The One That (Probably) Should Not have Been

I awoke on Friday morning at around 3:30 and immediately regretted it. My head hurt, my heart was racing, I was sweating bucket loads and I just generally felt awful. For the fourth or maybe fifth time this winter I obviously had picked up some bug that the kids had brought home; Cian and Lola had already had it and now it was my turn.

I almost panicked. The Donadea 50k on Saturday was one of the key workouts in my training and I would not be able to make it up. This was having a really serious impact on my preparations for Turin. In addition to that, I had promised Tom Enright a lift to the race. How was he going to get an alternative in 24 hours?

Eventually I managed to fall back asleep and when I woke a few hours later I felt so much better I could hardly believe it. I did not go running that morning (yes, that's how awful I had felt!) and the thundery rain did nothing to persuade me otherwise.

I felt okay throughout the day and, with a fair amount of doubt in my head, I decided to risk it and go ahead. I got up Saturday morning at 5 o'clock, got ready and pointed the car northeastwards. It was the same scenario as last week ("let's try this again"), and this time I made it past the 2-mile mark without a crash. I picked up Tom in Limerick and we got to Donadea pretty much at 9 o'clock, perfect.

Billy and me, still smiling before the start.
Photo by James Shelley

It took a while to pick up my number because I kept bumping into so many friendly face, all of whom enquired about my car and my own well being. Seems like word had spread rather quickly.

The race started pretty much on time and from the word go I felt very good. I tried to keep the pace at about 7:30 but the guys running right in front of me kept telling me to go ahead ("if I'm ahead of you I know I'm doing this wrong"), so eventually I gave into their wishes and pulled ahead. I should have left it at that but I kept going at a faster pace, at first without even realising. I did pull myself back when I saw 6:45 pace on the watch but 7:10 pace felt utterly comfortable. This immediately should have set off some internal alarm bells but I have run 50ks at that pace (and faster) in the past and my alarm settings were a bit off.

Feeling good early on. This would not last.
Photo by James Shelley

The course consists of 10 laps of almost 5k with a bit of extra at the beginning. For the first 2 laps I felt the most comfortable I had felt in a long time. The road surface had been redone since last year and we were running much of it on crushed gravel, which felt nice and soft and just perfect, much better than last year's mudbath. However, predictably, this did not last. As early as the third lap I noticed my energy levels dropping, and rapidly at that. Barely 7 miles into a 50k is a bit early to get into trouble! I reduced the pace to about 7:30, which lead to a few runners going past me over the next few miles, including the eventual ladies' winner. Past champions Orna and Olwyn were marshalling at one junction and cheering on the runners, and when they enquired about my pace I told them 7:25 - that was my present pace, the average at that point was still 7:10.

Lap 4 and I was starting to have serious doubts if I would finish the race. In fact, finishing the race may well have been a bad idea, it's just not a good idea to push your body to its limits when you are already sick; that kind of nonsense can have serious repercussions. On the other hand, a bit of suffering is not a bad thing to experience in training when you are preparing for a 24 hours race - no matter how badly today would hurt, it would still be nothing compared to what's in store in 8 weeks' time. I kept going. Vasilij and Vilnis overtook me at one point and I wasn't sure if they were overtaking or lapping me. In turn, we all caught up to Billy, who once again had started a bit too fast and was paying the price as well.

We let the boys go and Billy and me spent about a lap running together. It felt so much easier to run in company and I did seem to recover a fair bit. However, looking at the results now I can see that the times were still going the wrong way, each lap was slightly slower than the previous one, even if I felt a bit more comfortable. Brian Ankers went past us, looking exceptionally comfortable and very, very happy. He was realising one of his stated dream goals, namely beating me in a race!

Billy dropped back at the start of the next lap and I pushed on alone. Ideally you should still be feeling comfortable at halfway but today was definitely not an ideal day. I did wonder once more how far I should be running and if pushing on was a good idea, but for the time being things did not look too badly and I kept going.

Vasilij and Vilnis caught up once more "where the f*ck are you coming from!?!" They could not possibly have lapped me so quickly (even Gary O'Hanlon took three laps for that), turns out they had a bit of a toilet break. I hung on to their coat tails for a while and the pace felt a lot quicker straight away though with company it felt manageable. We talked about the good old times and the lap passed quickly; despite feeling a lot faster it was only 3 seconds faster than my previous one, and still the second slowest so far. I lost a few seconds picking up a drink bottle and immediately the boys were gone. For about a mile I tried to catch up with them but the legs were not cooperating any more, the best I could do was to keep the distance roughly the same, and eventually I gave up and fell back into my own pace again, resigned to be seeing out the rest of the race on my own.

The drop in pace at that point was dramatic. Lap 8 was more than 90 seconds slower than even the slowest of all the previous laps, and that over a mere 5k loop! I was suffering quite badly at that point and was counting down every single kilometre, going from marker to marker. At least I could sense the finish line by now, the majority of the running was already done and the outstanding number of miles was down to single figures. To make matters worse the legs started to experience spasms and I was worried about getting a cramp. Usually I would take an electrolyte tablet at that point which generally seems to help but I was entirely out of them and had not ordered any new ones yet.

I took some caffeine after lap 8 and within a couple of minutes started feeling a lot better. It made a big difference to my mood, even if the pace did not really change. I guess I should have taken it a bit earlier, but what can you do. From here on things were not looking anywhere near as bleak any more, the worst of the suffering was behind me and even though I was very much looking forward to finishing I knew this would be over in a reasonable amount of time.

I had crossed halfway in 1:55:3x, so a sub-4 finish seemed safe with such a safety margin. However, a look at the watch eventually told me how much the pace had dropped and all of a sudden I wasn't so sure any more. I definitely was not racing this because it was a training run for Turin and nothing more but I still had some pride left and an above 4 hours finishing time would have stung. As I got to the end of lap 9 I tried to read the time on the clock but that little kid was standing right in front of the timer and I could not make it out until I was right beside it (for some reason it did not come to me to check my own watch!). Anyway, I had 25 minutes and 8 seconds left - pretty much 8-minute miles, and to my horror I realised that the last few laps had been slower than that so I better get going!

Photo by Paul Daly

Into the pain cave once more. I knew I could deal with the discomfort but the legs were experiencing spasms at a much-too-frequent rate and I was very close to cramping on several occasions, and I knew that if a cramp took hold properly any ideas of time went right out of the window. Right at the halfway mark, almost at the top of the "hill", the right hamstring did indeed start cramping but walking half a dozen steps brought immediate relief and then I was over the top of the hill and running downhill felt easier straight away and the pace dropped to about 7-minute miles, for the first time in hours!

Looking at the results now I can see that I overtook 3 runners on the last lap and I ran this 2 minutes faster than the previous ones, so obviously I did have more left in me than I was prepared to give on the day. The last stretch before the finish is uphill and I knew a sub-4 finish was in the bag. The legs threatened to cramp again, no matter how much I promised them that the finish was imminent. I unwisely decided to finish with a Dargan jump, which was pathetic as I barely was able to clear the ground and I paid for it straight away with a rather painful cramp. Ah well.

If you try and finish in style ...
(Photo by Jumping The Gun)

I finished in 3:58:27, 29th overall and 3rd M45, but most of all I was happy to be finished at all. It doesn't take a genius to work out that I am in dire need of recovery, from the cold as much (or more) as from the 50k so that's what's in store now.

