The Grind

I know it's not that much of a mountain, and I've certainly climbed a fair few that were significantly higher, but Killiney Hill does look a bit scary when you turn the corner in Dalkey and suddenly see it rising up right ahead of you, especially so if you've already got well over 10 miles in your legs and they had not felt all that great to start with.

I had not fancied the climb to Kilternan yet again, so I came up with a different route that brought me through the swankier parts of South Dublin instead, not that I ever will be able to afford to live there. The views from top of Killiney sure look rather impressive, and maybe you'd even get invited to Bono's birthday party, but I guess that life is not for me.

So back to Bray I went, and by the time I hit the last climb on the way back home the legs were pretty much fried. Last week's run had gone better.

I hadn't even done a time trial on Saturday. The reason for that being that I had run home from work on Friday evening and 12 hours rest between runs just isn't doing it any more, I can always feel it in the hamstrings, and that sure isn't the best way to head into a workout. So I skipped the time trial and did a few strides and sprints along the way instead, and it was actually good to get the legs spinning at speed. It was a wet and windy day, so even on fresh legs probably not ideal for a time trial anyway.

The amount of rain this week has been unreal, I think the Kerry weather has caught up with me again. One problem is that the paths through the parks I tend to run through are not in great shape and there are always sections that are waterlogged, and I can assure you, that water is f***ing freezing!

It's also damn dark! It's already pitch dark by the time I leave work and now it's dark in the mornings as well. Of course the days will still be getting shorter for another 4 weeks, so there is no end of that in sight yet. I just hope I'll avoid tumbling over some uneven pavement and injuring myself in the process this time - I sure don't want to miss out on Donadea yet again.

It's just the time of the year when you have to grind through it. Remember, spring races are won in winter (not that I'm under any illusions of actually winning anything - you know what I mean).

Trials And Tribulations

The previous week I had started to worry if my training was working at all. This week I got some reassurance that it was. It did remind me of one lesson I had once gotten from Mystery Coach (and I paraphrase):

Workouts show where you are. They are not there to get you into shape.

I always had some troubles with the second part of that statement because if the workouts don't get you into shape, what will?* But the first part makes total sense, definitely, and I can see the wisdom yet again by having done a 5k time trial on a few occasion (ok, three) on the same course and under pretty similar conditions, so there is some data that can be used for comparisons and to measure progress, or the potential lack of it.

I am toying with the idea of doing a parkrun instead of doing a 5k loop on my own, but I'm trying to run them at 90% effort rather than race it, and I know myself too well to be under any illusions that I would resist temptation to beat the guy just ahead of me, even in a non-competitive event like a parkrun (yeah, right). Anyway, 90% effort on my own it is for the time being, and the first time I did that loop I ran it at 7:08 pace, two weeks later I was in crisis mode after 7:15 pace and this week the world is all rosy again after 6:59 pace, and the fact that there is a "6" at the start is very nice indeed, thank you very much. On a sidenote, I guess I will never see a "5" again at for a 5k. I try not to compare it to how fast I would have run that a few years ago, so let's not go into that any further.

Anyway, further proof that things are going well came the following day when I did a rather hilly long run, the longest in quite some time, and despite the hamstrings starting out pre-fatigued from that workout I got around pretty well. My spirit did start to sag a bit at 14/15 miles but somehow I recovered to finish pretty well - I was feeling pleasantly tired afterwards, as Lydiard would have had it. All good.

I'm definitely starting to get into a pretty good rhythm and little real-life details, like not being able to run on Tuesday because I was stuck in a conference all day, didn't do anything to sidetrack me. I think I might be looking forward to that 50k in February after all.

* Miles and recovery. Miles and recovery. Miles and recovery.

Boycott

If you pay attention to running, you will almost certainly have become aware of the video about Mary Cain that came out recently.

I tend do spend time, probably too much, on sites like letsrun.com, so I had known her name for years, and I had been aware that she had been struggling to turn her incredible potential as a young athlete into a top runner, but I had no idea what was really going on.

Needless to say, I have no doubt whatsoever that she is speaking the truth, and the amount of abuse she had been going through is just unbelievable. Nike has seen plenty of negative headlines in the last few years, this time not for the sweat shop as had been the case 20 or so years ago but the still deeply unethical attitude permeating that company, clearly with full support from the very top level.

I have at least one friend who has boycotted Nike shoes for years due to their shocking attitude and behaviour. While I always understood where he was coming from I was never entirely convinced they were much worse than anyone else. As you might have guessed, I have changed my mind. I won't buy their shoes again. I was never tempted to spend €250 on their magic new shoes anyway so it's not as if I will be missing out on something. It's not much on an inconvenience to me, so it really is a no-brainer.

I'm not claiming to make a big statement. It's my own personal decision, no more, no less.

Anyway. Last week was fairly good, just over 70 miles, but my faster run on Saturday was a bit slower than the same one 2 weeks earlier so there is not much progress on that front, which is a bit worrying. I'll keep an eye on that. If I don't make progress, the training is wrong. There's obviously the possibility that I'm running too much, I've heard that plenty of times before, but since I used to run almost twice as much at my peak time I'm not entirely convinced, especially as I'm feeling pretty good these days, definitely a lot better than a year ago. I honestly don't think I'm overtrained (Something, admittedly, I have been wrong about in the past).

I'll keep an eye on it.

Strides With A Sting

Ok, so last week I had felt really good and started to wonder if I had finally reached the turning point. This week was fairly crap again, so I guess I haven't. Maybe I need to forget about running competitively again but it's hard for the mind to let go.

Mind, the week could have ended a lot worse, but I'll get to that later.

I ran to and from office once a day Tuesday to Friday, and with Cabinteely Park about to be closed in the evenings I went back to my previous commute route through Kilbogget and Clonkeen Park, which is actually very nice but a mile longer, and on Thursday night it had the added challenge of feeling more like dodging all the illegal Halloween fireworks and didn't feel entirely safe, to be honest, but thankfully it all passed with out incident.

The real drama happened on Saturday, or maybe it would be more accurate to say it almost happened. I decided to do three laps of 30/30 (30 seconds fast, 30 seconds recovery) because I figured one of the problems with my running is the fact that I'm doing an awful lot of slow but very little fast running, so I decided to work on my leg turnover and hope it will improve my efficiency, basically trying to do a neuro-muscular workout.

I'm not biting my lip, that's the original swelling.

Anyway, all was going perfectly fine until early into the third lap when a wasp headed straight for my mouth, kamikaze style. I somehow managed to catch it with my lips, so when it did sting me it was at the inside of my lips rather than the back of my throat, which would have been a lot worse potentially because it immediately started to swell. I even managed to pull the stinger out of my lip there and then, but the damage had already been done. I was a bit shocked but figured I might as well finish the last of my workout before going home, what difference would it have made otherwise?

The swelling in my lip went down after a couple of hours but the left side of my face / jaw line started to swell instead. It's rather uncomfortable but manageable and it looks fairly awful. Two day earlier and I could have made use of it by dressing up as Quasimodo for Halloween without requiring a face mask, but I'd missed that! I took some antihistamines because I reckoned the swelling could have been an allergic reaction but it didn't seem to make any difference apart from making me drowsy for the rest of the day.

Well, no major harm done though it could have been a lot worse, which doesn't bare thinking about it. The legs felt fairly awful on Sunday, which I attribute to the strides rather than the sting, and I cut my planned long run short and finished the week just under 70 miles, which is still a high enough number anyway.