Like The 63 From Peckham

It’s Sunday afternoon, I'm knackered and I am left in no doubt that, yes, I am training for a marathon. For the first time since starting my training under the coach’s guidance I was doing marathon pace runs, and under MC’s training they are like the London buses I used to take into work, many years ago: you are left waiting forever and then they turn up in pairs.

The storm had stopped blowing around 5 am, to be replaced by the predicted heavy rain. I decided that was fine by me, I prefer rain to wind, even heavy rain.

The instructions for Saturday were clear enough, do whatever you need for warm/up and cool/down and run 7 miles at your present marathon pace, not goal pace, which the coach estimated at 6:57-6:43, basically 6:50 with 7 seconds up or down (6:50 being the estimated present marathon pace). That would be a little bit faster than the evaluations at a HR of about 163-164. Since it was the first one, I could expect it to be tough and I was told not to take too much notice of the numbers.

All that sounded fine and well, but less than half a mile into the supposed MP effort I was left with a dilemma, should I follow the pace or the HR recommendations, because they did not match. I was going a bit faster than 6:20 pace (!!!) with a HR in the high 150s, but it was slightly downhill so I did not take too much notice of the pace. It eventually became clear that I had gone out a bit too hard as the pace did not feel sustainable for 26 miles. I slowed down, only a little bit, which soon started feeling much more comfortable but of course still below the HR the coach had set me. I did not check the HR monitor too often, but every time I looked it seemed to be in the high 150s, only going over 160 on a few climbs. When looking at the chart afterwards I saw that it was a bit higher than I thought. Still, I did the prescribed 7 miles at 6:35 pace, at least 10 seconds per mile faster than would I would have thought of as best-case scenario and with a HR that was lower than the one set by the coach.

But I knew perfectly well that I might have set myself up for a complete disaster on Sunday. That second brief was to start with 10 miles at relaxed pace, 7:30-7:45 (I like that sort of pace being called relaxed, it makes me feel like a half-decent runner), and then 4-5 miles at the same pace as yesterday, with the HR not too much above 167. Considering he does not like to give out numbers, this was a precise as the coach was ever going to be.

The rain wasn’t as heavy as on Saturday but the wind had picked up once more. I decided to run 3 out-and-back loops to Ard-na-Sidhe of 5 miles each. It’s not the most exciting way to get the miles done but it’s my standard route when the wind is too strong. As soon as I set off I knew this would not be easy, yesterday’s fast miles had left their mark. I had my doubts if I would get even close to yesterday’s pace. Despite the sore legs I kept frustrating myself by running too fast, around 7:00 pace, every time I lost concentration. Time and time again I had to put on the brakes and slow down. This only stopped during the second loop when fatigue must have started to creep in. In the end I did the first 10 miles at an average pace of 7:25.

When I passed our driveway for the second time, things got serious and I increased the effort. For three miles, this was tough but do-able. I reckon this was more like the last 5 miles of a marathon than any training I have ever done, and once I passed the 4-mile mark, I was toast. I probably should have left it at that, instead I went on to torture myself for one more mile, almost certainly violating the golden “train, don’t strain” rule, but at the time I wasn’t thinking straight and only thinking about getting this done, no matter what. I averaged a HR of 168 over each of the last 2 miles; if you’re generous you could argue that I did not get “too much above 167”. Looking at the 5 mile segment in one block I ran 6:42 pace with an average HR of 165.

I would have bitten your hand off had you offered me that kind of pace beforehand. Now I’m a bit worried the coach will give me hell for running too hard, but to be honest, I’m feeling rather good about this. Sub-3 in Vienna looks very much achievable all of a sudden.

One thing I forgot to mention is that I woke at 6 am on both mornings and since I had nothing better to do, ate some porridge so that I would have energy for the training runs later on. Normally I run on an empty stomach and it may explain why I ran faster than expected. Maybe.

And if you haven't done so yet, I still highly recommend catching up on the coach's explanation of the evaluation runs, here and here.

5 Feb

10 miles, 1:07:39, 6:46 pace, HR 158
   incl. 7+ miles @ 6:35 pace, HR 162

6 Feb

15 miles, 1:47:37, 7:10 pace, HR 155
   incl. 5 miles @ 6:42 pace, HR 165

Weekly Mileage: 73

Early In The Morning

Just a couple of minutes after setting off I noticed a car slowly approaching from behind. As I'm running on public roads, that’s nothing out of the usual. What surprised me was the car pulling up beside me and the driver greeting me with a friendly “hello Thomas, I thought I might see you out here!”. Michael was out early, too. As nice as it was to see him, I hope he’s ok (he was out looking for the doctor, at 6 o’clock in the morning).

I proceeded with my hill workout. As always, I started with 4x30 seconds strides. The first hill circuit consisted of high knees, which is the toughest of the lot. However, I think I can feel an improvement compared to last week already. I hope it’s not just in my head. The second circuit was thigh drive, for which I had gotten clarification for the coach:

Try to imagine that you are stepping on to a box then straighten the knee and then extending the ankle, much like a whip where the energy starts with the handle and accelerates to the tip, the drive starts with the upper thigh travels through the straightening knee the finishes with a flick of the ankle extending.

As soon as I started doing that, it felt “right”, certainly better than the bounding that I had done before the clarification.

The last workout was downhill strides, which would have been fine, were it not for one tiny detail: it was against the wind, which was blowing at 50 kph with gusts of 70kph. Worse than Wednesday! Actually, it was quite cool to run down a hill that normally is too steep to run down properly and just lean forward, relying on the wind to keep you upright. But as far as the downhill strides were concerned, it probably was not ideal.

Maia caught a cold a few days ago, which once more has caused a few rough nights (except for Niamh who is able to sleep peacefully through her child’s screams), and now Shea has started coughing as well. As always, I’m hoping it will pass me by.

At least the weather is going to change slightly for tomorrow, heavy rain replacing the wind. I’ve got a very tough weekend ahead of me. The training is clearly hotting up now. I’ll let you know.

Update: Several of you have asked about the evaluations. MC has just written 2 posts explaining them in detail here and here. The second post also features a real-life example (yes, you guessed it, me).

3 Feb

8 miles, 1:01:33, 7:42 pace, HR 143

4 Feb

10.5 miles, 1:27:10, 8:18 pace, HR 147
   4x30 sec; high knees; thigh drive; downhill strides

Blowing In The Wind

I was a bit apprehensive before Tuesday’s hill workout because I did not know how much effect Sunday’s long run would have on my legs. There seems to be a pattern emerging, my legs feel fine first thing in the morning and rather trashed in the evening. Every night I go to sleep hoping that a few hours of recovery will give some respite and so far it’s working.

I did 3 hill sessions after the customary 4x30 seconds (where I felt a bit sluggish), namely high knees (very tough again), thigh drive (ok) and ankles (easy). The average pace on these runs is completely meaningless, of course. At one stage during one of the workouts I was moving so slowly up the hill that the pace display on the Garmin went ---. The quads felt trashed as I got home, but I survived.