... don't ruin it all by starting to cramp!
You might end up looking like a right muppet.
(Photo by Jumping The Gun)

P.S. Congratulations to Gary O'Hanlon for not only defending his title as national champion but also breaking the Irish record while doing so! Unreal performance!

13 Feb

0

14 Feb

Donadea 50k, Irish National 50k champs

3:58:27, 7:41 pace, HR 155

   29th place, 3rd M45

15 Feb

3.1 miles, 29:59, 9:36 pace, HR 135

Post Trauma

Saturday night was not a good one. I might have thought I was dealing with the car crash reasonably well but once I wanted to go to sleep, sleep was not forthcoming, despite being absolutely knackered and barely being able to keep my eyes open when watching telly. Things were different in bed, I was just unable to fall asleep for hours, and once I finally managed to do that I kept waking every couple of minutes. My top was absolutely drenched in sweat in the morning, I could have wrung it out. Dawn came as a relief and as soon as it seemed bright enough to justify going for a run I was up and ready to go.

There must have been an incy bit of reluctance to go out because I started to read my email instead and there was a message from MC telling me to take it very easy this week, pretending I had run the marathon and doing my usual recovery routine.

That immediately did change things for that day of course, instead of heading out for a loop around the lake with the option of adding a few miles to make it 20 miles I was left with a short recovery run that would be over in less than an hour. I did defy him slightly by running 10k instead of 5 miles and 8 miles the next day because the legs felt good and had nothing to recover from. He did clear things up subsequently by pointing out that the legs are not the only thing to consider and my stress levels must have been sky high after the crash and dealing with its aftermath.

Apart from that one night I think my stress levels weren't too bad, I slept soundly again on Sunday night and every night thereafter and honestly think that I'm over it.

I did 8 more recovery miles on Tuesday but I did notice that the pace had been a bit faster despite the HR still being well within the Maffetone zone. I guess there is some sharpening effect coming through; the 10 fast miles on Sunday might explain that as I always tend to sharpen very, very quickly.

I got up early again on Wednesday and headed for the mountain for the first time in months. I think the frequent mountain runs I did all summer were a huge contributor to my successful run in Belfast, but I stopped them when my hamstring started hurting last October and then it had been too dark and icy recently to even think about the mountains.

The ice had disappeared and I brought a headlamp to deal with the darkness, so you might have thought I was covered. Unfortunately it turns out that turning on your headlamp for a few seconds to see if it's still working isn't fool proof; after a minute or so it basically stopped and eventually I twigged that no amount of fiddling was going to solve the problem of empty batteries.

The bright thing would have been to turn around and leave it for another day but I'm an idiot and a stubborn one at that so I kept stumbling up the stony, uneven mountain path more by feel than sight. I stumbled on several occasions and did fall twice, though no harm seemed to have been done. It was the slowest time I had ever set on that path but the legs felt surprisingly good and coped with the steep climb without even complaining, so my leg strength must be better than expected, despite the long hiatus since the last mountain run.

Thankfully the light was better by the time I headed for home, because running down these trails in darkness would definitely not have been a good idea.

I felt pretty good after the run but my right ankle really started hurting several hours later, so there was a price to pay. Thankfully it had cleared up again by the evening; probably just a stretched ligament from one of my stumbles and it looks like I have gotten away with it.

The legs were a bit tired on Thursday morning, so I had indeed done some work on that mountain For some reason I had forgotten to press the "start" button on my watch when I set off and only did so half a mile later (my subconscious must have twigged something was wrong., Usually I never even glance at the watch). Yet another sign of old age and oncoming senility?

8 Feb

6.2 miles, 49:47, 8:02 pace, HR 137

9 Feb

8 miles, 1:07:18, 8:25 pace, HR 132

10 Feb

8 miles, 1:04:19, 8:02 pace, HR 135

11 Feb

10+ miles, 1:42:28, 9:37 pace, HR 142

   Windy Gap

12 Feb

8 miles, 1:06:16, 8:17 pace, HR 135

The One That Did Not Happen

This was supposed to be almost a carbon copy of the day two weeks ago. I got up early morning, got ready, got into the car still before 6 o'clock and pointed it towards Killeigh, Co. Offaly, not far away from my previous marathon in Lilliput.

That's where the similarities ended. I only got about 2 miles down the road when I got distracted by the electric window beside me acting up and all of a sudden that tree was right in my windscreen and a split second later I was beside the road in a ditch. All that happened on a perfectly straight piece of road that I had driven down hundreds of times before, it was not icy and there was nobody else around. I'm still at a loss to explain how it had happened, from looking at the marks on the ground later that day I think that the car must have turned abruptly, almost flipped, as soon as the left hand wheel had lost contact with the tarmac. It was over so quickly that by the time I realised something had happened it was already over. Thankfully I had not gone very fast, there was no real impact and the airbag had not deployed. I walked away from it completely unharmed, just a bit shaken. The marathon was not going to happen, that much was clear right away.

The advantage of crashing 2 miles from home was that I could ring Niamh and she was there 5 minutes later to pick me up. It took a while to organise someone to pull the car out of the ditch, which itself took half an hour and did a lot more damage to the car than the actual accident itself. I will get confirmation on Monday but I will be absolutely amazed if it's anything but a complete write-off. The advantage of driving an ancient car is that the financial loss isn't too bad but I need a new car pretty damn straight away, which is a hassle I could do without, really. And it had passed its NCT not even 3 weeks ago with flying colours!

I did eventually get to run at half past two in the afternoon and hammered 10 miles, far too fast for the legs at my present stage of fitness (almost 30 seconds per mile faster than last week) but this one was to clear the head rather than for the legs.

Shit happens. Nobody got hurt and I had narrowly avoided being another mark in the roads safety statistics, so in the great scheme of things this ended up okay.

5 Feb

10 miles, 1:23:24, 8:20 pace, HR 137

6 Feb

8 miles, 1:07:57, 8:30 pace, HR 133

7 Feb

10 miles, 1:10:19, 7:02 pace, HR 157

   incl. 8 miles @ 6:49 pace, HR 161

Identify, Determine, Evaluate, Act, and Learn

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

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

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

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

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

2 Feb

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

3 Feb

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

4 Feb

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

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

The Long Weekend

Finally, a post just about running.

About 4 years ago, MC set me a set of distances/paces that he thought I should be able to run as part of my preparation for a sub-3 marathon. He liked me doing back-to-back workouts, which is one of the main training tools still in my arsenal today. A really good weekend would consist of a relatively fast 10 miles on Friday (not THAT fast, just enough to get the legs working) followed by a 20 miler on Saturday and 15 miles on Sunday. That's a pretty heavy load and I never managed to do a lot of those in any training cycle since.

For this weekend, however, that was exactly the plan. Things were thrown into slight turmoil with me recovering from a cold (the final effects of which are still with me) as well as some heavy legs on Thursday, probably a late hangover from last Saturday's marathon, but I figured I would give it a go and see how it went. I would always be able to cut back if it got too much.

