Dream On

I must have fallen asleep at some stage on Sunday without realising, but ever since then I've had the most beautiful dream, and I haven't woken yet. I don't mind, it can go on like that forever. Just imagine, humiliating the swamp dwellers 6:1 at their own ground in the derby. That's the stuff dreams are made of.

Dream or not, I keep on running. I presume just about all the other participants in Dublin's marathon are tapering this week, but as I've said a few times already this is just another training run for me and I'm not tapering (I'll take it easy the day before though).

10 miles is now my standard run, usually I don't even have to set the alarm any more; I wake up, get up and run. The weather can be a bit of an issue, when it's raining at 5C it really freezes you to the bones. Running in icy rain feels colder than running through a -13C dry night, but I know there will be plenty more of that to come. If there is any justice in the world of running, a great race in Connemara will be the reward for consistency under these circumstances.

There was a scary moment on Monday when I came across a lonely, scared and very nervous horse in the middle of the road. I did manage to slowly walk past it, and luckily it had wandered off the road on my return leg.

Tuesday topped even that, this time there were 2 horses close to the same spot, one of them almost certainly the same horse as on Monday. This time they were not nearly as nervous, maybe because they had each other for company or maybe the horse remembered me from the day before, but I was still rather weary passing them.

No loose horses this morning, just one loose idiot running in the freezing rain. I guess most animals had the sense to seek shelter instead. It wasn't raining all the way, but a very heavy downpour between miles 4 and 7 left me drenched and freezing for the rest. I think I ran a good bit faster than I would have otherwise, just to warm up. Having said that, the measured HR was very low today. So low, that I do not trust the readings. My HRM has acted up in cold weather before, but usually it was down to the battery in the chest strap running low and I changed that one not too long ago. If the reading keeps being suspicious, I'll get a new one and see if they change. Not that I would mind today's reading being correct, it would point to me being in far better shape than at the same time last year.



I guess, I'm still dreaming!

24 Oct

10 miles, 1:19:11, 7:55 pace, HR 138

25 Oct

10 miles, 1:17:15, 7:43 pace, HR 141

26 Oct

10 miles, 1:17:05, 7:42 pace, HR 137

Consistency Is Key

Utterly Unrelated Quick Update:

6:1! 6:1!! 6:1!!! 6:1!!!! 6:1!!!!! 6:1!!!!!! 6:1!!!!!!!

Friday morning, 6:00 am. The radio alarm goes off; very quietly, so that it only wakes me and not Niamh. For a second I wish I could turn around and go back to sleep, but then I get up anyway. 15-20 minutes later I'm out on the road.

It's raining, and heavily so, but the only difficult step is the first one, after that it's just a matter of tuning into the effort and getting on with it. It's dark because what little is left of the waning Moon is hidden behind the clouds, but the only tricky bit is our own driveway; once I've reached the road, I'm fine. I know the road so well, I can almost literally find my way with my eyes closed.

A bit over an hour later, another training run is in the bag. Day in, day out. Consistency is key.

Usually, the end of October means tapering for Dublin marathon, but since I'm not racing it, there is no need for a taper. Dublin will just be a long training run. And since there will be a 30-mile race/training run three weeks after Dublin, I'll get a pretty good idea about my recovery abilities.

- - -

Last January, I somehow got roped into buying a gerbil for the kids. Plus gerbil feed, stuffing, treats , … and a cage. After a few weeks, he managed to chew his way out of it. We caught him. He got a new cage. A big one. An expensive one. A gerbil-proof one, apparently. But, like with idiot-proof computers when the universe just came up with a better idiot, the little domestic rat seemed to take it as a challenge. He'd already managed to escape twice, but that was down to our own mistakes. Last week, however, he really did it. In fact, he clearly over-engineered the escape hole. We spent half an hour catching the little critter. Next time I'll get a cat to sort out the problem once and for all. Still, it's a cool escape tunnel.

- - -

Where was I? Oh yes, running. 8 easy miles on Thursday, 10 easy on Friday, 10 faster ones on Saturday (still very much controlled, though), 18 on Sunday. The long run was probably too fast at sub 7:30 pace, but the HR was reasonably low. That's 81 miles this week. As I said, consistency is key. Oh, and I've still got a sore throat.

20 Oct

8 miles, 1:01:45, 7:43 pace, HR 140

21 Oct

10 miles, 1:17:34, 7:45 pace, HR 147

22 Oct

10 miles, 1:09:33, 6:57 pace, HR 153

23 Oct

18 miles, 2:14:30, 7:28 pace, HR 147

Weekly Mileage: 81

Icy Rain

For once I was glad I had looked at the weather forecast. Monday had been a reasonable morning, Tuesday had been okay as well, except that I did not appreciate the icy cold rain shower that started less than 5 minutes into my run but luckily did not last for long. Wednesday was a different level, though. The temperature at 5:50 in the morning was 3C/37F, but that did not take into account the freezing cold wind nor the occasional rain shower. Rain at these temperatures feels colder than snow; I prefer running in -13C dry nights than rain at +3C. However, running is an outdoor sport and you just have to HTFU; besides, for the majority of today’s run I enjoyed reasonable conditions and because I had managed to catch the weather forecast, I had brought my gloves along, the first time this year. Good move.

Getting up at 5:30 was probably to toughest part of the entire training. Readers of years gone by will of course remember that this used to be a regular occurrence (in fact, I used to get up significantly earlier at times). But I switched my long runs to the weekend when training for the Dingle Ultra last year, because running back-to-back 4 and 5 hour long runs in the morning before work was not a realistic option. I never switched back to weekday long runs, and have enjoyed longer sleeps ever since. With Connemara slowly drawing nearer, however, I want to do higher mileage than at the same stage last year, and that requires the occasional early morning.

Tuesday’s run was very pleasing; I never once looked at the Garmin (it’s too dark to read the display anyway), just ran easily and was really surprised to see an average pace of 7:35 at the end. I'm not complaining. I can’t help but compare the numbers with last year, and they are good. However, I will have to see how the Dublin marathon, more precisely my recovery from it, will impact on those numbers.

Still managing without headlamp ...

17 Oct

10 miles, 1:19:15, 7:55 pace, HR 138

18 Oct

10 miles, 1:15:48, 7:35 pace, HR 140

19 Oct

15 miles, 1:59:50, 7:56 pace, HR 141

Bark At The Moon

hi thomas. looking for a training plan specifically designed to cover the connemara ultra. doing dublin in 2 weeks (my 3rd) and hope to commence training within a week of it for connemara. any ideas?

