Clarifications

Spartathlon is your B race? To a 24 hour track event? How is that possible? Anyhow, best of luck with all of those races!

The reason why I put Belfast as my main target is the fact that in 2017 the next world championship will take place and I want to make sure I am on the team! I am reasonably optimistic that I will be selected as only one single Austrian has run further than me in the last 7 years in 24 hours but a good run in Belfast would guarantee my selection no matter what. Spartathlon is a great race but a world championship would be greater still.

The legs felt really heavy on Thursday morning, so I decided to cut back the mileage for a couple of days. I still went ahead with the planned hill sprints that day but went home once I felt I had maybe two or three more repeats in me, and I kept the effort low for Friday. I also ruled out any second runs of the day on either occasion.

The hill sprints were very different to any other kind of training, pretty much all-out but only for about 10 seconds or so, and with long recoveries (walking back down the hill and a slow jog for a bit). It was a different day as well: when I opened the door I could see a myriad of stars in the clear night sky, something I hadn't seen in a very long time. With the clear sky came the cold temperatures but I was perfectly fine with that. Unfortunately it wasn't to last, by the time I was on my second hill sprint it was hailstoning; the combination of all-out hill sprints and hail stones made for an interesting multi-stimulus of pain! Still, it was all over very quickly and the legs felt fine for the rest of the day, something I cannot always say.

Friday's run was at the easiest effort in quite some time. I was quite pleased that the pace was still fairly close to 8-minute miles, something I had to work for a couple of months ago, now it is my recovery pace. The HR was exceptionally low. I can count the runs with a lower HR on the fingers of one hand, I think.

On Saturday it was time to rev it up again. I wanted to tweak the format of the fast day and instead of running 10 miles at a good effort I opted for 2 x 3 mile repeats at HM pace. The last two races indicated that the pace should be somewhere between 6:30 and 6:40, so that's what I aimed for. The weather has finally improved a bit, the wind has died down though we are still seeing the odd shower. It's also quite cold, about 3 degrees in the morning, but I like it cold anyway. All in all it makes for very decent running conditions. The first 3 mile segment went well but I probably ran just a tad too fast early on and started to struggle a bit towards the end. A rest interval did me some good and I managed the second segment better than expected and this one felt like I ran the correct effort.

The legs felt that effort the next day, of course, but it could have been worse. I gave myself the option of either 18 or 20 miles, depending on how I would feel towards the end. I started out reasonably well but towards the end of the big long climb I started labouring when at previous runs I had managed pretty much on autopilot, so I certainly wasn't firing on all cylinders. I managed just fine for the rest of the loop around the lake but I did opt for the 18 miles, in an effort not to overdo things.

When I was coached by MC he spent a lot of time stopping me from doing too much. In fact, I think I can feel strong vibes from across the Atlantic that I am indeed overdoing things already, so a little bit of holding back today was almost certainly a good thing. I am still in base building mode, though I've started the transition to the marathon training block, which will start in earnest early next month.

7 Jan

6.7 miles, 1:02:28, 9:19 pace, HR 131

   11 short&sharp hill sprints

8 Jan

10 miles, 1:21:50, 8:09 pace, HR 131

9 Jan

10 miles, 1:11:12, 7:06 pace, HR 152

   2 x 3 miles at 6:29 (HR 159), 6:33 (HR 161)

10 Jan

18+ miles, 2:21:38, 7:48 pace, HR 142

Weekly Mileage: 84

Base Training

Runners in the South of Ireland will know that the Great Island 10-mile road race had been on in Cobh last Sunday. The strange thing was that we were actually in Cobh at the time – and I was not running! We had gone there purely because my offspring (well, 2 of them) insisted on visiting the Titanic's last port of call on the anniversary of the disaster. It would have been obvious to combine the museums with the race, but two weeks after Connemara I was in no shape to race 10 miles. Instead I got up at 6 am and jogged 12 at normal pace – a much more reasonable thing to do, at least in my world. But if you ever find yourself in that place, I can recommend the Titanic Experience. It is rather short (and even that is a bonus with 4 young kids in tow) but very well done, though some of the stories are rather harrowing, but that comes with the nature of the event.

The HR on my runs is slowly coming down and the pace seems to settle down a bit as well. On the downside, the legs feel a bit heavy at times, but how much of that is just in my head, I'm not sure. On Monday I cycled home from work and felt absolutely awful. I had to work twice as hard and it felt like one of those nightmares when you run and run and don't move forward, except on a bike. I thought my legs must be in absolutely atrocious state – until I came home and after a short inspection realised that the rear brake was wonky and one of the pads was rubbing against the wheel. The realisation instantaneously made my legs feel much better.