I have learned enough by now to know that you should not be focusing on hitting a certain target pace but went entirely by feel instead. After a couple of slow warm-up miles on Friday I increased the pace. The first few miles felt pretty good and smooth but towards the end fatigue crept into the system and the pace slowed a bit. I could have pushed harder, but that would have missed the point of the workout. I ended up with 7:16 pace for the 8 miles, which leaves a lot of room for improvement but I felt I had nailed the intensity.

Saturday started fairly early, in order to get the run out of the way before some family business, and it was still dark for the first few miles. The wind was noticeable but actually calmer than the forecast had predicted. I had missed a major hail storm just before leaving and the roads were covered in little white crunchy balls, but all in all it was perfectly acceptable. The first half went by pretty quickly but then the legs remembered that they had gone into this run pre-fatigued from the day before and gradually got worse. At 12.5 miles I had a decision to make as I approached a t-junction. Turn right towards home and be done after 15 miles which would have been a perfectly acceptable run or turn left for another 5-mile loop that would most likely turn ugly and painful. It wasn't a difficult decision. There's a world championship coming up. I turned left.

The pace went south with each mile and every time I tried to get back I paid the price shortly afterwards. In some ways it was similar to the day before, I most likely could have pushed harder but that would have missed the point of the workout, which was not to destroy myself and still be in good shape for tomorrow. Anyway, the last few miles I was definitely dragging my sorry backside along the road, wishing for this to be over and I sure was happy when it finally was. I got caught twice by some fairly painful hail shower, just before the 15 mile mark and just before the end. Neither lasted more than a few minutes.

After that run I definitely expected Sunday to be a slogfest of epic proportions and wasn't exactly looking forward to it. I started at a very easy pace but after 2 miles tested the legs to see how they would feel running a smidgen faster, which felt unexpectedly good so I kept the slightly better pace and waited how things would develop. What did happen was that the miles just flew by effortlessly. I was past the halfway mark before I even knew it. It started raining/sleeting for the final miles but I hardly noticed, I was feeling much too good to let something like that affect my mood.

Even though the pace was almost 20 seconds per mile faster than on Saturday, the HR was actually lower on Sunday. Go figure. Maybe I managed to work the cold out of my system, though that had felt pretty much the same on all 3 days.

I have no idea where that great run had come from but I'll gladly take more of it as long as it's available. I have spent the last few weeks bringing my body back to base level and now it's time to build up again for the next 10 weeks. There is plenty of room for improvement, and improvements will come.

30 Jan

10 miles, 1:15:03, 7:30 pace, HR 152

   incl 8 miles @ 7:16 pace (HR 155)

31 Jan

20 miles, 2:41:35, 8:03 pace, HR 146

1 Feb

15 miles, 1:56:23, 7:45 pace, HR 145

Another Year Older

It’s not been the best week ever, despite celebrating a lovely birthday with my family. I was already starting to get sick when I ran the marathon on Saturday, which probably did not help things, and this week I was just trying to recover from both the marathon as well as the cold. I would call it man flu but I got it from Lola initially and now Niamh is suffering herself, so it’s not just my inadequate set of male chromosomes that’s responsible.

I followed the always-the-same post-marathon recovery protocol of 5 mile runs every morning until the legs felt better and 8 miles after that. With the cold adding another variable it was hard to say where exactly I was in the recovery process. I felt rotten on Monday, better on Tuesday, much better on Wednesday but worse again on Thursday.

A couple of years ago Grellan had set the gold standard for what you should be doing on your 45^th birthday by running a set of 3 15-mile runs in 24 hours. I wasn't ever going to match that only 3 days after a marathon but even so it did strike me that a very slow 5-mile recovery run must have been the most pathetic birthday run in history.

I did eventually up the daily mileage to 8 on Wednesday but I'm not entirely sure if that was the right thing to do. The legs had felt fine initially but now seem to be going backwards, and my HR data is definitely going the wrong way. That one I definitely blame on the cold, but with Lola now feeling perfectly recovered (she felt up and down a few times as well) I still think this will be all over in a few days anyway.

The weather didn't do much to help things on Wednesday and Thursday. Icy cold rain being blown straight into your face by a gale force wind is just about my least favourite kind of weather, and of course that’s exactly what it was like the last couple of days, with the forecast for the next few days not exactly being promising either. It did strike me that running in such weather was probably not the best thing to do for someone battling with a cold virus, but, as mentioned before, my mindset is if in any doubt, go for a run. I am mindful that 8 years ago I contracted pneumonia by running in cold rainy weather while feeling sick but my chest is completely clear, so basically I expect to be able to get away with it.

26 Jan

5 miles, 44:53, 8:56 pace, HR 134

27 Jan

5 miles, 43:80, 8:38 pace, HR 136

28 Jan

8 miles, 1:08:45, 8:36 pace, HR 140

29 Jan

8 miles, 1:07:08, 8:23 pace, HR 145

Lilliput

Friday evening I got a sore throat which got worse rather quickly and by the time I went to bed I felt pretty rotten. I did not have a fever, so I decided to wait how I would feel in the morning and assess the situation, though I am perfectly aware that my mindset is "if in any doubt, go for a run". Not being able to sleep exacerbated the problem and by the time the alarm clock woke me I had gotten less than 3 hours of sleep. Not ideal. Was it a wise move to drive for 3.5 hours, run a marathon and drive back home when feeling tired already? Probably not. But my throat was fine and I went ahead anyway.

My enthusiasm for this marathon had taken a bit of a nosedive on Thursday evening when I realised how long a drive it would be; I can almost drive to Dublin in that time! The car's thermometer said 6 degrees when I left Kerry but dropped steadily until it said -1 going through Birr. The roads were still okay until about 6 miles from Lilliput when they were distinctly not fine but covered in a layer of pure ice and rather dangerous. I was very glad to get there without incident.

Lilliput centre in Jonathan Swift Park was smaller than I had expected (Lilliput being small, who would have thought) but it served perfectly well as the race HQ.

There was supposed to be an early start at 8 o'clock but they had delayed that by an hour due to the icy roads and they were still icy when the main field started at about 9:45, slightly delayed as well. The course consisted of a small 2 mile loop and then 4 larger loops of about 6 miles each. A few guys ran ahead and I settled in with Aidan, who I had run the entire Oylegate marathon with 2 weeks ago. After about a mile a group of 3 runners passed us and we more or less ended up running with them, maybe a bit faster than I had planned but at that point everyone feels good and the pace was easy enough.

As mentioned, the roads were still covered in ice and you had to be really careful. The last thing I would have wanted is to break a bone in a fall and put myself out of the championships. I definitely felt that this was not safe but I am not having a go at the organisers; every single runner could clearly see what it was like and all of them decided to go ahead anyway, entirely out of their own volition.

Photobombing and marathon running all at once

There was a turnaround point on the road where everyone's honesty was being put under a test but from what I could see everyone was meticulous in going around the marker correctly without cutting the course. Then the course turned right off the road onto what they called a trail but it was really a stony jeep road. It kept going and going and going for 1.5 miles when we turned around and went all the way back to the road where we had come from, finish the loop on the road and start the next one.

On the plus side, the trail was ice free and almost certainly safer than the road section.

After about 8 miles I felt the pace was a bit hotter than was wise to do in a training run and I deliberately fell back a bit. One other runner fell back with me and we let the other 3 guys go ahead. From that point on I ran my own race at my own pace which immediately felt more comfortable. I had the occasional chat with the other lad but for the most of it we just let the miles tick by in silence.