Quick answer, there is no training plan specifically designed for the Connemara Ultra, at least none that I am aware of. Slow answer, and I know this sounds weird, but look at Connemara as a long marathon. There have been countless discussions about this on boards.ie and some people disagree, but basically if you can run a marathon, then you can run Connemara as well as long as you run slower from the very start of the race (that second part of the advice is where a lot of people, especially men, get it wrong). My own experience is that you can take a bog standard marathon run and replace some of the long runs by back-to-back long runs, i.e. instead of running 20 miles on Sunday, run 20 miles on Saturday and again on Sunday. Do this 3 or 4 times, and you will be in great shape. Good Luck in Dublin, btw.

Then again, I know that Mick Rice does not do back-to-back long runs, and since he has been in the top 3 more often than anyone else he must be doing something right. My own plan this time round is to run high mileage (ok, nothing new here) and do a long race (marathon to 50k) on a few occasions at training effort, not race pace. The Dublin marathon will be the first of these, there is a 30 miler in Sixmilebridge in November, I may do the Clonakilty marathon in December if recovery from the first 2 long runs goes well (I will make a late decision) and I have signed up for a 50k in February already. To build up my aerobic conditioning, I will not do any races between now and New Year at least (which sadly means skipping the 5k series in Killarney this year [I actually feel guilty about that]), but might do some actual races in 2012 (Mallow or Ballycotton spring to mind, but I haven't decided anything yet). If this works better than the plan I followed 2 years ago will become apparent on 1 April 2012.

Having finally overcome my particularly nasty shin problem, I immediately had to deal with yet another issue. On Monday and Tuesday I had an awful metallic taste in my mouth. Niamh dryly remarked that this used to be one of her early signs of pregnancy, but I think we can rule that out in my case. I was not surprised to have a sore throat on Wednesday, but that's as far as it went. I still have a sore throat today, but my running is not affected and I sure don't feel ill. I guess my immune system is fighting off whatever is trying to invade my body and since my immune system has an excellent track record of getting on top of these things without confining me to rest, I am not worried.

October is the time of the year when I become interested in the Moon phases again, That's not because of a keen interest in astronomy (though there is that as well), but because the Moon is a very handy light source early in the morning. I got a nice surprise on Thursday when a bright Moon provided a huge contrast to the pitch dark, rainy morning of the previous days. No wind, no rain, just a stunning star-lit sky and then an explosion of pink and orange as the sun rose. Unfortunately, the rain had returned by Friday.

Saturday was the one day of the week when I allowed myself to run faster, though still very much in control. This used to be Fast Friday under the coach's guidance and it still works the same way, with the heart rate no higher than 155. I enjoyed the faster pace so much that I did not even notice the driving rain, except when I stepped into a 2-inch deep puddle a mile away from home.

Sunday morning was beautiful again; I regretted not bringing my sun glasses early on as the sun shone right into my face, but it stopped me from looking like a right tool when running in the rain an hour later. It was bright and sunny again by the time I got home - this is Kerry, after all. I spent much of the first half slowing myself down, but let the autopilot take over during the second half and cruised home in a meditative trance. One thing I noticed was that I automatically ran on my toes on the long, fairly steep climbs around Caragh Lake. If that was due to the slightly faster pace or if I'm adapting to the hill runs, I'm not sure.

I almost averaged 7:30 pace on a very hilly run and would easily have run faster had I not reigned myself in so much. The last time I was in similar shape I ran 2:59 in Vienna, and the 1:23 I ran on the brutally hilly Valentia course 2 weeks ago points the same way, though I am not entirely convinced that I would have the stamina to hold the effort for 26 miles right now. My real hope is to be able to build on that over the winter. Connemara is still over 5 months away.

13 Oct

12 miles, 1:34:55, 7:55 pace, HR 138

14 Oct

10 miles, 1:17:27, 7:45 pace, HR 146

15 Oct

8 miles, 55:55, 6:59 pace, HR 154

16 Oct

16.6 miles, 2:05:50, 7:35 pace, HR 146

Weekly Mileage: 75+

Looking Ahead

I should not have been surprised, but I was. The quads were rather sore on Monday, following my little mountain run, and the pace was fairly slow. As is generally the case with DOMS, it was a good bit worse again the next day. For some reason, the left leg always seems to be more affected than the right one, and this time was no exception. What was far more important to me was the fact that my shin did not hurt at all, for the first time in well over a month. After carrying this for so long, recovery was amazingly quickly. I guess putting the Kinvaras to rest really was the right thing to do. It's a shame, I loved their light weight and the 525 miles I wore them for is not excessive by my standards, I generally expect to get at least 650 miles out of a pair. I might still get another pair, but will obviously have to be careful once they reach a certain mileage.

I'm surprised nobody called me out on the last paragraph of the previous entry (that's assuming that there are still some readers out there, of course). I do not want to put myself through yet another gruelling marathon training cycle, but have no qualms targeting an ambitious ultra time. I just like the slower pace of the ultras; it was the long marathon-pace and faster-than-marathon-pace workouts that I found really challenging in the build-up for Vienna. On the other hand, I have always loved the slower long runs and never worried much about the distance.

I will try and put a few things into place that I learned from last year's Dingle training cycle. There won't be back-to-back 5 hour runs this time; they undoubtedly built up my endurance but cost me a lot of speed, and my easy cruising pace in Dingle was 30 seconds per mile slower than in Connemara. That won't do.

What I will do is run a couple of long races around the 50k mark for training purposes. I've already signed up for 2 and I might throw in another marathon, depending on how recovery goes.

The pace for a 5 hour Connemara is 7:38. It does sound eminently doable, but I will have to build up a cushion over the first 26 miles because of the 2 tough climbs over the last third. If I can cruise through the marathon at 7:30 pace while still feeling good, sub-5 will be on the cards.

Actually, I'm getting way ahead of myself here. There is the small matter of Dublin yet to come. With my shin now healed, that doesn't worry me, though.

10 Oct

10 miles, 1:19:17, 7:55 pace, HR 142

11 Oct

8 miles, 1:03:55, 7:59 pace, HR 143

12 Oct

10 miles, 1:17:33, 7:45 pace, HR 145

Over The Hills And Far Away

I was agonising all week if I should add yet another race to my already extended racing season, namely the Kerry Athletics cross country in Kenmare on Sunday. I was worried about my shin, but cross-country running would probably be a lot better for it due to the reduced impact off the road. I even had a chat with a team mate on Saturday, and he told me I could wait pretty much until the last minute to make up my mind.

In the end, I decided against it, but I'm not sure if I chickened out of the challenge, did not fancy the long drive to Kenmare or simply tried to nurse my leg. Whatever the reason, I was not there at the start line. Maybe next year, but that's exactly what I said last year and the year before that. I suppose Grellan had it right when he said I really was a road runner.

