around for all of the outbound section. When I checked my time afterwards I noticed I had done sub 8:00 pace once again. I probably should keep the pace a bit more relaxed on those kinds of runs, especially when I’m not feeling at the top of the world.
Anyway, Niamh and the kids are probably back home by now, and I’m already halfway through my first week back at work. It’s raining outside (that started shortly after my run – lucky escape), and everyone in the office is miserable because summer is over. Ah well.
22 Aug: 6 miles, 55:54, 9:19 pace
23 Aug: 11 miles, 1:27, 7:54 pace
Monday, August 21, 2006
Back Again
Have I really been on holiday? That’s the biggest problem if you’re only taking one week off: you’re back at work before you’ve even gotten into holiday mood. We’re still staying in Valentia until Wednesday, which puts me into the unusual position of staying in our holiday house but having to commute to work every day. I’ve done that before, but to be honest I’m looking forward to Niamh and the kids moving back to Caragh Lake.
I’d better summarise my running exploits from the last few days. The legs did spring back into action on Friday, just in time for my long run. As I had done a marathon pace run the week before, I wasn’t too worried about my pace. The first 2 miles were pretty slow, but the legs gradually and naturally tuned into 8:00 pace, making this more-or-less a marathon pace run after all.
After 6 miles, I left the main road and ran up a trail towards an old stone fort at Bray Head, the very tip of Valentia Island. That road rises about 150 meters (nearly 500 feet) over 1.5 miles, which makes it a great hill for a workout. It went really well, and one guy muttered something like “that’s crazy” as I passed him, which I took as a compliment, really. The view from there was spectacular across the coast and the Skelligs, but I didn’t linger and turned around to head back. I added two loops at the end, one to make it 16 miles, and another .7 miles to make up for Wednesday’s shortened run.
Saturday was the usual rest day, and Sunday was a bit weird, as Pfitz’s plan called for a double workout – my first scheduled double ever. I was initially tempted to combine the 2 recovery runs into one 10 miler, but as soon as I hit the road my legs felt really heavy, which I attribute to all the hills I’ve run this week, so I decided to follow to schedule after all. The first run went ok, apart from a nasty wasp stinging me in my left hand. That really hurt! Then, on the second run, my left achilles really started hurting. I’ve felt a pain there for a few days, but not while running; it usually hurt in the evening when I went to bed. I didn’t take too much notice of it, but it came back to bite me.
I wasn’t sure if I should go ahead with Monday’s workout, 9 miles with 6x600 repeats, because the added pounding from the speed workout could easily aggravate the injury. In the end I did the usual runner thing, namely to ignore the pain in the hope that it would go away by itself. The workout itself went ok. As usual, I ran my fast repeats by time on the road, because I don’t have access to a track, which makes this more of a hard fartlek than an interval workout. And I didn’t feel sufficiently tired after the 6th repeat, so I added a seventh. I could feel the achilles during the warm-up and the cool-down, but not during the speedy part itself. It wasn’t just the achilles that was painful; I could clearly feel a sharp-ish pain on the inside of my calf, maybe 2 or 3 inches above my ankle. I’m not sure what it is. I still hope that it will go away, and have been icing it on and off since yesterday evening. I’ll also stay away from hills for a few days. This week is a cutback week of 55 miles, and maybe the lower mileage will help, too.
Weekly mileage: 68+ miles
18 Aug: 16.7 miles, 2:16, 8:08 pace
20 Aug: 6.4 miles, 59:08, 9:14 pace
3.6 miles, 32:19, 8:58 pace
21 Aug: 9 miles, 1:17, 8:33 avg. pace, including 7x600 repeats with 90 secs recovery
I’d better summarise my running exploits from the last few days. The legs did spring back into action on Friday, just in time for my long run. As I had done a marathon pace run the week before, I wasn’t too worried about my pace. The first 2 miles were pretty slow, but the legs gradually and naturally tuned into 8:00 pace, making this more-or-less a marathon pace run after all.
After 6 miles, I left the main road and ran up a trail towards an old stone fort at Bray Head, the very tip of Valentia Island. That road rises about 150 meters (nearly 500 feet) over 1.5 miles, which makes it a great hill for a workout. It went really well, and one guy muttered something like “that’s crazy” as I passed him, which I took as a compliment, really. The view from there was spectacular across the coast and the Skelligs, but I didn’t linger and turned around to head back. I added two loops at the end, one to make it 16 miles, and another .7 miles to make up for Wednesday’s shortened run.Saturday was the usual rest day, and Sunday was a bit weird, as Pfitz’s plan called for a double workout – my first scheduled double ever. I was initially tempted to combine the 2 recovery runs into one 10 miler, but as soon as I hit the road my legs felt really heavy, which I attribute to all the hills I’ve run this week, so I decided to follow to schedule after all. The first run went ok, apart from a nasty wasp stinging me in my left hand. That really hurt! Then, on the second run, my left achilles really started hurting. I’ve felt a pain there for a few days, but not while running; it usually hurt in the evening when I went to bed. I didn’t take too much notice of it, but it came back to bite me.
I wasn’t sure if I should go ahead with Monday’s workout, 9 miles with 6x600 repeats, because the added pounding from the speed workout could easily aggravate the injury. In the end I did the usual runner thing, namely to ignore the pain in the hope that it would go away by itself. The workout itself went ok. As usual, I ran my fast repeats by time on the road, because I don’t have access to a track, which makes this more of a hard fartlek than an interval workout. And I didn’t feel sufficiently tired after the 6th repeat, so I added a seventh. I could feel the achilles during the warm-up and the cool-down, but not during the speedy part itself. It wasn’t just the achilles that was painful; I could clearly feel a sharp-ish pain on the inside of my calf, maybe 2 or 3 inches above my ankle. I’m not sure what it is. I still hope that it will go away, and have been icing it on and off since yesterday evening. I’ll also stay away from hills for a few days. This week is a cutback week of 55 miles, and maybe the lower mileage will help, too.
Weekly mileage: 68+ miles
18 Aug: 16.7 miles, 2:16, 8:08 pace
20 Aug: 6.4 miles, 59:08, 9:14 pace
3.6 miles, 32:19, 8:58 pace
21 Aug: 9 miles, 1:17, 8:33 avg. pace, including 7x600 repeats with 90 secs recovery
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Quick Update
My blog hasn’t been updated for a few days because I’ve been away from civilisation for a while. Niamh and me went into the Heart of Darkness (also known as County Cork) where the people are still wild and Internet access scarce. I did manage to run every day, both in Baltimore as well as on Valentia Island on the last few days. I’m still on my holidays for the rest of the week, which is why I probably won’t be able to write another update until Monday. We’ll see. I haven’t got much time, and all I can give is a short summary of the last days.
We drove to Baltimore, Co. Cork, on Sunday evening, and booked into a cute family-run hotel, Casey’s in Baltimore, which I can heartily recommend if you ever find yourself in that remote corner of the world. Of course I didn’t know any running routes there, so I just ran for two hours on Monday over the hills of the peninsula. I got quite lost, but managed to find my way back without too much trouble. The terrain was very hilly, more so than my usual routes in Caragh Lake.
Tuesday was supposed to be a recovery day, but I managed to get off the beaten track, ended in a field full of gorse and blackberry bushes, which scratched my lower legs so much that I looked like I had gotten into a fight with a pack of small cats. As far as the run was concerned, it was quite enjoyable, but as for recovery, it was a bit of a disaster.
We drove home on Tuesday, and very very nearly had a very serious car crash. We went round a blind bend, only to see a car coming towards us on our side of the road. Niamh (who was driving at the time) slammed the breaks, as did the other car. Niamh moved to her left; the other car moved to his right, which was obviously the same side Niamh tried to steer. I was sure that we were going to smash pretty badly, but the brakes did the trick, and both cars came to a standstill. I got out, and there were less than 4 inches between our bumpers. By that time the other driver had finally realised that HE had been on the wrong side of the road, and looked pretty shaken. He apologised about a dozen times, but it didn’t save him from a stern lecture from Niamh, who didn’t leave a doubt that it had been his fault, that we drive on the left in Ireland, and the fact that he was a tourist and is used to drive on the right side was not a sufficient excuse (I actually felt sorry for the guy – he had looked shaken enough to start with). Anyway, we eventually drove off, and both Niamh and me confessed to each other that both our first thoughts had been “oh no, not the new car!”.