My right hip started hurting somewhere around mile 10. This was a new one. I have had the occasional twinge in that area but nothing for a couple of years. Maybe the icy roads or the uneven surface of the trail had something to do with it but that's just a guess.

After 2 laps the ice on the road had finally melted, apart from one ice plate I unexpectedly stepped on shortly after starting the third lap.

The gap between us and the three other runners seemed to grow and shrink at times and by mile 10 we were almost right behind them again but then they pulled away again and from the halfway mark they started to disappear. It was at that point that I started feeling my sore throat again and my energy levels weren't great. Obviously, this was not great news but I kept on running at whatever pace felt suitable. I was really thirsty and kept drinking an entire water bottle every three miles, much more than I would usually drink, yet I still felt dehydrated. I also took a gel at the halfway mark and at about 20 miles though neither seemed to make any difference to my flagging energy levels.

The third lap went by still reasonably well, and maybe the bottle of half coke/half water I managed to snag at mile 17 helped a bit but I really started to feel the effort and by the time I started the final loop I really began to wish this to be over.

The small people behind me might be the Lilliputians

At that point I was hurting quite a bit, the legs, especially the hamstring were really fatigued and heavy and every step was an effort. I kept telling myself that I would not have to pass any of the landmarks again but that did not really cheer me up. I really was not looking forward to the trail section, and as soon as I hit it it was just as bad as expected. I was running in very light shoes, as I always do, and I could feel every single stone on the surface and every uneven bit, and even the soles of my feet were hurting.

I tried to keep my form intact, and in fact a fair few runners told me afterwards that I made marathon running look easy, but that wasn't what it had felt to me during the last few miles. I was looking forward to more coke at the 23 mile mark but they were out of them and I had to be content with plain old water. When I finally stepped off the trail for the last time I had about 1.5 miles left, started to smell the finish and managed to increase the pace again. At that point running was almost fun again, though that probably only was because I knew I was about to stop running. I finished in seventh position (I think) in 3:15:14, which rather surprised me as it was a bit faster than in Oylegate and I had definitely thought I was running slower.

I need to reconfigure my Ambit. This is the second marathon in a row where I had run several minutes faster than planned without even realising. On my old Garmin I used to prominently display present and average pace and used this to pace myself. While I do have the same data fields on the Ambit they are displayed much smaller and a quick glance is not enough for me to read them, especially when running without glasses, and apparently this setup doesn't work for me. I'll think about that one.

So all in all not an ideal day at the races but far from a disaster. I managed to deal with the ice, the sore throat and the ridiculously long drive and still have a perfectly reasonable marathon number 64. Incidentally, this was my last race in the M40 age group.

24 Jan

Lilliput marathon, 3:15:14, 7:26 pace, HR 156

   seventh place

25 Jan

5 mile, 43:59, 8:47 pace, HR 139

Friday Ramblings

There isn't much to talk about, so this will be a very short update (Ewen, stop celebrating). On Wednesday I did my first hill session of the year, but it was a rather gentle introduction. I hoped a little bit of hill springing would help to re-balance my leg muscles and help my hamstring. I have been feeling my left hamstring on and off for about 3 months now. It does not really bother me and it did not stop me from running a 10k, 2 marathons and a double marathon in that time, which covers a lot of the spectrum from pace to distance, but it nevertheless is a bit of a worry.

Early indications are that those hills did not clear up the matter, if anything I have been feeling it a bit more in the last couple of days, but it still isn't something that keeps me awake at night.

Thursday and Friday were easy 10 mile runs, for some reason a bit slower than recently. Maybe the legs were a bit tired from the hills or the previous weekend or both but I have another marathon coming up tomorrow (Saturday) and sure was not worried about running slowly.

The championships are just 11 weeks away, which all of a sudden seems just around the corner. I guess the real training is about to begin.

21 Jan

9+ miles, 1:21:21, 8:53 pace, HR 141

   strides, 2 x hill springing

22 Jan

10 miles, 1:25:48, 8:35 pace, HR 136

23 Jan

10 miles, 1:24:45, 8:29 pace, HR 136

Member Of The Team

I had missed out on my run on Thursday due to Met Eireann's overcautious warning, which meant that I would have two days of no running in succession because Friday would be taken up by travelling. I had already started my journey on Thursday when I headed up to Dublin straight from work to nab a few hours of sleep before having to get up disgustingly early, just after 4am, in order to make my flight at 7am. I don't mind getting up early for a long run, but this was just cruel. Not a lot of people wanted to subject themselves to that, which is why the plane to Vienna was almost empty.

As soon as I had arrived at the airport I got a rental car and headed for the Alps, not to enjoy the views (though I did manage that as well) but to visit my mum, which I don't manage very often. In the evening I drove for another couple of hours to Wels, about 100 miles west of Vienna, to get a few hours of sleep after a very, very long day.

The main reason for the journey was a team meeting of the Austrian national ultrarunning team. I had never met any of the other team members and was keen to meet them and also to introduce myself to them. I did not want to turn up on the eve of the World Championship and meet a group of total strangers; it would not have felt like a team.

We spent Saturday morning doing Lactate tests on a treadmill. I got the result only a day later (I'll save you the trouble and say it myself - germanic efficiency at work) and my lactate curve is absolutely textbook style, which is a good sign but leaves little room for obvious improvements in my training (I had not expected any major revelations). The afternoon was taken up with a series of lectures (stretching, nutrition, regeneration) and of course a run with the team. I went out with the middle group and the tempo was steady but kept increasing subtly all the time until someone complained (not me!), at which point it all calmed down again. My watch said almost 10 miles when we got back, so I did a loop around the car park to get to an even number. Old habits die hard.

There were more lectures on Sunday (functional training) and another long run where I opted for the slower group (no need to show off). We met back at the HQ after 12 miles, took a group photo and headed out again, this time at rather sharper pace, though looking at the graphs now it was never particularly fast, though I did have quite a few miles in my legs by that time, which would probably explain why it felt faster than it actually was.

The meeting ended after lunch and a few words by the team manager, I drove back to Vienna to spend some time with my sister before catching my flight back home on Monday morning (this one was packed to the rafters). I did not get home until almost midnight, which made this a very long and rather tiring weekend, but I am very glad I did this. I do actually feel a member of the team now, which wasn't really the case beforehand. I am really looking forward to April now. This is promising to be quite the experience.

17 Jan

am: 5+ miles, ~42 minutes; lactate test on treadmill

pm: 10 miles, 1:16:01, 7:36 pace, HR 154

18 Jan

17.5 miles, 2:26:53, 8:23 pace, HR 136

19 Jan

8.5 miles, 1:10:44, 8:18 pace

20 Jan

8 miles, 1:07:37, 8:27 pace, HR 136

Rachel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

12 Jan

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

13 Jan

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

14 Jan

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

Amongst Friends

I would usually hesitate to attend a marathon so far from home but the Oylegate, Co. Wexford one, organised by the Marathon Club, appealed to me and I was looking forward to running with a few friends. I had no intentions of setting any records. Let me rephrase that: I was determined not to run fast, this was very much a training run. A time of 3:20-3:30, depending how I would feel on the day, seemed appropriate.

