A Win Is a Win Is a Win

There you have it, my first ever win in a road race, the 5k organised by the local gym in Killorglin. Now, you might ask, if that guy won, what on earth were the other ones like, and you wouldn’t be wrong. There wasn’t much of a competition, not a single fast runner turned up (by default, or I would not have won), but you can only beat whatever competition is there on the day, and on Saturday I was the fastest guy in town.

Not that I had a great race, I was a bit disappointed with my time of 19:39. I have plenty of excuses (runners tend to have lots of them), e.g. there was a big hill after 3 km, and the fact that the next runner was about 500 meters behind me meant I never got that extra gear that competition brings on, and my legs felt heavy from the training (no taper here). I still should have run faster, heck, I ran 23 seconds faster than that only a fortnight ago. But whatever, it felt really good to finish first, and the fact that the next guy didn’t come home much faster than 22:00 isn’t my fault. To be honest, when we stood on the start line (only about 15 or so runners were there) I silently declared myself the race favourite, and once the gun went I knew within 10 seconds that I was going to win this easily, there simply wasn’t anybody there to challenge me. Oh, and I won one month free gym membership. That was definitely a nice surprise.

Niamh was there at the finish, which was nice too, and she seemed reasonably proud of her man. But that was nothing compared to the excitement of the twins once we came home. “You’re the best Daddy in the world! … pause… But I already thought that, even before you won”. And Shea gave me a superhero trophy. It looks like his faith in me has been restored, after him voicing doubts earlier this week.

Despite the fact that the race wasn’t exactly a glorious achievement, I went out for a few extra miles after coming home. I was on a high. I recommend winning, it feels good.

Sunday was a gorgeous day and I seized the opportunity for a longer loop in Valentia that I had meant to run for a while. I ran along the southern side of the island all the way to the western tip, up to the signal tower in Bray Head, and came back via the northern side. It was a seriously hilly run, and the views were breathtaking, especially towards the Skelligs. The whole loop is about 14.5 miles long, and when I added up this week’s miles in my head I realised that this would put me on 98.5. I was supposed to cut back the mileage now, but with me being so close to 100 I could not resist adding an extra out-and-back section to give me one and a half extra miles. Those were pure vanity miles, only there to boost my mileage up to triple figures. I’m not even sure about the correct mileage, because the distance covered during the hill repeats is just a guess, but my training log shows 100 miles, and I’ll stick with that. I should probably start cutting back for real this week. It’s not that I feel overtrained. My legs might feel heavy, but that’s not overtraining. It’s just that everybody else tells me to go easy, including guys who know a lot more about running than I do.

What makes up for the reduced mileage is the greater intensity on the hills. I’m planning to do 3 hill workouts per week for the next 3 weeks, and today was the first one for this week. I returned to Geokaun for one last time, and 4 repeats were what followed. By the time of the second repeat the sun had risen and shone directly from the side, enabling me to see my shadow, which was a great way to check out my form. I’ve never been sure if I’m doing those drills correctly, but from what I could see it looked good. At least my shadow seems to perform them properly, maybe the rest of me does so too. I also added some bounding to the mix of steep-hill running, which is always a very tough workout. There is still some work to do before I can do those for any length of time before gasping for air within seconds.

Today is our last day in Valentia, and of course the weather has turned absolutely beautiful all of a sudden. I shouldn’t complain, I’ll still be able to enjoy the sunshine while at home, and running through a beautiful summer morning sure beats the rain we’ve had to endure for much too long.

28 Jul: 9 miles, incl. 5k race in 19:39, 6:20 pace, 1st place. First ever win.
29 Jul: 16 miles, 2:12:51, 8:18 pace, avg. HR 143
30 Jul: 4 hill repeats, 1:47:30, ~12 miles, avg. HR 138

Weekly mileage: 100+ miles

Proceed with Care

Should you ever find yourself driving in a country where they drive on the opposite side of the road than the one you’re accustomed to, please take extra care. And if you are in that situation, and someone else comes along on the same side of the road as your are, flashing his light, breaking, but not moving out of the way, then please take that as a clue to reconsider your positioning. Unlike that numbskull I came across on Wednesday night who wouldn’t budge, forced me into an emergency break, and finally moved over once I was basically standing still, with a few meters left spare. We were just lucky that it was on a straight stretch of road and I was driving well below the speed limit. One of Niamh’s friends suffered a head-on collision with some tourist two or three years ago on nearly exactly the same place. I prefer to get a raised heart rate from running, not from a near-death experience.

Anyway, let’s return to the subject of running. Thursday called for hill repeats again. I left myself with plenty of time for a change and managed 4 hill repeats up Geokaun. But I got a surprise when I took off for the windsprints at the bottom of the hill. The muddy road that I used for that purpose had a metal wire hanging across it all of a sudden. If that was because the farmer didn’t like me using that road or if it was for some unrelated reason I don’t know. I contemplated my options and decide to do the strides at the top of the hill instead of the bottom. There is a flat(ish) road from the upper car park to the Fogher Cliffs, where, incidentally, I had never been before, despite running past the car park numerous times. It turns out those cliffs are absolutely stunning, but as I found out afterwards, they are the place where famous climber Michael Reardon tragically lost his life 2 weeks ago. I didn’t know that at the time and just carried on with my workout, which, as ever, was reasonably stressful. I also got caught by some heavy rain showers, which I could have done without.

