More Workouts

On Friday I went out for a 15-mile progression run despite the fact that I wasn’t entirely sure if I had recovered from the intervals/long run double workout earlier in the week. What I had in mind were 5 easy miles, 5 miles at MP, and 5 miles faster than MP. I took my time and started as slowly as I wanted, because it always takes me a few miles to get warmed up properly. After 5 miles I cranked up the pace, but it took some time to get used to the higher effort. I didn’t quite manage MP for that segment, but wasn’t too far off it. I think the slower-than-planned first mile was mostly responsible for the missed target. I wasn’t sure if I had it in me to add 5 faster miles after that, but surprised myself for once. The last bit wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t as hard as I had expected it, and the faster-than-MP pace felt manageable. I was pleased.

I decided to make a change from the usual 10-mile recovery run on Saturday, and went for a loop around the Devil’s Elbow. That’s 2.5 mile flat miles, then 1.5 miles of very steep climbing, about 2 miles of downhill, less steep than the climb, and then a flat road back home. I used to run that loop all the time on my previous training cycle, when I prepared for the Connemara Ultra. No matter how stiff I felt at the beginning, the climb always had a good effect on the legs, and they always felt better afterwards. The climb was tough, as usual, and the fatigue in the legs never went away, but I ran slowly enough for a recovery run, even though the HR was a bit higher than I felt it should be. On the other hand, my normal recovery runs don’t include a big climb, and I have nothing to compare it with. I did over 5 hours of gardening work afterwards, which was necessary but maybe not ideal in regards to recovery.

Sunday seems to have become the day of the Exchange Workout, and since I felt that last week’s effort had been shorter than necessary I decided to increase the distance to 4x1 miles, alternating MP and faster pace with each mile. I had to overcome two mental hurdles for this run; the first one was to leave the house at all because the weather was miserable, windy and rainy, and the second one was to speed up after the warm-up, which just felt impossible initially. Once again, I got the pace wrong for the first mile. I was much too fast, and even though I realised the error halfway through the first mile and tried to slow down a little bit, I didn’t slow down nearly enough and came through in 6:48, ridiculously early. The second mile was only a few seconds faster than that, but at least I can claim to have stayed “in control” this time, and I concentrated mainly on form and relaxation, just like I had learned on Tuesday. The third mile at MP felt ridiculously slow in comparison, but at least I very nearly got the pace right this time. The last mile was tough, but going through the mantras “hips forward”, “lift the knees”, “swing the arms” helped a lot to run both fast and relaxed, and I came through in 6:38. I had hoped for faster times in the speed segments, but at least I can say for once that I had stayed in control all the way through, and remained relaxed for the entire time, which is in contrast to previous attempts at that workout. It took 65 seconds for the HR to return to 120 and 81 for 110, which is a bit slower than last week but better than the week before that; but because today’s workout was longer than last week’s, I can’t really compare the numbers.

I have to decide what to do next week because of the half-marathon on Sunday. I’ll probably do a long run on Wednesday and take it easy on the 3 days before race day, with maybe a fast mile or two thrown in for good measure. I’ll see.

31 Aug

15 miles, 1:55:45, 7:43 pace, avg. HR 147
3x5 mile in 43:04, 36:54, 35:47 (8:36, 7:22, 7:09 pace)

1 Sep

8.5 miles, 1:14:00, 8:42 pace, avg. HR 139, very hilly

2 Sep

9 miles, 1:10:02, 7:46 pace, avg. HR 147
4x1 mile in 6:49, 6:40, 7:18, 6:38, HR 120/65, 110/81

Weekly mileage: 83.5
Monthly mileage for August: 387

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)

Weekend Report

After Thursday’s successful long run I was looking forward to 10 easy miles on Friday. My legs deserved some recovery effort and I kept the pace easy. Despite this, I ran a bit faster than it felt. Most of my recent easy runs were around 8:30 pace, but Thursday's was at 8:12. I think this was due to the reduced mileage of this week, an 80-week mile just feels so much easier when you’ve put in a few 100s and 90s. I wanted to cut back the mileage a few weeks ago, but it took a while to change my mindset, and I think I’ve finally cracked it. I expect the next few weeks to be all around 80 mpw, and then the taper will start.

What I wasn’t looking forward to was Saturday’s hill repeats. It was the last session of hill repeats of my hill phase, and after all my moaning and bitching about hills this couldn’t end soon enough. The original plan was to keep one hill session per week going all the way to the taper, but I got so fed up with those drills that I changed my mind. However, Saturday went really well. I think the main difference was the fact that I hadn’t done a hill session for 4 days. Monday was the 4th day of hills in 7 days, and, in retrospect, that was too much. My legs (and my mind) just didn’t recover in time for the next workout. But after 4 days of a different schedule they felt good again, and the hills didn’t tax me unduly. I guess I’ve just learned a lesson. I’ve now gone back to the original idea of keeping one day of hill repeats going for the next few weeks.

With the marathon 7 weeks away, I’m now starting my next phase. I don’t want to call it the anaerobic phase because there will be little anaerobic running. I could call it “speed phase” but that sounds a bit silly. I tried to do an “exchange workout” of 4x0.75 miles slow/fast/slow/fast. Originally I thought the fast sections should be 7:00 pace and the faster ones 6:30, but Mike has corrected me since. Apparently the slow sections should be marathon pace and the fast ones “as fast as you can while running controlled”, which could mean around 10k pace, I guess. After 5 easy miles I set off, and since I don’t have a track I did it on a 1.5 mile section of the road towards the school. I ran MP to where I thought the halfway point was, then accelerated for the second section, turned around for another bit of MP (which felt really slow after that faster part) to crank it up again after the supposed halfway point. That last section was tough, and towards the end there was no way I could describe the effort as “controlled”, it was simply as fast as I could run on my increasingly tired legs. I stopped afterwards and checked how quickly my heart rate would go down. It took 73 second to come down from 177 to 120, and another 22 to drop to 110. I haven’t got anything to compare them to yet, but will keep an eye on these numbers on future workouts. I was really pleased with myself immediately after the run, but when I checked the lap times on my stopwatch afterwards, I was in for a surprise. The times for the 4 sections were 5:30, 4:35, 4:51 and 4:56, and since there is no way that the third section was faster than the fourth it follows that the supposed halfway point was off by a significant margin, and I felt like a complete mug. I guess from a workout point it’s not such a big deal; I did the work and hopefully the body will take something from it. But next time I’ll probably run it back-and forwards 4 times on the Ard-na-Sidhe road. I have the option of running either 4x0.75 or 4x1 mile, and while the measurements aren’t exact, they should be reasonable accurate. It will mean turning around 3 times rather than once, but at least it will ensure that all segments are of equal distance.

I got a very disappointing email yesterday, the 10k race that was supposed to take place next Saturday in Killorglin was cancelled. Actually it was moved to 22 September, and since Niamh’s brother will get married on that day in Dublin I can’t possibly make it (strictly speaking I could, but Niamh would kill me. Really. She would. And I couldn’t even blame her. So I won’t.) I had hopes of another win, but even more so I was looking forward to the chance of lowering my PR, which will now not be happening. My next race, and the only one before the marathon, will be the half-marathon in Blarney on 9 September, 3 weeks from now. I’m very much looking forward to that, especially after that cancellation.

17 Aug: 10 miles, 1:22:08, 8:12 pace, avg. HR 139
18 Aug: 4 hill repeats, 1:41:55, ~11 miles, avg. HR 145
19 Aug: 9 miles, 1:10:25 7:49 pace, with 3 miles MP/fast/MP/fast in 19:52

Weekly mileage: 81