The entire family had gone to Dublin on Friday evening, making for a much shorter journey on Saturday morning. After a very wet and stormy night the weather had calmed considerably when I set off on Saturday morning, shortly before 7 am, but by time I had reached Bray I was driving through a very heavy thunderstorm. Uh-oh!

Luckily things brightened up considerably and it was sunny in Oylegate, though the windy conditions would add a little bit of a challenge today, no doubt about it. The course consisted of 5 loops of a little over 5 miles. The first mile of each loop would be downhill and the next 4 would be uphill, but there were no steep bits in there at all; the course wasn't going to provide any excuses, it was all rather gentle.

Right from the start I fell into step with two other runners, Liam Costello and Aidan Hogan. I have run with both before, with Liam in Dublin and Aidan in Tralee. There weren't any fast runners out today, which meant we were actually the leading group, not that a casual observer would have been able to tell as we were coasting along, full of chat.

I checked the pace on my watch a few times during the first loop and it seemed to indicate that we were on 3:20 pace, give or take a little bit, which suited me perfectly. The chatter quietened down a bit during the second loop. I got the impression that Liam was pushing the pace a little bit, though nobody had any troubles staying with the group.

I did start to feel some tightness in my hamstrings as we neared the halfway mark and the same pace required a bit more of an effort, especially on those climbs right into the headwind that showed no signs of abating, and all of a sudden the climbs did not feel quite as gentle any more. I had no problem keeping with the boys but did quietly wonder if I was going to work harder than planned and if I should drop back if things got worse.

I took a gel at the end of the third loop and seemed to fumble along a bit more than necessary, and while I was preoccupied juggling a gel packet and a water bottle all of a sudden I was several steps behind the lads. Initially I thought I'd just let them go and jog the last 10 miles on my own at a lower effort level but on the downhill mile that followed my natural pace seemed to be a bit faster than theirs and without any increase in effort I was back with them. Maybe the gel had kicked in by then or maybe they had slowed down a bit but I no longer felt the effort was higher than anticipated and for the rest of the race I would just jog along comfortably. Maybe it takes 16 miles these days for me to warm up properly.

At the start of the fifth and final round Aidan said words to the effect of "I hope none of you intends to start racing to the finish", which both Liam and me denied. Once more this suited me just fine, today was a training effort, and an ego-driven race to the finish would have been the last thing I had in mind. I have much bigger things to fry this year.

Vincent, Aidan, Liam, me

All of us had run well below racing effort and we all still felt reasonably comfortable so we just made our way around the last miles, enjoying the views and the unexpectedly nice weather for the final time. I had not once checked my watch for the pace ever since the first lap and still thought we were on 3:20 pace until Liam told us we would be there in about 3:15 - a quarter mile before the finish! In the end it was a 3:16 marathon and the three of us crossed the finish line together, even holding hands as we did so.

It sure was not the most competitive race I had ever been in but technically we were the winners. I stuck around, chatting with the other runners and enjoying the fabulous spread that had generously been provided. Irish record holder Ruthann Sheahan was there as well and she told me about her last 24-hours championship in Poland, which got me all the more excited about April; at that stage I can hardly wait, it is promising to be quite an experience.

Thanks to the members of MCI which made this a great day and a lovely race, especially to Marie Chapman and Vincent Guthrie for the flawless organisation. I had a great day and can't wait to do it again.

I did attend my niece's birthday party later that day. It was great to be able to answer the usual question of "You ran a marathon? Did you win?" with a "Yes" for a change!

8 Jan

10 miles, 1:24:17, 8:23 pace, HR 134

9 Jan

8 miles, 1:07:36, 8:26 pace, HR 136

10 Jan

26.2 miles, 3:16:47, 7:30 pace, HR 155

   MCI Oylegate marathon - three-way split for the win

11 Jan

5 miles, 43:27, 8:41 pace, HR 140

Weekly Mileage: ~81

Evaluate Your Base

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5 Jan

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

6 Jan

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

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

7 Jan

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

Recovery

I'm still not entirely sure about Thursday's race. I never pushed it 100% and left it at about 95% effort (I know, the 5:48 first mile does not entirely support that argument) and I'm undecided if I could not run faster or just was not prepared to push myself all out. I do know that in the long run a slightly less than full effort will be a good thing because racing during base building isn't a good idea anyway, so maybe that did play on my mind.

The last couple of days were all recovery runs from the race, of course, and I sacrificed my long run this weekend for the sake of recovery. With the HR alarm still set at the Maffetone level easy runs are assured anyway. The pace was particularly slow on Friday, which I had not even noticed, but has returned to pre-race levels by now, a tad slower than 8-minute miles. My HRM has been acting up a few times recently, so this morning I changed the battery and all seems good again (this is always the first thing to try and it works almost every time).

I could feel my hamstring again on Friday and Saturday. It did not really hurt but there was definitely some small amount of discomfort there. It has settled down again on Sunday but I know the hamstring still isn't quite at a state it ideally should be. It's good I'm an ultra runner, I guess. The slow training pace definitely protects the muscles; if I were a 5k runner and tried a few workouts I'd be in real trouble in no time at all.

So, after the excitement of the race where I ran a full 2 minutes per mile faster than in training, it's back to the fat burning drudgery of Maffetone. I know I've been moaning and bitching about that less-than-riveting form of training already, and I guess there will be more to come. I always thought of myself as a rather disciplined guy, but this is really testing my limits. I'm not sure how much longer I can bear to stick with this. I'll try and keep in mind the eventual benefits - that should help!

3 Jan

10 miles, 1:23:14, 8:19 pace, HR 138

4 Jan

12 miles, 1:38:05, 8:09 pace, HR 138

Weekly Mileage: 68+

Happy New Year

Mystery Coach won't be too impressed; I don't need telling. Racing during the base phase is the ultimate sin and forgive me Father, for I have sinned.

I actually have a decent excuse. I'm usually away in Dublin over New Year and therefore unable to race my own club's major race, but this year I was at home and really felt I could not say no. That's all true. But I admit it was also exhilarating to be moving at race pace again, so much so that I got carried away a bit and started with a sub-6 mile against a fierce headwind, which wasn't the best way to pace myself but what the heck. It felt good.

It was a very windy day with the occasional very strong rain shower. Certainly not the ideal day for a race and when looking out of the window in the morning I actually wondered if the race was going to go ahead at all in those conditions. But they improved a bit and it seemed a little bit calmer in Beaufort than it had been in Caragh Lake, so when I got to the start I put on my race number and did my warm-up, just as I used to in the good old days when I was running the local races on a more regular basis. After doing a few strides I had a hard time catching my breath, which did not bode well. I hoped nobody had noticed and lined up close to the front.

The pace was fast right from the off. I was completely unsure how I should pace myself so just settled into a fairly hard effort but did dial it back just a tad after a minute or two. It was still way too fast, a 5:48 mile against a fierce headwind is not my 10k pace, not ever, and certainly not now after not doing any speedwork for months. Having said that, I knew better than to look at the watch at any time, all running was purely done by feel.

The course elevation profile had looked very flat, but that was misleading. There was barely a flat meter, the road kept going up and down relentlessly. All those hills were very gentle and fairly short, which is why they did not really show up in the elevation chart, but at 10k pace things don't have to be severe to feel severe. Add to that that we were heading right into a gale force wind and you get a good idea what it was like.

