I Feel Good!

I’ve just finished three hard (-ish) days in a row, and I’m feeling fantastic. Monday’s 10 miles went very well. The sky was slightly overcast and the wind was blustery, but it still made for very decent running conditions. I was a bit wary of today, because instead of the scheduled recovery run I decided to do double-figures again because I can’t run on Wednesday. To make things worse, I had to drive Niamh's parents to the airport in the morning for a 6:10 am departure, which meant getting up at 4:35! I dropped them off, and when I got home decided that I had enough time for 11 miles, so that’s what I went for. I couldn’t believe how well it went. Despite the fact that I had slept less than 5 hours, and despite running 10 on Monday and 8 on Sunday, the whole run seemed utterly effortless. When I got home I was pleased how well I felt, but when I checked the time and realised that I had done the run at 8:00 pace, I couldn’t believe it. Running has never felt so easy, and I feel in great shape already. The marathon is still some 22 weeks away, and I’m already looking forward to it – if I don’t demolish my present PR by a significant margin, I shall be very disappointed.

Maybe I shouldn’t look too far into the future just yet, there are still an awful lot of miles ahead of me, and who knows how long the high will last.

Nana was only here for two nights, but Cian managed to demolish a DVD of hers. We were all sitting at dinner, suddenly he took off, and by the time we realised what he was up to, the damage had been done. Despite being rather embarrassed, I couldn’t help feeling just a tiny bit pleased underneath – finally Nana knows that we're not exaggerating when we tell her of his destructive streak.

On a totally different note, it’s now exactly one year since I’ve started this blog. I had finished my second marathon a few weeks earlier, in Belfast, where I had an absolute nightmare of a run. Afterwards I decided that a) I’m not done with that marathon thingy yet and b) I have to learn how to properly prepare for such a distance. This lead me to buy Pfitzinger’s book, as well as starting this blog to keep a diary and to ensure that I would remain focused. I didn’t even know that there was a whole community of running blogs out there – it took me a few months to discover those. I haven’t looked back since.

29 May: 10 miles, 1:26, 8:36 pace
30 May: 11 miles, 1:28, 8:00 pace

Honestly, I’m fine

The weather had threatened to become bearable again, but of course on Friday the rain came back one more time with a vengeance – and since Friday is my long run day, it meant 14 soggy miles. But, I have decided that, actually, I like running in the rain. I don’t get blisters from wet feet, and the rain ensures I never get too hot. So, all in all, I had 14 untroubled miles. Of course there was nobody else out running on a day like this, which is maybe why that one car felt the need to hoot at me as he/she was passing me. Maybe the driver was so amazed to see a figure running out there at 5:50am in the rain – I admit, it’s not what most other people would have chosen to do.

Saturday was my rest day, and today’s 8 miles finished off the week on 52 miles. I felt pretty good, but anyone running beside me would have thought I was on the verge of collapse. Due to my hay fever, my chest seems to be a bit blocked, so every breath is accompanied by a rasping noise. I probably sound like an asthmatic, but to be honest it doesn’t hinder my running effort. I still get enough oxygen to keep going at my pace, and it really is not a problem. It was only when I did a few quick strides that I noticed I was quickly reaching the limit of my air supply, but a normal aerobic running effort was ever sustainable, and I felt really strong towards the end.

Niamh has to go to Dublin on Tuesday evening (and won’t be back until Wednesday night) to attend some one-day course for her work, which means I won’t be able to run on Wednesday. I’ll swap next Saturday’s rest day, but that means I’ll be running 9 days in a row after that. It’s not ideal to say the least, and I’ll most likely put in 2 10 milers on Monday and Tuesday respectively to ensure that the following days are easier with plenty of recovery days. I could do without obstacles like this, but family life does come with its own challenges.

Oh, yeah, family challenges. What has Cian been up to? Let me think. He took the figs that mummy was soaking in order to make a cake and battered them in a big bowl of flour (I thought that was really funny, Niamh didn’t), he smeared some Savlon cream all over himself and a mirror, he smashed a few more eggs, and the washing machine is working all out to deal with the after-effects of a not-yet completely mastered toilet training program. Basically, business as usual.

26 May: 14 miles, 1:56, 8:17 pace.
28 May: 8 miles, 1:03, 7:52 pace

Shock to the System

My 10 miler yesterday started just like any other 10 miler I’ve run recently: get up at 6, get some breakfast for me and Shea, pacify Shea with telly to prevent him from waking the rest of the house, and leave. It looked like it was going to be a nice day, with the sun peeking through the clouds. The run went well until about 7 miles when I started to get all kinds of aches and pains. Not just in the legs, e.g. my right shoulder was really sore. As I continued, my eyes started to get more and more sore, and when they started itching, I realised that I was suffering from an allergic reaction. I’m very familiar with allergies, having suffered from hay fever since the age of 12. I got home and had a shower, but my eyes were so swollen that Niamh wanted to send me to the doctor straight away. I started to feel better after 30 minutes or so, and decided to skip the doctor and buy some anti-histamine in the pharmacy instead. I felt like crap until lunchtime (and the tablets made me drowsy), but felt better and better in the afternoon, and was fine by the time I left work around 6pm. I’m not sure about the cause, but suspect that it was fairly severe hay fever from some pollen. This could cause a real problem with my running schedule if it happens again, but for the time being I’ll carry on as usual.