Having said that, in order to get 2 hours of running without the pounding on the road I headed for the Kerry way this morning, crossed Windy Gap (it was a very windy day, no prizes for guessing what the conditions up on the saddle were like), dropped down all the way into Glenbeigh and then turned around and did it all again. The double crossing of Windy Gap gave the legs quite some workout, I think it's the ideal way to build up some leg strength without running yourself into the ground. The shin behaved itself fairly well; I could notice some discomfort but no more than that.

It had been a bit worse yesterday, when I decided to put in a slightly higher effort than the recovery runs that had marked the rest of the week after the Valentia race. The quads told me early on that they didn't really feel like working and the shin started protesting last into the run as well, so it was not an unqualified success.

One question: what's the next challenge? will be going for another of sub 3?

Excellent question. In one way, I do want to have another go at the marathon because I know I didn't quite reach my potential in Vienna. On the other hand, I still don't really feel putting myself through a gruelling marathon training cycle again. Instead I'll aim for sub-5 in the Connemara Ultra instead, and if everything goes to plan, this will be a stepping stone for my big goal race later in 2012. But you know what they say about men and plans and all that.

8 Oct

8 miles, 58:07, 7:15 pace, HR 151

9 Oct

12.2 miles, 1:50:27, 9:03 pace, HR 148

Recovery

The numbers from the last 3 days shows a very straightforward recovery from the Valentia half marathon. Each run was at the same easy effort, which is borne out by the virtually identical heart rate, but I got faster by a few seconds per mile each day. I'm not far off where I was before the race, so everything is going very well on that count.

What’s going merely ok is my shin. I can still feel a certain amount of discomfort, but get solace from the fact that it is definitely on the “acceptable” part of the scale. I experimented with the shoes and there is a noticeable difference between wearing a heavier, cushioning pair and a lighter pair like the Kinvaras. As much as the Kinvaras have become my favourite trainer, they do seem to aggravate the shin. They are nearing the end of their useful life anyway with well over 500 miles on them, but I haven’t quite got the heart to throw them out just yet. Luckily there is a pair of Lunar Swifts in my cupboard, which will now be taken into regular rotation. I might keep the Kinvaras for the odd run once my shin has recovered, but I'm not rushing to buy another pair, which had been the initial plan when I had started falling head over heels in love with them.

The weather was rather wild on Wednesday as yet another ex-hurricane paid a visit to these shores. It sounded so bad at night that I started to wonder if it would be safe to run, but luckily things did quieten down sufficiently to be able to get out and run and still be confident of a safe return. It really is getting dark now. The moonless nights make navigating through our driveway a bit tricky; once I reach the road, I’m fine. I know the road so well I can almost literally run it with my eyes closed, but the reflective gear has obviously become mandatory. That always happens in the month before Dublin. I’ve still got the same dislike for the headlamp that I developed last winter, which is why it has stayed at home so far.

With Dublin only 3 weeks away, I suppose it’s time to start concentrating on that task. While the vast majority of participants would have spent the last few months concentrating on that event, I have hardly wasted a single thought on it. I know I can run 3:30 pace without having to train for it specifically (Dingle has proven that beyond a doubt) and my shin won’t be an issue, I'm sure of that. I guess the thing I'm most looking forward to is staying in the 5-star Conrad hotel beforehand; incidentally, Niamh feels the same way, funny that.

5 Oct

8 miles, 1:03:08, 7:53 pace, HR 145

6 Oct

8 miles, 1:02:04, 7:46 pace, HR 146

7 Oct

10 miles, 1:16:34, 7:39 pace, HR 146

Random Post-Race Thoughts Again

My shin hurt like hell on Saturday, felt fine for 5 easy miles on Sunday morning and was really painful again later that day. I pondered if I should go running on Monday, but of course I was awake early and I'm not one to stare at the ceiling for hours, so off I went. In order to protect my shin, I ran back and forwards on the old, disused, overgrown railway line behind our house, but running a series of completely straight 0.8 mile stretches isn’t exactly ideal. The footing was bad enough in the dim early morning light and now that the road is no longer being used to transport vehicles to illegal building sites (the recession has its plus points), the gorse is taking over and I have the scratches to prove it.

I'm perfectly aware that my racing flats need replacing; they probably should have been thrown out at the start of the year, but I could not afford a new pair while the old one is still holding together somewhat (yes, money is tight). Niamh already agreed to your suggestion of using the prize money for new shoes, albeit shoes for the boys. Daddy’s feet will have to wait, but the racing season is over anyway and I won’t need flats for a good while.

I entered Saturday’s time and my age into the WMA age-grading calculator, and it gave me an age-equivalent time of 1:19:37 – wow, though I’d much rather run a sub-80 half marathon in reality rather than in an algorithm.

I was probably slightly exuberant when I said it may have been my best racing performance ever. My 61:51 10-miler in Ballycotton back in March was a better performance, but Valentia was much more satisfying. Ballycotton was basically a time trial. Valentia was a real race. I went out hard in order to keep up with Pat and it took until mile 9 or so for him to finally pull away from me. Luckily, it was enough to get me an age-group win (by a nice margin, too). Former marathon world record holder Steve Jones once said that they should knock him over if he was still standing at the finish line because it would mean he did not run hard enough. Not that I can compare myself to the likes of him, but in Valentia I managed the rare feat of passing that particular test – I basically collapsed after the line, entirely spent. Knowing that I had left everything out there just feels really good (well ... it felt good once I had recovered).

Just a minute after the start some spectator at the sideline shouted out loud “hey, look at that old man there”, meaning Pat of course (I didn’t look old enough at that point yet to qualify). While in one way it was a compliment, pointing out that the “old guy” was right there at the front, it really was an exceptionally stupid thing to blurt out loud. Whoever you are, consider yourself filed under “idiot”. The rest of the spectators were a different class though – they all knew Pat by name and gave him plenty of encouragement to drop me.

The shin was so bad on Sunday that I could not even dorsiflex it. It was significantly improved on Monday and better still today. I know how to nurse it, and teh short, very easy 5-mile runs of the last few days are part of that. My quads are quite sore as well, which is the price you pay for running all those downhill miles hard, but that will be gone soon.

3 Oct

5 miles, 45:24, 9:04 pace, HR 131

4 Oct

5 miles, 41:24, 8:17 pace, HR 136

In My Own Backyard

When Niamh dropped me off to the Valentia ferry on Friday night, I jokingly remarked that I was going to my running camp. There was nothing in the holiday house, all I could do was eat, sleep and run, and that's exactly what I was going for, but of course only for half a day. But it was handy to have a house a quarter of a mile away from the start and finish line.

My shin had been hurting all week but had definitely improved and I knew it would not slow me down. In fact, when I got up on Saturday, I did not feel it at all.

Quite unusually for Kerry, we started almost on time; it would have been bang on time had the starter not waited for one Seamus M, but I don't think anyone minded.