I don’t know if it’s the right thing to do, but I more or less continued with my heavy mileage through the first week of the hill phase. As a result, my legs are feeling more and more tired. I did three laps in Valentia this morning, which came to over 17 miles. That’s a tad less than during the last few weeks of the base building phase, but it’s still more miles than I’ve ever done before. Today’s pace definitely felt faster than 8:20. Either my legs are getting more and more beaten up by the training, or there is a slight error in the mile measurements, and the courses in Valentia a slightly long (or, alternatively, the ones in Caragh Lake are short). I’ll be back in Caragh Lake on Monday, and if I’m still slow then I might cut down on my miles. I don’t want to get too hung up on the pace of my long runs so far out from the marathon, but 8:20 pace just should not feel as hard as it did today, hills or no hills.

I also got rained on twice today, and one of those downpours was so heavy that I wasn’t sure if it was hail stoning. On the other hand, it turned into a beautiful day. The weather forecast for the next few days is similar: changeable. I guess it’s better than what they have in Southern Europe at the moment, where people are literally dying due to the excessive heat. Take care.

26 Jul: 4 hill repeats, 1:40:31, ~ 11.5 miles
27 Jul: 17.1 miles, 2:22:35, 8:20 pace, avg. HR 143

Lazy and Insane, Apparently

“Daddy won’t win. He’s not running much.” It looks like Shea has lost faith in my abilities, when Niamh told him about my next race. While the prediction is almost certainly correct, isn’t a dad supposed to be the all-powerful idol for a 6-year old? And what’s that about not running much???

I did another hill session yesterday. Learning from Monday's mistake I took the direct route to Geokaun, paid my 1 Euro toll and proceeded with 3 repeats up that road. The sun came exactly from the side, which enabled me to see my own shadow as I did the steep-hill running. I still can’t lift my knees as high as I’d like to, but I like to think that I’ve improved already. The sessions were tough again, as ever. After the third one all I could mutter was “this better be worth it!”

Two weeks ago I did my long run the day after a hill workout and struggled to make it through. Last week’s long run was a walk in the park in comparison. Today I did the same thing again as two weeks ago, and again I struggled for most of the course. I ran three loops of the Knightstown-Chapeltown-Shore Road loop, but ran it counter clockwise for a change. It was really windy and I hoped that the hilly part might be a tad more sheltered, and then I’d have the wind on my back on the Shore Road. Not entirely surprising, the climb got tougher with each loop, and I sure was glad when I reached the apex for the last time. It was slow progress, but the legs didn’t seem to have anything else in them. After completing the third loop I still had a 3-mile out-and-back section to do to make up 20 miles. This time I ran on the shore road, because that’s the only road where I know where the (imaginary) mile markers are. Either the wind had picked up by now or the shore road really is more exposed, but I definitely had to fight against the wind this time. The turn-around point couldn’t come soon enough, and when I reached it at long last I could finally brush that little devil off my shoulder that had incessantly been whispering “turn around. You’ve already run long enough. Just turn around” into my ear. Running felt so much better on the way back home that I put the foot down and got some decent pace, but of course this was with the wind.

For the first time in weeks, Niamh was up when I got home. “Shea woke at half past six, and I haven’t slept since”. She didn’t look happy, and maybe answering with “so you got a lie-in then” wasn’t exactly the smartest thing to do. She also came up with “Mum and Dad think you’re insane”. “I know … maybe they’re right”. “Maybe they are”.

Well.

24 Jul: 3 hill circuits, 1:31:41, est. 10.5 miles
25 Jul: 20 miles, 2:49:46, 8:29 pace, avg. HR 142; last 1.5 miles in 11:15 (7:30 pace, albeit wind-assisted)

And so the streak ends

No, not the one about me running day for day, that’s still ongoing. The one about correctly predicting the gender of our children, I mean. After guessing correctly for the first 3 I made the confident prediction that we’re in for another boy. On Friday we had a scan (very late, Niamh is already 25 weeks). It’s a girl. Lola is thrilled, she really really really wanted a sister. Cian on the other hand burst into tears. He wants three brothers. Because 3 is his favourite number. Because he himself is 3. Sorry, Cian, that’s just not happening.

I faced a problem over the weekend, because after staying home in Caragh Lake for a couple of days (for the scan and the concert), we went back to Valentia and I promptly forgot to take my HRM and my stopwatch with me. It meant three runs without a timing device, and I felt half-naked without the chest strap. Of course it didn’t really matter. I got a pretty good idea of how long I’d been out from looking at the clock in the hall, and the training effect isn’t actually altered even if you get the time wrong by a minute or two, even though it hurts my geeky fondness for numbers.