As the schedule has changed a bit since moving into the transition phase, there was a 3-week gap between the last and today’s evaluation. The coach had warned me in advance not to be disappointed, 10 days into a new phase the body is trying to adapt to the new stresses and the evaluation numbers are bound to suffer a bit.

The weather conditions were by far the bigger problem. The wind kept howling outside all night, which did not help my sleep (neither did Maia getting out of bed at 4:30 and 5:30). Luckily I woke up right on time because the first thing I noticed was that I had forgotten to set the alarm. The second thing I noticed was the wind still going outside and when I left the house I realised it was raining as well. Just lovely.

I made my way to the stretch of road that I had been using for the last few evaluations and started to go back- and forwards 4 times each. Apparently the wind was blowing at 50kph/31mph at times and I’m inclined to believe it. Normally I don’t look at the Garmin when doing the evaluation to keep my concentration entirely on the workout, but curiosity got the better of me and I sneaked a few glances. Going with the wind the pace was close to 6:00, coming back it was slower than 8:00 at times. This must have had an effect on the numbers, I have no doubt, but running is an outdoors sport, what can you do.

Mile 1        7:05 (HR 162)
Mile 2        6:56 (HR 161)
Mile 3        7:02 (HR 161)
Mile 4        7:11 (HR 161)

Time to 130:     39 seconds

Given the conditions I’m not even disappointed with those numbers, but I’m not sure how much information can be gleaned from them. I have no idea how the second and third mile can be faster than the first one, that never happened before.

The weather is going to get even worse over the next few days, I hope the moaners who complained about the cold temperatures are happy now. You got what you asked for.

1 Feb

9.6 miles, 1:23:34, 8:42 pace, HR 142
   4x30 sec; high knees; thigh drive; ankles

2 Feb

11.8 miles, 1:26:00, 7:17 pace, HR 153

Pushing On

I made it through the first week of the Transition phase without injury and with 2 intact, if slightly sore, legs. Doing this for the first time makes it difficult to judge if I’m doing enough, too much or too little, though I trust the coach to help me out if I’m straying too far off the path.

Since keeping your aerobic conditioning intact is absolutely crucial, the weekly long run remains a critical element of training. It was a bit fresh on Sunday morning; every other year I would have called -4C bitterly cold, but after the winter we’ve just had nobody is batting an eyelid at those temperatures. I did not expect to come across as many icy patches as I did, though. The roads we’re driving on are all fine and I did not think the back roads I use for running would be any different, but there were a few hairy bits. At least it confirmed that I had been right to stay away from the loop around the lake during the worst of the cold spell.

The legs were not exactly fresh; the hamstrings especially had plenty of residue from the hill drills in them, but I knew I would manage. In fact, the big climb early on was significantly easier than only two weeks ago. When I’m in reasonable shape I can just switch off at the bottom of the hill and proceed to the top on autopilot, which is exactly what happened. I made a mistake during the second half of the run, though. For some reason I started pushing harder than normal and ran the last 8 miles, over undulating terrain and with a slight net uphill at 7:24 pace, much faster than normal and definitely faster than I should have. It left me with rather sore legs for the rest of the day and I can still feel the effects today, Monday.

I hoped to make up for some of my mistake by taking it especially easy this morning. With the cold spell ending and the warmer air bringing loads of rain and wind it may have been the last run in nice conditions for a while. Once more I undershot the 140 HR, but in this case I’m pretty sure it was warranted. It still did not stop me from having sore quads today but right now I’m still hoping another good night’s sleep will do wonders.

30 Jan

19 miles, 2:26:16, 7:42 pace, HR 148
   last 8 @ 7:24 pace, HR 153

31 Jan

8 miles, 1:03:34, 7:56 pace, HR 138

Weekly Mileage: 73
January Mileage: 341.5

Another Year Older, None The Wiser

Maia might be right, I’m really old. At least I feel it now. There is a picture on my desk, showing me with the twins just a few months old. I look about 18 in that photo. People always used to comment on my youthful appearance. Right when that picture was taken, those comments stopped; looking after baby twins ages you 10 years in 6 months. I never managed to get younger again and I found myself celebrating my 41st birthday on Thursday.

I celebrated this by going out for an easy 10 mile run in the morning. I was jogging along slowly, or so I thought, and was mightily surprised when I saw the average pace in the high 7:30s at the end. I point to the low heart rate to attest that I had kept the effort on the easy side, though.

Inseparable from old age are your constant aches and pains, and par for the course my right shin was quite sore in the evening. I was a bit alarmed because shin splints are just about the last thing I want to experience again, but I treated this niggle the same way I treat all the others: I completely ignored it. It still hurt on Friday morning, but after the first mile it was gone and has not come back since; my treatment must have been successful.

I was back on the hills again on Friday and after Thursday’s relative rest day I added one extra drill. The 4x30 second drills were followed by a set of high knees up a steep road. I can only do about 40 seconds of those at a time before my legs give up, so I jogged down the hill and did another one and a third one for a total of about 2 minutes. For the next drill I selected pushing off using just the ankles, which again felt easy, even after 4 minutes. I have done some gentle bouncing for one minute in the morning before each run for several weeks and my guess is that this has already strengthened my ankles sufficiently for this exercise to feel easy. Either that or I’m doing it wrong. The final drill consisted of driving the thighs again - this is the one drill I’m the least sure about. Unfortunately the coach is not here to show me.

The schedule changes for this phase mean that Saturday is another day for the hills. My legs were sore to start with and I decided to cut back to only two drills. I reasoned that since the high knees feel the worst, I should do more of them as I obviously need it. On the other hand I must be careful not to overdo it - I do not want to get injured and I do not want to dig myself too deep into the hole of fatigue. Anyway, after the customary set of 4x30 sec I did another set of high knees, again 3x40 seconds each, and then I slowly went to the top of that hill, did a few more minutes of easy running and followed it up with just under half a mile of downhill strides. All these drills were separated by about 15 minutes of easy running, as always.

Twice today on the warm-up as well as the cool-down I caught myself running 7:15 pace when I should have gone much slower. I really need to concentrate on running slowly or else the legs will just do their own thing.

I measured a lower heart rate of 41 this morning. That’s not exactly amazingly low but still the lowest reading for a couple of months. I’m wondering if theses drills are already producing a sharpening effect. Then again, it might be nothing.

27 Jan

10 miles, 1:16:07, 7:37 pace, HR 143

28 Jan

10 miles, 1:27:12, 8:43 pace, HR 142
   4x30 sec; high knees; ankles; thigh drive

29 Jan

9.15 miles, 1:11:06. 7:47 pace, HR 147
   4x30 secs; high knees; downhill strides

Run To The Hills

And to think I was looking forward to that ...