On the plus side, I’m feeling much better than a few days ago. The head cold is mostly gone, and the achilles/calf issue (I am back to thinking that it was the achilles) seems to have disappeared as well. I’ve started to do some specific strengthening exercises, mostly to get the feeling that I’m doing something about this.

Today’s recovery run went very well, I really got into the “slow running” mode. At one stage I felt like I was gliding just above the ground with very little effort. When running the Connemara marathon, after about 11 miles or so, one of the ultra runners overtook me (it was mile 24 for him) and I noticed his peculiar running style, his feet hardly left the ground – he still went past me like a rocket of course. In some ways I got that feeling today, I hardly seemed to lift the feet, and the heart rate was very low despite the fact that I was running uphill at the time. Maybe I’m finally getting a handle on that running economy thingy.

There was one more very unusual occurrence: another runner! Yes, it’s unbelievable, I know. I was rounding a corner, and all of a sudden I saw another figure trotting along about 100 meters ahead of me. I tamed my competitive instinct to catch the guy and kept to my recovery effort, and we ran about a mile at the same pace, him maybe half a minute ahead of me. Then he turned around and headed towards me. My cheerful “Good Morning” was completely ignored though; I didn’t even get a nod in reply. Ah well – must have been from Dublin, I suppose.

24 May: 10 miles, 1:23, 8:18 pace
25 May: 5 miles, 47:05, 9:25 pace

Various Pains

Weather-wise we were wondering whether we would witness wonderfully wintry wemperatures. Sorry about that. It actually stopped raining, and I hardly got wet this morning, but the temperatures have dropped so much that I was running in long sleeves the last two days. Normally I’m always out in short sleeves/shorts until the temperatures reach about 0C/32F, but running in Sunday’s rain had the unwelcome side-effect that I caught a bit of a head-cold. It’s nothing serious, and it passes the neck-test; but I really wished the headaches and the blocked nose would stop. Yesterday’s 10 miles were maybe a bit too fast, but for today’s recovery run I really kept the effort at the easy, easy, easy level, to avoid another scolding from Coach Mike. In fact, I felt a bit light-headed and woozy when I got up this morning and told myself to bag the workout if the heart rate was elevated, but once I was out running I immediately felt better, and the heart rate was always in the proper range when I checked.

The other thing bothering me is my right calf. I’m not sure what the issue is at the moment. At first I though it was an achilles strain, started off from the sprained ankle on Thursday, but the area of the pain is about two inches above the area where I last suffered from tendonitis, and slightly to the inside of my leg. I tried to search the web about this, but didn’t come up with anything. It didn’t bother me while out running, but it was quite sore today, as well as last night. As long as it doesn’t get more painful than that, it won’t stop me from running, but I’m a bit paranoid at the moment. I’m well aware that I’m already running close to the highest weekly mileage I’ve ever done, and it’s only the second week of training. I guess the chances of getting injured are always there, and I’m a bit nervous about this.

Curtai’s last comment made me go and check the average yearly rainfall in Kerry. Well, apparently it’s a whopping 1770 mm per year. No wonder I’m getting wet regularly.

Since you’re all desperate to know, Cian’s training is going as expected, apart from the fact that he utterly, totally and completely refuses to sit on the potty. It has to be the proper toilet or nothing. Suits me.

22 May: 10 miles, 1:22, 8:12 pace
23 May: 5 miles, 46:28, 9:17 pace

Various Ramblings

Saturday was a historic day in the Irish province of Munster. For the first time, the rugby team won the Heineken Cup (the top European rugby trophy), and the whole province is going bonkers. We happened to be in Limerick yesterday, the hotbed of rugby, and not only was the town half empty (there were tens of thousands in Cardiff for the final), but most of the remaining few people were congregated in O’Connell Street where a huge screen was erected to screen the game live. The whole place went nuts at the final whistle. Today the roads are dead quiet, even more so than usual, as everyone seems to have to biggest hangover since, well, last Paddy’s Day.

Unfortunately, the weather God isn’t celebrating with us. Friday and Saturday gave us a break from the relentless rain. Alas, reprieve was short-lived, and today the heavens have opened again. I got up at 8am, but waited until 10.30 in the hope that the conditions would improve. Eventually I gave up waiting and just headed out into the rain. I might be completely mad, but I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t very windy, which made the rain much more bearable, and somehow running in the lashing rain gives you a feeling of “I’m hardcore!”. Maybe that’s why I ran too fast yet again, or more likely it was attempt to keep warm. My ankle had been painful for most of yesterday and even this morning, but I didn’t feel it at all while out running. Thanks go to Hilda for reminding me about icing it. Oh, and guess what – it stopped raining half an hour after I came home.