I tried to work with a few guys, helping each other out against the wind, but they fell back and I was on my own for a while until a group of 3 runners, including the leading lady caught up with me between km 3 and 4. I managed to stick with them for a while but I always lost ground going uphill and had to work at making it back on the next downhill. I could never quite tell with absolute certainty if I could not go all out on the hills or just refused to lay it all on the line, but the pattern was pretty clear.

We eventually turned away from the wind and the second half was a bit easier with the fierce breeze now on our backs. However, I did lose contact with the rest of the group on a slightly longer uphill stretch and then lost concentration for a few minutes, and by the time I snapped back into race mode the gap in front of me was rather large.

I did work on gradually closing it. I was unsure at first if  I even got closer but eventually I managed to work all the way back, around the 7k mark, though at the cost of being well in the red zone. When the pace increased towards the end I was unable to go with them. Well, one fella fell behind even more than I did but the rest, still including the leading lady, kept inching away from me. I may or may not have been able to catch either of them with an all-out effort over the last half mile but could not get myself to push the switch to go all-out and just kept going at 95% effort instead.

Bad racing? Probably. But it has been many months since my last fast race and I did not have the tools to push myself too far into the anaerobic zone. Despite all that, my time of 38:26 was a lot faster than anticipated. I have only run a faster 10k on 2 or 3 occasions, so what I lacked in top speed was at least partially compensated by a rather well tuned diesel engine.

The standard was pretty impressive, my time was only enough for 22nd place overall and 6th M40, which is fiercely competitive. However, I managed to snag the prize for first local man (first local man not to win any of the other prizes, that is) so actually went home with some swag.

Friday morning was just a recovery run, very slowly, but the legs felt surprisingly good without any signs of stiffness or fatigue. I kept the pace exceptionally slow, for once I didn't even need to HR alarm to tell me so.

1 Jan

10 miles, including

   10k Beaufort New Year's Day Race, 38:26, 6:11 pace, HR 177

   22nd overall, 6th M40

2 Jan

8 miles, 1:10:29, 8:49 pace, HR 135

2014

December 31 is always a good time to reflect on the past year and if you read a few blogs then you will invariably read a fair few of these types of posts these days.

A year can be measured in may ways, even if we're just talking about running.

One of these ways is by numbers. According to my logs I have run 3838 miles this year, which is the most of any year since I started running over 10 years ago. For a while I thought I might get to 4000, but that would have required things to go right, and I did have a few hiccups along the way, most recently my hamstring issues and then of course that heart scare that thankfully turned out to be nothing serious. This is a fairly impressive number of miles but I can assure you that I never ran a mile purely for mileage sake (well, except those two miles one day back in summer when I realised I had run 98 miles for the week so far).

Another, probably better, way is to check back on last year's goals and see if you have achieved them. 2014 was quite unusual in that respect because I had set only one single goal; even more daunting, realistically I only had one single shot at it. Despite this, it all came through and I managed to achieve my target of qualifying for the championships on a beautiful day in July on the Belfast track. This single day (ok, 24 hours) really defined my entire year. Every mile I had run until that point had been with that target in mind and pretty much every morning since then I have woken up hoping it all hadn't been some very elaborate dream.

I still can't quite believe it - the nerdy kid that was so utterly useless at sport in school is going to run in the world championships, representing his country. Wow.

Even though I only had that one goal race, I did fairly well in a few other races as well. Coming third in the Dingle Ultra was a highlight, as was reaching the same position in the Portumna 100k, which had been one of my favourite races of the year. I still can't quite believe I had felt so good after running non-stop for over 8 hours. Another top-10 finish in Connemara and a successful defense of my Kerry M40 marathon title were other highlights.

I did set a few new PBs; funnily enough, all of them at ultra distances. With Belfast being the sole target, I didn't exactly do a lot of speedwork. Even so, I still managed a 17:55 5k in April, only one week after the Connemara Ultra, which came as a real surprise.

It's been a damn good year! I could not have asked for more!

Anyway .... the last few days I have been a little bit naughty and departed from the Maffetone schedule that I had adhered to for the previous few weeks. I have my club's annual race on New Year's Day and I really feel I cannot miss it. Just to ensure that my legs get at least a minimum of speed work before the start line I did a few strides during yesterday's run, just to get the legs spinning for a change. It's unlikely to make any real difference tomorrow, it probably was more for the head. Expectations are rather modest, if I can get through the 10k without pulling my hamstring I will be happy enough. I've got bigger things to fry in 2015.

Happy New Year!

29 Dec

10 miles, 1:21:49, 8:11 pace, HR 135

30 Dec

8.5 miles, 1:02:23, 8:09 pace, HR 140

31 Dec

10 miles, 1:21:28, 8:09 pace, HR 137

Winter Running

As I'm sure you are already very much aware, Ireland has a rather moderate climate and outside conditions are just about never a proper excuse not to go running. All the way back in January I missed one run because of thunder and lightning, but that's the total sum of environmentally caused training interruptions for the year. Winter running can have its challenges from time to time, from all those dark hours to winter storms, but on the whole conditions here are very much suited to running all year round.

I felt a bit flat on Christmas Day, which I could not quite explain. Surely those four faster miles from the evaluations wouldn't have had such an effect on my legs? I didn't pig out over the holidays either, so maybe it was just one of those days. Friday was a bit character-forming early on with gale force winds blowing the heavy rain in sideways but conditions improved as the miles ticked by and by the end the rain had stopped (the wind was still a bit of a challenge).

It made the much improved conditions over the weekend all the sweeter. I waited out one rather hefty rain shower on Saturday morning and then headed out into unexpectedly nice weather. I did have to contend with a couple of rain showers, this is still Kerry after all, but I did 19 miles around the lake feeling rather good. The slower pace can be very frustrating at times but it sure is easier on the legs.

Sunday was very much a surprise. It was the first run in sub-zero conditions this winter but the sun was out (I even needed my shades) and it was crispy clear and fresh, and running was a sheer pleasure. The legs felt fine and did not mind the miles over the last few days.

However, I would have hoped I would be used to the Maffetone pace by now but that is not the case. I can cruise along when it's flat but as soon as the road climbs or the wind comes from the front, the HR alarm almost invariably starts beeping, no matter how easy I'm trying to run. When encountering a climb my instinct is to attack it; now I have to do the opposite and ease up considerably. It still does not work on the steep climbs around the lake, on those I'm just resigned that the watch will keep on beeping at me until I reach the top.

My numbers are going backwards. That's to be expected, and is pretty much the point of this type of training. The body is returning to base line, which has to be done because you cannot keep it in a sharpened state forever. Still, it doesn't make great reading when you churn out over 80 miles over a week and see your number declining. Of course, it is a long game. The aim is to step back so that you can reach a higher peak once you start building again. It has worked for me exceptionally well in the past, and it will work again.

Despite all that, I will commit a sin against the system on Thursday and run our club's 10k race on New Year's Day. I'm usually away in Dublin for that and really feel I cannot miss it this year when I happen to be around. Let's hope the old body will cope. I sure don't expect a stellar time - I can't even remember the last time I actually tried to run fast.