I had told Pat O'Shea beforehand that I would let him pull me to a fast time, so it seemed perfectly obvious to stay with him at the start. It was only a quarter mile later that I started wondering why I was right up there in the leading group, hanging on to the likes of Ed and Cian Murphy. A look at the Garmin told me that yes, I had started at 5:30 pace, nice and conservative – NOT! Right there the hill started, and if you look at the elevation profile you know what I'm talking about. I counted the runners and had myself in eighth place, but at least the top guys started to move away and I was right on Pat's shoulder.

Did I mention that Pat is 60 years old? He used to be a 2:26 marathon runner and his age group ratings are always close to world class level, and I'm well used to being beaten by him. In fact, I have never managed to finish ahead of him in any race (and there have been quite a few).

Running uphill was never my strength and I reckoned that if I managed to hang on until the top, at the slate quarry, I would be right in the mix. I was actually surprised that I managed to stick with Pat. I felt he surged on several occasions, possibly trying to drop me, but maybe that was just my impression. What was noteworthy was that 3 guys caught up with us, going past, but they were only a couple of steps ahead when we finally reached the top. This was at the end of an out-and-back section, where it would have been handy to check out the opposition but 3 miles into a half marathon is a bit early for that and anyway, I was too exhausted to pay much notice.

I got an unpleasant surprise. I had expected to be able to keep up fairly easily once we had reached the top but was quickly proven wrong. I had to pull out all the stops to keep up and only just about managed it.

Then we turned right, up a short but very sharp climb. I was glad that I knew the road so well, otherwise I would have fallen away here, but knowing that the top was so close meant I knew I could push hard enough to keep up.

The next few miles were easier because the road very gradually drops as we neared Bray Head at the other end of the island. A look at the Garmin told me that I had averaged 6:33 miles up to here, but that included climbing over 400 feet. A new PB would require 6:30 pace and that was very much on the cards. So far so good, but unfortunately it turned out that Pat is an excellent downhill runner, and for the first time in my running history I was unable to keep pace with someone on a downhill stretch. Somewhere between miles 4 and 5 I lost contact and fell about 20 steps behind. Pat caught up to a group and there were now 4 runners 20 steps in front of me but I was unable to close the gap, no matter how hard I tried.

I started calculating how many miles there were left before the finish, much too early to do so and not a good sign. At that stage, my race was on the verge of falling down.

Of course the road was not uniformly going down, there were a couple of rollers and each time my legs felt like jelly, but at least I did not lose any further ground. I took a gel somewhere around here. Maybe it gave me a genuine boost, maybe it was just psychological, maybe the sharp drop in the road did me some favours, but much to my surprise the entire group came back to me and I finally caught up, after being on my own for almost 3 miles.

I passed one runner in a black singlet and later on another one in a grey t-shirt, which brought me right back onto Pat's shoulder. He shot me a look, but didn't say anything.

There were a couple more hills on the way, and things were really getting tough. I started wheezing on the uphills, which always sounds as if I'm going to collapse, but it's just something that always happens when I cross a certain threshold and I'm still able to keep on pace. I realised how exhausted I was when I started looking for the bridge to Portmagee and only realised after looking around that we had already passed the junction.

There was one more hill. I knew it was the final climb, which was probably the only thing that kept me going because I was really right at my limit. I had swapped places with a runner in a white top on a couple of occasions, but on that last climb I was unable to keep up. My breathing went out of control, I started hyperventilating and even started feeling lightheaded. Surely I was not going to faint here, was I? Thank God for the apex! I took a second gel. I wasn't sure if it would help, but I figured it would not do any harm.

Unfortunately, Pat was now well ahead, but the white top was still close enough to catch, which I did on the downhill stretch towards Chapeltown. Then we turned off the main road and onto the shore road, which I am extremely familiar with. In fact, I started running on that very stretch of road in 2004, beginning my training for my first ever marathon in Dublin that year. Four years later, I named one particular stretch “the road of neverending misery”, when a series of weekly 1000 meter repeats started to get out of hand.

Things were not getting any easier, but maybe the second gel started to kick in. A look at the Garmin told me that a new PB was in the bag. The runner in that white top had passed me once more but I was not going to give up my place without a fight. We passed the Marina, we went past the old observatory, and when we went by the old factory I knew there was less than a mile to go and put the hammer down, though I had to be careful as my left calf had gone into spasms on a couple of occasions and was very close to cramping. I caught up to my adversary, but he accelerated when we sensed me coming. He also kept pulling more and more towards the right, into my line. “He's not going to block me, is he?” To be fair, he did not, there was still enough road left and I first drew level and then ahead. I was genuinely surprised to hear his footsteps fading, I had expected a counter-surge and a fight to the very end, which would most likely have ended in defeat for me because of my lack of sprinting speed. But of course if I wanted to keep my place I wasn't able to let up and had no choice but to keep going all out.

I passed the entrance to Knightstown, our house, the church and then there was the finish right ahead and crossed the line in 1:23:36, a personal best by almost 2 minutes on a very tough course, but completely spent and basically collapsed over the line. As I was lying on the road catching my breath, the runner in the white top came up to me and very sportingly congratulated me on a strong finish, a volunteer inquired slightly worried if I was ok, but eventually I managed to get up again, if still feeling a bit wobbly.

I could have sworn I was eighth, but the final results had me in ninth place; no idea where that extra runner had come from. But much more important, I had come first in the M40 age group. Never mind that I was 30 seconds behind the first M60, but Pat told me that at some stage he thought he'd never be able to shake me, so at least I had made him work for once.

The kids were reasonably impressed by me being called up at the prize ceremony; Maia liked the medal, Shea liked the box and Niamh liked the money, so everyone was happy. I stumbled through 1.5 miles slow and painful cooldown miles, but probably did more harm than good as my shin was all of a sudden hurting like hell. Maybe running 13 miles at very hard pace on a pair of racing flats (worn out racing flats with well over 500 miles on them, that is) wasn't the best thing, but that result made it all worthwhile. It may well have been my best racing performance ever.

29 Sep

5 miles, 37:57, 7:35 pace, HR 145

30 Sep

5 miles, 37:19, 7:27 pace, HR 147

1 Oct

~17 miles, including:
   Valentia Half Marathon, 1:23:36, 6:23 pace, HR 174
   9th overall, 1st M40, in the money

2 Oct

5 miles, 41:50, 8:20 pace, HR 140

Niggles

I'm not sure if it’s time to get worried about my shin/foot problem or if I should just ignore it. For a while I thought it might be shin splint which I haven’t had in 6 years, but I think the sore area is too close to the foot for that to be the case. The affected area is right at the front of my shin, about 1 - 2 inches above ankle height. Yesterday, Tuesday, it was really sore but today I'm already feeling better. The plan right now is to take it easy tomorrow and Friday, which was always the idea because of Saturday’s half marathon, get through that race in one piece and then pick up the pieces.

