Dolphins and Football

Michelle asked a very good question:

If you qualify for Boston, will you come over? I ask because some can't afford the trip, but want to qualify anyway - to prove they can.

Well, you see, I haven’t made up my mind yet. Initially my goal was just to qualify, because that’s a target within reach (or to prove that I can as you've said). But as soon as I announced it, plenty of people commented that I should come over and do the marathon, which wet my appetite. But sadly, the realities of life make it unpractical to cross the Atlantic in half a year. Niamh would have her hands full with the new baby, and we would still be broke. As it is, running the required time in Loch Ness would enable me to run 2008 and 2009 (as long as they don’t adjust their qualifying times, that is), and for 2010 I would be in the next age group, which will make qualification an easier proposition. In short, I think I’ll have plenty of opportunities to run Boston, and future years might be more practical. In any case, I have to qualify first. As long as that’s outstanding, all talk is just hot air.

When I reached the bottom of my usual hill on Friday morning, I knew that I didn’t have the mind for hill drills, and just proceeded to run the hill in a more conventional way. I ran up 5 times, relatively easy at first and a little more strenuous with each repeat. The last one was the only one that I was satisfied with; it was the only time my HR went over 170. I wasn’t happy with the way I had done the workout. I should have pushed harder all along. If I had done 4 repeats like the last one, it would have been a much better workout. If I do another set of hills, I’ll opt for the drills again.

Since Friday hadn’t been very strenuous, I didn’t really need a recovery day on Saturday, and chose to run the very hilly Kerry Way loop instead of a flat(-ish) 10-miler. I usually run this clockwise, but chose to go the other way for once. The reason for that is a stony section of the trail that’s usually covered in water. You have to be very careful along there, and it’s better to run it uphill rather than downhill. The drawback of that direction was that the climb starts less than one mile from our house, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for warming up. Despite that, I felt just great on that run, and ran a lot faster than planned. I passed the 5-miles-to-go point in exactly one hour, and was home 38 minutes later. At first I didn’t really think about that, but when I put the number into a calculator I did a double take when I realised that I had covered that part at 7:36 pace. Wow. I knew that it was sub-8 pace, but it really hadn’t felt anywhere near as fast as that. I immediately feared for Sunday’s workout. Had I taken too much out of my legs to run a few decent fast miles the next day?

The fear seemed to be confirmed initially today. I felt stiff and tired, especially the quads were moaning with every step. When I reached the point where I had planned to start the speed workout from, I didn’t feel ready, and ran an extra 1.5 miles out-and-back to get warmed up properly. I put in 2 or 3 surges to wake up the leg muscles. After that I still wasn’t sure if I was up for it, but went ahead anyway. Since last week’s workout had been hindered by a lack of accuracy in my judgement of distance, I had opted to run 4x0.75 miles back-and-forwards on the same stretch of the Ard-na-Sidhe road. While I still couldn’t guarantee how accurate the 0.75 miles were, at least this would ensure that each section would be of equal length. I set off for the first part, supposedly marathon pace. It should have taken me 5:26 to cover the distance, but once again I got it wrong and reached the first turn-around-point in 5:05. The second part was as fast as I could while still being in full control, and went by in 4:48, which felt good. Then it was back to MP again, which felt like crawling after that faster section. I got much closer to the required pace this time, but erred a bit on the side of caution, 5:30. Mind you, it’s very difficult to judge your pace for 1200 meters without any feedback along the way. The last segment was faster again, and went by in 4:40, but, to be honest, towards the end the word “controlled” didn’t really apply. Nevertheless, I was pleased with the workout. The paces for the 4 sections were 6:46, 6:24, 7:20 and 6:13 respectively (assuming that the distance was accurate, of course). However, I think I still had plenty in the tank afterwards and could have extended the speed part for longer. I’ll probably try and run 4x1 miles next time.

We had a great family day afterwards. We drove to Dingle, went on a boat to see Fungie the dolphin, who did indeed turn up, to the great excitement of the children ( as well as the adults, to be honest). It’s amazing, nobody can explain why this dolphin has chosen to stay in Dingle harbour permanently, and the fact that he loves swimming beside boats makes him the perfect tourist attraction. Afterwards we went to the Aquarium, which went down very well, as well as the museum shop which went down even better. A trip to the Prehistoric History museum to satisfy Shea, our budding Archaeologist at the ripe old age of 6, turned out to be just as successful. And the fact that Kerry beat Dublin in the Gaelic football semi-final to reach the final for the 4th time in a row (of course we'll win the final. Kerry have a God-given right to win the final!) rounded off a pretty perfect day. Combining a running life with family has never gone better than today.

24 Aug:

12 miles, 1:38:24, 5 hill repeats, avg. HR 138

25 Aug:

12.25 miles, 1:38:02, 8:00 pace, avg. HR 143 (last 5 miles in 38:02, 7:36 pace)

26 Aug:

9.75 miles, 1:17:53. 7:59 pace; exchange workout 4x0.75 miles in 5:05, 4:48, 5:30, 4:40 (6:46, 6:24, 7:20, 6:13 pace)