I haven’t reported much about Cian’s misbehaviour recently. Well, he did scratch yet another DVD this morning (which infuriated me, but I’ve calmed down by now). The real mess was when he discovered a 5 kg bag of lentils in one of the kitchen cabinets. It was maybe half full, but you can still cause an awful mess with 2.5kg of lentils. To be fair, he didn’t actually pour it out, he just seemed to be fascinated by the texture, and kept running the lentils through his hands. Even so, the chaos caused was considerable. And he’s just started toilet training. I promise I won’t give you the details, and I still remember that time when we trained the twins, with me once saying that this was my least favourite part of parenthood. As I said, I’ll spare you the details, but at least we haven’t had any major accidents so far.

21 May: 7 miles, 54:31, 7:47 pace

Rain, Rain Go Away!

To say the weather has been nasty recently would be a massive understatement. It’s like the running gods wanted to test my resolve early on, and challenged me to get wet day after day after day. I’m glad I do all my runs in the morning; somehow it never seems so bad then. Up to yesterday it was the same every day. I would run in the rain after getting up, go to work, and as I’m driving home in the evening rain and wind I think to myself “Am I glad I don’t have to go running now in those conditions”.

Anyway, I’ve again managed 6 days in a row, but it’s not really grounds for celebration. I feel quite tired, and I think the lack of an extra rest day is telling. I hope I get used to that sooner rather than later, because the training is only going to get more challenging as the weeks go by. I ran Wednesday’s 10 miler too fast, time and again I caught myself speeding up, consciously slowed down to a more manageable pace, but as soon as my mind started wandering again, the legs increased the pace again. Even yesterday’s recovery run was too fast, sub-9 pace is not really recovery pace for me, even if the HR was only slightly out of the recommended zone. (By the way, I’m not really a slave to my HRM. I hardly ever check the HR during the run, only afterwards, when I log the time and average HR). I played a good hour of football last night, and at one stage slightly twisted my ankle. It wasn’t too bad, the pain stopped after a minute, and I didn’t think much about it. When I started today’s 13 miler, I felt really stiff and tired, which I put down to the football. After about 2 miles I started to get a numb kind of pain in my left calf/knee - it’s hard to describe, and I couldn’t even tell which bit was actually hurting, the top of my calf or the outside of my knee. That pain subsided soon, and until mile 10 the run was ok, even if the effort was slightly laboured. But all of a sudden my ankle let me know that it wasn’t happy, the same one I had twisted the night before. I was nearly at the turn-around point of my final 5-mile loop, so I continued on, hoping that it would get better. It didn’t, and the last 3 miles were agony. Boy, was I glad when I got back home. I don’t think I aggravated anything, and tomorrow is my rest day anyway, but I’ll keep an eye on it over the next few days.

17 May: 10 miles, 1:21, 8:06 pace
18 May: 5 miles, 44:37, 8:55 pace
19 May: 13 miles, 1:51, 8:32 pace

Marathon Training

The weather forecast had been pretty gruesome for the last couple of days, with wind and rain, and storm warnings for tomorrow. So far that hasn’t quite happened; while it was raining heavily each night, by the time of my runs it had calmed down to a mere drizzle on both occasions. Let’s hope tomorrow’s forecast will be equally exaggerated, because as much as I want to go running every day, running in a storm is too dangerous. I can’t run in the wood because there are heavy branches falling off trees each time there is a storm, and I can’t run along Caragh Lake because I would not feel safe from the cars on the road.

Monday was the beginning of my marathon training program, not that the runs have been markedly different. Sunday’s 8 miles were not part of the training, but Monday’s 10 miles were, but to be honest, they felt pretty much the same. My legs felt quite heavy on both runs, but manageable on each account. And on today’s recovery run, I had the lowest heart rate during a run I can remember. All of last year I ran with a pace that felt ok, but according to most of the training books around, my heart rate was consistently too high. Now, all of a sudden, I am still running at roughly the same pace, but the heart rate is in the correct zone. I certainly won’t attempt to speed up again, not with me cranking up the mileage to new levels.

For all (ok, both) of you enquiring about the pronunciation of Celtic names, Cian is pronounced “Key-ann”, Niamh is pronounced a bit like “Nee-uhv”, and (before you ask) Shea is pronounced “Shay”. I’ve heard some mispronunciations, especially from Americans (sorry, no offence), that made my ears hurt.

15 May: 10 miles, 1:24, 8:24 pace
16 May: 5 miles, 46:18, 9:15 pace

Cross-training of some sort

Thankfully the weather forecast for the weekend had been wrong. Saturday was a very nice day with plenty of sunshine, which I used to work in the garden like a galley slave. After 8 hours of cutting grass, planting blueberry bushes, strimming rushes and cutting down yet more gorse, I was as tired as after a marathon.

