Weekend Weather

It was fairly miserable outside on Saturday. I had known that in advance but it just looked worse than anticipated. I sat there on the sofa, wasting time on the computer, trying to gather enough resolve to head out, but eventually I realised that I have grown old and soft and the treadmill right there beside me was beckoning instead.

Running on a treadmill is similar to banging yourself over the head with a hammer, except a lot less fun, I imagine. After about 2 minutes I was already staring at the clock, willing it to go forward. I managed to survive with the help of a podcast, but once that was over so was my run.

When I stepped off the treadmill I felt somewhat disorientated and almost dizzy, which was weird. I wouldn't think that running on a treadmill would affect your balance like that but thankfully I managed to get into the shower without keeling over. Because it had been such a short run I had vague ideas of doing a second one later in the day but then I felt really tired, not helped by the Christmas shopping, so I left it at that.

Sunday was much better. The storm had abated and it looked positively inviting. I suppose the easy Saturday helped to have the legs in a fresher state than usual, and I headed out for a long run. I had done a 19 miler before Dublin from Bray via Kilternan and gotten the idea of adding a loop around Leopardstown racecourse, which is exactly what I did today. Spookily it worked out as exactly 20 miles on the dot right at our gate, so I guess I now have a proper long run loop. It's rather hilly, which is exactly what a long run route should be, and of course there are still plenty of options to tweak it a bit if I ever feel the need to add some extra distance.

When the hamstrings started to feel tired after about 12 miles I expected a bit of a slog on the way home but in actual fact they held up really well and I was still in pretty good shape when I got back home, pleasantly tired as they would say. That's good, it looks like my endurance is starting to come back, even if the pace is still maybe 30 seconds per mile slower than what my mind still thinks it should be at.

12 Dec

10.23 miles, 1:27:16, 8:31 pace, HR 146

13 Dec

10.23 miles, 1:26:22, 8:26 pace, HR 144

14 Dec

7.22 miles, 1:02:00, 8:35 pace, HR 135

15 Dec

5.5 miles, 50:00, 9:05 pace, HR 131

   treadmill

16 Dec

20 miles, 2:51:40, 8:34 pace, HR 141

Doris And Ewen

Even though I'm running the risk of jinxing myself here, I have to say that February has been a great month. After months of rather limited progress the numbers are pointing upwards in a much steeper curve; my VDOT numbers went up by almost 3 points (I'd be world class by autumn if that kept going) and I'm generally feeling a lot better. While I had at least one family member feeling sick at any one time, my own immune system seems to have reached the stage where it can fight off those kind of infections without me even noticing.

"No more animals" I said. "No more stupid names" I said.
"Welcome Noodle" they said.

The evaluation on Wednesday wasn't great; how much of that was down to the wind and the slightly undulating road is open to question but I could tell straight away that the legs weren't quite right, so it definitely wasn't just down to external circumstances. On the plus side, and that's a big plus, this time there did not seem to be any soreness after that workout. I know the evaluation is a rather moderate workout (in fact, that's the very reason why I'm doing it weekly - I could not cope with strenuous workouts yet) but the previous 2 weeks I could definitely feel it in the legs subsequently. Not so this time, which I take as another great sign - my recovery is definitely improving.

On Saturday I ran the fastest "easy" run in a very long time. Thing is, I could have sworn I ran about 8-minute pace. Last Sunday I had run a bit fast but kind of knew that I was putting in a tad too much effort at times. Not so yesterday - this was a genuine easy effort all the way,

Ireland was visited by storm Doris on Thursday (the very reason why I had moved the evaluation to Wednesday), but that had mostly by-passed Kerry and what was visiting us was mostly gone already by the time I got up. It was a bit different on Sunday when storm Ewen made its way across the island, and this time I took the "gone old and soft" option and ran 9 miles on the treadmill instead. I think that was my longest treadmill run ever, though I can't be bothered to check back. And I managed to catch up on my downloaded episodes at the same time,

Anyway, the legs are definitely feeling good.

23 Feb

7 miles, 56:02, 8:00 pace, HR 147

24 Feb

8 miles, 1;03:46, 7:58 pace, HR 145

25 Feb

7 miles, 53:28, 7:38 pace, HR 151

26 Feb

9 miles, 1:12:30, 8:03 pace, HR 145

   treadmill

Tapering

As any runner knows, phantom pains are part of the tapering process. It just happens every time. A few weeks ago I did have some real discomforts, first from my left knee and then from my lower back but both have gone away (actually, the back is only 95% better) but this week I have felt some twinges in my right hip and my right shin and probably in some other bits as well - but I'm sure those are phantom pains without any real physical background.

I need to get my head sorted out. I have to ignore that some trained more than me and that I always could have done more. I have to focus on my strengths. The most important body part in a 24 hours race is not your legs, or heart or lungs, it's your brain, and mine seems to work well for that particular task.