25 Dec

10 miles, 1:20:25, 8:03 pace, HR 139

26 Dec

10 miles, 1:23:07, 8:18 pace, HR 138

27 Dec

19 miles, 2:36:20, 8:13 pace, HR 140

28 Dec

13 miles, 1:46:04, 8:09 pace, HR 138

Weekly Mileage: 84

Evaluating Christmas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

22 Dec

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

23 Dec

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

24 Dec

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

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

Train, Don't Strain

It was another one of those very difficult decisions and I have been mulling over it for a couple of months but I eventually decided, with a very heavy heart, that I won't be running in this year's Ballycotton. It is too close to the championships for a 10 miler, which is a vastly different event from a 24 hours race and I could not possibly hope to be in decent shape for both. I don't want to do Ballycotton without at least an outside chance of getting into the top 100 and I guess that will have to wait until 2016 (yes, I will be even older and by then, I know).

With the all-clear from the cardiologist, normal training has started again. My running has been rather stop-start in recent months with the hamstring niggles and then the heart scare. The championship is still almost 4 months away and if I can get a clear run at training, I will be fine but I sure could do without any further issues.

Actually, I am presently dealing with some minor issue, namely a cold virus that seems hard to shift but doesn't affect me too badly.

Considering that I had a sore throat, a (mild) headache and was not feeling particularly well, Thursday's run went pretty well, especially considering the gale force wind and occasional rain. I know there will be some of you thinking I'm an idiot from running in the wind and rain despite having a cold, and you well may have a point, but then it's this kind of idiocy that got me into next year's championship (and you've got to be an idiot to be running 24 hour races anyway).

Friday was a very similar run on the same course but under more pleasant conditions and I also felt a lot better as regards to that cold. The one remarkable thing about that run was the extremely low heart rate. I have run in the 120s before on a couple of occasions but those were recovery runs at excessively slow pace (slower than 9-minute pace); this one was new.

I didn't quite manage to keep the HR sl low over the weekend, but that was never going to happen on a run over the steep and long climbs of the Caragh lake loop. I pretty much accepted the fact that the watch would keep on beeping at me, just took it very easy. The pace is a lot slower than what I usually run, but it does leave my legs in a very fresh condition and even 17 miles are just a walk in the park. I did notice, however, that I found it hard to keep the HR down below the alarm threshold on the last 5 miles, which are fairly flat and part of my normal running route. on Thursday and Friday I had no problems with the alarm even when climbing a few minor hills. Late into my long runs, those same hills at the same effort level had the watch beeping.

Sunday was a lovely morning with the weather much better than the forecast had predicted. I ran through Killorglin and onto Ballykissane pier, an almost historic route. There are loudspeakers out in town covering the area with Christmas music; to be honest, I much prefer the AC/DC they played in Sixmilebridge during the double marathon last month. I ran just a tad too fast; on the way back home, against a stiff headwind, it was very hard to keep the watch quiet and I think I got desensitised towards the beeping after a while, which is of course not quite what I'm looking for when I'm talking about adapting.

Running at that effort level doesn't really feel like training. As Robert keeps pointing out, this is still faster than the pace I will be running in April. Still, this is slower than my 100k pace(!!!) and on fresh legs it sometimes feels like I'm wasting a perfectly good workout. I do, however, remember training for the Vienna marathon under MC's guidance, and "not feeling like training" was exactly what he wanted to hear during base training, so I guess I may well be on the right track this time.

18 Dec

10 miles, 1:24:25, 8:26 pace, HR 135

19 Dec

10 miles, 1:24:18, 8:25 pace, HR 129

20 Dec

17 miles, 2:21:18, 8:18 pace, HR 141

21 Dec

13 miles, 1:45:44, 8:07 pace, HR 139

Weekly Mileage: 82

All Clear

So ... I went to see the cardiologist after he'd had a chance to look at my data from the 3 tests I'd had done last week. He was impressed by what he saw and declared me healthy. He also sanctioned me running the 24 hours championships. Oh, and apparently I am very fit.

I'm kind of wondering what I just spent several hundred Euros on, after all I already had a certain inkling that I'm reasonably fit, but then again it's a lot better to be told that you're fit and healthy than to be told that you're sick and wasting away. I am healthy and I am still able to run, and 2 weeks ago I would gladly have given away every single cent I own to get such an outcome, so what's a few hundred quid!

Having said that, no sooner had I found out that I am a scientifically certified picture of health that I started developing a sore throat. Once more that's not entirely surprising as Maia has been coughing a lot recently and a 7 year old isn't always aware where she is coughing at, so somebody was bound to catch it and it happened to be me. But I am very much aware that my heart scare 2 weeks ago was most likely triggered by some viral infection that I had caught from my other daughter and obviously I'm not particularly keen on a repeat. I was a bit anxious before my run this morning because while I was feeling reasonably fine I definitely was not 100%, which is pretty much how I had felt before that episode but I got through 12 miles just fine, despite the wind and weather.

Running at Maffetone intensity is becoming easier, though I think that's mostly down to me getting used to it rather than the body adapting to the training. I can now run up most hills without the alarm triggering. This morning was very windy and while I had it on my back for the first 6 miles I kept wondering how I would get back home fighting against the headwind while trying to keep my HR down, but when it finally came to it I found it surprisingly easy.

My initial plan for Wednesday had been to do an evaluation but the weather had me change my mind; evaluations just don't work very well in windy conditions because that plays havoc with my HR. I considered running it on Tuesday but decided that I should see the cardiologist in a more rested state (in the end it wouldn't have made any difference). The forecast is for a few more days of high winds and I decided that it's better that way anyway, I'll do strict Maffetone training for another week before breaking it for an evaluation - the HR for the 4 miles of the evaluation is 20 beats higher than the Maffetone threshold!

15 Dec

10 miles, 1:23:01, 8:18 pace, HR 133

16 Dec

10 miles, 1:23:30, 8:21 pace, HR 134

17 Dec

12 miles, 1:38:46, 8:13 pace, HR 132

Maffetone

The good news is that I have been feeling pretty good over the last few days. After hitting rock bottom on Friday I have been feeling a bit better every day and by about Wednesday I felt completely recovered. The bad news is that I find running with a HR alarm at Maffetone effort very frustrating.

Obviously I realise that after a heart scare the good news is far more important and everything else pales into insignificance. It doesn't, however, mean that I am entirely happy about the situation. I should be grateful that I am still able to run at all, so this is probably me being greedy, but I'd much prefer running a bit faster than that.

I have been reading enough reports from people using the Maffetone method to know that this can test the patience of a saint, and in fact compared to a lot of other runners I'm still doing pretty well. I don't have to walk up every incline and my pace is reasonably close to 8-minute miles, but still, this just isn't all that much fun.

Ok, ok, I'll stop whining.

So, I've been running with the alarm programmed into the watch and the little **** keeps beeping at me every time the effort goes above anything faster than a gentle jog. Actually, that's not quite right. When running up a very steep incline, like I did today (Sunday morning), even crawling pace has the thing beeping and there's not much I can do about it. On the other hand, running down a steep incline means I can hammer out the pace until my quads turn to jelly and the HR is still beneath the alarm threshold. HR alone is definitely not the sole measurement for effort but it's all I have.