Cian has found some new ways of causing havoc. Yesterday he took off his nappy when nobody was watching and of course ended up weeing on the floor. Thankfully he missed the carpet, and it was easy to clean from the wooden floorboards. Today he insisted on helping making brunch, which unfortunately ended with the eggs poured all over the oven and the cooker, and both Mummy and Cian in tears. I had to drive to the shop and get some more eggs to pacify all parties in question, and eventually peace of some sort was restored in Caragh Lake.

I finished the week with a run of a bit more than 8 miles. I don’t know if it was down to the miles during the week, or the gardening work yesterday, but my legs felt like lead, and I really had to work on it. The weather has belatedly followed the forecast, it was raining heavily all night, but it had quietened down to a mere drizzle by the time of my run.

I measured my resting heart rate this morning; it was 46, down from 48 when I measured it last about a year ago. The significance of that? Not sure, but I found it interesting in a geeky way anyway.

14 Mar: 8.1 miles, 1:09, 8:31 pace

Postman Pat, Postman Pat, Postman Pat

and his black and white cat … early in the morning … just as day is dawning ... Pat thinks he’s a very lucky man. Why am I typing this? Because that little jingle has been going round and round in my head for a combined 20 miles over the last two days. You see, I got up at 6:40 yesterday (well, Shea woke me), served some breakfast for the boys and turned on the telly for them. I know, I know, TV isn’t a parent replacement, but I wanted to go running and Niamh doesn’t exactly fancy entertaining two boys before 7am, so cbeebies (that’s a kids TV channel. Great, because no ads) it was. And as I turned on the box, Postman Pat started. Which is good in one way because it is one of their favourite programs. The bad thing was that now I had the tune in my head as I went out for my 7 miles. It went round and round in my head. And round. And round. And round. For 7 miles solid. When I got home I thought “at least it’s not Friday, then it would have been in my head for 13 miles”.
So what happened today? I left just before 6am, and for whatever reason, after two steps my brain was at it again. “Postman Pat, Postman Pat ….”. Relentless. When I got back home nearly 2 hours later I was ready to check into an asylum (which is where I belong anyway, according to Niamh. Someone who gets up at 5:35am to go out for a 13 miles run more than 25 weeks before the next marathon should be kept in a padded cell, apparently).

From a physical point of view, the run was great. No pain, which doesn’t happen too often. I deliberately started very slowly, 9:30 pace or so, and gradually increased my pace as the run went on. I eventually finished in 1:55, which is 5 minutes slower than last week, but today’s run was over some major hills, including a wicked 1 mile climb with about 90 meters elevation gain (nearly 300 feet) between mile 5.5 and 6.5. I’ve also been running for 6 days straight, something I have never done before. Now my legs have got that slightly sore feeling that you get after a proper workout, and it feels good. The weather has been great for the last couple of days, only to turn bad just in time for the weekend. Bummer. Tomorrow is my rest day, and Sunday’s 8 miles will finish the week on 46 miles, as planned. And Monday will be the first day of the 24 weeks/70 miles marathon training program.

10 May: 5 miles, 45:52, 9:10 pace
11 May: 7 miles, 58:52, 8:24 pace
12 May: 13 miles, 1:55, 8:50 pace

Nothing exciting to report

I’m in the last week before the marathon training starts in earnest. I’m slowly increasing my mileage. I did 41 miles last week, and I’m planning 46 for this week, which will lead nicely to the 50 miles planned for next week. This week I’m also switching to running 6 times a week, something that’s new to me. Of course this means that this week’s run are no longer than last week.

I did 5 easy miles on Monday, and 8 today. I felt a bit dead on my legs today, but managed to get round ok. One thing I’ve been thinking about is nutrition before and while running. I always used to eat a cereal before my run, and if the run was 15 miles or more, I’d take a gel at 10 miles. Now Mike has at least twice talked about not using gels during the training to get the body used to running low on carbs, and I had been thinking about that anyway. The next stage would be not to eat breakfast before the run. I’m all set to try and run without gels – I’m confident that I should manage that reasonably well. But I’m definitely balking at the idea of running on an empty stomach. I’ll have to think about that more. There’s only so much suffering I’m prepared to take.

I had a look through my running diary and found a run of 8 miles in 1:06 for Dec 7th, about 2 or 3 weeks into my marathon training for Connemara. My average HR had been 163. Today I covered the same distance, on the same road, at the same pace with a HR of 150. Good.

8 May: 5 miles, 46:59, 9:23 pace
9 May: 8 miles, 1:06, 8:15 pace

The Ongoing Saga of Cian B.