I have generally been pretty calm with regards to this race; it has come round so quickly I barely noticed it was getting so close. I had Donadea and then the relay to worry about earlier this month, which didn't leave much time to worry about Belfast. But here we are, 2 sleeps to go. I had trouble falling asleep last night as thoughts of the race were doing their early rounds in my head but I did get an almost full allocation of sleep eventually, helped by the fact that I didn't have to get up until almost 7 o'clock - a veritable lie-in!

I've started gathering all the stuff I need to bring, mostly nutrition so far; proper packing will happen tonight and this really is about to get real!

Training this week was obviously just a case of ticking over. 4 miles on Monday, an hour on the treadmill wrapped in 4 layers on Tuesday for a last heat adaptation top-up, 5 on Wednesday and 3 on Thursday. Tomorrow I'll run another couple of miles if I wake up in time, none otherwise. I'll do half a day at work and then drive up North.

All running this week was really slow, practicing the ultra shuffle. It did take some getting used to, alright.

The weather forecast is cloudy with the odd light shower and little wind, which sounds pretty good. I don't think I'll need the heat adaptation. There won't be a repeat of the Bangor hurricane (mind, I handled that better than most so maybe I should have hoped for that) and no excuses.

And on Saturday we run.

http://athleticsni.org/News/Event-News/ENERGIA-24-HOUR-RACE,-VICTORIA-PARK,-BELFAST,-JUNE-2526.

20 Jun

4 miles, 37:17, 9:19 pace, HR 129

21 Jun

6.25 miles, 1:00:00, 9:35 pace, HR 133, heat adaptation, treadmill

22 Jun

5 miles, 42:46, 8:33 pace, HR 132

23 Jun

3 miles, 27:02, 9:01 pace, HR 131

Adapting

I've felt a bit tired the last couple of days, which is not what I hoped I would be feeling like to be perfectly honest. Since I have moved firmly into the tapering I haven't done any real workouts recently and I can only guess that the tiredness is a hangover from Donadea. Let's hope it will be gone a week from now.

In took it easy on Monday but the legs didn't really feel like running anyway. Taking it easy was always on the plan and I sure wasn't going to go against that.

On Tuesday I did something rather different. I'm not expecting a heat wave in Belfast but it's always better to be prepared (and I've just read an article that said that being heat adapted has advantages even in cooler temperatures), so I wrapped myself in 4 layers, put on a hat and stepped on the treadmill, making sure that the room's windows were all closed. 5 miles later I was steamed well through and called it a day. I'll do another of those adaptation runs this week, for an hour hopefully, but probably on the road because an hour on the treadmill is more than I care to take. One or maybe two more next week should see me well adapted. It may or may not make a difference but, like I said, it's always better to be prepared.

Today, Wednesday, I actually felt better again and the pace/HR confirmed that, though the legs are still not entirely happy.

My lower back is feeling a lot better, there is hardly any discomfort left. That's the most positive development of the last few days,

I'm not quite suffering from taper madness yet. Somehow it hasn't sunk in yet how close race day is already.

13 Jun

8 miles, 1:04:21, 8:03 pace, HR 137

14 Jun

5 miles, 45:44, 9:09 pace, HR 132, treadmill, heat adaptation

15 Jun

10 miles, 1:18:48, 7:52 pace, HR 139

Friday 13th Update

I better not play ice hockey today. You never know who you'd run into.

Following that tough almost-marathon last weekend, this week was always about recovery. To some extend I was very pleased how the legs felt because I had expected the quads especially to be rather sore after all those long, and at times very steep, downhills but thankfully there was virtually no muscle soreness. However, I could not deny a general feeling of fatigue and from Monday to Wednesday every step was done with rather heavy legs.

Strangely enough, it was only after sitting in the office chair for several hours that the quads felt sore. Running was fine, sitting was not. So much for rest being recovery.

Because of that soreness I was rather reluctant to run in the evenings and waited until Wednesday. Even then I decided to run on the treadmill instead of the road to make absolutely sure that I would run at a very, very easy pace and effort. On the road I can sometimes inadvertently run a lot faster than anticipated but on the treadmill that is under full control. I also made sure to step off the treadmill after only 3 miles to be definitely on the safe side.

By Thursday morning things were definitely on the up, though. The legs felt a lot better and I actually enjoyed the run, the beautiful sunrise certainly not doing any harm in that regard. I added 3 more treadmill miles at an even slower pace than the day before, which really seemed to loosen up the legs after a long day of mostly sitting down.

My HR numbers have been improving day after day and are actually back to pretty decent values already. My cardio-vascular system clearly has no problems with me running a marathon on an almost weekly basis. Being fit has its advantages.

I have inquired about the possibility of getting a stand-up desk at work. I know I’ll be looked at as if I had two heads by some colleague but thankfully I don’t give a **** what anyone else thinks. Sitting down for so many hours does hurt my lower back and my legs would probably feel better standing up, once the initial adaptation period is over. I’m not sure if it’s going to happen, though.