It’s funny, in 4 weeks I’m going to pace the 3:30 group in Dublin. That’s my fourth time as a pacer and I had some fairly serious trouble before each and every one of them. Then again, I got through all of the previous attempts perfectly fine and expect the same outcome again. I know Niamh wouldn’t be too happy if I had to bail out on Dublin. That stay in a 5-star hotel before the race was one of the main reasons why she thinks having a runner in the house is a good thing.

It’s rather telling that the one run I did not feel any pain was on Sunday on the trail. I did notice some discomfort on the 2 miles back home, running on road. There are two problems with trails though. One, I need to run a couple of miles each way on the road to get to them, which makes them a rather pointless option for anything but the long run. Two, I cannot run on those trails in the dark; it would not be safe, especially on my own. I can still get onto the trail over the weekend on occasions, but realistically the majority of my miles will always be on the road.

Hurting shin or not, I took it reasonably easy on Monday and Tuesday. I can still tune out completely, which means the problem can’t be THAT bad (at least that’s my theory). I added two faster segments to today’s run. The original idea was to run 4 miles at close to half-marathon effort, but then switched that to 1 + 2 miles at tempo effort with an easy mile in the middle. I just wanted to get a feel for the pace without tiring myself out. Just like last Wednesday, the 20mph wind had an impact, though it didn’t feel as strong as last week (the weather site says otherwise, though. Maybe Caragh Lake is more sheltered than the road to Killorglin). I averaged 6:33 pace into the wind and 6:24 with the wind, which has me reasonably hopeful that I can go under 6:30 on Saturday, maybe even on a tough course like Valentia which starts with a murderous 3 mile climb. I guess I’ll find out.

26 Sep

8 miles, 1:02:49, 7:51 pace, HR 142

27 Sep

10 miles, 1:17:54, 7:47 pace, HR 146

28 Sep

8 miles, 56:35, 7:041 pace, HR 156
   incl. 1 mile @ 6:33 (HR 164), 2 miles @ 6:24 (HR 166)

Playing in the Mud

If you remember back a few days, I did have some troubles with my right foot/shin. The problem disappeared after 2 or 3 days, after I started wearing a compression wrap. Niggles like that come and go, no need to waste any time worrying about it. Well, on Thursday it was back, and it really hurt. I was in quite some discomfort all day, and I'm not talking about the time I was running, it hurt all day in the office. I applied my usual therapy: ice and compression. Elevation isn't that easy in reality, I can't just lie there for hours with my leg up high, and rest is generally my last resort.

Friday's run was more to test the waters than a training run. I felt the discomfort all the way through, but it did not get any worse, which makes it hard to draw any conclusions. Obviously it's a running injury, why else would my shin hurt, but if running 10 miles doesn't make it any worse then can I keep running or not?

Taking away the pain, by the way, I felt very good on Thursday and Friday. 7:40 pace seems to be the pace I tune in automatically if I just cruise along easily, running with minimum mental effort, which is how the coach used to describe Lydiard's “quarter” effort, the effort level you should hold for your easy runs.

There was supposed to be a 5 mile race on Friday evening in Tralee, but that was cancelled. Athletics Kerry seem to be struggling at the moment. The 5k in Killarney was ridiculously long, despite the fact that the course should have been utterly familiar to everyone, and now the cancellation. Something seems to be going on here.

The weekend was very busy, and I was rushed on Saturday morning. It still didn't make much sense to run as fast as I did, the 3 minutes I saved that way did not really make a difference, but I found it impossible to relax when my subconscious was constantly urging me on, and eventually I gave in and went with the faster pace. I was surprised how easy 6:40 pace felt, despite wearing my heavy, clunky trainers, which I take as a good sign for next Saturday's half marathon.

The kids were invited to a birthday party on Sunday, and initially I thought I would have to get up in the middle of the night to run, until I realised on Saturday evening that I could go running when they're away. Looking at the conditions on Sunday made that a really good option, it was really wild outside with the rain coming in horizontally.

Niamh suggested I set up the bike trainer, which sounded a great option as I would be able to watch the coverage of the Berlin marathon at the same time (thank you BBC, even if it's only for Paula). I was highly tempted, but then decided against it. I'm a runner and consistency is very important and getting used to running in the rain may well be vital preparation for Connemara, so I decided to face the conditions.

Then a miracle happened, after hours of truly wild conditions the sun came out just as I was getting ready and the wind seemed to quieten considerably as well. In order to protect my shin (which was already feeling better) I headed for the trails, running loops at the Coillte Caragh Lake Forest Park. There are two routes towards the summit, a muddy trail and a jeep road, and the two together combine to make a good, challenging loop. The summit is a bit off the loop, and for the first loop I made it to the top because it would be a shame to run on the hill for almost 2 hours and not get the view from the top, but for the rest of it I just ran the loop, 2 in one direction and 5 or 6 in the other, because running up the trail made for a much more challenging workout so I opted for more of that.

It's amazing how hard you need to work for 9:20 pace on such a trail! Once I fell and very nearly face planted, and my foot kept disappearing into mud holes until I learned the best options through the worst sections.

Running on that trail was great fun, even if running loops of about 10 minutes each isn't exactly my preferred option. I'll be back, I guess.

I got to watch the Berlin coverage after I got home. Great, exciting stuff, with Haile seemingly pulling out at 25Km and temporarily moving back onto the course, Makau chasing and getting the world record and Paula racing for the first time in years. I didn't catch a glimpse of any of my acquaintances running though.

22 Sep

8 miles, 1:01:30, 7:41 pace, HR 145

23 Sep

10 miles, 1:16:48, 7:41 pace, HR 148

24 Sep

5 miles, 35:01, 7:00 pace, HR 153

25 Sep

13.65 miles, 1:58:50, 8:42 pace, HR 155
   off-road

Equinox

The legs felt surprisingly good on Monday. I expected them to be rather heavy after some hard running over the weekend, but was pleasantly surprised. I still took it easy. Two days easy after back-to-back workouts are an absolute must; recovery takes time, especially when you're well past your 30s. But I felt very good and 7:40 pace has rarely come so easily.

I had another workout in store for Wednesday. When training for Vienna, the coach twice gave me special workouts that he called volume repeats. They work like other repeats, except that you don't really get much recovery, the pace during the slower parts is still on the challenging side. That's a great workout to see what shape you're in because there is no way to fake it. If you're running too fast, it will show.

The idea was to run 2 miles at 6:30, 2 miles at 6:20 and 2 more miles faster still as long as I could maintain full control, with a mile at about 7:15 pace between each effort. Unfortunately, as soon as I left home I knew the 20-25 mph wind would be making the pacing impossible, so I decided I had to run by feel alone. The heart rate would provide some feedback, but I don't like checking the HR too often when running at 6:30 pace or so, I need all my concentration on the effort.