Angie inspired me to scan this picture of Cian. Doesn’t he just look like an angel that can do no wrong? He had us quite fooled over the last few days. He hardly misbehaved at all, but of course it was just part of his cunning plan to lure us into a false sense of security. Once our backs were turned for 2 minutes, he broke into the video cabinet, and of all the tapes in there he took out the cleaning tape. He managed to rip the top of the container with the cleaning fluid (no idea how he managed that. The last time I used it, it took me 5 minutes to take the bloody thing off) and spilt the toxic content all around him on the floor. I cleaned it as best as I could, but the chemical smell was lingering for quite some time. To top it off, he managed to scratch yet another DVD - I’ve lost count on how many he’s ruined so far. He takes them out of the player, and I haven’t yet managed to train Shea to put them back into the case after he’s finished watching them.

Oh, and I managed to go out for my 9 miles run as well. I just about managed to squeeze it right between two of the many rain showers we’ve had over the last couple of days. The weather has been mad. One minute there’s glorious sunshine with hardly a cloud in sight, and 5 minutes later you’re in a deluge that you think the place will be flooded any moment now. The run went very well, apart from the same pain in my calf that I had felt on Friday. I started to feel it after about 10 minutes, but it gradually subsided and I didn’t feel it at all on the way back. I also threw in a few strides – Pfitzinger recommends them highly, but I didn’t really bother last time round. But they are also very highly recommended in Kevin Beck’s book, and I decided to be good and start doing them again. I finished the 9 miles in 1:13. I thought the pace would have been around 8:30, but when I calculated it, it was 8:06. I couldn’t believe it. In fact, I dug out my HRM again to check if I had read the time wrongly. But no, I hadn’t. Maybe I’m getting faster after all. I think the half last week really gave me a boost, but can it really have an effect already, just a few days later?

7 May: 9 miles, 1:13, 8:06 pace

Another Rainy Day

Last night I was deliberating if I should do a 13-mile run on Friday and 9 miles on the weekend, or the other way round. As I’m planning to do my long runs during the marathon training on Fridays, I decided to get into that routine early on, and set my alarm for 5:35am. When I got up at that ungodly hour, it was raining and a storm was blowing. Rather than going back to bed like a sane person would have done, I got up, ate my cereal and got ready to go out. The first 3 miles were a brutal fight against the elements, then all of a sudden the rain stopped, the wind eased up gradually and running became a pleasure again. Of course, by that time I was soaked, and had to run the 10 following miles with soggy feet. Had I opted for 9 miles, I would have had a pleasant run in nice weather all the way. I guess that’s life.

My right calf didn’t feel right, it had some kind of numb pain (I can’t describe it any better), and even now, several hours later, it’s still not ok. Maybe running 13 miles on that wasn’t the cleverest thing I’ve ever done, but if I only went out when I feel 100%, I’d miss the majority of my workouts. Despite all that, the run went very well. When I checked the HRM at the end, the avg. heart rate was just 150. I don’t think I’ve ever run such a long run at a decent pace at such a low heart rate. I guess I’m still in good shape from all the training I did for Connemara. With some strenuous training yet to come, I hope to be in the form of my life by the time of the Dublin marathon.



I’ve scanned a few pictures from last week’s birthday party. Lola is the blond one in pink dress and necklace in the centre of one photo, Shea is the one blowing out the candles of the dinosaur cake. Cian can also be seen in that photo, he’s the one crying in the background (he very much enjoyed the rest of the party though). And the dinosaur cake went down a treat, especially with the boys.

4 May: 6 miles, 56:48, 9:28 pace
5 May: 13 miles, 1:50, 8:27 pace

It's Raining Again

After a week or two of sunshine the weather turned nasty on Tuesday. I was glad that I had gone out on Monday for my 5 miles recovery after the half, because Tuesday’s storm front didn’t look too inviting. It was still bad enough this morning when I got up, but after I had eaten my breakfast the wind stopped and the sun nearly started shining. Well, at least it stopped raining. I did 8 comfortable miles, the first 3 while wearing a wind jacket, which I ditched and continued in a t-shirt. Of course that meant that I got wet when the rain returned – I just can’t win. Apart from that, I felt fine. My quads were a bit sore yesterday from the downhill sections in Sunday’s race, but have pretty much recovered by now.

On a side note, I need to learn to count again. It is 26 weeks until Dublin, not 25, and I’ve got one extra week to increase my mileage before the training starts. I’ll do about 40 this week, 45 next, and the first week of the marathon training will be 50 miles. Perfect! I decided to go against Mike’s advice to do the 18 weeks training plan, mainly because the increase in mileage from 50 to 70 is much more gradual in the 24 weeks plan, and I definitely prefer to approach that level slowly. I guess I’ll find out it that was a good idea or not.

1 May: 5 miles, 45:49, 9:09 pace
3 May: 8 miles, 1:07, 8:22 pace

Whiskey In the Jar

I was going over
The Cork and Kerry mountains
When I saw Captain Farrell
His money he was counting

Well, actually I didn’t see the Captain, but I certainly went over the Cork and Kerry mountains, both by car and on foot. Last night I had set the alarm for 6am, but changed my mind in the middle of the night and re-set it for 5:45. That turned out to be a good move. Today wasn’t just the day of the half-marathon in Bantry, but also the “Rally Of the Lakes” in Killarney, which a serious number of people are following. As a result, the road I was intending to take was blocked and I had to re-route, which took me longer than planned (but was also very scenic over said mountains). My route also happened to take me from Glengarriff to Bantry, which is where the race would be run on. Thus I knew what was coming, especially the climb out of Glengarriff itself. The web site had mentioned something of a 1-mile climb, but I could see that that was barefaced lie – it was basically 2 miles (ok, 1.9 miles when I measured it again on the way back). I finally got to Bantry with less than 5 minutes to spare to get the bus to the start.