Sufficiently recovered from the shock, I ran 12 miles on Wednesday morning, back in Valentia. I had planned to do 13, but got my distances wrong; I was so confused that afterwards I drove the whole course with the car, just to get my measurements right next time. Sad? Probably. The course wasn’t hilly as such, but had a major climb of a bit less than 2 miles, with an elevation gain of about 100 meters, which is very similar to the “Hell of the West” climb at the end of the Connemara marathon. Maybe I’ll use that climb to prepare myself next year.
Today I did 8 miles in the morning with 12x100 strides; at least I think it was 12, I lost count at some stage. The legs felt very tired, and I’m a bit worried all that fast (for me) running over the last few weeks is catching up with me. The legs will have to manage 16 miles tomorrow. It is supposed to be a marathon pace run, but as I inadvertently did one of those last week, I’m not so concerned about the pace; I’ll just try and get my legs around the whole distance.
14 Aug: 2:02, approx 15 miles
15 Aug: 1:02, approx 6.5 miles
16 Aug: 12 miles, 1:35, 7:55 pace
17 Aug: 8 miles, 1:09, 8:37 pace, with 12x100 strides
We drove to Baltimore, Co. Cork, on Sunday evening, and booked into a cute family-run hotel, Casey’s in Baltimore, which I can heartily recommend if you ever find yourself in that remote corner of the world. Of course I didn’t know any running routes there, so I just ran for two hours on Monday over the hills of the peninsula. I got quite lost, but managed to find my way back without too much trouble. The terrain was very hilly, more so than my usual routes in Caragh Lake.
Tuesday was supposed to be a recovery day, but I managed to get off the beaten track, ended in a field full of gorse and blackberry bushes, which scratched my lower legs so much that I looked like I had gotten into a fight with a pack of small cats. As far as the run was concerned, it was quite enjoyable, but as for recovery, it was a bit of a disaster.
We drove home on Tuesday, and very very nearly had a very serious car crash. We went round a blind bend, only to see a car coming towards us on our side of the road. Niamh (who was driving at the time) slammed the breaks, as did the other car. Niamh moved to her left; the other car moved to his right, which was obviously the same side Niamh tried to steer. I was sure that we were going to smash pretty badly, but the brakes did the trick, and both cars came to a standstill. I got out, and there were less than 4 inches between our bumpers. By that time the other driver had finally realised that HE had been on the wrong side of the road, and looked pretty shaken. He apologised about a dozen times, but it didn’t save him from a stern lecture from Niamh, who didn’t leave a doubt that it had been his fault, that we drive on the left in Ireland, and the fact that he was a tourist and is used to drive on the right side was not a sufficient excuse (I actually felt sorry for the guy – he had looked shaken enough to start with). Anyway, we eventually drove off, and both Niamh and me confessed to each other that both our first thoughts had been “oh no, not the new car!”.
Sufficiently recovered from the shock, I ran 12 miles on Wednesday morning, back in Valentia. I had planned to do 13, but got my distances wrong; I was so confused that afterwards I drove the whole course with the car, just to get my measurements right next time. Sad? Probably. The course wasn’t hilly as such, but had a major climb of a bit less than 2 miles, with an elevation gain of about 100 meters, which is very similar to the “Hell of the West” climb at the end of the Connemara marathon. Maybe I’ll use that climb to prepare myself next year.
Today I did 8 miles in the morning with 12x100 strides; at least I think it was 12, I lost count at some stage. The legs felt very tired, and I’m a bit worried all that fast (for me) running over the last few weeks is catching up with me. The legs will have to manage 16 miles tomorrow. It is supposed to be a marathon pace run, but as I inadvertently did one of those last week, I’m not so concerned about the pace; I’ll just try and get my legs around the whole distance.
14 Aug: 2:02, approx 15 miles
15 Aug: 1:02, approx 6.5 miles
16 Aug: 12 miles, 1:35, 7:55 pace
17 Aug: 8 miles, 1:09, 8:37 pace, with 12x100 strides
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Holy Smoke – Did I Just Do That?
For once I didn’t feel apprehensive about my long run. 18 miles just sounded so much more manageable than the 21 miles the week before earlier that I really didn’t worry about it. But I didn’t fancy doing it in Valentia and then drive 45 minutes to work, so I stayed in Caragh Lake overnight and ran on my usual routes on Friday morning. I managed to zen out again for most of the first 10 miles, which was kinda cool, but I think now I know what’s causing it: lack of sleep. I woke at about 4:20 and didn’t sleep much after that, until I finally got up at 5:20. The full moon might have something to do with this; it’s not the first time that I’ve had trouble sleeping around this time. Anyway, after the first 10-mile loop I was running consciously again, but it still went really well. I felt so good at mile 17 that I decided to have a bit of fun on the last mile and accelerated, first to 10k pace, then to 5k pace, and nearly all-out-sprinting over the last bit. When I checked my time, I realised that I had run the 18 miles at sub 8:00 pace – oops. Of course the last mile would have raised the average pace, but still, I must have run at just about 8:00 pace for the other 17 miles. I suppose the 3 easy days beforehand made my legs feel fresher than I’ve been used to over the last 3 months.
Saturday was a rest day once again, and I hoped to be more or less fully recovered on Sunday for a tempo run, but that didn’t prove to be the case. As soon as I started, I knew that I would be struggling because the legs had the leaden feeling to them. I warmed up for 2.5 miles, ran 6 miles out-and-back at LT effort, and cooled down for the final 2.5 miles. Two weeks ago I said that 5 miles is rather long at LT pace. Guess what, 6 miles are even worse, especially if your legs are tired to start with, and the blustery wind didn’t help either. For the tempo effort I managed an average pace of about 7:20, which is a good bit slower than last time, but today the legs simply didn’t have any more in them. No worries, I put it all down to Friday’s run, and take it as a sign that the body is still being stressed – and make no mistake, that’s a good thing.
I didn’t follow your advice, guys, about running to the Fair. Last year I went down at lunchtime to have a quick pint. The Guinness just tasted too good, and six or seven pints later Niamh had to collect me from there. With her being in Valentia, I didn’t want to tempt fate.
And as for taking a break from running while on holidays: thanks for your concern, but no thanks. There are times when I feel great about running, and there are times when I have to drag myself out of the house, and at the moment I’m on such a high that the mere thought of not running for a whole(!) week(!!) is just too dreadful to even contemplate. I’ll pass on the break thingy, and rather hit the road while I still feel good about it.
Weekly mileage: 64 miles
11 Aug: 18 miles, 2:23, 7:56 pace
13 Aug: 11 miles, 1:27, 7:54 pace, with 6 miles at 7:20 pace
Saturday was a rest day once again, and I hoped to be more or less fully recovered on Sunday for a tempo run, but that didn’t prove to be the case. As soon as I started, I knew that I would be struggling because the legs had the leaden feeling to them. I warmed up for 2.5 miles, ran 6 miles out-and-back at LT effort, and cooled down for the final 2.5 miles. Two weeks ago I said that 5 miles is rather long at LT pace. Guess what, 6 miles are even worse, especially if your legs are tired to start with, and the blustery wind didn’t help either. For the tempo effort I managed an average pace of about 7:20, which is a good bit slower than last time, but today the legs simply didn’t have any more in them. No worries, I put it all down to Friday’s run, and take it as a sign that the body is still being stressed – and make no mistake, that’s a good thing.
I didn’t follow your advice, guys, about running to the Fair. Last year I went down at lunchtime to have a quick pint. The Guinness just tasted too good, and six or seven pints later Niamh had to collect me from there. With her being in Valentia, I didn’t want to tempt fate.
And as for taking a break from running while on holidays: thanks for your concern, but no thanks. There are times when I feel great about running, and there are times when I have to drag myself out of the house, and at the moment I’m on such a high that the mere thought of not running for a whole(!) week(!!) is just too dreadful to even contemplate. I’ll pass on the break thingy, and rather hit the road while I still feel good about it.
Weekly mileage: 64 miles
11 Aug: 18 miles, 2:23, 7:56 pace
13 Aug: 11 miles, 1:27, 7:54 pace, with 6 miles at 7:20 pace
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Easy Does It
It’s Puck Fair in Killorglin, and the whole town is going bananas. Apparently it’s the one event sponsored by Guinness where the most pints per head are consumed. As Puck Fair and marathon training are incompatible (as I've learned the hard way last year), I’m doing the unsociable thing (again!) and have so far managed to stay clear of temptation. It’s a shame, because the weather is just gorgeous.