The first repeat was with the wind at the back, so I figured the pace should be in the 6:20s. Well, it was early in the morning and I was not quite awake yet, which is the only way I can explain why I started the first quarter mile at 6:05 pace. The pace was a bit uneven after that but on average ended up right where I wanted it. The second repeat was straight into the gale force. I kept the effort honest, making sure I would not look at the Garmin as I knew the pace figure would be demoralising. Even the slow mile after that was tough, the HR hardly dropped despite the slow pace. The last repeat was still into the wind but at least it was net downhill which compensated a little bit. I ran the final half mile too hard, that was more a race effort than a training effort, but all in all I was reasonably happy with the numbers. I now have 10 days to recover from this before Valentia. That should do. In March, the coach had me do a similar workout 4 days before Ballycotton and I ran an absolute stormer there.

19 Sep

8 miles, 1:01:27, 7:40 pace, HR 145

20 Sep

10 miles, 1:18:11, 7:49 pace, HR 143

21 Sep

11 miles, 1:17:03, 7:00 pace, HR 162
   w/u, 2 miles 6:23 (163), 1 mile 7:14 (159), 2 miles 6:48 (170), 1 mile 7:33 (167), 2 miles 6:23 (173), c/d

Roller Coaster

Now that was a topsy turvy weekend from a sporting point of view, with Ireland beating Australia, Alistair Cragg setting a new Irish record over 5000 meters (which was completely ignored by the press), Kerry throwing away the game against Dublin when they should have been out of sight and City doing likewise against Fulham. At least my own training is going well.

I decided to add one last race to the racing season, the Valentia Island half marathon in 2 weeks. I love Valentia, always enjoy staying there, and running a race on the same loop that I have done a number of times in training is too much to resist. The only thing topping that would be for someone to organise a race around Caragh Lake, and I can't see that happen any time soon.

Two weeks is too short to achieve any kind of meaningful physical adaptation, but there is still time for some mental adjustments. Therefore I thought running a few miles at half marathon pace would be a good choice on Saturday. There are a number of ways of doing that and I settled on 3x2 mile repeats. That's not as specific as a tempo run because last time I checked they still don't allow for periodic rest breaks during the race, but it's an easier way to accumulate the faster miles as the next rest period is never far away. I had to deal with the blustery wind, which was on my back for first and a third of the second interval but straight into my face for the rest, which explains the slower pace for each subsequent interval. I was reasonably pleased with the result. I'd love to break 1:25 in Valentia, but the hilly nature of the course (it basically starts with a brutal 3-mile climb) will make that a rather tough challenge.

This morning I ran around the lake again, by far and away my favourite long run route. I expected to be tired after yesterday's tempo intervals but managed to surprise myself. The pace was always a little bit faster than planned, even though I never consciously pushed the effort and I never felt the need to slow down as I was always feeling great. I know the coach generally frowned upon running faster than planned, but some days you just have to let go of the brakes if you're enjoying yourself so much.

17 Sep

10 miles, 1:09:33, 6:57 pace, HR 162
   incl. 3x2 miles @ 6:23 (HR 166), 6:34 (HR 169), 6:36 (HR 172)

18 Sep

15 miles, 1:54:05, 7:36 pace, HR 151

Weekly Mileage: 68+

Change Of Seasons

No doubt about it, autumn has arrived. There is a constant debate in our household on the exact calendar dates of the seasonal changes (“Spring on 1 Feb? You’ve got to be kidding!!!”), but if you go by weather/temperatures/general feel then the summer we’ve never had has now given up even trying and we’ve moved on. It’s pitch dark when I get up, it’s still pretty dark when I start running and I’ll soon be reaching for the despised head lamp on my way out.

As much as I wrote a few flippant sentences regarding the pain in my shin on Wednesday, it actually had me worried a bit as the pain seemed to worsen as the day wore on. I tried icing it when I got home, but the real salvation seemed to arrive via the compression sleeve I wore at night and for my next run. By the morning the increasingly sharp pain had been reduced to a dull ache and right now I can only feel it because I’m actively thinking about it, otherwise I would not even notice it. Another niggle successfully overcome without the need for taking time off.

10 miles easy seems to be the default for me at the moment. In order to shake things up a bit I did something different on Thursday, namely hill sprints, once more of the all-out variety for about 15 seconds each, not that I'm timing them. One thing I noticed is that the HR didn’t want to go up very high, it barely scratched 160. The other thing was that the wave of nausea that hits me about 10 seconds AFTER each repeat seemed worse than usual. Some runners seem to take pride in the fact that they can run repeats until they puke but I am definitely not one of them. I was thankful for the fact that I was running on an empty stomach, and when the nausea became a bit too much I called an end to the workout. The best thing about losing count after only 3 or 4 repeats is that you don’t feel the need to do a certain number of repeats, you can just call it a day any time without feeling guilty.

I also added a few minutes of drills on our lawn when I got home. First I did them in my shoes and then in bare feet. As much as I’ve heard good things about that sort of thing I'm not sure I’ll continue with it, the overwhelming feeling was that my feet were bloody freezing on the cold ground. One thing is for sure, you won’t find me running down the road or trail in pretend barefoot shoes that cost more than my real shoes.

On the subject of shoes, one thing I usually do whenever I get a niggle is to throw out my oldest pair of runners, and as the oldest pair in active rotation had over 800 miles on them, they picked up a one-way ticket to the bin, the same reward they all get after half a year of faithful service.

15 Sep

5 miles, 44:07, 8:49 pace, HR 142
   9 x 15 seconds all-out hill sprints, walking recovery down the hill

16 Sep

10 miles, 1:17:38, 7:45 pace, HR 146

After The Storm

Rather predictably, Ex-Hurricane Katia wasn’t anywhere near as bad as they said, at least here in the South. The weather lady seemed really pleased on Monday that they had correctly predicted wind speeds of over 100 kph in Donegal, so a round of applause to the met office for spotting that hurricane over the Atlantic and subsequently reporting the first reasonably accurate forecast of the year.

I went running on the Ard-na-Sidhe road, which is my usual fallback option when it’s windy, but was a bit hampered by the amount of broken branches on the road, which combined with the low light and my short eyesight made me stumble and trip as if I were on a bear hunt, but I didn’t catch a big one.

Niamh wouldn’t let me cycle to work, though, claiming it to be too dangerous. Maybe it was just another attempt to re-confirm her status as the uncontested ruler of the house, as if that were necessary.