One thing I had to omit the last few mornings was the barefoot exercise out in the garden. I got swarmed my midges and had at least 2 dozen itchy bites after less than 5 minutes and had to scamper Doing the same exercises indoors is not the same without being grounded to nature (yes, I know that sounds like New Age hippy stuff) but it will have to do for the time being.

And with that it’s almost the weekend again, and therefore time for another marathon. This time I was a little bit more sensible than before Limerick and agreed to run it as one of the 3:15 pacers. The Lakes of Killarney marathon is run in the National Park and the scenery is absolutely stunning. With the weather forecast as nice, sunny and warm, it will be a gorgeous day (if not entirely conductive to running your best time). I’m really looking forward to it.

Oh, and even being less-than-sensible before Limerick had its advantages. I knew the marathon counted as the Munster championship but didn't think much about it. Turns out I was the third male over 40 (they had 10-year age groups) and will be receiving a bronze medal. A medal at provincial level had up to now been missing from my collection, so that was delightful news. Maybe one day I'll get a medal in an even shinier colour, you never know.

10 May

5 miles, 41:05, 8:13 pace, HR 138

11 May

am: 8 miles, 1:02:45, 7:51 pace, HR 143

pm: 3 miles, 25:19, 8:26 pace, HR 133, treadmill

12 May

am: 8 miles, 1:03:23, 7:57 pace, HR 140

pm: 3 miles, 26:01, 8:40 pace, HR 130, treadmill

13 May

5 miles, 39:46, 7:57 pace, HR 137

Kerry 5k Road Championships

I only heard about the Kerry 5k road championships being on this weekend last Friday, and my first reaction was to groan. Actually, that was my second and third reaction as well - I knew straight away I wouldn't be in any real shape for a 5k just one week after the Tralee marathon.

Things like that have a tendency to become self-fulfilling prophecies of course; if you expect to run badly you are virtually guaranteed to do so. Maybe I should have gone to a sports psychologist rather than training this week.

My legs kept feeling better each day this week but as soon as I tried to run a few strides on Saturday I could immediately feel that the hamstrings were not going to cooperate. Jogging at 8-minute pace was fine but as soon as I tried to spin the legs things felt off.

Nevertheless I decided to go ahead; I guess I felt obliged to represent the club. I sacrificed my planned long run today, but did 5 miles in the morning to give me a few extra miles and I also tried to test the legs again with 2 or 3 strides, but once more I found the hamstrings less than cooperative.

After a cloudy start it turned into a lovely day, so at least the weather was cooperating. I lined up at the start, had just about time to set up the watch before we set off and then at first just tried to hang on to the back of Declan. He had beaten me at a race recently but I got my own back in the next one and I figured if I managed to stay close to him I was doing alright. Unfortunately it soon became clear that I did not manage to stay close to him, so at least I tried to keep him within a reasonable distance. I always felt slow but in fact the first mile was pretty fast in 5:43 but things fell apart during the second mile when it got a bit hillier and I was sure we travelled into a headwind, even if that must have been exceedingly light. During the third mile I kept swapping places repeatedly with another runner, me being stronger on the uphills but unable to spin the legs properly on the downhills so we kept leapfrogging each other in quick succession on the undulating road. That should have boded well for me at the finish when we had to climb up towards the village again before a flat last quarter mile but somehow he managed to find another gear and I did not and I ended up a second or two behind him. One look at the watch confirmed that I had indeed run as badly as expected, 18:40 being the slowest 5k in quite some time (actually, since last year's championship).

Ah well. I still got two medals, one for third M45 and another one for the team coming third, so it wasn't a complete wash-out, and even with a PB I still would have ended up in the same age group position, so from that point of view I hadn't lost anything.

Later on that day I added on another 5 miles on the treadmill while watching the Manchester derby, trying to make up somewhat for the missed long run (or maybe I was just trying to make up for Yaya's lack of effort). The legs felt rather unwilling at first but after 3 miles or so were actually feeling much better, though I kept the pace and effort very easy and stopped after 5 miles. I guess it was the first recovery run after yet another race, with more to come of course.

18 Mar

8 miles, 1:03:06, 7:53 pace, HR 139

19 Mar

10 miles, 1:21:23, 8:08 pace, HR 138

20 Mar

am: 5 miles, 39:31, 7:54 pace, HR 142

noon: 7 miles, incl. 5k Kerry road champs in 18:40; 6:01 pace, HR 173; 3rd M45

pm: 5 miles, 44:26, 8:54 pace, HR 147; treadmill

Chasing Away The Demons

I probably should give some kind of explanation for my last post. It's a long story and there is much more to it than I would ever divulge publicly but basically a family member is in hospital with a serious condition. When it first happened we felt helpless and alone but since then we've had offers to help from so many people and so much support that it all becomes a lot easier to bear. Thank you to everyone who has sent us some form encouragement, you have no idea how much this helped!