After weeks and weeks of base training that consisted of mainly running well within myself at all times, the next phase is not yet intended to do all the hard work needed to reach peak fitness, but to get me ready to do so. Mystery Coach has explained the concept in great detail in Mike’s old blog and if you’re interested in the training I strongly suggest you go and have a look.

The very first thing I noticed on Tuesday morning as soon as I left the house was the significantly increased temperatures, they had gone up from 1C on Monday to 8C today. I felt seriously overdressed in my long sleeves and tights but did not fancy going back and change. The first “workout” after 15 minutes of warm-up were a set of 4x30 seconds strides with 2 minutes recovery in-between, where I concentrated to run as fast as I could while still being relaxed and in full control. After 15 further easy minutes I was at the base of the hill that I have used for hill repeats many times before. A few seconds later I came across a curtain of dark, which turned out to be a fallen tree across the entire road, probably from the storm that had blown over 2 weeks ago. I scrambled beneath the trunk and then did about 2 minutes of a hill drill, namely using just the ankles to push myself off the ground. This felt remarkably easy, too easy, so I decided to use the ankle action to push myself higher into the air, springing up the hill very slowly. As I was told not to overdo it I left it at that, worked my way back down past two trees that were blocking half the road and underneath the one that had fallen entirely across it.

I figured that crawling underneath a fallen tree in the darkness was not without its dangers and decided to use a different hill for the next drill, half a mile further down the road past Ard-na-Sidhe, leading steeply up to the Devil’s Elbow. The drawback of that second hill, apart from being further away from home, was its asphalt surface but it’s the best I could think of. My third drill, after another 15 minutes of easy running, were high knee lifts going up the very steep road. This was a much tougher exercise as I tried (but mostly failed) to get the knees all the way up to waist level. I did about a minute of that until I reached a flatter piece of road for a bit of recovery and followed it up with about 40 seconds of more high knees. That was enough.

Wednesday morning went similar, but at least I was in shorts and t-shirt. Again the work consisted of 3 different drills separated by about 15 minutes of easy running. The first drill was the same as yesterday, 4x30 seconds. The second one was striding out on a gradual half-mile downhill section, taking longish strides working on pulling the legs through and stretching them out behind me. This felt tougher than anticipated and with the warning in my ear to be careful with that exercise due to its stresses on the legs I pulled out a little bit earlier than planned. The third exercise was uphill again, driving with the thighs, but looking back at the instructions now I think I got that wrong because I turned it more into a bounding exercise when the brief was to initiate the drive from the quads while going up slowly.

Anyway, I can feel the effort in my legs, and that’s after doing only the minimum number of sessions. Tomorrow is a recovery day before 2 further days of drills. Actually it was not too bad, the fact that each exercise was different kept things interesting; in the past when trying to make sense of the Lydiard hill drills I usually did e.g. 4 repeats of bounding in one single session and eventually ended up hating it. I think I will be better able to cope with the coach’s way of doing things.

25 Jan

8.75 miles, 1:12:49 8:19 pace, HR 147
   4x30sec, ankles, high knee

26 Jan

9 miles, 1:10:20, 7:49 pace, HR 148
  4x30sec, downhill strides, driving thighs

Transition

You might not know that, but Niamh is as obsessed about baking as I am about running. She produces mountains of the stuff and it is all just ridiculously tasty. If I ever stop burning 10000 calories per week on the road I’ll turn into Jabba the Hut in no time whatsoever. Anyway, on Friday evening our (overworked) oven gave up and died. Niamh is still in shock and she keeps telling me it’s the equivalent of someone throwing out all my shoes. I don’t know how long it will take to get fixed, but probably not long enough to make a difference to my weight, which seems to be stuck at 150 pounds (10 stone 10, 68 kg).

I got up reasonably early on Saturday and after spending some time with Shea and Maia managed to sneak out for my long run. The fog was so thick you could have cut it with a knife, but climbing 500 feet on the first hill brought the reward on an absolutely magical scene. The valley to my left was completely hidden in fog, the sky was entirely clear with not a single cloud, just one lonely vapour trail. The Moon was hovering above the horizon, which itself was covered in pink, about 45 minutes before sunrise. Immensely beautiful and pretty much indescribable! It helped that climbing the hill already felt easier than last week, despite the fact that the hamstrings exhibited some leftover fatigue from yesterday’s run. The fog eventually lifted and I was running in glorious sunshine along the lake, until about 2 miles from home when I turned a corner and all of a sudden was right back in the thick fog.

Recovery consisted of 2 hours in the Kerry County Museum. I don’t think there are too many 9-year olds who beg to be brought to the museum, but Lola is one of them and the others did not complain, so that was our afternoon’s entertainment sorted.

I ended the week and base training with a short 8-mile run on Sunday that was supposed to be very easy, but I did raise an eyebrow when I got back and saw the 7:35 average pave on the Garmin. I never checked it during the run and thought I was doing about 8:00 pace. I’ll learn some day, I'm sure.

Maia has turned into an early riser all of a sudden, much to the disgust of her mother who does not particularly appreciate being woken at 6 o’clock in the morning. Preparing first breakfast and then a DVD for the miniature tyrant meant a shortened run for Daddy but thankfully a quiet Monday morning after all for Mummy. Hence the first run of the Transition Phase was nothing but a short, slow 7-mile run on the Caragh Lake Road. The first workout will be tomorrow; I still have to take it easy and gradually work my way up. The efforts will basically consist of short repetitions, usually involving a hill, done every 15 minutes during a medium distance run of 8-12 miles. I’ll let you know how it goes, of course.

22 Jan

18+ miles, 2:20:33, 7:48 pace, HR 146

23 Jan

8 miles, 1:00:43, 7:35 pace, HR 145

24 Jan

7 miles, 55:19, 7:54 pace, HR 139

Weekly Mileage: 74+

No Offense Intended

There is one thing I did not mention about Tuesday’s school evening, though it was very much on my mind. Niamh noticed it as well, and that’s when I realised just how big a deal it is: the number of overweight children is just staggering. All of the children on stage were between 6 and 12 years old and thinking back to my own school years, there were maybe one or two overweight kids in my class, and none of them would have been what I call obese. How things have changed! My own impression was that the majority of heavy kids were girls, but I'm not sure if that’s generally the case. I found it pretty shocking, especially as this was a school in rural Kerry where outdoor pursuits and sport are still valued highly. If we could get those children to exercise more it would make such a difference to their lives. Instead the politicians are talking about getting rid of PE altogether.

Anyway, my own training is continuing nicely. Another nice and easy run on Thursday once more got close to 7:30 pace. I’m getting used to this. Today I did another “Fast Friday” but with the preliminary speed phase just around the corner I was very careful not to overdo it. As a result I ran it at a slightly lower average HR than last week; in fact, most of the time I did not even get out of the 140s. Despite that constraint it was still faster than last week. For a while the average pace was a tad faster than 7:00, only to drop back on a couple of uphill miles after the halfway point. I was tempted to put in a stronger effort over the last 2 miles to get back under 7:00 again but thought the better of it to avoid the wrath of The Coach. At all times I was relaxed and comfortable and felt like I could have run at that effort for much, much longer.