I have increased the distance of my runs every day; tentatively at first as I did not want to stress my heart but it all went well and I felt good so I got more confident. The other factor was that the slow pace and exceptionally easy effort meant I would not get tired at all, not even after running further than usual. The downside, obviously, was the slow pace; I sure had hoped my pace would be closer to 8-minute miles.

Saturday was the one run that went reasonably well. Conditions were good, no wind, clear skies and temperatures around the freezing point but without icy roads, perfect. That day I came reasonably close to averaging 8-minute miles, which was a lot nicer than crawling around at 8:30-ish.

On Sunday I went back on the loop around the lake for the first time since my hamstring started hurting, which seems like a very long time ago. I quickly realised that it is basically impossible to run slowly enough on the steep slope to satisfy the watch, but I was not going to walk, beep or no beep. However, the low effort meant I reached the top not even out of breath when usually I struggle towards the end if I'm not in climbing shape. Running up the steep road is usually a very good indicator of my fitness, so I was surprised to find it so easy. On the downhill I could run as fast as my legs would spin and the alarm still would not go off, but I found it hard to settle back into the slow effort once I reached the flat.

Despite this being my longest training run in a while I couldn't feel any fatigue at the end. In fact, I was slightly tempted to add a second loop, despite the wind and rain, but decided against it (for a start, Niamh would go apeshit if I disappeared for 4+ hours without telling her first). This leaves me with a rather modest weekly mileage total, but, as said, I should probably be grateful for being able to run at all.

11 Dec

8 miles, 1:06:20, 8:17 pace, HR 135

12 Dec

10 miles, 1:23:52, 8:23 pace, HR 134

13 Dec

12 miles, 1:36:53, 8:04 pace, HR 136

14 Dec

15 miles, 2:06:09, 8:24 pace, HR 139

Weekly Mileage: 57

Alive

I got some tests done on Tuesday at the hospital and will see a specialist next Tuesday once he's had the chance to look at the data. In the meantime I'm still allowed to go running, in fact they very much encouraged me to go running on Wednesday morning wearing their own HRM so that they would be able to see what's happening to my heart under those conditions.

After feeling pretty damn awful on Friday morning I seem to have mostly recovered but I don't know if that very slight discomfort in my chest is a figment of my overworked imagination or real, and if it's real if it's significant.

I went out for a very, very easy 5 mile run on Monday morning, did not run on Tuesday because I knew I would be on a treadmill doing a stress test just a couple of hours later in the hospital and did another easy run on Wednesday, this time wearing both the HRM from the hospital (with awkward cables sticking out) as well as my own HR strap.

Apparently I broke their record for the longest time on the stress test treadmill, but since they asked me to stop BEFORE I was going all-out I'd guess they just never had a runner on that thing, so that's not much to boast about,

Assuming that I get to go running properly again I will fall back to a Maffetone-style program. I wrote yet another quick app for the Suunto to give me a HR alarm (btw, any other GPS watch I've ever seen has this built into it from the start - the lack of such basic features is definitely the Ambit's biggest drawback) which I tested out this morning and which seems to work very well. I fully intend to stick with this protocol for several weeks. It's definitely not the most exciting form of training. In fact, I unsuccessfully tried to talk myself out of it but lost the argument with my more logical self because I know that it can achieve spectacular results for long endurance athletes of the very patient kind.

I've been feeling a little bit better every day since Friday and 5 days later I'm pretty much back to normal, assuming that the HR monitor that's still attached to me hasn't picked up anything abnormal. Since they never told me to stop running I'll keep doing just that; probably a bit paranoid at the beginning but hopefully a little bit more confident every time.

One lesson I learned is having your heart acting up is pretty scary.

8 Dec

5 miles, 42:07, 8:25 pace, HR 130

9 Dec

Stress test on treadmill (Bruce protocol, I think) for 19:10

10 Dec

5 miles, 40:48, 8:10 pace, HR 134

Scary

I was really happy with the results from Wednesday's evaluation and was still determined to take it rather easy in training. So when I got up on Thursday morning I expected yet another easy, slow, mundane 10 mile run like I have done hundreds of times before.

I started at a very easy effort, as always, gradually warmed up over the first mile or two and by mile 3 I was well within my stride and just gliding along when all of a sudden my chest started feeling restricted and breathing became laborious. It felt like I had something heavy sitting right in the centre of my chest and I thought that it felt like a mild asthma attack. Lola has just been sick for 2-3 weeks with a virus infection that had kept her coughing and feeling weak and I was fairly sure I was fighting off the same bug. I kept on running; I might have felt a bit uncomfortable but nothing major. Right at the end I tested how my breathing would react if I upped the pace; the answer was, it almost knocked me out.

Still, I didn't think too much of it until I uploaded my run onto the computer and had a look at the HR graph. That's when I almost fell off my chair with shock.

The spike at mile 3 is the most shocking thing but the flat line afterwards is just as unusual. I ran over several hills and the HR should have had a few ups and downs, just like you can see in the first 3 miles.

I uploaded that image onto facebook to ask some more experienced friends what they thought of it (it only occurred to me afterwards that posting medical stuff on FB isn't the smartest move, probably). A few dismissed it as a malfunctioning HRM, but I knew that was not the case because I know I had felt "something" at mile 3; this was real. The feedback from the ones that took it more seriously was mostly reassuring, but I was worried enough to see my GP straight away. She took a few measurements (my systolic BP was rather high) and gave me a referral letter for a cardiologist, though what really struck me was the rather worried look on her face. She did not tell me to stop running, though.

I did feel like crap for the rest of the day, and in fact thought I was about to faint when driving home (taking deep breaths got that under control), which is obviously highly dangerous and not something to take lightly. The next morning I decided to test how I was and started my usual pre-run preparations. That included gently bouncing up and down for a minute and after that I was so exhausted and felt lightheaded I had to sit down on the kitchen floor to avoid keeling over. Not good. Not good at all. I went to work and hardly made it through our stand-up meeting without collapsing, so went home again and into bed, which is where I should have stayed all along.

I gradually felt better again after lunchtime, and almost back to normal in the evening. I wore my HRM for a while, and my resting HR was at 80 initially but dropped to 50 by the end of the day. I still took another rest day on Saturday but was okay for a long day of music lessons, Christmas shopping and other errands, so on Sunday morning I got out my shoes once more and started running. I was perfectly fine at first, if a bit paranoid and kept checking my HR, which I normally never do. After about 2.5 mile I thought I felt a bit off so turned around. I got home without any incidents. My HR was a bit high but nothing out of the ordinary, and after 2 days of not running it always is a bit elevated, so that's okay.

Chances are you won't get rid of me so easily and I'll be okay. I will take it very easy for a while and forget about training for a World Championship. I still suspect that virus from Lola has something to do with it, but I will have to wait and see until I get my appointment with the cardiologist to get some more professional feedback. I've had some HR spikes before, on an almost annual basis in fact, but nothing for over five years. I read through my blog entries from those happenings and felt rather reassured; they had felt very similar and did not stop me from running or developing into a more serious runner.

4 Dec

10 miles, 1:22:03, 8:12 pace, HR 147

5 Dec

0

6 Dec

0

7 Dec

5 miles, 38:48, 7:45 pace, HR 143

Evaluation Surprise

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All in all, this is going well.

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

1 Dec

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

2 Dec

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

3 Dec

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

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