It was still windy on Tuesday, but by Wednesday the calm had returned and I had my most peaceful run in weeks, just me and the road at sunrise, oh, and about a million gnats. I got a good extra helping of protein this morning. I wondered which was the worst fate for these things, drowning in my sweat, being swallowed or being inhaled but didn’t come to any conclusion. Sorry. I didn’t have much else to occupy my mind, apart from suppressing my gag reflex every couple of minutes in order to being able to keep running. The things you learn when running!

The legs felt tired, but more importantly my right shin started hurting with the first step. I expected it to subside soon enough but that never happened. In fact, the area is still sore. It might have been caused by the increased mileage of the last few days. I’ll treat it the same way I always treat those things: I ignore them until they go away, which works for at least 90% of all niggles. Rest? That can wait.

12 Sep

8+ miles, 1:02:37, 7:47 pace, HR 147

13 Sep

10 miles, 1:17:33, 7:45 pace, HR 146

12 Sep

10 miles, 1:18:51, 7:53 pace, HR 147

Before The Storm

I was wrong about the hurricanes - I thought we were already experiencing the remnants of Hurricane Katia this weekend, but the weather lady told me otherwise. Ex-tropical storm Lee must have taken a shortcut and arrived here before the lady, and the gale-force wind driving the rain horizontally at times were his doing. Katia is going to hit us tonight and tomorrow, with wind speed of well over 100 kph. Three ex-hurricanes/tropical storms in 5 days. Interesting.

However, with my first step yesterday I decided I was going to enjoy the conditions instead of moaning about them. Running in those conditions gives a certain feeling of hard-core training. I do get a kick out of the knowledge that 99% of the population will take one look at this and shudder at the mere thought of going outside. Alas, the sun came out halfway through the run and took half the fun away (the gale force wind remained). Never mind, there's plenty more where that weather came from.

Getting out of the door was a bit of a struggle. During the week it takes me only 15 minutes to get from bed to door. Yesterday I was just about to leave when Maia woke and I had to make her breakfast, as well as a little chat. Then I was just about to leave when Shea woke, looking for some books, toys and breakfast. Then I was just about to leave when Cian woke, asking for breakfast as well. When Niamh woke I decided she was old enough to make her own breakfast and left, otherwise I would never have gotten out.

I seem to have overcome that damn cold that had me in its grip for 6 weeks. I did my last cough halfway through the Dingle marathon, and no problems since. Niamh is still a bit afflicted, which means the difference between us must have come from the healing powers of the marathon. Unfortunately, something else has crept up; Shea had a sore tummy yesterday and Maia was coughing heavily all day yesterday as well as last night, which made for another interrupted night of sleep. Real life isn't going away just because you're a runner, I suppose.

I'm still feeling fine, though. The 10 miles this morning were my first double-digits since the marathon last Saturday. I'm not sure how long the deeper effects of 26 mile last but I can't believe how quickly I have recovered from this. Running a marathon used to be tough, you know.

Today is of course the anniversary of 9/11 and the mood is rather sombre. I didn't know anyone personally, though the London office of Castor-Fitzgerald were customer of the company I was working for at the time and they were of course utterly devastated. It's a time to appreciate your own family more than ever.

10 Sep

8 miles, 1:02:20, 7:47 pace, HR 144

11 Sep

10 miles, 1:17:39, 7:45 pace, HR 145

Irene and Katia

The Caribic and the Gulf of Mexico might be far away from Ireland, but their weather does have an influence on ours. Once the hurricanes have finished their business over there they tend to cross the Atlantic, dumping the rest of their load over here. By then the wind strength is down to gale force and the rainfall is variable, but it never makes for great running conditions. A few runs in what used to be Irene were followed by half a day of nice weather and now Katia is paying us a visit. Bring on winter, I say.

I'm actually really looking forward to winter – not the potential for weeks of ice on untreated roads like the last 2 years, but the heavy mileage training that will be on the menu. Last year I trained very hard for the Vienna marathon. I achieved my dream target but at the cost of feeling mentally drained. I spent the last 6 months running purely for fun, not following a program, running just enough to keep my fitness level steady and racing for fun. Considering the lack of focus, my results this summer have been astounding, with new PBs in the 5K (which I thought I’d never reach again), 10K and 15 miles. But now my mojo for the marathon and beyond has returned and I'm looking forward to running long hours in the dark again. Some don’t like it, I love it.

A couple of videos From Dingle have appeared on youtube, and I like the embedded one. Grellan and I are 1:30 into it, easily recognisable by the yellow tops and the balloon. Grellan’s balloon is already gone, so the video must have been taken after the 4 mile mark. I have to say I look rather relaxed, obviously just out for a morning jog. But have a look at the runner 4:20 into the video. WTF!



Following the marathon on Saturday I took it very easy this week. The legs felt great on Wednesday and I thought they might already have forgotten about Dingle, but felt a lot more tired on Thursday, so I dialled it back again this morning. My sleep hasn’t exactly been helped by the presence of a certain 3-year old in the house. 3 times this week she woke at 4:xx in the morning to tell us that she needed the toilet and as much as I tried to get across that she can use the toilet without telling me in advance, I haven’t managed to get through yet. Twice she also woke me in the middle of the night because she was hungry and wanted breakfast – I would have gotten 8 hours of sleep without her all week, in reality this never happened. Her big brother was a night old as well at that age – if she follows in his footsteps, there are 3 more years of that to come. And yet her mother sleeps soundly through all that!

7 Sep

6.1 miles, 47:15, 7:45 pace, HR 147

8 Sep

8 miles, 1:03:25, 7:56 pace, HR 146

9 Sep

5 miles, 40:04, 8:02 pace, HR 142

Random Thoughts

I gained 3 pounds between Friday and Monday despite running a marathon on Saturday and then not having much of an appetite for the rest of that day. This is entirely consistent with any marathon I've ever done; I'm perfectly used to it but still baffled about the reason why this is happening. It's not calories, maybe it's water leaking out of damaged muscles fibres and staying there for a few days as someone once suggested.

Talking about weight reminds me of Richard’s comment

I must weigh at least 30 to 35 pounds more than you so my performances are world class with that sort of handicap.

In other words, he thinks I'm crap.

Someone else left a comment, this time regarding pacing in Dingle

I was pacing using the traditional method of a watch and mile markers, used long before Garmins were invented.

... but he forgot to add “and being told to slow down every other mile or so". That said, I could have done with someone telling me to slow down at mile 11. We covered that in 7:30, the fastest mile of the day by far. It was downhill, but we managed to temporarily lose almost the entire group. Sorry about that. Apart from that glitch, I am very happy with our pacing performance.