I’ve got three weeks until my next pacing gig, the Limerick marathon, which I of course first and foremost regard as a training run for Bangor. I need to get used to 8-minute pace again and I need to make sure I have a fully functioning Garmin, but I'm confident all these things will be in place come 6 May.

The most challenging thing at the moment is the weather. It has turned rather nasty and I was battling gale force winds and at times very heavy rain both yesterday and this morning. There have been a few hail stones as well, but even the rain feels painful against your face at those wind speeds. The cycling commute into work was interesting as well. Apparently it’s not going to change until the weekend. Maybe it’s just nature’s way to toughen me up a little before the Big One.

It looks like I have a very experienced crew for Bangor, which can only be a good thing. From what I hear the organisers will have plenty of provisions there and it is perfectly possible to run the race unsupported, but I think having someone there whose main job will be to tell me to HTFU and get the f*** out of that chair will make a real and significant difference. Also, since I'm a complete novice at that kind of thing, having someone with experience at my side will be invaluable.

I guess I can’t chicken out now.

16 Apr

10 miles, 1:15:26, 7:33 pace, HR 148

17 Apr

10 miles, 1:17:27, 7:45 pace, HR 150

18 Apr

10 miles, 1:16:22, 7:38 pace, HR 150

Ouch!

I thought I’d experienced just about every kind of weather that we get here in Kerry (often all of them within the same run), but Tuesday’s combination of gale force winds and hail stones was a new one, and a particularly nasty one at that. It had me howling in pain at one stage, getting pelted in the side of the face by a million needles just isn’t that great a feeling. After running through this, if there is any justice in the world I will have a great race in Connemara to make up for it.

Despite feeling great after Sunday’s 15 mile run, I had some pain in my left quads on Monday. I didn’t think too much of it, but when it was still there on Tuesday, I decided to be sensible and shortened the run to 8 miles (yes, that passes as sensible in my books). With the weather being as it was, that was more than enough.

Wednesday was different again, after a day and night of constantly being pelted by hails stones we awoke to a winter wonderland scene. I’m pretty sure it hadn’t been snowing at all and all the white stuff was indeed hail, but it didn’t stop the kids from throwing “snow balls” at each other, and Maia was satisfied that this was now winter (at the age of 4, she has now seen “snow” in Kerry every single winter. She obviously thinks that’s normal). But it was also the day of her Christmas play from pre-school, and I was told in no uncertain terms to take the day off work, so I would be able to attend – and since I have a whole load of untaken holidays left, I was in no position to argue (as if I had ever been!).

The play was mercifully short and I managed to run at lunch time. By then the rain had mostly cleared the slush off the road, but I made the same mistake I always do when running during the day. My perceived rate of effort is totally off and it took me 4 miles to realise that I had been running over half a minute per mile faster than planned, all the while blissfully unaware. To make sure that I would not push the recovery out more than necessary I cut the run short by a couple of miles for the second time in a row. I also heard very scary, loud, rolling thunder on two occasions, but never saw any lightning. I was about 3 miles away from home at the time but (correctly) figured that the storm would have passed by the time I would have made it back home, even if I had turned around there and then, so I kept running despite feeling rather anxious.

Today it was back to hail stones, but with the absence of gale force winds, it felt entirely tolerable. It’s amazing how quickly you adapt.

Life is very busy at the moment. I used to hate Christmas, mostly because of the rampant commercialism and cheap materialism, but with 4 young kids in the house there is still a bit of magic left.

12 Dec

10 miles, 1:19:09, 7:55 pace, HR 142

13 Dec

8 miles, 1:03:28, 7:56 pace, HR 146

14 Dec

10 miles, 1:13:20, 7:20 pace, HR 150

15 Dec

10 miles, 1:19:06, 7:55 pace, HR 141

Winter's Last Stand

Monday was a bank holiday in Ireland (bank holiday = public holiday), but, as Niamh said, they shouldn’t have bank holidays in March; they’re a waste of a free day. The weather was atrocious; the storm that had plagued us on Saturday and Sunday kept going, perversely interspersed with periods of bright sunshine. I was resigned to a big goose egg, when the weather brightened and I decided on the spot to head out after all; within 5 minutes I was out on the road. I intended just 5 miles, but it was so nice and sunny that I went on the 6-mile loop instead. Less than 4 miles later the situation had changed dramatically, as I was engulfed in a massive hail shower, by far the worst I’ve had to endure. I got a thorough beaning, but when I came to one particular crossroad decided to add 2 miles nevertheless. I figured that the hail would have abated by the time I reached home anyway, and that I might as well add a few miles after that, because they were bound to be in better conditions. I was correct, when the hail finally stopped it turned sunny again, if rather windy. All in all I managed 8 miles, which wasn’t bad considering all Mother Nature had thrown my way. A work colleague’s car passed me towards the end of the worst weather, and I greeted him with a big smile. God knows what he must have been thinking.