I am actually amazed that my training didn't break down completely with all the stress and sleepless nights but somehow I always kept feeling very good physically. Despite all those extra factors I can suddenly feel my training coming along, after weeks of stagnation of even seemingly going backwards. Running in the last week or two wasn't really focused on training as such but more on getting the head sorted and enjoy some hours of freedom but the training effects accumulated nevertheless.

I felt pretty good after Sunday's run but still kept Monday to a very easy 5-mile run. I did up teh distance a little bit on Tuesday but kept the effort at the same easy level.

Because I felt surprisingly good and also because of Sunday's 10-mile race in Ballycotton I toyed with the idea of doing this week's midweek workout on Wednesday rather than the usual Thursday but the weather solved that problem for me with storm Jake striking on Wednesday. While it is possible to run in orange weather warnings it is probably not really advisable as there is a certain amount of risk involved, even if it's a small one. But it's definitely not possible to do a proper workout in a mini-hurricane; believe me, I've tried.

So it was an easy hour on the treadmill watching a recording on the telly to pass the boredom while teh storm was raging outside. It was actually by far my best treadmill run yet, maybe I'm getting used to it or maybe the wind blowing through the slightly opened window ensured I did not get as overheated as usual.

The real workout followed as scheduled on Thursday, a very calm if surprisingly dark morning. The workout was 15 or 16 miles with 4x1 mile repeats at 10k pace bang in the middle. Seeing as my last attempt at a long run with a fast middle section had almost killed me I was a bit nervous but once I got going it went much better than expected. I ran 39:10 in a 10k last month, and even though I was definitely disappointed with that time it pointed to a present 10k-pace of about 6:20, maybe a couple of seconds faster and that was the target.

I ended up with 6:20, 6:13, 6:21 and 6:13. There was very little wind and the road was reasonably flat in either direction so I can't really tell why one direction was faster than the other one but with such a small sample size it may well be just coincidence, or just plain old bad pacing. However, I felt pretty good and definitely had at least one more repeat in me, which is how you want to feel at the end of a speed workout, especially so if the plan calls for an extra 5 or 6 miles! Those miles went pretty well as well, very much in contrast to the horror show back in February and I figured that had been my best workout in that training cycle yet. While I would gladly swap every single ounce of fitness for a healthy family, I'll have to be content with what I have at the moment. Having a race to look forward to helps with dealing with all the other stuff, though.

29 Feb

5 miles, 41:22, 8:16 pace, HR 138

1 Mar

8 miles, 1:03:16, 7:55 pace, HR 144

2 Mar

8 miles, 1:03:16, 7:55 pace, HR 138, treadmill

3 Mar

15 miles, 1:53:52, 7:35 pace, HR 145

   4 x 1 mile @ 6:20, 6:13, 6:21, 6:13

Tentative Comeback

The reason I haven't written anything the last 5 days was obviously that I haven't run anything, and this is very much a running blog. I did try to aid recovery by getting more sleep, which worked as far as sleep time was concerned but I have no way of telling if it made any difference with regards to recovery. I also went to the local pharmacy and bought some Vitamin C and Zinc supplements. If you google the effectiveness of supplements you get very mixed results but I reasoned that even if they would not help they were very unlikely to make things worse, so why not.

By Saturday I started getting rather fed up, not with the "no running" but the fact that the bug was still in my system after 2 weeks. I resolved to go to the Doctor on Monday but then I felt a bit better on Sunday and a bit better again on Monday, so decided to wait a little bit longer. I did 5 very, very easy miles on the treadmill on Monday morning, more to test the system than anything related to training, and the 5 miles spooled off without any bother - at least I can still do a bit of exercise without overextending myself. I did the same again on Tuesday but wasn't feeling 100% so I was still unsure if I'm okay to venture out again.

I felt about 90% throughout last week, 95% on Monday and 98% on Tuesday evening. This time I'm pretty sure I'm just about recovered.

I sure missed some interesting running conditions with not just one but two orange warnings in just a few days. The treadmill came in handy the last 2 days for that reason alone. In fact, it was while watching the havoc caused by storm Desmond 2 months ago when I decided to purchase a treadmill.

I'm not even sure if complete rest is better than easy running in this case. I know from experience that a day of easy running is better for recovery from a minor injury than full rest but if the same holds true for an infection is a different thing altogether. The main reason why I took a clean break is because I still remember getting pneumonia 8 years ago after stubbornly running with a chest infection until one morning I could not even get out of bed.

I got this bug while in hospital and would resolve to stay away from that place but I had that resolve already and it wasn't exactly a case of wanting to go there in the first place, so who knows.

I had hoped to start the next training phase this week but obviously that plan did not include getting sick. I'll wait and see how tomorrow goes.

1 Feb

5 miles, 42:55, 8:35 pace, HR 140, treadmill

2 Feb

5 miles, 41:35, 8:19 pace, HR 143, treadmill

46

I'm supposed to celebrate today I suppose, though I don't really feel much like celebrating. If I were Grellan I'd go for a really long run or 3, but I'm not. So, as my 21st birthday repeats itself for the 26th time, I'm instead sipping green tea and generally feeling a bit sorry for myself.