This was my first ever half-marathon (which is weird for someone who already has 4 marathons under his belt, I know), and I wasn’t sure how to pace myself. I had plenty of warnings from Mike and Liam not to start too fast. The plan was to start at 8:00 pace until about mile 5 (which is the highest point of the course) and then gradually accelerate and attempt to hold on to the higher pace until the finish. From the start, a lot of people overtake me, but I stick to my plan (and, in my mind, say to everyone who’s going past me, I’ll see you again soon enough). I miss the first mile marker, but at mile 2 my time is 16:00. How’s that for pacing? Mile 3 is 24:03, mile 4 32:10 (that is well into the climb out of Glengarriff). Somewhere between mile 4 and 5, on that long climb, I start overtaking people. Mile 5 passes in 41:58, which I don’t believe, cause there is no way that mile took nearly 10 minutes. Mile 6 is around 48:20, which confirms to me that the mile 5 marker was a bit off. By the way, my HRM doesn’t measure laps, so I’m quoting those times from memory. By now I’ve moved up the pace by a good bit, and I’m reeling in other runners for fun. My only worry is my HRM which keeps saying my heart rate is somewhere between 173 and 178, which seems too high to keep going until the finish, but I feel good and decide to keep going. I pass mile 8 at 1:03, mile 9 at 1:10 (no seconds on the timer from here on) and mile 10 and 1:18. I forgot the later splits, but basically each mile takes somewhere between 7 and 8 minutes. The course is never flat, after the big hill outside Glengarriff it’s rolling hills all the way to Bantry. Once or twice I start feeling worse, but concentrate on keeping my place and keep in touch with the runner ahead of me. After a minute or two I feel better again, and the overtaking starts again. At mile 11 I get a stitch – now there’s a rare thing. I slow down a little bit and concentrate on my breathing, and that problem passes too. At mile 12 someone pushed past me. I can’t quite keep up with the guy, but I decide to hitch a ride anyway, and keep him in my sights. We overtake a few more runners, and at mile 12.5 I put the hammer down and decide to treat it like a half-mile interval. I re-overtake the guy and storm towards the finish. There’s one more funny turn. There’s a guy with a microphone at the finishing line and he says things like number 326, that’s Mike Murphy, give him a good applause. Well, when I come along, he starts “number 266, that’s Thomas (long pause) erm .. (longer pause) WELL DONE THOMAS”. He’s not the first to have problems pronouncing my surname, which I owe to my Austrian-Czech ancestry, and he won’t be the last one.

Anyway, I basically sprint all the way to the finish and cross the line in 1:41:10. My aim had been 1:40, so I missed that, but I’m pleased all the same. On a flat course the same effort would probably have delivered 1:40 or even better. I also didn’t really train for this. The last 5 weeks were marked by my recovery from the Connemara marathon, and my only concession to today were two resting days before the race. I still felt very strong at the end, which might mean that I could have run a bit more aggressively, but then again my average heart rate was 175, which would be 93% of my max. Is that even possible? Maybe I should leave the HRM at home next time, but then again, it’s also my stopwatch, and I definitely prefer to know how far into the race I am. Today I never ran by heart rate, only by feel, and that went very well. It was definitely fun the catch runner after runner from mile 4.5 onwards, and it reminded me of Connemara in that respect.

The drive home was delayed by the bloody Rally again, and it took well over 2 hours to get home. I feel stiff as a plank by the time I’m home, and I know I will be feeling sore from all the downhill stretches tomorrow and on Tuesday. And if I counted correctly, it’s only 25 weeks to Dublin – the training for that is almost upon me.

30 Apr: 13.1 miles race, 1:41:10, 7:43 pace

Happy Birthday Lola and Shea!

Today is the twins’ fifth birthday, and they got very excited (again) about presents. Five years ago Niamh and me agreed resolutely not to gender-stereotype them, ever. But, five years later, all our intentions are in tatters. They are old enough to know what they want, and the presents reflect that. Shea got some Dinosaurs (and a volcano!) and a dinosaur story with him as the main character. Lola got a princess bed and a story of a ballerina, with her as the main character. Can you get any more stereotypical? Oh Dear!

The running is going very well indeed. I did a slow recovery run yesterday, and another 9 miles today, with a few strides thrown in for good measure. I felt great all the way. Getting up at 6:10 am is much easier now than it was during the winter, because it’s already very bright. One thing I must be much more disciplined about is going to bed early. I didn’t get enough sleep when training for Connemara, and when I'm training for Dublin I must plan for the fact that Shea usually wakes at 6 and I’m unlikely to sleep for another minute after that.