I’ve finished a sequence of three easy days in a row. After Tuesday’s recovery run followed 8 miles with 10x100 strides yesterday, and another 6-mile recovery run today. Niamh and the kids have gone to Valentia Island, about 30 miles from Killorglin, where her family have had a holiday house since the 70s, and when the weather is as nice as it is now it could be mistaken for a holiday in the Mediterranean (ok, maybe not quite). I spent the night there, which meant a run in less familiar scenery, but I’ve run in Valentia before (in fact, I started my first ever marathon training there, two years ago). I’ve taken next week off at work, and we’ll sneak away for the weekend towards Baltimore (the one in County Cork, not the one in Maryland, obviously), and leave the kids with Nana and Gaga. If the weather stays like this, it should be heaven. I’ll still keep my training going, I promise.
9 Aug: 8 miles, 1:05, 8:07 pace, including 10x100 strides
10 Aug: 6 miles, 55:15, 9:12 pace
I’ve finished a sequence of three easy days in a row. After Tuesday’s recovery run followed 8 miles with 10x100 strides yesterday, and another 6-mile recovery run today. Niamh and the kids have gone to Valentia Island, about 30 miles from Killorglin, where her family have had a holiday house since the 70s, and when the weather is as nice as it is now it could be mistaken for a holiday in the Mediterranean (ok, maybe not quite). I spent the night there, which meant a run in less familiar scenery, but I’ve run in Valentia before (in fact, I started my first ever marathon training there, two years ago). I’ve taken next week off at work, and we’ll sneak away for the weekend towards Baltimore (the one in County Cork, not the one in Maryland, obviously), and leave the kids with Nana and Gaga. If the weather stays like this, it should be heaven. I’ll still keep my training going, I promise.
9 Aug: 8 miles, 1:05, 8:07 pace, including 10x100 strides
10 Aug: 6 miles, 55:15, 9:12 pace
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Halftime Reflections
I nearly missed it (ok, I missed it), but I’ve reached the halfway point of my training. I’m now more than 12 weeks into the 24 weeks schedule, and it’s time for a quick recap.
Originally I was a bit worried about the mileage, especially the 70-miles weeks; I didn’t know if I would be able to handle them. Well, I’ve now survived the first 70 miles week, and it went better than I could have expected. In fact, I felt able to handle more. Previous training cycles have always been hampered by injuries at some stage, like shin splints a year ago, and achilles tendonitis half a year ago, all in my right leg, as usual. This time round I have felt a few aches and pains, usually in my right foot, or my right achilles tendon, but never so bad that I was worried about having to rest, and never so bad that I missed a training run. The one exception were the chest pains about a months ago, but that was an isolated incident, and I’m pretty sure it was brought on by some over-enthusiastic core strengthening exercise, which I have cut down since (ok, I haven’t done any).
I have so far managed 3 runs of 20 miles or more, all of them without any gels or Gatorade, or any other carbo-loading goodies. In contrast to Mike or Marc I’m not doing this to toughen myself up. I simply felt that they don’t make much of a difference. Last year I always used to take a gel at mile 10 for each run over 15 miles, and for a 20 miler I would take a gel at 10 and another one at 15 miles. Last week I ran 21 miles, and the only “nutrition” were two bottles of water strategically placed at the end of our driveway so that I could pick them up at the end of each loop. And you know what? I didn’t feel any difference. Sure, a gel always gave me a little bit of a boost, but I’ve come to the conclusion that it was more of a psychological boost than an actual reloading of blood-sugar level. Will I take gels during my next runs? No. Will I take gels during the marathon? I haven’t decided yet. I know that you shouldn’t take anything during a marathon that you haven’t tried in training, but I have taken gels before and know that my stomach can handle them without problems. As I’ve said, I’ll decide closer to the actual event.
Running. Yes, I’ve done more since my last entry. Monday was a bank holiday in Ireland, which would have meant sleeping in if we were childless *sigh*. As it was, I still left it a bit late and didn’t get out of the house until about 10 o’clock. It was quite hot, and my legs were very heavy, which was obviously caused by Sunday’s hills. I was sorely tempted to cut it short, but got used to both the temperatures and the heavy legs eventually, and managed to hang on until the end. I was a bit surprised afterwards to realise that I had averaged sub 8:00 pace again. No wonder I was struggling a bit.
After three heavy workloads in four days, the next three days are a bit of a recovery phase, starting with today’s 6-mile recovery run. The quads felt very sore from the first step onwards, more so than yesterday, which is a classic symptom of DOMS, of course. I expect this to be cleared up by tomorrow. The scheduled mileage for this week is a mere 64 miles, which I’m definitely able to handle. When I first noticed the drop in mileage I thought “what the hell is he cutting back the mileage for?”, but after the last two days I’ve come round to the idea of a few easy days.
7 Aug: 15 miles, 1:58, 7:52 pace
8 Aug: 6 miles, 56:18, 9:23 pace
Originally I was a bit worried about the mileage, especially the 70-miles weeks; I didn’t know if I would be able to handle them. Well, I’ve now survived the first 70 miles week, and it went better than I could have expected. In fact, I felt able to handle more. Previous training cycles have always been hampered by injuries at some stage, like shin splints a year ago, and achilles tendonitis half a year ago, all in my right leg, as usual. This time round I have felt a few aches and pains, usually in my right foot, or my right achilles tendon, but never so bad that I was worried about having to rest, and never so bad that I missed a training run. The one exception were the chest pains about a months ago, but that was an isolated incident, and I’m pretty sure it was brought on by some over-enthusiastic core strengthening exercise, which I have cut down since (ok, I haven’t done any).
I have so far managed 3 runs of 20 miles or more, all of them without any gels or Gatorade, or any other carbo-loading goodies. In contrast to Mike or Marc I’m not doing this to toughen myself up. I simply felt that they don’t make much of a difference. Last year I always used to take a gel at mile 10 for each run over 15 miles, and for a 20 miler I would take a gel at 10 and another one at 15 miles. Last week I ran 21 miles, and the only “nutrition” were two bottles of water strategically placed at the end of our driveway so that I could pick them up at the end of each loop. And you know what? I didn’t feel any difference. Sure, a gel always gave me a little bit of a boost, but I’ve come to the conclusion that it was more of a psychological boost than an actual reloading of blood-sugar level. Will I take gels during my next runs? No. Will I take gels during the marathon? I haven’t decided yet. I know that you shouldn’t take anything during a marathon that you haven’t tried in training, but I have taken gels before and know that my stomach can handle them without problems. As I’ve said, I’ll decide closer to the actual event.
Running. Yes, I’ve done more since my last entry. Monday was a bank holiday in Ireland, which would have meant sleeping in if we were childless *sigh*. As it was, I still left it a bit late and didn’t get out of the house until about 10 o’clock. It was quite hot, and my legs were very heavy, which was obviously caused by Sunday’s hills. I was sorely tempted to cut it short, but got used to both the temperatures and the heavy legs eventually, and managed to hang on until the end. I was a bit surprised afterwards to realise that I had averaged sub 8:00 pace again. No wonder I was struggling a bit.
After three heavy workloads in four days, the next three days are a bit of a recovery phase, starting with today’s 6-mile recovery run. The quads felt very sore from the first step onwards, more so than yesterday, which is a classic symptom of DOMS, of course. I expect this to be cleared up by tomorrow. The scheduled mileage for this week is a mere 64 miles, which I’m definitely able to handle. When I first noticed the drop in mileage I thought “what the hell is he cutting back the mileage for?”, but after the last two days I’ve come round to the idea of a few easy days.
7 Aug: 15 miles, 1:58, 7:52 pace
8 Aug: 6 miles, 56:18, 9:23 pace
Sunday, August 06, 2006
A Long Outing
To say I was apprehensive about Friday’s long run would be an understatement. I knew that I could manage it, and I probably knew that I would be feel fine once out on the road, but a 21 mile training run was uncharted territory for me, and I expected to be shot to pieces afterwards. In the end, all the anxiety was for nothing. If you can run 20 miles in training one week, you can manage 21 miles the next, and all you have to do is – actually do it. In fact, it went a lot better than last week’s long run. Back then I had started too fast and suffered on the last 5-mile-loop. This time I paced myself better, and my time for the last 5 miles was 42 minutes, 8:24 pace, compared to 45 minutes the week before. I still felt fine at the end of the run (and felt that I could have run faster, which is good), and I certainly felt able to run another 5-mile-loop, if I had chosen to do the whole marathon distance. Later during the day I felt ok, the muscles were fine, but I did notice some fairly bad chafing, and my left heel hurt as well; but all in all I felt fine, really.