The weather is cold and clear at the moment, with temperatures a little below freezing point in the morning and lovely and sunny during the day. I love it. Maybe I get reminded of the Alpine winters of my youth, sans the skiing of course. It did cross my mind that the faster running pace might be related to the lower outside temperatures because the last time I ran that fast was back in November when we had equally cold mornings, but that may well be complete coincidence.

Right now I'm looking forward to being allowed to run fast again a bit more often, but I have the sneaking suspicion that I may come to regret these words.

20 Jan

8+ miles, 1:01:08, 7:36 pace, HR 144

21 Jan

10 miles, 1:10:25, 7:03 pace, HR 151

Aerobic Endurance

For most of my base training phase I have been feeling very, very good. Even though my fitness clearly improved it felt like I was not really training. On every run (ok, almost every run) I was running well within myself and day-to-day recovery was never in question. This disappeared over Christmas when I managed to overdo it over one weekend; it took several days to shake off the worst of the fatigue, but the feeling of effortlessly gliding over the pavement did not return.

Until a few days ago. All of a sudden I’m back and I'm loving it. The coach told me last week to relax a bit; I followed his advice and all of a sudden the legs are floating again. The effort level is as low as before but the easy pace is knocking at 7:30 again. It was there at the end of November, but that was due to a sharpening effect after the Killarney race series. By now I have not been racing for over 8 weeks, any sharpening should long have gone and I’m left with just me aerobic conditioning. I skipped a lot of races in the mean time and racing would have been fun, but with my eyes firmly set on an April marathon, it sure feels like a sacrifice worth doing.

It suddenly got cold again, but nowhere near as cold as in December. The temperature is close to freezing point in the morning, cold enough to dig out the long sleeved shirts once more. On Monday morning the legs were still suffering a bit from Sunday’s long hills, so I kept the effort very, very easy and was really surprised to see me averaging well below 8-minute pace anyway. I'm supposed to keep the HR between 140 and 155 beats, so an average of 137 is actually too easy but I’m pretty sure the coach prefers me to undershoot the target by 3 beats rather than overshoot it by even one.

Still, I pushed a little bit more on Tuesday and was once more genuinely surprised by the pace, in the 7:30s on average. I'm definitely not used to that being my easy pace. The moon was still out as I left home which made for my favourite conditions, cold and clear and no need for an artificial light source. Just perfect.

Since the boys’ school had closed a week early before Christmas due to the severe weather, their Christmas play had been postponed, but I did not escape for long. Niamh claims to be looking forward to that each year; personally I cling to the hope that the evening will be over before I lose the will to live (and if that makes me a bad parent, so be it). In the end it was the uncomfortable seat that provided the biggest problem, being squished into a chair designed for a primary school kid for several hours is just not my thing, but I do wonder how some others with higher BMI than me coped. Anyway, the plays were actually funny at times, the standard of acting, while uneven, wasn’t too bad and I survived after all. The boys did just fine and stage fright is not something they suffer from.

I even felt inspired enough to run past the same school building this morning, doing a loop through Cromane. The stormy weather on Saturday managed to produce an astounding array of entirely new potholes that I’m not familiar with, none of which I could not see in the morning. There was one I must have hit twice, on the way out as well as the way back, but I managed not to twist my ankle and I'm gradually learning to slalom around them even in the dark. I reckon I could run most of my routes with my eyes closed by now.

17 Jan

8 miles, 1:03:10, 7:54 pace, HR 137

18 Jan

10 miles, 1:16:03, 7:36 pace, HR 142

19 Jan

12+ miles, 1:30:55, 7:33 pace, HR 145

Taking It Easy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

14 Jan

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

15 Jan

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

16 Jan

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

Weekly Mileage: 73+

Shanghaied

Someone in the office got the idea to get a group of us running the Cork marathon as a fundraiser for Cancer Research, in honour of a colleague that passed away last year. It's a great idea, but when XX asked me to run I tried to explain that it's only 7 weeks after my Vienna marathon. She cut me off, pointing out that YY is going to do 3 triathlons in 4 weeks in June. I tried to get a word in, pointing out that 3 sprint triathlons still only amounted to 15k of running, but didn't get very far. Normally that sort of thing would not bother me, I am perfectly aware that the majority of people can not tell the difference between a 2 hour sprint triathlon and a 3 hour marathon, and would not give two hoots anyway. But she must have caught me on a bad day and I was really pissed off. After 75 minutes of battling wind and rain during my run and 20 more minutes of the same conditions cycling into work, the last thing I needed was someone giving me grief for not running enough marathons.

It's a good cause and in memory of a colleague and I might try to snag one of the pacer slots which I could still run for charity, I presume. Next time I'd really prefer to be asked nicely, though.

I just chucked out a pair of runners after close to 700 miles. The wear pattern was quite interesting, I thought, and I've noticed this on the last few pairs as well. On the right shoe the pattern on the back of the shoe's sole is still in good condition, considering the mileage. But on the left it is worn down completely and the difference is a few millimetres. I must have an asymmetric gait. This is a fairly new development, until about a year ago both of my shoes always wore most at the heel. Did I really switch to land more on the forefoot, not deliberately, and only on one foot? I also just realised that all of my recent injuries were on my right leg, but that may well be just coincidence.

12 Jan

9.25 miles, 1:13:43, 7:58 pace, HR 139

13 Jan

11 miles, 1:26:26, 7:51 pace, HR 142

Evaluating Recovery

From what I’ve gathered so far, base training is all about recovery and ensuring that you get enough of it. Accordingly I made doubly sure to run very easily on Monday. The rather demanding set of runs over the weekend had left some soreness behind and the legs felt rather heavy at first. My mood was not exactly helped by the fact that it was raining as I left home. I almost wished for the ice to come back instead, but sadly the weather is not up to me. What is up to me, though, is the effort of my run and this time I produced the lowest HR of my training cycle yet. I’m actually supposed to keep the HR between 140 and 155, with far more time spent at the lower end, and this time I undershot the band by a good bit. Never mind, I felt the legs would thank me for it at Tuesday’s evaluation.

Before it came to that, there was another problem to be tackled. When first Cian and then Niamh got a nasty stomach bug we kept saying it would be ok as long as Maia did not contract it. Those hopes were dashed on Monday evening when she started to throw up. To make matter worse, Niamh was in Killarney for the evening and I had to clean up the mess and console the girl on my own, as was well as keeping an eye on the rest of the brood. Luckily she is a very resilient little girl and between her spells of throwing up violently she was remarkably cheerful. By the time Niamh was home, the worst was actually over. We braced ourselves for a tough night, but she slept through – until 4:30 that is, from when on she demanded to be entertained, but hey, that's better than the state she had been in 10 hours earlier. Shortly after 6 o’clock I managed to get out of the house, her big sister taking over the entertainment duties (they both fell asleep again soon anyway).