The weather is absolutely gorgeous at the moment. Niamh took all the children for a pick nick in the Killarney National Park, while I had to waste my time in the office. Life just isn’t fair!

26 Apr: 6 miles, 57:13, 9:32 pace
27 Apr: 9 miles, 1:13, 8:06 pace

Getting Faster

I’ve got 5 days before the half, and decided to have one more tempo run. I know it won’t have any benefits for the actual race, but I needed a psychological boost more than a physical one. I have gotten faster every week since the marathon, and over the weekend was quite surprised at how much I had improved in only one week. 10 days ago running at 8:00 pace was basically impossible, and on Saturday I managed it without even trying. I must be in better shape than I thought I was.

I won’t be tapering for the half (it’s only a half, after all), but I will take two days off before the run. Today was the last fast run; I did a 2 miles warm-up, then 4 miles at LT tempo (which in my case means a HR of around 170) and 2 miles cool-down. The pace for the speedy part turned out to be 7:05, which is 10 seconds faster per mile than a similar run in the middle of my marathon training a few months ago.

Cian has caused more drama in the meantime. On both Saturday and Sunday I had to mind all 3 children on my own for a few hours. At one stage I spent maybe 5 minutes with the twins, and then started looking for Cian. I found him in the kitchen, just about to raid the cupboard (again!). I pried him away and turned around only to see big black smoke coming out of the toaster. As I turned it off, big flames started to come out of it. Cian was as excited as I was shocked. Once the flames had died down, I found some crepe paper lying around. He must have stuffed some of it into the toaster and turned it on. I don’t even want to think about what could have happened! I feel guilty about it, but don’t really know what I should have done better. I can’t be in more than one place at the same time.

On several less serious occasions, he has raided the kitchen cabinet. After two years of relentless trying, he managed to break the childproof lock, and I haven’t got round to replacing it yet. On one occasion he left a trail of weetabix behind him (at least it meant he was easy to find), and twice he snatched a full packet of porridge and poured it, well, all over the place. There was so much porridge on the floor that he thought he was on the beach!

Oh, and the twins had their 5th birthday party today. The birthday is not until Thursday, but for logistical reasons the party was today. I arrived home at lunchtime to find a massive bouncy castle in the garden. It was nearly as high as the house itself! They had invited 33 kids (33!!!!), and 31 turned up. It was like an invasion. To my immense surprise, the house is still standing, nothing was broken, and every single one seemed to have had a very good time. They got so many presents that they still haven’t opened all of them. Oh wouldn’t it be nice to be so young and excitable again?

25 Apr: 8 miles, 1:03, 7:52 pace (with 4 miles at 7:05 pace)

Stupid!

I did three really stupid things over the last three days.

Stupid thing number one, I set the alarm clock to go off at 6:15 on Friday morning for my 8 mile run, but forgot to actually turn it on. I even awoke at 6:25 but didn’t click, and by the time I realised what had happened it was too late to go out and run. Since Saturday is normally a rest day for me I decided to swap those two days around. It’s a slight violation of the hard-easy principle because I also planned 11 miles for Sunday, but 8 and 11 miles aren’t that hard.

Stupid thing number two was the pace for Saturday’s run. If it was the joy of having our car back (and functioning) or if it was exuberance more befitting a man half my age, I don’t know. What I do know is that running at sub-8 pace isn’t a normal run for me. It wasn’t quite a tempo run; that would have been more like 7:15 pace for a few miles. Instead I kept my pace very steady for the whole distance, and while the run went very well, I was quite tired afterwards, and felt a twinge in my left hamstring for the rest of the day. To compound my tiredness I also worked for well over three hours in the garden, trying to get rid of some more gorse, which resulted in my arms looking like I'd had a fight with a wild cat.

Stupid thing number three was the fact that I ran 11 miles on Sunday in full sunshine without any access to water. I drank plenty of water before the run, but started to feel thirsty after only three or so miles. I thought about turning around, having a drink at home and going for a second loop, but decided against it. It had taken me 15 minutes or so to say bye to the children, especially Lola who, overdramatically, begged me not to go, and I didn’t fancy a repeat performance. So I plodded on. I actually felt a little bit better on the way back, because a bit of a breeze helped me to stay cool. It’s not often that I welcome a head wind, but that was one of those occasions. I made it home in good time, but I really have to be more careful in future, dehydration isn’t something I should take lightly.

So there you have it, my list of errors laid bare. Will I learn from it? Maybe.

Cian has caused more havoc in the meantime, but this blog entry is already long enough.