Saturday was a rest day, and for once I was glad about it. My muscles were surprisingly sore (I hadn’t felt any soreness last week), and definitely welcomed a bit of recovery. I managed to refrain from too much work in the garden (just an hour or two), and took it easy all day.
A good night’s sleep would have rounded off the recovery, but that part of the plan didn’t come to fruition. The kids were up at 6:30, and between breakfast, telly, and about a dozen fights between them they ensured that neither Niamh nor me got another minute of rest. It was raining quite heavily in the morning, and I delayed my run for as long as I could, because it was easing up eventually. I finished the week with 10 miles, and for the first time I strayed away from Pfitz’s schedule. Rather than running 10 miles with 8x800 repeats I chose to do some hill repeats. I didn’t see the point of doing speed work at this stage of training and thought the hills might be more beneficial. It’s not quite a hill Lydiard would recommend, it entails a climb of nearly one mile up to a picnic area from where you have a spectacular view over Caragh Lake and Dingle Bay, and I ran it up 3 times. I tried that Lydiard thing of pushing off strongly and lifting the knees high, but one mile is too long for this kind of thing (certainly on the first hill outing), and after a while I was content just to make it up the hill.
I ran too fast on the way back home. Niamh wanted to bring the kids to see Cars in the cinema, and I didn’t want to leave her waiting – as if two minutes more would have made any difference. Anyway, I made it back in time, and the kids all loved the film.
Weekly mileage: 70+ miles
4 Aug: 21 miles, 2:53, 8:14 pace
6 Aug: 10 miles, 1:21, 8:06 pace, 3 long hill repeats
Saturday was a rest day, and for once I was glad about it. My muscles were surprisingly sore (I hadn’t felt any soreness last week), and definitely welcomed a bit of recovery. I managed to refrain from too much work in the garden (just an hour or two), and took it easy all day.
A good night’s sleep would have rounded off the recovery, but that part of the plan didn’t come to fruition. The kids were up at 6:30, and between breakfast, telly, and about a dozen fights between them they ensured that neither Niamh nor me got another minute of rest. It was raining quite heavily in the morning, and I delayed my run for as long as I could, because it was easing up eventually. I finished the week with 10 miles, and for the first time I strayed away from Pfitz’s schedule. Rather than running 10 miles with 8x800 repeats I chose to do some hill repeats. I didn’t see the point of doing speed work at this stage of training and thought the hills might be more beneficial. It’s not quite a hill Lydiard would recommend, it entails a climb of nearly one mile up to a picnic area from where you have a spectacular view over Caragh Lake and Dingle Bay, and I ran it up 3 times. I tried that Lydiard thing of pushing off strongly and lifting the knees high, but one mile is too long for this kind of thing (certainly on the first hill outing), and after a while I was content just to make it up the hill.
I ran too fast on the way back home. Niamh wanted to bring the kids to see Cars in the cinema, and I didn’t want to leave her waiting – as if two minutes more would have made any difference. Anyway, I made it back in time, and the kids all loved the film.
Weekly mileage: 70+ miles
4 Aug: 21 miles, 2:53, 8:14 pace
6 Aug: 10 miles, 1:21, 8:06 pace, 3 long hill repeats
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Zen
Maybe I’m still asleep when I’m running these days? I had a weird experience on my 11-miler yesterday. I got a decent amount of sleep, about 7 hours, but was still tired by the time I hit the road. I do remember running the first mile, then my mind just zonked and the next time I remember I was at mile 5. The weird thing is, there were two big hills between those points, and I must have run across them without registering anything. I stayed awake for two miles, then I went offline again, and the next time I had a conscious thought I was back in our driveway. Weird, but cool in some way.
Today I had to run on my own accord again, 8 miles with 10x100 strides thrown in for good measure. Mindful of the very very long run tomorrow I kept the effort at an easy level. There’s not much to tell, apart from the fact that I kept hearing a cow mooing very loudly somewhere nearby, which of course reminded me of Monday’s run. I’m pretty sure she wasn’t still lost from that episode though.
It had to happen, I’ve been waiting for it, and now the time has finally come. After 15 years and 163843 miles of fateful service (well, only the last 2.5 years for us), our car has finally given in. It started collecting faults at an ever-increasing rate in the last few months. I already have a replacement ready, though I cannot really call it my new car. You can’t possibly call a 14-year-old car “new” by any stretch of the imagination. It’s in good condition (the mother-in-law did look after it very well), and is the only thing I can afford right now. It will do.
2 Aug: 11 miles, 1:27, 7:54 pace
3 Aug: 8.2 miles, 1:09, 8:24 pace, with 10x100 strides
Today I had to run on my own accord again, 8 miles with 10x100 strides thrown in for good measure. Mindful of the very very long run tomorrow I kept the effort at an easy level. There’s not much to tell, apart from the fact that I kept hearing a cow mooing very loudly somewhere nearby, which of course reminded me of Monday’s run. I’m pretty sure she wasn’t still lost from that episode though.
It had to happen, I’ve been waiting for it, and now the time has finally come. After 15 years and 163843 miles of fateful service (well, only the last 2.5 years for us), our car has finally given in. It started collecting faults at an ever-increasing rate in the last few months. I already have a replacement ready, though I cannot really call it my new car. You can’t possibly call a 14-year-old car “new” by any stretch of the imagination. It’s in good condition (the mother-in-law did look after it very well), and is the only thing I can afford right now. It will do.
2 Aug: 11 miles, 1:27, 7:54 pace
3 Aug: 8.2 miles, 1:09, 8:24 pace, with 10x100 strides
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Another Anniversary
The one of the regular meaning this time, that is. Have we really been married for 9 years? Blimey, it doesn’t feel that long. I really must be getting old! Anyway, we went out for a meal on the weekend; there is a restaurant in Kells that does a Cypriot night, and we very much enjoyed our 15-course dinner (yes, I was stuffed like a turkey by the end).
I expected to feel stiff and tired on Monday after Sunday’s very brisk tempo run, but surprised myself by feeling like flying all the way. The major obstacle I came across was a herd of cows standing in the middle of the dirt road I was running on. What eejit of a farmer left his cows there? Despite the fact that they’re probably 20 times my weight, the animals seemed to panic at my approach and stampeded off along the road. I did follow the rather slow and very smelly creatures for about 5 minutes, but it became clear that they had no intentions of turning off the road as long as I was right behind them. Plus, I noticed that there were a few young bulls amongst them, and I didn’t fancy finding out what would happen once they got tired of running away from me, so I turned around and ran back the way I had come from. As I was unable to follow my planned route, I decided to explore some of the dirt roads between Killorglin and Kilgobnet, where I have hardly ever run before. Of course this meant I was running by time rather than distance again. By the end I called it 14 miles, but I’m pretty sure it was a bit more than that, because I kept going at a fairly decent pace. Never mind, the body doesn’t know what number you write down at the end.
I started August with a 6-mile recovery run today, and once again dropped my record for lowest ever HR during a run. When I started training for Dublin about 10 weeks ago, I just about managed to keep the average HR under 145 for my recovery runs. But it gradually dropped, and today’s HR was 134 – about 69% of my max, despite keeping the pace roughly the same. As long as this keeps going, I know that I’m not overtraining, even though I’m still struggling to get enough sleep (Cian woke at 5 am).
Mileage for July: 285 miles
31 Jul: 14 miles (approx), 1:52, 8:00 pace
1 Aug: 6 miles, 56:28, 9:24 pace
I expected to feel stiff and tired on Monday after Sunday’s very brisk tempo run, but surprised myself by feeling like flying all the way. The major obstacle I came across was a herd of cows standing in the middle of the dirt road I was running on. What eejit of a farmer left his cows there? Despite the fact that they’re probably 20 times my weight, the animals seemed to panic at my approach and stampeded off along the road. I did follow the rather slow and very smelly creatures for about 5 minutes, but it became clear that they had no intentions of turning off the road as long as I was right behind them. Plus, I noticed that there were a few young bulls amongst them, and I didn’t fancy finding out what would happen once they got tired of running away from me, so I turned around and ran back the way I had come from. As I was unable to follow my planned route, I decided to explore some of the dirt roads between Killorglin and Kilgobnet, where I have hardly ever run before. Of course this meant I was running by time rather than distance again. By the end I called it 14 miles, but I’m pretty sure it was a bit more than that, because I kept going at a fairly decent pace. Never mind, the body doesn’t know what number you write down at the end.