Finally out of the door and free of worries for the little one, I embarked on yet another evaluation workout. During the warm-up I was quite confident that this would go well, as I was jogging along easily at about 7:40 pace with a HR in the mid 130s, something I had not seen in a while. After close to 4 miles I started the evaluation proper. It took a while to get into the rhythm, I seemed to have to work harder than usual to get the HR up to 161 and I needed the Garmin’s alarm more than usual to stay at the target HR. When I felt like running uphill towards the end of the third mile, even though I knew the road was flat, I realised that I was getting tired, but at that stage I also noticed the wind for the first time. If it had just picked up or if I was just getting overly sensitive, I’m not sure.

Mile 1        6:44 (HR 161)
Mile 2        6:47 (HR 161)
Mile 3        6:49 (HR 162)
Mile 4        6:52 (HR 162)

Time to 130:     39

Once I finished the evaluation I came to a complete stop and was surprised that it took 39 seconds for the HR to come back down to 130. It seemed to take an age to get to 150, but once it finally started dropping I came down reasonably quickly. The overall pace compares favourably to previous evaluations but kept fading a bit more that I'd like to see, really. I guess the slower last mile together with the long recovery afterwards is a sign that I have not recovered from the weekend yet. Maybe I should have waited a few days with the evaluation, but what’s done is done.

10 Jan

8 miles, 1:04:19, 8:02 pace, HR 136

11 Jan

11.75 miles, 1:26:47, 7:23 pace, HR 151
incl. 4 miles evaluation:
    6:44, 6:47, 6:49, 6:52; 39 seconds to HR 130

Base Training

Back in October, at the start of training, the coach sent me an email containing a slightly cryptic message:

“This is good: 10 at 7:13 pace, 20 at 7:54 pace, 15 at 7:54 pace. It shows you recover and increased work capacity which will be needed in the peaking phase.”

I couldn't quite figure out what he meant at the time, but just got on with my training. The weekend runs are quite demanding and for various reasons there was always a reason why one run had to be curtailed or another ended up slower than planned. It's only recently that I have reached a level of consistency that I am happy with and the plan for Friday/Saturday/Sunday was 10 miles at faster effort (with a max HR of 155, I used the Garmin's HR alarm feature), then 20 and 15 at easy pace.

Friday's basic temperature was right around freezing point, just like the previous mornings, but a strong and biting cold wind added a significant windchill to the conditions. I felt fairly cold, even with the long sleeves, especially when it started raining on two separate occasions. Anyway, after a slightly slower first mile I got into the effort. While faster than the other days it was still very manageable, slower than marathon effort, I like to think. I settled into an effort slightly below the allowed max, in the low 150s, but I noticed that the pace increased only by a miniscule amount when I tried to push a bit harder, so I eventually left it at that. Usually the first half of these runs is a bit faster as I tend to slow down on the return leg as fatigue and a few gentle climbs take their toll, but this time the wind had me slower during the early miles but pushed me along on the way home and I ended up with an average pace of 7:06, a bit slower than a fortnight ago, but with the knowledge that I had left enough in the tank for the next two days.

Three days after Cian's very rough night, it was Niamh's turn. She must have run half a marathon between bed and the toilet bowl, and eventually I retreated from the scene, trying to get a few hours of sleep in Shea's room, which didn't entirely work either but I'm sure Niamh's second part of the night was still a lot worse than mine. I subsequently felt rather guilty as I closed the door behind me at the beginning of Saturday's run. I usually scoff at people who call running a selfish pursuit. It is a stupid thing to say, solitary does not equate selfish, but on this occasion I admit it, leaving Niamh behind with 4 children was a selfish thing to do; I really wanted to get my run in and was prepared to put my own needs first.

Anyway, selfish pursuit or not, I was soon absorbed in the effort. The next cold snap had arrived, there was snow in the fields and ice on the road and I had to be really careful, there were some seriously icy stretches and I decided that the Caragh Lake loop was out and the road to Killorglin the only sensible option. It was still borderline (read: I should not have run, really). I did three loops of the Killorglin/Rangue road, 5 miles each, and during the second loop the sun finally rose and conditions improved markedly, apart from one or two shady spots but by the third loop I had figured out the best line through the ice. Very much unlike the previous 20-mile run on St. Stephen's Day, I felt very good throughout and was still in fine form when I got home to find a surprisingly peaceful home; the children were all playing nicely with each other and Niamh was getting her much-needed rest after all. The rest of the day was a bit hectic, having to take on Niamh's duties in addition to my own, but I was glad to be able to make up for my earlier absence. Cian even had the cheek to say that Mummy should be sick more often, it's fun to be around Daddy all day.

I was a bit worried about the third part of the weekend program. Two weeks ago the first two days had gone well but the third knocked me out for the rest of the week and I did not fancy a repeat. The quads felt a bit heavy as soon as I got up, but at least Niamh felt much, much better again after sleeping significant amounts of the previous 24 hours, avoiding another guilt trip. It had been raining overnight and subsequently the road was covered in black ice, very dodgy, keeping me away from the Caragh Lake hills once more, or maybe that's just an excuse. I ran the Cromane Loop instead, adding a few miles at the end to make up 15 miles. During the first half I caught myself again and again running far too fast, doing close to 7:00 pace at times but each time I slowed down I soon found myself speeding up again as soon as the mind started wandering. This only stopped when I started getting tired during the last few miles. After countless miles on icy surfaces over the last few weeks today I finally slipped and fell as I was going through a junction turning right. I did bang my right knee, the dodgy one and it was a bit painful over the next few miles but I don't think there was any harm done. The right calf felt a bit tight at times and the quads finally became heavy during the final miles but all in all this went very well.

As mentioned earlier on, the coach's prediction months ago had been 10 @ 7:13, 20 @ 7:54, 15 @ 7:54, and keep in mind that these are training paces, to be run without straining yourself and ensuring good recovery from day to day. Just as I am nearing the end of the base training phase I feel I have finally reached this level.

7 Jan

10 miles, 1:11:03, 7:06 pace, HR 152

8 Jan

20 miles, 2:38:26, 7:55 pace, HR 145

9 Jan

15+ miles, 1:57:17, 7:47 pace, HR 143

Weekly Mileage: 86

A Night To Remember

The first sign of trouble was at 00:30 when Cian threw up for the first time and Niamh and me spent the next 30 minutes cleaning up the mess (me, mostly) and consoling the poor child (Niamh, mostly). These things happen, but the main problem was that they happened again, namely at 2:30 and again at 4 o'clock and once more at 5 o’clock, with the one difference that Niamh slept through all the other incidents and it was left to me to handle them. When the alarm went at 6 I used the snooze button for the first time in a very, very long time as I could not even open my eyes. I managed to get up at the second call, but another throwing-up episode meant that by the time I made it out of the house the midweek longish run was curtailed to 10 miles. It’s all part of parenting, I suppose.