As I've mentioned already, I keep underestimating the effect a workout will have on my body. Sunday's run had repercussions. As soon as I headed out on Monday morning the hamstrings felt like they had been cast in concrete. The plan had been for 10 miles but I turned around after 4. Last Saturday I had felt slow and the same happened again - only this time I really was dead slow. I got a bit of a shock when I saw the pace on the watch afterwards, basically 9-minute miles. I haven't run that slowly since, well, reaching Sparta. It's a good thing I did turn around early - I would have been late for work otherwise.

Tuesday saw the unwelcome visit of yet another major winter storm, Jonas, the same storm that had shut down the eastern united states for a while this weekend. It had lost much of its destructive power by the time it touched land in Kerry but it was still sufficient to keep me awake half the night. I tried reading once the ceiling had been studied in sufficient detail but eventually got up at 5 am and spent an hour on the treadmill, inadvertently doing my longest treadmill run ever - yet. It was during storm Desmond in December that I decided the get a treadmill - I'm daft enough to keep running no matter what and indoors is definitely safer at times. Thankfully the hamstrings felt much better - they had already felt better during Yoga Monday evening.

I had contracted a cold in hospital last week and had definitely started to feel better by the start of this week but on Wednesday morning just felt like crap again. Of course I still went running. That's my default action. I had already decided to do 10 instead of the originally planned 12 but when I still felt like crap after 3 or 4 miles I decided to go home instead and ended up with 5; slow ones at that.

I guess a bit of rest might be in store. I'll take a few days off, until I feel better. This is mostly to get rid of that cold but it should also serve to get me out of this little overtraining hole that I once again managed to dig myself into.

25 Jan

8 miles, 1:11:52, 8:59 pace, HR 128

26 Jan

8 miles, 1:04:51, 8:06 pace, HR 143, treadmill

27 Jan

5 miles, 42:21, 8:28 pace, HR 138

28 Jan

0

Tired

Or maybe stressed?

The cold I have acquired at the hospital kept being a very unwelcome reminder of the events from the start of the week. The sore throat was gone by Thursday but I still had some general achy feeling and wasn't entirely hundred percent. There's plenty of debate if it's wise to keep on running when fighting off a cold but my experience is that as long as you don't have any symptoms below the neck you're okay. Since I always run with a HRM I can always tell very easily how much extra load my body is burdened with. My HR is slightly elevated (or the VDOT numbers slightly lowered) but nothing I have not seen a dozen times before.

I took it very easy on Thursday. My body didn't feel up to much and neither did my legs, still feeling the 16 miles from the day before. A week ago a pace slower than 8-minute miles would have shown a very low HR but even with the effects of that cold it was still below 140, definitely an easy effort.

My sleep is still being affected but I felt better on Friday - still a bit snuffly but closer to being back at full health, and after a bit of hesitation I decided to go ahead with a planned marathon effort after all. It was very windy, so I ran on the slightly sheltered Ard-na-Sidhe road (my routine fall-back option on windy days) and kept the effort at about marathon level. During the MP segment I averaged a HR of 157, so if anything I undershot the target slightly though with 3 months to go before Manchester there is plenty of time to fine-tune the effort. The pace was 6:51, basically spot on 3-hours marathon pace, which bodes well (a sub-3 is my basic goal, sub-2:55 is the bonus goal).

I tried to take it easy on Saturday but I just felt slow. The gale force wind did not help, I'm sure, but in general it just felt like a slog. I was genuinely surprised when I saw a sub-8 pace on the watch afterwards, I would have sworn I was doing 8:30 pace.

I think the legs just had to pay a price for Friday's MP effort but I realised that too late. Sunday's run was hard work, every single step felt like a mini-struggle. I sometimes feel like that early on and things improve after I'm warmed up but not so today. Again, the really strong wind did not help, nor did the brutally hilly course, the latter obviously being my own choice. I had to grind out every single mile and eventually had enough, cut the run short and headed for home. I tried to run the last 2.5 miles at marathon pace but 7:10 was all the legs had in them, no matter how hard I tried. Obviously it was too early after Friday's effort - I'm slow to learn the lessons of recovery.

My left achilles gave me a few twinges the last few days. I'm fairly sure it's nothing serious - I've been through a fair few achilles issues over the years but never any serious ones.

21 Jan

10 miles, 1:21:08, 8:06 pace, HR 139

22 Jan

am: 10 miles, 1:10:57, 7:05 pace, HR 153

   incl. 8 miles @ 6:51 pace, HR 157

pm: 2.5 miles, 21:09, 8:27 pace, HR 122, treadmill

23 Jan

am: 8 miles, 1:02:39, 7:49 pace, HR 139

pm: 4 miles, 32:15, 8:03 pace, HR 135, treadmill

24 Jan

16.3 miles, 2:09:29, 7:56 pace, HR 143

   last 2.5 miles @ 7:10 pace

Weekly Mileage: ~82

The Best Laid Plans

After some fairly brutal training over the last week/weekend, I made sure to take it easy at the start of this week. Monday's run was a 10 miler, going as slowly as I could while still moving. This was actually a very pleasing run - 2 months ago I would have strained to run at that pace, just a tad slower than 8-minute miles, by now this is my recovery pace. I ran at the same effort level again on Tuesday morning but ended up a little bit quicker, probably the extra day of recovery making itself show already. I added a short run on the treadmill in the evening, more to pass the time before a late dinner than any serious training application, but in retrospect should probably have run a little bit slower. I started out slowly enough but steadily kept cranking up the pace over the next half hour. Not particularly fast by any means but it sure wasn't recovery pace any more at the end.