It has gotten rather cold again, temperatures this morning were around 0C/32F, and I dug out the tights form the back of my cupboard. I had hoped they would stay there until next winter, but I’d rather dig them out again than facing the cold in unsuitable attire. Today was the shorted run in a while, just 5 miles. I guess I am really tapering now. I kept the pace at an easy effort but still managed 8:00 pace. I was very surprised to see my heart rate so low at the end of the run, I don’t expect 8:00 pace to be recovery pace. Not that I’m complaining, but that’s the lowest heart rate I managed in the whole training cycle, even though it was not the slowest run by any means. I can only assume that the lack of a long run for more than one week means I’m already better rested than at any time during the previous months. That’s not down to more sleep though – on the 3 days of the long weekend, Shea woke us at 5:30 every single morning, and it took longer and longer to persuade him to go back to bed (and he invariably was back within 20 minutes each time).

Nothing else to report, apart from the fact that I’m definitely in Niamh’s good book for the time being. I think the Mother’s Day treats went down well.

19 Mar: 8 miles, 1:03:07, 7:47 pace, avg. HR 152
20 Mar: 5 miles, 40:00, 8:00 pace, avg. HR 140

Weather Beaten

I do remember last winter’s training cycle. How could I forget it? I’ve experienced more rain than ever before in my life, and most of it through the shiny cone thrown by my headlamp. It looks like this winter won’t be different; the early signs are ominous. I’ve run 5 times this week, and got wet on 4 of these. It will take some willpower to stay consistent.

Friday night was very stormy, I kept waking up and on more than one occasion heard what was either very heavy rain or hail against the window. The kids must have heard it too, because by 6 am they all were out of bed, and despite several attempts this signalled the end of my night. After 2 hours of being called every 5 minutes or so I gave up on sleeping and went out running. The sky looked nice enough at the time, but forgetting the gloves was a very stupid thing to do. After 1.5 miles I saw a big dark cloud ahead of me. I expected the rain to be with me in 5 minutes, but I was wrong. Just one minute later the hail started, and it wasn’t pleasant. I'd got caught by hail once before, but I had been wearing a wind jacket. This time I was in shorts and t-shirt, and each and every bit of bombardment hurt. It went on for the next 2 miles and then finally ceased. The advantage of hail is that you’re not getting soaked, and as soon as the weather turned nice again I was kind of glad that it hadn’t been raining. What didn’t work was running slowly – when you’re dodging a million ice balls, a relaxed stride isn’t the first thing on your mind.

Today I had the opportunity to compare heavy rain and hail, and the conclusion is that neither is particularly pleasant. Again the weather had turned nasty overnight, and in the morning I doubted that I would be silly enough to run in this weather. Around 9 o’clock it brightened up, and I couldn’t resist temptation. Lola was incredulous when I told her that I was going running. “But it’s raining, Daddy!”. She’s definitely her mother’s daughter. Or maybe she’s just got more sense than me at the ripe old age of 5-and-a-half. The run was ok until the halfway point, when the wind and rain returned with a vengeance. Getting rain blown straight into your face by a stormy wind isn’t much better than hail stones, and the further disadvantage was that this time I was indeed getting soaked. But despite this, I actually managed to catch the one window in the storm where running was an option. The weather has since turned into a mini-hurricane; an hour ago we could see the kids' outdoor playhouse flying past the window (I managed to retrieve it. The roof has blown off, but I can fix it).

How do you keep the kids entertained in such weather? Face painting!

I’ve now run 7 times in 7 days since my break. I didn’t plan on running every day, but I felt ok, and I really don’t think 5 miles per day are more than my body can handle. The heart rate kept dropping with every run initially, but has now gone back up, although that was because I ran faster. That’s the weather’s fault, I can’t run relaxed in those circumstances. Still, I would have expected a lower HR, and it’s a clear sign that I’m not recovered from the marathon. I will continue taking it easy for a while.


18 Nov: 5 miles, 43:51, 8:46 pace, avg. HR 155
19 Nov: 5 miles, 41:55, 8:21 pace, avg. HR 162

Weekly mileage: 35