The main thing is that Cian has recovered and nobody else was afflicted, unless there is a delayed reaction yet to come. It meant that I ran virtually the same distance over the same course three times in a row, something I usually try to avoid but then again it’s one way of being consistent, I suppose. I have been feeling much better this week but I keep making doubly sure to run easily and stay ahead of the recovery curve. I’m probably overcautious, but that’s a lot better than erring the other way.

I made some use of the Sales in Dublin to purchase a new pair of trousers and had serious trouble finding a pair that actually fits. I know I'm slimmer than your average person but I'm not exactly anorexic and I’ve never had quite such a hard time before. Niamh could not resist calling me too thin, but that’s pure jealousy, obviously. Eventually I managed to track down the only decent looking pair of trousers with a 30 inch waist and 32 inch length. It may well be true that the average person keeps getting fatter and fatter and the shops are merely following demand.

It was markedly colder this morning and there is snowfall predicted for the next few days in the South and West (or so I'm told. for some reason I had troubles concentrating on the weather during the forecast). People have started moaning already; is it really too much to ask for the complaining to wait until the conditions you are complaining about are actually here? Anyway, it’s not going to be anywhere near as cold as during December and the temperatures are predicted to climb again after the weekend, together with heavy rainfall. Now THAT is something I’d find worthy of moaning about!

4 Jan

10 miles, 1:19:31, 7:57 pace, HR 139

5 Jan

10+ miles, 1:18:20, 7:48 pace, HR 145

6 Jan

10 miles, 1:19:41, 7:58 pace, HR 140

A New Beginning

There is no need for New Year's resolutions, I am perfectly happy with how my life is going, so all I'm trying to do is more of the same. I just about made it through midnight on New Year's Eve – it was way past my usual bedtime but I managed to keep awake long enough. Trouble is, when I finally made it to bed I was unable to fall asleep. It was a very tired Thomas who got up on New Year's Day after barely 5 hours of sleep, but in marked contrast to the majority of the western world at least I did not have a hangover.

After not being overly fond of the available running options I decided to try something different and headed towards the Dublin Mountains. I had a quick look on Google how to get there from Stillorgan but no real idea what I was heading for. When the climbing started I kept going up and up, eventually topping out at just over 1100 feet. I had a vague idea of where I was when I eventually passed Johnny Fox's, one of the three pubs in Ireland claiming to be the highest one. Btw, how on Earth can there be a dispute? It's not exactly difficult to establish the elevation of each point. For the record, my Garmin had Johnny Fox's at 930 feet elevation. Anyway, while it must have been heaving a few hours earlier, the place was dead quiet and I carried on for another 2 miles towards Glencree before turning around. I did wonder if I could go on and circle the mountain rather than do an out-and-back, but without a map that wasn't really a good idea – I can leave that for next time. The miles home just flew by, obviously helped by the fact that there were almost 1000 feet of downhill and for once I did not wilt on the second half of a run. I was back in Stillorgan after just over 17 miles. Ideally I would have added at least one or two more, but I was already late for a family function and any further delays would have had me in serious trouble with Niamh.

This was the most fun I've had during a run in Dublin ever and I was tempted to head back into the mountains again on Sunday but decided against it to protect my quads. I had been feeling well throughout an entire run for almost the first time in a week and I did not want to destroy that feeling again by overzealously gobbling up vertical gains. Accordingly I opted for a much easier course, namely several loops of Deer Park near UCD. I've heard it said that one lap around the perimeter of the park is exactly once mile and my Garmin had that almost right, 6 loops were 5.90 miles. Getting there and back via a scenic route added some extra miles for just over 10, leaving me at 76 for the week. That's a bit less than during previous weeks, but I needed to step back a bit, I was clearly in danger of digging myself deeper and deeper into a hole.

The real discovery, though, was that running slowly made all the difference between feeling dead on my feet after a few miles and being able to get through 10 miles perfectly fine. The previous 2 days had seen the slowest runs in weeks, but unlike the others I was not wearing myself out.

I hope I did not undo the good work this morning by running a bit faster again, but I think it was just the revitalised legs that had an extra spring in their step, the HR was just as low. I did Deer Park again, 6 loops were 5.97 miles today, which tells you a bit about the accuracy of the Garmin. I added a seventh loop, just because I was feeling so good and running finally was fun again.

Then we hopped into the car and drove back home to Kerry. The journey has gotten much easier now the motorway between Dublin and Limerick is finally complete (they took HOW many years to build the damn thing? Oh, never mind), and in Adare almost literally ran into him and him (how impressive is that for celebrity spotting?); it doesn't take much imagination to work out that they were staying in the exceedingly swanky Adare Manor, but I do wonder if the rest of the Fellowship is there as well. However, the two of them scampered pretty damn quickly when they saw me looking at them. I guess that's what Hobbits do when humans are around.

1 Jan

17+ miles, 2:20:41, 8:11 pace, HR 141

2 Jan

10+ miles, 1:21:28, 7:59 pace, HR 139

3 Jan

11 miles, 1:25:32, 7:46 pace, HR 141

Weekly Mileage: 76

The End Of The Year

I know there are more runners in Dublin than in Kerry, but I fail to understand how this is possible. Dealing with all the traffic, red lights and walkers/dogs/cyclists on the paths makes this a much less relaxing experience than a run around the mostly deserted roads of Caragh Lake. I can easily tolerate this for a few days, but I'm always looking forward to being back on my usual haunts.

There are good points here as well, of course, the existence of dedicated running clubs being one of them, but that's no use to me on my infrequent stays. The existence of a dirt track 4 miles from the in-laws house is another, unexpected, plus.

After a run on Thursday that went like most others in recent days – felt good during the first half, lousy during the second – I started to get rather worried about my recent state of fatigue. On the other hand, I did entertain the possibility of the problem being in my mind. An evaluation workout would hopefully bring some answers.

On the coach's advice I had postponed the evaluation on Tuesday and continued to run easily until the legs felt better. Today (Friday) I ran the first 4 miles with an average HR of 140 at a pace of 7:40, a much better set of numbers than on previous days, and this would do as my warm-up. For the evaluation itself I did 16 laps on the Kilbogget Park dirt track, though I used the Garmin to display distance rather than counting laps. The track is perfectly usable for a training run, even though it's ever so slightly disconcerting to see the surface covered in tyre marks and a few other signs of, er, misuse of the facilities, but at my time of 9 o'clock in the morning it's a good bet that the miscreants are all in bed. Running 16 laps takes a bit of getting used to, but after a while I managed to tune into The Zone and just ran at the correct effort level, the Garmin's HR alarm hardly ever being needed.