I might have paid the price on Wednesday morning. I expected to feel fresh and recovered after two relatively easy days but reality didn't quite match expectations. It wasn't a disaster by any means but the calves felt a bit tight and the pace was flagging towards the end, which is very unusual for me.

The other mistake I made was going to bed too late. The Christmas holidays had made a massive difference to how I felt, sleeping 8 hours per night instead of 6.5 made me feel much more rested despite an increase in mileage, and going to bed a midnight when you're getting up at half past five just isn't a smart move. I generally don't do New Year's resolutions but maybe I should make an exception and attempt to go to bed earlier.

In my last post I promised to say something about my plans for 2016. I took my times making up my mind, playing around with different options, and finally came up with an outline I'm fairly happy with. The main goal will be the Belfast 24 hours race, moved forwards by 3 weeks compared to previous years. It had been on my initial plan but I hesitated when I heard it was going to be moved from the track to a nearby park because I actually prefer running 24 hours on a track. I find the rhythm of the 400 meter oval almost hypnotic and get into The Zone almost by default, something I found much harder in Turin. Anyway, eventually I decided to keep this as my A goal race.

There will be two B goal races. The first is the Manchester marathon in April where I intent to run sub-3 and hopefully have a go at my marathon PB. Initially I had targeted Tralee but they changed the course yet again and now it resembles a mountain run more than a road marathon and a PB there is no longer feasible. The idea behind targeting a marathon is to get some speedwork done as part of the preparation, which I think I sorely lacked last year. Since this marathon will be a stepping stone for Belfast rather than a major goal in itself I might find out if I'll have the willpower to push myself through the pain barrier - I need to work on my head as much as my legs.

The other B race will be the Spartathlon, thereby immediately breaking the vow I had made repeatedly between km 205 and 245 last year never to do anything like that ever again (let's face it, I was always going to break it) and proving that I really am stupid enough to willingly put myself through that kind of inhuman torture for a second time. I just did not do myself justice in that race in 2015 and want to have another to get it right.

4 Jan

10 miles, 1:21:42, 8:10 pace, HR 135

5 Jan

am: 10 miles, 1:19:24, 7:56 pace, HR 138

pm: 4 miles, 32:28, 8:07 pace, treadmill

6 Jan

15 miles, 1:57:19, 7:49 pace, HR 138

Back In The Ring

As promised, I kept the training going over Christmas. I took it slightly easier on Christmas Day with only 8 miles, but the rain was so cold it really felt like I had been doing enough already. I had some vague plans of adding a few extra miles later on but the turkey was too filling and running would almost certainly have been a bad idea. Btw, I got upgraded to Turkey Cook this Christmas, which makes sense as Niamh is vegetarian. Both Cian and me agreed that it was an excellent turkey, but maybe that was just the men sticking together.

I'm in orange, the one with the race face

Anyway, St. Stephen's Day, or Boxing Day as the English ones in the family still insist on calling it, was the day of the very traditional Farranfore 5k race. Well, the Farranfore race is traditional, the 5k distance was only introduced 3 years ago, before that it had been  4.2 mile race to Firies; now we're turning around just before entering Firies. Anyway, I expected a wet and rather miserable few miles because it was raining heavily as I drove towards Farranfore but once we got going it was pretty much perfect, no wind and if there was any rain then I did not notice it. I was astounded by how many people ran off at full speed, not for the first time, but I caught half of them before we had crested the hill half a mile later. I stuck to a group that also contained 3 ladies but when it broke apart after 2k I had a decision to make, do I stick with the runners I am with which was hard but doable or do I go with the runners pulling away at the front and suffer for it? I went for the suffering option and wouldn't you know it, it was perfectly doable as well, if not exactly easy. The return leg featured that hill again, of course, and my legs weren't at their best any more. I battled with 3 or 4 guys with varying success but just before the top of the hill the lad right in front of me blew up and I gained one extra place. I tried to chase down the guy in front of me on the downhill but even though I managed to cut most of the deficit, he was still a few metres ahead of me at the finish, as the pic shows. I took my time to catch my breath and eventually managed to get my time from my watch, 18:12. That was a lovely Christmas surprise, quite a bit faster than what I would have thought possible, especially since this isn't exactly the fastest of races course with that hill that has to be tackled twice. One slight downer was that we waited in the hall for the results, in the hope that I might or might not have picked up an age group award before being sent home after 90 minutes without results due to a technical glitch. Ah well, results have now been published, they even gave me 3 extra seconds on the official results with 18:09, but I was only the third M45 runner and 26th overall. The standard was remarkably high, for sixth place, the last one to pick up a prize, you would have needed a stonkingly fast 15:49!