I started August with a 6-mile recovery run today, and once again dropped my record for lowest ever HR during a run. When I started training for Dublin about 10 weeks ago, I just about managed to keep the average HR under 145 for my recovery runs. But it gradually dropped, and today’s HR was 134 – about 69% of my max, despite keeping the pace roughly the same. As long as this keeps going, I know that I’m not overtraining, even though I’m still struggling to get enough sleep (Cian woke at 5 am).
Mileage for July: 285 miles
31 Jul: 14 miles (approx), 1:52, 8:00 pace
1 Aug: 6 miles, 56:28, 9:24 pace
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Slow Down!
Maybe it would have been all different if I had read Mike’s advice before Friday’s long run. Run as slowly as you want, he said, and reward yourself with a few relaxed miles. Unfortunately, I didn’t read those wise words until after I had already completed my 20 miles. My 5-mile splits were (roughly) 40-41-40-45. If you got the impression that I had a hard time on the last loop, you’d be absolutely correct. On the positive side, the temperatures were very moderate and well suited to running. On the negative side, it was raining for all of the 20 miles, just slightly at the beginning, heavily in the middle, and easing up but never stopping towards the end. I was tempted to change socks and shoes half way through, but decided there was no point to it. Within 10 minutes I would have been just as soaked again. After 16 miles, a little devil appeared on my shoulder and whispered into my ear “you’re just 1 mile away from home, if you turn around now, you’ve still got 17 miles, and that’s a lot, isn’t it?” Luckily, a little angel sat on the other shoulder and said “you got up at 4:40 in the morning. If you cut your run short, you have sacrificed an extra 25 minutes of sleep for nothing” That was the clinching argument, and I continued on, as weary as I felt. Was I glad when I finally made it home!
Saturday was rest day, and normally I spend my rest days working in the garden, which usually ends up with me collapsing into bed in the evening due to exhaustion. Luckily it was a rainy day (hurray for rainy weekends!), which meant I spent all day reading and watching telly, as well as having a nap in the afternoon. As a result, I was well rested for today’s tempo run. 2.5 miles warm-up, 5 miles at tempo pace, and 2.5 miles cool-down went all very well, considering the mileage I did during the week. 5 miles of tempo is quite long and I was hanging on towards the end, but managed to finish in decent shape. I also saw another runner on the road, always a welcome sign, but all too rare. I don’t think it was a local though, most likely a tourist on vacation (he certainly chose a nice spot for his run). I wore my pair of Nimbus runners again, and I think we’re slowly getting used to each other.
The kids have been reasonably well behaved recently, so it was only a matter of time until the next …. incident. The boys were having a “tea-party”, which, for some reason, seemed to require a huge amount of water being poured all over their bedroom floor. Thank goodness Lola snitched on them before they could cause any lasting damage, but we still weren’t too pleased. Shea ended up on the naughty spot, but I suspect the ringleader was a certain 2-year old.
Weekly mileage: 68 miles.
28 Jul: 20 miles, 2:46, 8:18 pace
30 Jul: 10 miles, 1:17, 7:42 pace with 5 miles at 7:07 pace
Saturday was rest day, and normally I spend my rest days working in the garden, which usually ends up with me collapsing into bed in the evening due to exhaustion. Luckily it was a rainy day (hurray for rainy weekends!), which meant I spent all day reading and watching telly, as well as having a nap in the afternoon. As a result, I was well rested for today’s tempo run. 2.5 miles warm-up, 5 miles at tempo pace, and 2.5 miles cool-down went all very well, considering the mileage I did during the week. 5 miles of tempo is quite long and I was hanging on towards the end, but managed to finish in decent shape. I also saw another runner on the road, always a welcome sign, but all too rare. I don’t think it was a local though, most likely a tourist on vacation (he certainly chose a nice spot for his run). I wore my pair of Nimbus runners again, and I think we’re slowly getting used to each other.
The kids have been reasonably well behaved recently, so it was only a matter of time until the next …. incident. The boys were having a “tea-party”, which, for some reason, seemed to require a huge amount of water being poured all over their bedroom floor. Thank goodness Lola snitched on them before they could cause any lasting damage, but we still weren’t too pleased. Shea ended up on the naughty spot, but I suspect the ringleader was a certain 2-year old.
Weekly mileage: 68 miles.
28 Jul: 20 miles, 2:46, 8:18 pace
30 Jul: 10 miles, 1:17, 7:42 pace with 5 miles at 7:07 pace
Thursday, July 27, 2006
That feeling again
It’s Thursday evening, and I’ve got the usual Thursday evening feeling of dread coming up. Somehow I’m not looking forward to tomorrow’s 20-miler. 20 miles just seems such a long distance, and after running 38 miles in the last 4 days, the legs are a bit weary before I’ve even started my long run.
Jeez, would everyone, including me, stop whinging please. Half of the running blogs I’m reading seem to be full of whinging these days: no mojo, no motivation, too hot, too much pain, too many pounds … Let’s try and remember that we’re in this mostly for fun, and stop all that complaining. I’ll try and fall in line, too.
As for the ultra, I won’t be wasting too much thought on that just yet. No, I don’t know how to train for this. Hal Higdon has a training schedule for a 54-mile ultra, and I’ll get some pointers from that, but I won’t be following the schedule as such. Anyway, I’ve got to run the Dublin marathon first, where I intend to cut a significant chunk off my PR; thus I’m still focusing on the marathon training, and any thoughts of more will be put to the back of my mind for the next 3 months.
Wednesday’s 12 miles went without a hitch, so much so that I haven’t got anything to write about them. All I put into my log was “fine”. Today’s run was a sign that the training is stepping up yet another notch in intensity. Thursdays were always days for a recovery run, together with Tuesday. Not so this week, the easy recovery run has been replaced by an 8-miler with 10x100 strides. I duly followed the schedule, but for some reason I also went out without breakfast, which I’ve never done before for a run longer than 5 miles. I duly felt rather low on energy all the way, though I did manage just fine. After the turnaround point at 4 miles it was time to start the strides. Did I feel like doing them? No, definitely not. Did I do them anyway? Of course I did, and guess what: they weren’t as bad as feared, once I got underway, just like always.
I forgot to mention in my last post, I did wear the disgraced Nimbuses again on Tuesday for the 5 mile recovery run, and this time they felt ok, and my blister from Sunday/Monday is already gone. Maybe we’ll get to love each other after all, eventually.
26 Jul: 12 miles, 1:36, 8:00 pace
27 Jul: 8 miles, 1:06, 8:15 pace, including 10x100 strides
Jeez, would everyone, including me, stop whinging please. Half of the running blogs I’m reading seem to be full of whinging these days: no mojo, no motivation, too hot, too much pain, too many pounds … Let’s try and remember that we’re in this mostly for fun, and stop all that complaining. I’ll try and fall in line, too.
As for the ultra, I won’t be wasting too much thought on that just yet. No, I don’t know how to train for this. Hal Higdon has a training schedule for a 54-mile ultra, and I’ll get some pointers from that, but I won’t be following the schedule as such. Anyway, I’ve got to run the Dublin marathon first, where I intend to cut a significant chunk off my PR; thus I’m still focusing on the marathon training, and any thoughts of more will be put to the back of my mind for the next 3 months.
Wednesday’s 12 miles went without a hitch, so much so that I haven’t got anything to write about them. All I put into my log was “fine”. Today’s run was a sign that the training is stepping up yet another notch in intensity. Thursdays were always days for a recovery run, together with Tuesday. Not so this week, the easy recovery run has been replaced by an 8-miler with 10x100 strides. I duly followed the schedule, but for some reason I also went out without breakfast, which I’ve never done before for a run longer than 5 miles. I duly felt rather low on energy all the way, though I did manage just fine. After the turnaround point at 4 miles it was time to start the strides. Did I feel like doing them? No, definitely not. Did I do them anyway? Of course I did, and guess what: they weren’t as bad as feared, once I got underway, just like always.
I forgot to mention in my last post, I did wear the disgraced Nimbuses again on Tuesday for the 5 mile recovery run, and this time they felt ok, and my blister from Sunday/Monday is already gone. Maybe we’ll get to love each other after all, eventually.
26 Jul: 12 miles, 1:36, 8:00 pace
27 Jul: 8 miles, 1:06, 8:15 pace, including 10x100 strides
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Various Ups and Downs
Andrew tagged me, but I’ve been tagged before. If you still want to know what rocks my world, you can look it up here.