The figures for today’s evaluation were:

Mile 1        6:50 (HR 161)
Mile 2        6:54 (HR 161)
Mile 3        7:00 (HR 161)
Mile 4        6:58 (HR 161)

Time to 130     33

The pace is a smidgen slower than last time but faster than expected. I could not hold the pace quite as well as last time but it's still better than any evaluation before December. And the recovery time to 130 was the fastest ever, which I found really surprising. I have no real idea what that means as regards to my present state of fitness; that's where the coach and his knowledge comes in. All in all, the evaluation had gone much better than feared after feeling like crap for a week, ending the year on good terms. I've got high hopes for 2011.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

30 Dec

10.1 miles, 1:18:45, 7:48 pace, HR 144

31 Dec

12.55 miles, 1:35:45, 7:37 pace, HR 148
incl. 4 miles evaluation:
    6:50, 6:54, 7:00, 6:58; 33 seconds to HR 130

That Was 2010

This was supposed to be a post about my latest evaluation run, but that had to be postponed. Sunday's 20 miler was one of the toughest training runs I've done and left me severely exhausted (though I'm mostly blaming Saturday's run); when I inquired what to do the coach told me to run easily until the legs feel better, and that's exactly what I've done since. I left for 10 miles on Monday but cut it down to 8 after the legs felt really tired. I followed that with 10 on Tuesday but was knackered after 7 – though since I was already on my way back home there was nothing I could do but run home. I initially thought I felt better at the start of today's run, but after 4 miles into a strong headwind felt tired enough to turn around early once more and cut it down to 8 again. Funnily enough, the return leg felt much easier with the blustery wind now on my back, but I decided not to re-extend it. The last thing I want is to dig myself into a hole of exhaustion, and erring on the side of caution is definitely preferable. Later on we all jumped into the car and drove to Dublin to spend New Year with Niamh's family. I have started to wonder if the recent feelings of fatigue are just in my head. Maybe a change in scenery will do me good.

Since the year is almost at an end, I might as well do a review, and quickly look forward to 2011.

Miles so far: 2918, with about 20 still to come. That's actually the lowest mileage in a long time. I reduced my overall mileage when training for the ultras, otherwise the long weekend runs would have killed me. I'd try a different approach next time, to be honest.

Highlight: Running 5:15 in Connemara. It had taken me 3 tries to get that race right and it felt all the better for finally achieving what I felt was a very good time.

Single Best Moment: Crossing the finish line of the Dingle 50 mile Ultra. The euphoria of that moment cannot be surpassed. Better than sex. Better than drugs.

Lowlight: Getting injured twice in the last few months, first the Achilles, then the knee. I always prided myself in my very low injury rate for a marathon runner. Taking days off was a blow.

I'd set 4 goals for 2010: The major ones were a new PB in Connemara and finishing Dingle. Both were a complete success. The two minor goals were a new PB at one of the shorter distances and writing shorter blog entries. I failed in the PB task, but came reasonably close, missing my 5k time by only 7 seconds twice. Ewen will undoubtedly tell you that the blog posts one was an utter disaster.

I also did 2 triathlons, which were great fun, but they reinforced the fact that I'm a runner, not a multi-sport athlete. I still would love to do an Ironman one day, but I would have to figure out a way on how to do the swim training. Driving more than one hour from and to Killarney for each swim day is just not on.

I'm more than happy with how the year has gone and I really think it was a good idea to step back from the marathon and concentrate on Ultras. Now I have gotten them out of my system for the time being and will have one more go at the marathon.

I have only one goal for 2011, and that is to break 3 hours. No other goals, no detractions, no excuses.

27 Dec

8 miles, 1:03:05, 7:53 pace, HR 141

28 Dec

10 miles, 1:18:40, 7:52 pace, HR 146

29 Dec

8 miles, 1:02:06, 7:45 pace, HR 147

Christmas

I used to hate Christmas, from the awful songs on the radio to the enforced happiness all around, but since the children have become old enough to enjoy it I have come round and the sight of children's eyes glowing in delight is worth the baggage. The kids must have been really good this year. When I saw the heaps of presents I remarked to Niamh that something must have gone wrong somewhere. Santa clearly was overly generous.

Obviously I was not able to go running early in the morning – family comes first and I would not have missed the opening of the presents for anything. The plan would have seen me running 20 miles but I simply did not have time for that, so I swapped Saturday and Sunday around. I know that 15/20 is not the same as 20/15, but sometimes Real Life just happens to interfere.

I left just after 10 o'clock and since I figured that the main road would be much busier than at 6 o'clock on my previous runs I decided to take my chances on the Caragh Lake road. My hopes that the recent sunshine would have softened the ice covering the road were dashed. It was about -10C, and ice does not soften in these temperatures. I managed to get into Killorglin without a fall but decided to stick to the main road after that and hope the traffic would not be too bad. I did 2 more miles towards Milltown before turning around. The Glenbeigh road was much busier than I would have hoped. Several cars were hooting as they went past. If that meant “hello Thomas, nice to see you” or “get off the road you moron” I could never tell. While running was definitely possible and I did not think the traffic was dangerous, I just could never relax and eventually I got fed up with it and took a shortcut home, cutting the run down by a mile.

Our outside water pipe froze that morning, leaving us with no water bar the water tank in the attic and we knew that would not last long. But we also knew that the thaw was predicted to come overnight; I reckoned we would easily manage until then, Niamh said she admired my optimism.

I did have one big worry though, my knee was swollen again by the evening. This time I'm pretty sure it was down to me kneeling on the floor for several hours, helping Lola building her new hospital (it's bigger than anything Mary Harney ever delivered). I slept with my knee wrapped in a bandage and of course I wore one on my run today.

The thaw came overnight, together with heavy rain and gale force wind. The children were not too happy to see their snowmen melting away and I was not too happy to see the water freezing on the road surface. Eventually I ventured out. The first 1.5 miles were just ridiculous, like running on a polished mirror but once I passed the school things improved and I decided to keep running. I had been running too fast on Saturday and I could feel the effect on my legs. After 6 miles I was already knackered and wondered how I would get through the run. The gale force winds did not help, each time I went against it it felt like climbing a mountain. At least it stopped raining after a few miles.

The idea was to run three loops around Killorglin, 5 miles each, and since it took me 2.5 miles to reach that loop this would add up to 20 miles. After the first loop (7.5 miles) I was sorely tempted to head back home but turned left after all for a second loop, but I really did not expect to be able to do another one. But somehow I found a few reserves of energy and when it came to decision time I turned left once more for more punishment. Eventually I remembered that I had brought an emergency gel and took that around mile 14, but to be honest it didn't do anything for me, the extra energy just seemed to burn up in empty fumes. I managed to drag myself through the final loop and on the way home found that the road surface had improved in the last 2 hours, it was almost runnable, though there were one or two hairy moments. There was plenty of discomfort from the knee but it did not get any worse throughout the run, and I hope plenty of icing afterwards will do the magic once more.