I added 4 miles later that evening on the treadmill but took it exceptionally easy; this was a true recovery run. If it helped or hindered Sunday's long run I'm not entirely sure, the legs sure still felt the effort. The original plan had been for 20 miles once more but the legs were hurting and I needed to be home early because Niamh had to leave for Killarney at half ten, so I cut it down to 18 miles only, passing Niamh just as she left the house; perfect timing after all. The legs felt just as they had right at the start, so from that point of view I could easily have added another couple of miles but I've been wondering the last week or two if I'm getting too tired and not entirely able to soak up the training, so a bit of restraint is probably a good thing anyway.

28 Dec

8 miles, 1:02:48, 7:51 pace, HR 138

26 Dec

am: 7+miles, including Farranfore 5k in 18:12, 5:55 pace, HR 172

pm: 4 miles, 35:14, 8:48 pace, HR 139, treadmill

27 Dec

18 miles, 2:27:25, 8:11 pace, HR 139

Weekly Mileage: 90

Ho Ho Ho

Well, just in time for Christmas the rain has gotten a lot colder overnight. It feels a lot more wintry now when the gale force wind blows the icy cold rain right into your face. Isn't it marvelous?

Actually, I got away lightly. The past three nights have all been atrocious and I know because the wind and rain outside kept waking me up. On each occasion, however, conditions had improved significantly by the time I stepped out of the door. With the winter solstice now behind us it will slowly get brighter again - thank God for that, right now it's still pitch dark even when I finish my run!

I made sure to take it very easy on Tuesday after the legs had felt like lead on Monday. To be on the safe side I cut the mileage down to 8 but thankfully they felt perfectly fine so I thought it safe to add 5 more in the evening on the treadmill - after I had waited my turn in the queue, that is; the novelty clearly hasn't worn off yet. The only family member not enthralled by the shiny new machine is the cat.

Because Tuesday had been going so well I did 15 again on Wednesday, trying to keep the midweek semi-long run going. The one problem with that is the lack of sleep. In fact, when the alarm went off I first thought there was a mistake because it felt like I had only gone to bed 5 minutes earlier and I felt groggy from still being half asleep even when I started running. I felt pretty good during the first half and a bit tired towards the end but nowhere near what it had been like on Monday. In general, the legs seemed to be fine but the pace was a bit slower than what I would have thought.

Because I felt a bit off on Thursday morning, probably the high mileage taking a bit of a toll, I didn't fancy doing another Kenyan fartlek, so I just ran 10 miles but added a few strides over the last 10 minutes. Once again, the run went well enough but the pace was a bit slower than what I would have thought.

There's two things I don't get about Christmas in this country. One is the refusal to do any physical activity "you're not running on Christmas Day, are you?" Of course I'm running on Christmas Day! I'd be cranky all day otherwise! (they even seem to be surprised that Mo Farah is going to train on Christmas Day - and he's a Muslim!). The other is the compulsion to get drunk. I don't see the connection between a family day and copious amounts of alcohol. Maybe that's what the guy who last week told me that I'm just not Irish was talking about.

Anyway, we won't have a White Christmas but it will be cold enough to feel like winter. Happy Christmas everyone!

22 Dec

am: 8 miles, 1:03:05, 7:52 pace, HR 136

pm: 5 miles, 39:50, 7:58 pace, HR 137, treadmill

23 Dec

15 miles, 1:58:39, 7:55 pace, HR 138

24 Dec

10 miles, 1:20:26, 8:03 pace, HR 136

Old And Soft

We're all getting old eventually and apparently we're increasingly craving creature comforts as we go along. While I'm not quite ready to retire to sofa, beer and 42-inch telly just yet (I was for a week after my first 24 hrs race in 2012 but subsequently changed my mind) I can see the signs as Santa must have visited us a week early as there is a whopping big treadmill in the corner by the tree where none used to be.

I'm not planning on cutting out the road just yet. The idea is to use it for potential second runs in the evening. I did one last month, and apart from hurting my foot I did not like the traffic. Running in the dark on twisty narrow country roads is fine at 6 am when there are almost no cars out there but things are very different at 6 pm and it just did not feel safe. In good old Western society tradition I'm trying to solve the problem by throwing money at it.

It got delivered on Friday and I used it for an inaugural run that evening. It was a slow, easy recovery run but in actual fact I was very slow working out that the 5/8 button was not minutes per km/miles but mph/kph instead, which translates into 12-minute miles. No wonder it felt excessively easy! One side-effect is that the kids have found a new toy, I can hardly get them off the treadmill! At least they're getting some exercise that way but if that will still be the case once the novelty has worn off remains to be seen.