I got a slight shock when I checked my blog this morning and it was turned into gibberish. After regaining my composure I saw that my template was basically gone. I had tried to edit it yesterday, but when I pressed the save button, blogger disconnected on me. I didn’t think much of it, and certainly didn’t expect my blog to be shot to pieces. With an old version of my template on my hard drive and some help of my Firefox cache, I managed to restore it within a few minutes, and I don’t think I lost anything. I wouldn’t think too much about it, but the same thing happened to Robb just a few days ago. I hope it won’t be a recurring event now.
As for running, the training is revving up again after last week’s 55-mile slackerdom. On Monday I managed to crawl out of bed at 5:40 for a quick 13 miles, and today I slept for 8 glorious hours, topped up by a 5-mile recovery run. Not much else to report I’m afraid, apart from the fact that I expected to feel well rested after that sleep, but instead still feel tired. According to Rob, that’s what I’m supposed to feel, so I better stop whining.
I signed up for two races over the weekend. The first one is a half marathon in Blarney, Co. Cork, on September 10. That’s 7 weeks before the Dublin marathon. Ideally I’d prefer a half a bit closer to the marathon, but what can you do. It will still do as race preparation. The second race is next year’s Connemara. It’s not until April 2007, but they expect it to sell out early, and I thought I’d better registrate while there's still time. Thing is, I didn’t sign up for the marathon. No, I didn’t sign up for the half either. I’ll probably bitterly regret this 8 months from now, but I signed up for the 39.3 miles ultra. I didn’t decide on the spur of the moment, I had decided to do this the second I crossed the finish line of the Connemara marathon in March. I just didn’t tell anyone about it, and now it’s too late to turn back. But I still reserve the right to bitterly curse Rob, Olga and Jack from mile 30 onwards.
24 Jul: 13 miles, 1:45, 8:04 pace
25 Jul: 5 miles, 45:58, 9:11 pace
I got a slight shock when I checked my blog this morning and it was turned into gibberish. After regaining my composure I saw that my template was basically gone. I had tried to edit it yesterday, but when I pressed the save button, blogger disconnected on me. I didn’t think much of it, and certainly didn’t expect my blog to be shot to pieces. With an old version of my template on my hard drive and some help of my Firefox cache, I managed to restore it within a few minutes, and I don’t think I lost anything. I wouldn’t think too much about it, but the same thing happened to Robb just a few days ago. I hope it won’t be a recurring event now.
As for running, the training is revving up again after last week’s 55-mile slackerdom. On Monday I managed to crawl out of bed at 5:40 for a quick 13 miles, and today I slept for 8 glorious hours, topped up by a 5-mile recovery run. Not much else to report I’m afraid, apart from the fact that I expected to feel well rested after that sleep, but instead still feel tired. According to Rob, that’s what I’m supposed to feel, so I better stop whining.
I signed up for two races over the weekend. The first one is a half marathon in Blarney, Co. Cork, on September 10. That’s 7 weeks before the Dublin marathon. Ideally I’d prefer a half a bit closer to the marathon, but what can you do. It will still do as race preparation. The second race is next year’s Connemara. It’s not until April 2007, but they expect it to sell out early, and I thought I’d better registrate while there's still time. Thing is, I didn’t sign up for the marathon. No, I didn’t sign up for the half either. I’ll probably bitterly regret this 8 months from now, but I signed up for the 39.3 miles ultra. I didn’t decide on the spur of the moment, I had decided to do this the second I crossed the finish line of the Connemara marathon in March. I just didn’t tell anyone about it, and now it’s too late to turn back. But I still reserve the right to bitterly curse Rob, Olga and Jack from mile 30 onwards.
24 Jul: 13 miles, 1:45, 8:04 pace
25 Jul: 5 miles, 45:58, 9:11 pace
Sunday, July 23, 2006
What Did I Do Now?
I don’t know what made me do it, but what’s done is done. Once again I turned what should have been a nice and easy training run into some race against myself, and I didn’t even plan it.
Friday didn’t start too well. I had gone to bed quite early, but woke at 3 am and spent the best part of the next two hours trying to go back to sleep again. When the alarm when off at 5:40, I was less than rested. I fact I was sorely tempted to turn around and go back to sleep, but managed to heave myself out of bed. Once I was out on the road, I felt better and quickly got into the groove. I checked my time after 3.5 miles and was surprised to see that I was doing nearly 8:00 pace. I did slow down for a bit, but my internal pace control unit must have shut down, because within two minutes I was running just as fast again. In fact, I must have gotten faster with each mile, because the next time I checked my watch was at mile 9, and by now it was clear that I was going well below 8:00 pace. I passed our driveway where I had deposited a water bottle, but mindful of what happened two weeks ago, I decided to go on without drinking. Since the legs seemed incapable of going at easy pace, I decided to turn it into a progression run and run the last 5 miles at fairly hard pace. This worked ok until about mile 12, when fatigue finally caught up with me, and from then on I had to push myself to keep the pace going. When I passed the half-marathon mark I checked my time again. The watch said 1:40, which is actually faster than my best racing time, not that I count training runs as an official PR. When I got home one mile later I felt both great for having done such a great run and bad about pushing myself hard when I should have been cruising at an easy aerobic level instead.
Saturday was a rest day, and I finished the week on Sunday with 9 miles, including 10x100 strides. For the first two or three miles my calf muscles felt rather stiff, but they loosened up as the run progressed. The sky was very cloudy, and I felt a few raindrops initially, but half an hour later the sun was blazing down once again and I felt uncomfortably hot. I took off my t-shirt for the last two miles because I felt like I was baking underneath a layer of cotton. I hope none of the neighbours minded. It was also my first run in my new pair of Asics Nimbus. They had felt incredibly comfortable in the shop, so why did they feel like I was accidentally wearing somebody else’s pair as soon as I hit the road? In fact, I felt a blister developing on my right heel towards the end of the run. I might just about have gotten away with it, but it might still come out tomorrow. For the time being, the shoes are in disgrace at the back of the cabinet. I’ll probably use them again for a shorter run next week and hope that they magically start fitting my feet.
Weekly mileage: 55 miles (not 56 as mistakenly stated two posts ago)
21 Jul: 14 miles, 1:47, 7:38 pace
23 Jul: 9 miles, 1:12, 8:00 pace
Friday didn’t start too well. I had gone to bed quite early, but woke at 3 am and spent the best part of the next two hours trying to go back to sleep again. When the alarm when off at 5:40, I was less than rested. I fact I was sorely tempted to turn around and go back to sleep, but managed to heave myself out of bed. Once I was out on the road, I felt better and quickly got into the groove. I checked my time after 3.5 miles and was surprised to see that I was doing nearly 8:00 pace. I did slow down for a bit, but my internal pace control unit must have shut down, because within two minutes I was running just as fast again. In fact, I must have gotten faster with each mile, because the next time I checked my watch was at mile 9, and by now it was clear that I was going well below 8:00 pace. I passed our driveway where I had deposited a water bottle, but mindful of what happened two weeks ago, I decided to go on without drinking. Since the legs seemed incapable of going at easy pace, I decided to turn it into a progression run and run the last 5 miles at fairly hard pace. This worked ok until about mile 12, when fatigue finally caught up with me, and from then on I had to push myself to keep the pace going. When I passed the half-marathon mark I checked my time again. The watch said 1:40, which is actually faster than my best racing time, not that I count training runs as an official PR. When I got home one mile later I felt both great for having done such a great run and bad about pushing myself hard when I should have been cruising at an easy aerobic level instead.
Saturday was a rest day, and I finished the week on Sunday with 9 miles, including 10x100 strides. For the first two or three miles my calf muscles felt rather stiff, but they loosened up as the run progressed. The sky was very cloudy, and I felt a few raindrops initially, but half an hour later the sun was blazing down once again and I felt uncomfortably hot. I took off my t-shirt for the last two miles because I felt like I was baking underneath a layer of cotton. I hope none of the neighbours minded. It was also my first run in my new pair of Asics Nimbus. They had felt incredibly comfortable in the shop, so why did they feel like I was accidentally wearing somebody else’s pair as soon as I hit the road? In fact, I felt a blister developing on my right heel towards the end of the run. I might just about have gotten away with it, but it might still come out tomorrow. For the time being, the shoes are in disgrace at the back of the cabinet. I’ll probably use them again for a shorter run next week and hope that they magically start fitting my feet.
Weekly mileage: 55 miles (not 56 as mistakenly stated two posts ago)
21 Jul: 14 miles, 1:47, 7:38 pace
23 Jul: 9 miles, 1:12, 8:00 pace
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Beach Bums
The kids certainly enjoyed the fine weather of the last two weeks. Going to the beach every day is not a treat that is too common here in Ireland. You can see them looking across Dingle bay towards the Dingle peninsula.