This was my first 20 mile training run in a very, very long time. I have not done 20 in training since before Dingle, back in August; that's a very long time ago. My overall mileage has been pretty decent in the last few weeks but there was a distinct lack of proper long runs. Let's hope I can add that on a consistent basis for the next few weeks.

25 Dec

14 miles, 1:45:45, 7:33 pace, HR 148

26 Dec

20 miles, 2:37:17, 7:52 pace, HR 148

Weekly Mileage: 84

Broken Record

It did not feel all that cold on Thursday, not colder than the day before, really. I had not looked at the thermometer and sometimes ignorance is bliss. It was not until 2 hours later when I saw the car's thermometer that I realised just how cold it had become. It originally said -13C but had switched to -12 by the time I had the camera out. A colleague who passed me in his car while I was running had the same number on his thermometer at that time - apparently he felt rather snug and warm in his car when he saw me. Another colleague had photographic evidence of -14C in Tralee (we're having a competition in the office hence all the photos), so I did not have the record for myself.

As ever the main road was the only possible running surface and I went down to Glenbeigh and then further on to Mountain Stage until I reached my turnaround point. I felt comfortable enough, as soon as you reach a certain effort level you feel snug and toasty, just the fingers are closer to frostbite than ideal. I ran at a reasonably easy pace, easier than the previous mornings.

The Deep Freeze did not let up and we had another bitterly cold night. I never thought I'd see temperatures like that in our Gulfstream-kissed little patch. One crank on the radio blamed BP's oil spill in the summer. Blaming the Brits is generally popular round here but to the best of my knowledge this is the first time ever they got blamed for our weather!

For once I had no excuses not to do a "Fast Friday" and I did a faster effort today. I paced myself by feel but set the HR alarm on the Garmin to help me in this. I thought it was my imagination when it got colder the closer I got to Killorglin, but later on the car's thermometer confirmed this, it was a comparably balmy -6C in Caragh Lake but a nippy -12C five miles further down in town, how extraordinary.The pace was 10 seconds per mile faster than what I would have expected. The coach may still give me a slap on the wrists for that, but I swear I ran well within myself and the HR never went beyond the set limits.

The thaw is supposed to come by Sunday, when the muppets on the radio will have to find something else to moan about. Personally I am loving these conditions, it's is so pretty outside and as long as our heating is working I'm fine with it. I don't want them to start moaning about the economy again, I prefer being cold to being broke.

Happy Christmas everyone!

23 Dec

12 miles, 1:32:38, 7:43 pace, HR 145

24 Dec

11.2 miles, 1:18:38, 7:01 pace, HR 152
   incl. 10 miles @ 6:57

Colder Than Ever

Your comments have been rather unanimous this time and believe it or not, on Saturday I had my mouse pointer hovering over the "Buy" button for a pair of Yaktrax, but then figured that the cold spell would be over by the time they arrived and they would just end up gathering dust in some corner.

Despite feeling a bit tired immediately after Sunday’s run, I soon forgot about it and went on with the rest of my day. Imagine my horror when I caught sight of my right knee in the evening and noticed that it was swollen again! I really had no desire to go through the same pain again as last time and immediately started treating it with ice, put on my compression sleeve and elevated it high on the sofa, which added rest to the equation because that’s where I remained for the rest of the day.

While I was absolutely dismayed with the state of my knee, it helped to understand it better, though it’s a bit early to detect a pattern after only two occurrences. Running on a slippery surface seems to add some extra stress that sends it over the edge. I never fell, I never twisted or bumped it, just the additional strain of slightly slipping at toe-off seems to be a bit too much.

Following plummeting temperatures the road was in rather desperate state on Monday and with the worried about my knee it seemed sensible to stay at home. However, after waking much too early and staring at the ceiling for far too long I decided to try something. I put on my rarely used off-road shoes to see if they made a difference. I followed the Caragh Lake road for one mile in one direction, decided that the surface was getting worse with each step, turned around, ran home, did the same for a mile into the other direction, decided it was not worth the risk and turned around for good. Just over 4 miles left me slightly wiser and still with an intact knee, but they had been enough for the heel of the left shoe to cut into my Achilles so much that it bled.

I kept applying the treatment and by Tuesday evening I could not make out any difference between the knees, briefly wondering if I had just imagined it all. I decided it was worth taking a risk as long as my knee was wrapped up tightly and set off towards Killorglin. The Caragh Lake roads was once more in a rather desperate state, so when I reached town I decided to change the route and ran back via the main road, which happens to be the only treated and therefore ice-free surface anywhere. At this time of the year and this time in the morning, traffic was very sparse, which made this less of a problem than it may sound – there were no more than 5 cars going the same direction I was taking, and it wasn’t exactly busy the other way either.

I had set off under a brilliant clear sky with a bright Full Moon and I was hoping to get a prime view of the eclipse. This started out well, by the time I was halfway through my run a quarter of the moon had slipped into the Earth’s shadow, but at that stage the big clouds appeared and that was the end of the spectacle, the rest was just a very dark morning. But the run went well, for the first time in almost a week I felt healthy and managed a good pace without pushing the effort. The surface of the main road was perfectly ice free and I thought I had finally cracked the conditions.

That believe lasted until about 10 o'clock that morning when a look outside the office window revealed that it was snowing, and hard at that. It kept going for about 6 hours and by then the roads were once more covered in a big blanket of snow, including the main road. My hope that the snow would provide some traction was dashed – if there was some traction it was neglible.

This morning I started running alongside the lake but soon changed my mind and took a junction that would leave me over a hill onto the main road towards Glenbeigh. As it turned out, not even the main road had been treated but the cars had carved out two channels per lane into the surface and there was sufficient traction in those to keep running uninhabited. The traffic was sparse again and I even had the almost full moon for company and light. Once I passed Glenbeigh it was apparent that there had been a lot less traffic and the road surface became trickier but that was quite close to my turnaround point anyway. On the way back home a colleague passed me on his way to the early shift and later told me that his car thermometer read -9C (15F) when he saw me running. That's my reputation as the office fool sealed for another year. The weather station confirms that temperature reading, though I was surprised, I did not feel that cold. But I seemed to find it hard to relax, the effort was always a notch higher than normal; maybe I was subconsciously running a bit harder just to keep warm. The pace/HR relationship has been all over the place the last few days, but I put that down to the conditions entirely. It's hard enough to keep the training going at the moment. If there is any justice in the universe, I just have to get a good marathon in return.

20 Dec

4.1 miles, 31:23, 7:39 pace, HR 152

21 Dec

12 miles, 1:29:29, 7:27 pace, HR 145

22 Dec

10.75 miles, 1:20:43, 7:30 pace, HR 150