Dingle was a great event and fantastically organised, it really is a major shame that there was a glitch in the timing, with some people not being registered. I think it was mainly the half marathon runners that were affected. In the morning I had discussed that very detail with Niamh, along the lines of “timing chips integrated in the number are a great idea” “ ... as long as it works”, which was almost prophetic. Apparently that same timing system had had serious problems at a different local race this year as well – time to get rid, I think. For an event that worked so well on just about every other level, this one problem really sucks.

Niamh and I went for a drive later that day, first up Connor Pass and then around Slea Head, which meant Niamh got a very good idea of the ultra course. “I cannot believe you ran all that!” I take it as a compliment.

She also challenged me to run up Connor Pass on Sunday morning. For a second I actually seriously contemplated doing just that, but in the end sanity won out. I did not run at all on Sunday, but went for a walk up to Eask Tower with Niamh. The views there are absolutely jaw-dropping, it’s highly recommended.

I wasn’t sore at all after the marathon, just a little bit stiff on Monday, and by today, Tuesday, even that is gone. It really was just a comfortable long, slow training run for me. I might do more of that kind.

5 Sep

5 miles, 41:03, 8:13 pace, HR 137

6 Sep

5 miles, 39:57, 7:59 pace, HR 140

Over The Hills And Far Away

This one was an easy sell. "Honey, do you want to spend a free weekend in Dingle, just the two of us?" I think she was on the phone to Nana to mind the kids for us before I had even finished my sentence. So we found ourselves in Dingle on Friday evening, in a B&B just 100 meters away from the start line, now that is service.

The weather had been absolutely scary on Friday but we awoke on Saturday to absolutely perfect running conditions, no wind, no rain, cloudy, what more could you ask for. I shared pacing duties for the 3:30 marathon group with Grellan. I had hoped he would help keeping an eye on the pace but his Garmin had given up the ghost and it was up to me to keep us on target.

Wearing the bright yellow pacing tops from the Cork marathon was a good move. They are so distinctive. We shared the first half of the race with the half marathon runners and it subsequently was busy enough. There are other races who are vying for the tag of most scenic road race, and they all have things going for them, but the Dingle course is truly special. I did make sure to point out a few particularly beautiful views, but I don't think our pacees were particularly interested, they were busy enough trying to keep up, fully understandably so. 3 miles into the run, Grellan got a bit too close to the blackberry bushes. From that moment on, I was the only balloon man.

Pacing Dingle is a bit trickier than most marathons; there are no flat bits at all and the 350 feet killer hill awaiting at mile 22 demands some planning. We decided to bank about 2 minutes by mile 20 which meant running all miles between 5 and 10 seconds faster, depending on the hills. Grellan had had a look at previous results and pointed out that last year only 24 runners had broken 3:30; his prediction was that we would finish on our own. We had a decent group with us at first; at mile 9 I looked around and there were about 12 runners. At mile 11 I turned around again and went like "where the f*ck is everyone?", there was just one lady and nobody else. We eased up on the pace a bit and gathered our lost sheep. At mile 12 the half marathoners left us and the obvious joke "Half runners to the left, real men to the right" proved irresistible, but it did get a couple of laughs.

The climb out of Dunquin is challenging, we lost a couple more runners but kept on pace. At mile 17 I chatted with the only lady in our group. She told me she was suffering but agreed that the best thing to do was to hang on for as long as possible. I knew she would be well placed in the ladies' standings. As it turns out she was second, but as she was several minutes behind the leader but several minutes ahead of number three, our pacing did not have an influence on the actual placings.

As was inevitable, we steadily lost runners in our group and by the time we hit the big climb at mile 22 we were down to 3. One went ahead, the other 2 fell behind and Grellan's prediction looked very realistic. We did encourage runners to keep up as we passed them, but nobody took up the offer for long.

As challenging as the course is, running at 8-minute pace was so comfortable I never lost the perception that I was out for a comfortable stroll. At one point I told Grellan that my last long run had been the Cork marathon, prompting him to say I was faking my way to a marathon, but then I remembered a 20-mile run a few weeks ago, so I DID do some training. Anyway, I still felt perfectly comfortable even going up that steep hill. We reached the top with about 30 seconds still in the bank and took it very easy on the way down, which meant we got caught by a few runners we had just passed on the uphill, but nobody of our original group managed to come back.

Coming onto the last stretch it turned out that Grellan had been absolutely correct - we were indeed on our own. As he had already made suggestions about a final 100 meter sprint to determine the winner, I challenged him. He later claimed he let me win. Niamh confirmed that. I like to think he had been psyched out. In any case, it was a fun way to end a great run, milking the applause of the crowd for all it was worth.

The final sprint meant we were a bit quicker than planned, but I had 3:29:06 on my Garmin as I crossed the line, which is a perfectly acceptable time for a 3:30 pacer, and considering the tricky terrain I like to think we had done a good job. It would have felt better to have some runner with us at the line, but I know even so we did help a good few runners for as long as we could.

It definitely was the most fun I've ever had during the marathon. It looks like I've reached the point where I can run a 3:30 marathon at the drop of a hat, even without training specifically for it and even on a course as challenging as Dingle. It's a good place to be.

3 Sep

Dingle Marathon, 3:30 pacer, 3:29:06, 7:58 pace, HR 152

Mental Preparation

I'm just sitting here, mentally preparing for tomorrow's marathon. I've avoided doing so until now, but with 19 hours to go to the start it may be time to focus on the task at hand. Even if you're running slower than you're capable of, a marathon still deserves respect, especially one with a 350 feet killer hill at mile 21.

I'm really looking forward to this now. Anyone reading this is more than welcome to come up and say hello. I will be easy to spot; there will be one really good looking bloke in a yellow top with the balloon for the 3:30 pace group. That's Grellan, of course. The other one will be me.

After all the excitement of the weekend I did nothing but easy running this week, at roughly Dingle pace to get the legs used to that. I got it slightly wrong today and ran a bit too fast without noticing (I don't really check the Garmin during easy runs). I trust Grellan will keep an eye on the pace tomorrow. I've still got a cough and it still sounds a bit scary first thing in the morning but I can tell it's getting better. Niamh confirmed that she is feeling better as well, so I'd say we're all on the mend. It took long enough.

One thing I learned this week is that I need a belt once the weight drops below 145 pounds. My trousers are falling down and I can't afford to buy new ones. Shopping for trousers is a complete pain anyway, half the time they don't cater for my size and I hate the hassle of it all. I guess it's the price I have to pay for being a runner.

The weather forecast for tomorrow looks a bit dodgy; depending on who you believe we either will get wet or just about avoid it. One thing is for sure, there will be no repeat of the heat wave of the last 2 years (relatively speaking, obviously). It's gonna be good fun.

31 Aug

8 miles, 1:03:55, 7:59 pace, HR 145

1 Sep

6.1 miles, 48:07, 7:53 pace, HR 145

2 Sep

5 miles, 39:00, 7:48 pace, HR 147