We’re nearing the end of this particular “heat wave” though. I felt a few raindrops on both of my last two runs, even though it was still warm and sunny on both days. Wednesday started with the usual far-too-early wake-up call at 4:50 am, this time from Cian. He had fallen out of bed, and his crying woke me up. By the time I had walked into his room, he had fallen asleep again, beside his bed. I still picked him up and brought him to our bed. 10 minutes later Lola cried for mummy (she should know by now that crying for mummy at 5 am in the morning isn’t much use). Her problem? The blanket had fallen off. I told her that at the age of 5-and-a-half she really is old enough to pull up the blanket herself, not that she cared. I was just about to fall back asleep when Shea stormed into our room and wanted breakfast. I think I managed about 3 minutes of sleep before the alarm went off and I had to get up for my 11-miler. The run went well enough, even with the lack of sleep I felt less tired than on Monday.
I finally got a full complement of sleep on Thursday. I slept for nearly 8 hours, and the kids were all still asleep by the time I left. The 5-mile recovery run shouldn’t have been too tiring either, so I don’t quite understand why I’m completely knackered today. It might be the accumulated lack of sleep from the last few days, or the humidity, or maybe I’m just having an off day. Whatever the cause, I sure could use some more sleep. Keep your fingers crossed that the kids will be cooperating tonight.
19 Jul: 11 miles, 1:30, 8:10 pace
20 Jul: 5 miles, 46:30, 9:18 pace
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Déjà Vu
Picture the scene. Monday morning, 5am. Shea storms into our bedroom. “Daddy. I can’t dream!” “Well, go back to bed then” “No, I don’t dream when I sleep, and I want to see the world!” This might sound weird to you, but we’re used to that kind of thing by now. Unfortunately he didn’t go back to bed, and didn’t shut up until I let him watch a DVD. Obviously this cut my sleep short, and once more I didn’t get the required amount of sleep. I went out for 11 miles, and once again decided to run in the shade. It’s just to hot to run beside Caragh Lake, even at 6 am in the morning the sun seems to be blazing down. The run was ok, but my legs are quite weary, which isn’t particularly surprising after the biggest mileage of my life, and after 12 fairly fast miles on Sunday.
Picture the scene. Tuesday morning, 5am. Shea storms into our bedroom. “Daddy, I …” “Shut up!!!!!” (that was Niamh). Miraculously he did indeed go back to bed this time – for another 30 minutes, then it was once more time for another DVD. Obviously this cut my sleep short, and once more I didn’t get the required amount of sleep. Does that seem like a recurring event? Anyway, I managed to get some more sleep after that, and got up just before 7am to head out for a 5-mile recovery run. This week is a cut-down week of a mere 56 miles, but if I don’t get my sleep I’m afraid it won’t have the desired recovery effect.
The weather is gorgeous at the moment, my mother-in-law would say the sun is splitting the stones, though in Kerry terms that only means temperatures up to 27C/80F. Unfortunately this isn’t going to last, and the forecast for the weekend is rain. Isn’t that great? You’re sweating in the office all day long, and by the time you get the chance to enjoy the sunshine it will be gone!
Ah well.
17 Jul: 11 miles, 1:30, 8:11 pace
18 Jul: 5 miles, 47:15, 9:27 pace
Picture the scene. Tuesday morning, 5am. Shea storms into our bedroom. “Daddy, I …” “Shut up!!!!!” (that was Niamh). Miraculously he did indeed go back to bed this time – for another 30 minutes, then it was once more time for another DVD. Obviously this cut my sleep short, and once more I didn’t get the required amount of sleep. Does that seem like a recurring event? Anyway, I managed to get some more sleep after that, and got up just before 7am to head out for a 5-mile recovery run. This week is a cut-down week of a mere 56 miles, but if I don’t get my sleep I’m afraid it won’t have the desired recovery effect.
The weather is gorgeous at the moment, my mother-in-law would say the sun is splitting the stones, though in Kerry terms that only means temperatures up to 27C/80F. Unfortunately this isn’t going to last, and the forecast for the weekend is rain. Isn’t that great? You’re sweating in the office all day long, and by the time you get the chance to enjoy the sunshine it will be gone!
Ah well.
17 Jul: 11 miles, 1:30, 8:11 pace
18 Jul: 5 miles, 47:15, 9:27 pace
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Back home
Things that broke in Nana and Gaga’s house while we were there:
Nana said we were allowed to come again, but I think she said that only to get rid of us without fuss.
I managed to run 10 miles on Friday morning before we went back to Kerry. I ran the by now familiar route towards Ballybrack, and even found an old track where I did 4 laps. The middle 5 miles of this run were at tempo pace, about 7:20 – 7:30. Normally this kind of run tends to get easier after two miles, but not this time. I guess this had a lot to do with the 20 or 21 miles just two days earlier. It’s not easy to move the legs at the required speed when they’re as heavy as lead, and I really had to push myself. The fact that there was the usual 1-mile climb towards Stillorgan at the end didn’t help either. I also got the distance slightly wrong again; it was more like 10.5 miles.
After spending some 5 or 6 hours in the car on the journey back, I deserved a rest day on Saturday. Well, rest days on sunny weekends aren’t really rest days. They are gardening days, and usually make me just as tired as a hard run. For some reason I still felt guilty this morning because I felt like I hadn’t run in ages, silly me. Niamh had to go to Killarney with the kids, and I had to help her get them ready, so it wasn’t until 10:30 when I finally managed to start my 12 miles. That wasn’t the best move, considering it was the hottest day of the year so far. I originally planned to run alongside Caragh Lake, but that would have meant 12 miles in the sun, so I decided to run two loops instead, one 7-miles loop towards Killorglin and a 5-mile one to Ard-na-sidhe, where the trees provided plenty of shade. It went rather well, and this run finished my week on 68 miles. Woohoo!
14 Jul: approx. 10.5 miles, 1:21
16 Jul: 12 miles, 1:36, 8:00 pace
- An old rosary that used to belong to Nana’s granddad (but got fixed again) (culprit: Cian)
- A bedside lamp (culprit: me)
- A branch of an apple tree (culprit: Uncle Michael)
- A door of a kitchen cabinet (culprit: Lola)
- A curtain (culprit: unknown)
- One bottle of foundation cream poured over a carpet (cleaned again) (culprit: Cian)
- One set of scribbles on the wall (mostly cleaned) (culprit: Cian)
Nana said we were allowed to come again, but I think she said that only to get rid of us without fuss.
I managed to run 10 miles on Friday morning before we went back to Kerry. I ran the by now familiar route towards Ballybrack, and even found an old track where I did 4 laps. The middle 5 miles of this run were at tempo pace, about 7:20 – 7:30. Normally this kind of run tends to get easier after two miles, but not this time. I guess this had a lot to do with the 20 or 21 miles just two days earlier. It’s not easy to move the legs at the required speed when they’re as heavy as lead, and I really had to push myself. The fact that there was the usual 1-mile climb towards Stillorgan at the end didn’t help either. I also got the distance slightly wrong again; it was more like 10.5 miles.
After spending some 5 or 6 hours in the car on the journey back, I deserved a rest day on Saturday. Well, rest days on sunny weekends aren’t really rest days. They are gardening days, and usually make me just as tired as a hard run. For some reason I still felt guilty this morning because I felt like I hadn’t run in ages, silly me. Niamh had to go to Killarney with the kids, and I had to help her get them ready, so it wasn’t until 10:30 when I finally managed to start my 12 miles. That wasn’t the best move, considering it was the hottest day of the year so far. I originally planned to run alongside Caragh Lake, but that would have meant 12 miles in the sun, so I decided to run two loops instead, one 7-miles loop towards Killorglin and a 5-mile one to Ard-na-sidhe, where the trees provided plenty of shade. It went rather well, and this run finished my week on 68 miles. Woohoo!
14 Jul: approx. 10.5 miles, 1:21
16 Jul: 12 miles, 1:36, 8:00 pace
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Challenges
Guess what the following sequence means: 5:50, 7:00, 5:50, 7:30. No, it’s not the pace of my most recent intervals. It’s the times in the morning when Shea or Cian woke me up this week. So much for sleeping in during your holiday. Each night I’m dead tired at 10 o’clock, but don’t go to bed because I don’t want to be unsociable. I eventually go to bed around midnight (still the first adult to go to sleep) and pray for a lie-in that never materialises. Twice I managed a bit of a snooze during the afternoon, but usually I’m just tired. Which isn’t optimal when you’re still expected to look after your children as well as running the highest mileage of your life.