I managed to do all the weekend runs on the road, despite the challenging conditions. The treadmill is strictly there to supplement road running, not replace it.

Saturday was the faster day once more. I actually ran a tad slower than last week but the effort was much more controlled and the lower HR shows that - it was a much better effort in the grand scheme of things. I could feel the benefits on Sunday. Last week's long run had turned into a bit of a slog over the last few miles, this one went much better. The last five miles were still challenging but that was more down to the fact that they were all right into a fairly strong headwind, which was never going to be easy. I felt remarkably good for the rest of the day, not tired at all, and was rather pleased with myself to be honest.

After feeling so good on Sunday, Monday's heavy legs came as a complete and very unwelcome surprise. There are several mitigating factors: conditions were rather awful with lashing rain and strong gale force winds, which was always going to force a slower pace. On top of that we had spent Sunday evening at a Christmas party. I might have been one of only 2 sober guests as I restricted myself to a single glass of wine, but I still ended up standing around for several hours and by the end my legs and lower back were killing me, which may well have been responsible for the heavy legs 7 hours later, especially coming on top of all the training. Lack of sleep didn't help either, 7 hours between the end of the party and the alarm clock just aren't enough (and that's after leaving the party early!).

Despite all those perfectly valid excuses there is still the possibility that I was running just that little bit too hard. MC used to warn me that too high an effort would invariably and mercilessly be revealed on the third day of the 10-20-15 combo, which is exactly how it felt. I could claim that I took it very easy, as shown by the low HR, but truth it the legs just didn't have it this morning.

Tuesday will be an easy day, and I will also try and get more sleep. With Christmas around the corner at least there's the chance of a few extra hours of sleep in the morning. I'll just have to hang on for a few more days.

Update: I was asked to pass on the following message:

I am unrolling news of my PhD project today. It is an exploration of community in ultrarunning. I am hoping to recruit AS MANY participants as possible. This includes runners, volunteers, directors, coaches, documentarians, fans. Elites and DFL. Veterans to the sport and those training for their first ultra. It is my hope to create the most extensive, comprehensive, and representative study of ultrarunning to-date and so I need your help!
If you're interested please contact me directly at my (new) project-specific email address: ianmacnairn.ultrastudy@gmail.com. Please feel free to share news of the project with others that may be interested.

18 Dec

am: 8 miles, 1:02:51, 7:51 pace, HR 139

pm: 4 miles, 34:50, 8:43 pace, HR 131, treadmill

19 Dec

10 miles, 1:09:47, 6:59 pace, HR 154

20 Dec

20 miles, 2:35:16, 7:46 pace, HR 142

21 Dec

15 miles, 2:00:46, 8:03 pace, HR 138

Weekly Mileage (up to Sunday): 92 (88 road, 4 treadmill)

My Present

Eric is a genius. I only have to mention that I bought myself a birthday present and within a minute he’s guessed it (ok, he got the number wrong. Who cares). After resisting for years, I have finally joined the weenie brigade and bought myself a geek watch. The price had gone down by half recently, and I gave in to temptation. I’ll try and resist cluttering the blog with too many charts – due to the scaling they always look the same anyway, but I guess once I’m allowed to run around Caragh Lake again, I might post something.

Unfortunately the weather has indeed turned nasty again, and so far I have only managed one run outside, yesterday, and that was already asking for trouble because I got caught out by rain with 10 minutes to go. Nevertheless, I managed to establish that my so-far imaginary one mile marker on the Ard-na-Sidhe road was spot on, but that my usual turn-around, according to the new toy, was about 20 meters too late. Actually, I felt quite smug at the accuracy of my distances. I haven’t managed to go out on the Caragh Lake road yet, and I’ll be interested to know how long a loop around the lake really is (within the accuracy of the toy, of course).

Today was a cold morning just above the freezing point (it still was raining rather than snowing, though), but the gale force wind made running outside an unwise choice for a pneumonia victim, so I brought my running gear into work, and went to the gym at lunchtime for 5 miles on the treadmill. This time I managed to bring my HRM, but forgot the mp3 player. I managed to stay on the damn thing for the entire distance, but with a little bit less than a mile to go I increased the pace from 9-minute miles to 8-minute miles, mainly to get it over and done with, boredom was taking over. The heart rate continues to go down, which was pleasing, but is still way above pre-sickness levels. When I switched to 8-minute pace, it went up by about 10 beats, and I used to run those at much lower levels. I don’t know how long it will take to build up my fitness again – a very long time probably as long as I can’t do more than 5 miles in a row, I guess.

The pain in my chest may be getting better, but then again, I used to think I was getting better the day before I get 40 degrees temperature, so that’s no reliable indicator. As long as that pain is still there I have a constant reminder of my sickness and the need to take it easy. I’ll better heed it.

30 Jan

5 miles, 44:30, 8:54 pace, HR 156

31 Jan

5 miles, 43:57, 8:47 pace, HR 149

Monthly mileage: 62.5 *sigh*