22 Apr: 8 miles, 1:02, 7:45 pace
23 Apr: 11 miles, 1:30, 8:10 pace

Nearly Stranded

We had a bit of drama in Dublin. On Tuesday afternoon, the day before we were meant to drive all the way across Ireland back to Kerry, Niamh rang me to tell me that the car had broken down. Luckily it was just half a mile from the house, so I ran down to help her. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong, and we ended up calling the AA (as in Automobile Association, not Alcoholics Anonymous). The guy arrived an hour later, and, after on hour of a lot of head scratching, figured the fuel pump was broken. There was nothing he could do about it there, and he towed us all the way to AA headquarters. From there the car will be brought to a garage in Tralee for repairs (which will hopefully be done by Friday). We got a rental car, and drove back to Kerry yesterday. Niamh had to give it back today, and, please God, we will have our full complement of cars (two) back by tomorrow. Our cover plan with the AA meant that the whole episode didn’t cost us anything, apart from 14 Euros to upgrade the rental car. When the plan had been up for renewal in February, I discussed with Niamh if it was worth it, and she decided yes. Good Call!

Oh, this is supposed to be a running blog. Liam asked where I did my running in Dublin, so I used the magic of Google Pedometers to whip up a map of the 7 miles route I did on Wednesday. According to the computer, it was a bit less than 7.2 miles, so I guess my estimations weren’t too far off. Said run was a tempo run, which I did a tad too fast, because on one or two occasions my heart rate crept into the high 170s, which is too high for an aerobic workout. I have to be more careful about this in future. I have to say I'm quite jealous of you City dwellers, as that bit of software is utterly useless if you live and run in Kerry. Today I just did a 5-mile recovery run to shake off my usual stiffness after several hours in the car. It went well, and it was great to be back in my familiar woods.

I’ll do an 11-miler on Sunday, to get me used to longer distances again. The half in Bantry bay is just a week after that and I won’t be in top shape, but I knew that when I signed up for it.

Apr 20: 7.1795306 miles, 57:44, 8:02 pace
Apr 21: 5 miles, 46:33, 9:18 pace

Easter Bunny has left the Building

My, how time flies. It’s already our last day in Dublin, and tomorrow we‘ll be heading back to Kerry. Cian’s antics have subsided somewhat, he’s just raided mummy’s make-up kit (which is a particularly favourite way of his of causing havoc), but got stopped before he managed to transfer the stuff anywhere but his fingers. Maybe the fact that he has stuffed himself with chocolate for three days has reigned him in a bit.

We don’t have weighing scales at home in Kerry, so Friday was the first time I’ve stood on one since January and was quite surprised (and pleased) to see that I have lost 4kg (nearly 9 pounds) in the meantime. Unfortunately, I’ve put at least one kg back on since, thanks to all that chocolate lying around. I don’t really have a sweet tooth, but if I’m tempted 24 hours a day, I do succumb.

I rested on Monday, apart from running after Cian that is, and did 45 minutes today. Initially I felt like crap and was afraid I was coming down with yet another bout of sickness, but after a mile or two I settled down and had a decent enough run. I’m still coughing from the last bug I caught, and so is the whole rest of the family. It seems to be a particularly slow bug to shift, but apart from a cough and a few runny noses, it doesn’t bother us.

19 Apr: 45 min, 5 miles (est.)

In Defence of the Parents

God, you guys are a critical lot. We don’t usually leave eggs in reach of a 2-year old, but Niamh was just about to use them to make French Toast, got distracted, and by the time she came back, Cian had done the deed. It didn’t get much better afterwards, while I was writing my last entry, he managed to get hold of the jam jar and helped himself to second breakfast, minus the bread of course, but leaving a sticky trail.

We’re now in Dublin in Nana’s and Gaga’s house, which is less childproof than our own. In the one-and-a-half days since we’ve been here he’s raided the mushrooms (and was just about to tuck into the broccoli by the time I arrived to stop him), spilt washing powder all over the kitchen floor, picked some of Nana’s daffodils and been in several fights with the cat. At that rate we might be asked to leave soon ;-).

I bought some badly needed new runners yesterday, but as I don’t know any running shops around here, I had to go to one of the big-chain stores, where they display their shoes on one wall, with a big sign “display models only, don’t try them on” without anyone to assist you. When I finally managed to hunt down a shop assistant, he of course didn’t have a clue about shoes, but was finally persuaded to bring me a couple of pairs to try on. I eventually left as the proud new owner of a pair of Asics GT-1110. I’ve tried to the 2100 before and didn’t like them, but I decided to give them another chance, seeing as so many runners really seem to like that brand (I was also desperate to get out of that shop). I took them for a spin today. The plan was 9 miles, and I felt really good until mile 4.5. When I turned around I realised why running had felt so easy, because all of a sudden I was running into the wind. Oh well. It still went really well, actually. The last two miles are over a fairly big hill, and I just seemed to fly up one way, and down again the other side. Add to that the over five miles I did yesterday (my distances in Dublin are just estimates, but I reckon they are reasonably accurate), and I’m on 31 miles for the week.

15 Apr: 45 mins, 5 miles (est.)
16 Apr: 1:15, 9 miles (est.)