I was a bit worried about yesterday’s 20 miler. I had, however, a cunning plan on how I would get water during the run. “Honey, why don’t you take the children to Cabinteely Park at around 12 o’clock? Oh, and while you’re at it, can you bring my water bottle along, please?” This worked a treat. After leaving the house at around 10 o’clock (later than planned) I first ran a few miles towards Ballybrack and Killiney, then turned around and got to Cabinteely at the 8 mile point, where I started doing laps around the park. It’s a nice park with a big playground in the middle, and a lap is a bit more than one mile (and it’s quite hilly). I did about 5 or 6 laps until I saw Niamh, Nana and the kids, grabbed my water bottle off them, did two more laps and then headed home to Stillorgan. One thing I hadn’t quite thought through was the mile long climb from Cabinteely to Foxrock, which isn’t very steep, but challenging enough if you already have 18 or 19 miles in your legs. I surprised myself on how strong I still felt and eventually got home after running for nearly 3 hours. I’m quite sure that the distance was closer to 21 miles than 20, let’s call it 20.5 miles. As Zeke said in his last entry, it doesn’t make a difference to the body how many miles you write down in your log.
I felt a bit stiff today but managed some relaxed 5 miles in the morning while all the other adults were still asleep (after being woken by Shea, as usual). Niamh got up when I came home and remarked that I looked like a man who had barely broken sweat. It’s amazing how well I feel after a recovery run these days – I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that I’m much more conscious to keep the effort down to the easy level than I used to be.
I finally managed to sneak off to Mick Dowling's sports shop in Terenure that Liam had recommended, and bought a new pair of shoes (Asics Nimbus, bloody expensive but they felt really comfy), shorts, socks, dumbbells and some recovery drink powder. At that stage I had to leave before I completely bankrupted myself. Niamh now demands to be allowed into a clothes shop. I guess I’m not really in a position to argue against.
We’re driving back to Kerry tomorrow. I hope to be able to run before we leave; I’ve still got to do two runs of double figures before the week is out, and don’t want to do them on Saturday and Sunday.
12 Jul: approx. 20.5 miles, 2:55
13 Jul: approx. 5 miles, 48 mins
I was a bit worried about yesterday’s 20 miler. I had, however, a cunning plan on how I would get water during the run. “Honey, why don’t you take the children to Cabinteely Park at around 12 o’clock? Oh, and while you’re at it, can you bring my water bottle along, please?” This worked a treat. After leaving the house at around 10 o’clock (later than planned) I first ran a few miles towards Ballybrack and Killiney, then turned around and got to Cabinteely at the 8 mile point, where I started doing laps around the park. It’s a nice park with a big playground in the middle, and a lap is a bit more than one mile (and it’s quite hilly). I did about 5 or 6 laps until I saw Niamh, Nana and the kids, grabbed my water bottle off them, did two more laps and then headed home to Stillorgan. One thing I hadn’t quite thought through was the mile long climb from Cabinteely to Foxrock, which isn’t very steep, but challenging enough if you already have 18 or 19 miles in your legs. I surprised myself on how strong I still felt and eventually got home after running for nearly 3 hours. I’m quite sure that the distance was closer to 21 miles than 20, let’s call it 20.5 miles. As Zeke said in his last entry, it doesn’t make a difference to the body how many miles you write down in your log.
I felt a bit stiff today but managed some relaxed 5 miles in the morning while all the other adults were still asleep (after being woken by Shea, as usual). Niamh got up when I came home and remarked that I looked like a man who had barely broken sweat. It’s amazing how well I feel after a recovery run these days – I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that I’m much more conscious to keep the effort down to the easy level than I used to be.
I finally managed to sneak off to Mick Dowling's sports shop in Terenure that Liam had recommended, and bought a new pair of shoes (Asics Nimbus, bloody expensive but they felt really comfy), shorts, socks, dumbbells and some recovery drink powder. At that stage I had to leave before I completely bankrupted myself. Niamh now demands to be allowed into a clothes shop. I guess I’m not really in a position to argue against.
We’re driving back to Kerry tomorrow. I hope to be able to run before we leave; I’ve still got to do two runs of double figures before the week is out, and don’t want to do them on Saturday and Sunday.
12 Jul: approx. 20.5 miles, 2:55
13 Jul: approx. 5 miles, 48 mins
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Struggling Already
It’s only Tuesday, but I can already see that this is not going to be an easy week. 67 miles in singles on unfamiliar routes is going to be a challenge. And the fact that I’ll spend several hours on Friday in a car on the journey back to Kerry is definitely not going to help.
Monday’s 14 miles left me completely exhausted. I guess I still had some fatigue from Sunday’s 12 miles (and the race on Friday) in my legs, and after 10 miles I started to feel really knackered. I guess the change in diet doesn’t help. Niamh is a vegetarian, and every time I come here my mother-in-law decides to feed her poor suffering husband as much meat as possible. I managed to struggle back home, and just about the first thing I said once I had regained enough breath to speak was to demand a carbohydrate dinner.
Thinking about it, the fact that I run later in the day won’t help either. I’m used to running at 6 am in the morning, and at 9 o’clock it is a lot warmer. Running along busy roads and inhaling tons of car exhaust fumes, at least until I reach the cycling path, isn’t exactly the ideal running environment either. I guess I’m spoilt in Kerry.
I did 6 easy miles today, and felt much better (and the pasta last night went down a treat). Running 20 miles tomorrow will be a challenge. I’ll have to work out a way to get some water along the way, and I’m undecided on the route. I could run from Stillorgan towards Dalkey and Killiney, or I could do a few laps inside Cabinteely Park, or I could combine those routes. As I’m running for time, the exact distance won’t matter that much; I know my pace and it should be reasonably accurate – as long as I manage to stay on my feet for the required time.
And now for something completely different. Am I the only one who was distinctly underwhelmed by the football on display during the World Cup? The fact that Italy won it despite a rather unconvincing and uninspiring display in the final was rather fitting, I suppose. When Germany are playing the most attractive football it doesn’t speak much for the other teams’ approaches. Argentina were sublime for the first 2 games, but completely lost their nerve once the knock-out stages started, and Brazil were at their worst in living memory. The fact that the supposedly best player in the world, Ronaldinho, had a tournament to forget, and the actual best player, Zidane, was sent off for an ugly foul in the final just underlined the disappointment. Now I’ll have to wait another 4 years to see some decent football – it better be worth the wait.
10 Jul: approx. 14 miles, 1:56
11 Jul: approx. 6 miles, 55 mins
Monday’s 14 miles left me completely exhausted. I guess I still had some fatigue from Sunday’s 12 miles (and the race on Friday) in my legs, and after 10 miles I started to feel really knackered. I guess the change in diet doesn’t help. Niamh is a vegetarian, and every time I come here my mother-in-law decides to feed her poor suffering husband as much meat as possible. I managed to struggle back home, and just about the first thing I said once I had regained enough breath to speak was to demand a carbohydrate dinner.
Thinking about it, the fact that I run later in the day won’t help either. I’m used to running at 6 am in the morning, and at 9 o’clock it is a lot warmer. Running along busy roads and inhaling tons of car exhaust fumes, at least until I reach the cycling path, isn’t exactly the ideal running environment either. I guess I’m spoilt in Kerry.
I did 6 easy miles today, and felt much better (and the pasta last night went down a treat). Running 20 miles tomorrow will be a challenge. I’ll have to work out a way to get some water along the way, and I’m undecided on the route. I could run from Stillorgan towards Dalkey and Killiney, or I could do a few laps inside Cabinteely Park, or I could combine those routes. As I’m running for time, the exact distance won’t matter that much; I know my pace and it should be reasonably accurate – as long as I manage to stay on my feet for the required time.
And now for something completely different. Am I the only one who was distinctly underwhelmed by the football on display during the World Cup? The fact that Italy won it despite a rather unconvincing and uninspiring display in the final was rather fitting, I suppose. When Germany are playing the most attractive football it doesn’t speak much for the other teams’ approaches. Argentina were sublime for the first 2 games, but completely lost their nerve once the knock-out stages started, and Brazil were at their worst in living memory. The fact that the supposedly best player in the world, Ronaldinho, had a tournament to forget, and the actual best player, Zidane, was sent off for an ugly foul in the final just underlined the disappointment. Now I’ll have to wait another 4 years to see some decent football – it better be worth the wait.
10 Jul: approx. 14 miles, 1:56
11 Jul: approx. 6 miles, 55 mins
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