I went back to the hills on Friday for another set of repeats. The highest hill in Valentia is called Geokaun (with loads of different spellings) and there is a private road up to the very top. The cost for pedestrians is 1 Euro, which I brought along with me. I proceeded with 3 sets of steep-hill running, each followed by a few laps around the car park up there, gingerly jogging down the steep hill (my knee is still dodgy) and 3x200 meters of sprints on a dirt road at the bottom. After the third repeat I actually ran the extra half mile up to the very top, but I didn’t do the high knee lift for that section, just ran normally. The view up there was breathtaking, even though it was a bit hazy. I had inadvertently taken the long way round on my way there. By the time I started my first hill repeat I had already covered more than 5 miles, which isn’t quite ideal, but as I found out there is a shorter way via the lighthouse road. I’ll keep that in mind for the next time. I didn’t know how much distance I had covered, but the whole run had taken well over 2 hours and I settled for a 14.5 miles estimate.

I still felt pretty good on Sunday, and was looking forward to the 10 miles to finish off the week. Somehow it was liberating to run without a stopwatch, and I turned the run into a fartlek session, with a faster segment each mile or so. Obviously I didn’t time it, but I kept up a good pace even on the recovery parts, and was back home in about 1:15. It was a very good run at the end of yet another 100-mile week, and I was pleased to be able to crank out a few faster miles even after such a high mileage.

I expected to be sore again today, because that’s what happened after the last hill repeat workout. But I awoke without any soreness and happily went on my way for another 16 miles. I’m officially going into my hill phase now, but to ease into it I’ll only do 2 sets of hills this week. My mileage will drop a bit, which means those 2 100mpw weeks will remain there on their own. I haven’t decided on quite how much I will run, but I will cut down the longest run from 22 to 20 miles. At the very least it will give me an extra 15 minutes of sleep on Wednesday, and I’m happy to take that after last week’s madness. I managed to catch up on sleep over the weekend, I got in excess of 8 each night, including the one to Monday.

I drove via Caragh Lake on my way to work today to pick up my stopwatch and HRM (plus a few other things). It was fun to run without a timing device for a while, but I’m glad to be able to satisfy my obsession for numbers again.

21 Jul: 3 hill repeats, 2:06, ~14.5 miles
22 Jul: 10 miles, ~1:15, ~7:30 pace
23 Jul: 16 miles, ~2:12, ~ 8:15 pace

Weekly mileage: 102.5 miles

Sleepwalking

I know I recently complained about not getting enough sleep. If I had known what was in store, I would have shut up. I guess it’s all down to my whining. Fate has a habit of punishing whiners.

The night from Wednesday to Thursday was bad. I went to bed a bit late (my own fault, of course), but then it really started. At 2 am Shea complained that he didn’t want to sleep in the same room as Cian (after 2 years!). Too tired to argue we let him sleep in our bed. He promptly fell asleep top to toe, and twice viciously kicked me in the face. At 3 am Cian turned up. I carried Shea back into his own bed and Cian stayed with us. At 4 am Lola cried. She needed to go to the bathroom but was scared of the dark, so Daddy had to stand guard. Each time it took ages to fall back asleep again, and what should have been a long sleep until 6.10 am turned out to be much too little.

The run on Thursday was fine. 10 slow and easy miles were on the program, and passed without incident. I can’t think of anything to write, apart from the fact that I managed to get my lowest heart rate for a run ever, despite the fact that I added 8x100 strides towards the end of the run. I was surprised by how quickly the HR came down each time.

The next night was even worse. Niamh had gone out for a concert, and should have been back around midnight. It also meant that bath time, tooth brushing, story time and putting the unruly brood to bed was left to me alone, which was stressful enough. But when Cian woke me at 2:35 am (he wanted to come into our bed) and there was no sign of Niamh I immediately got worried. She didn’t have her mobile phone with her, so I sent some text messages to the friends she had gone out with, and when I didn’t get an answer rang them up after some hesitation (it was nearly 3 am by now). Eventually one of them answered the call and said that Niamh had dropped her off just 5 minutes ago and would be home soon. Sure enough she turned up eventually. I didn’t really say much apart from “never do that to me again” and went back to bed. Unfortunately I was wide awake and couldn’t sleep for another hour. I finally drifted off to sleep around 4 am, but when the alarm went off at 4:30, I didn’t have much more than 4 hours of sleep behind me. I contemplated going back to sleep but eventually got up anyway, got ready and headed out of the door. It was still fairly dark, which is something I haven’t been used to for months, but not enough to require a headlamp.

To be honest, I don’t remember much about the first half of the run. I think I was basically still asleep, but the legs were on autopilot and found the way all by themselves. I had deliberated if I should do a similar run to last week (3 reasonably flat out-and-back segments) or return to my loop around Caragh Lake. I eventually settled for the latter. One loop around the lake is 17 miles and a second loop to Ard-na-Sidhe makes 22 miles, which was just too beautiful to resist. It meant a lot of hills, which worried me because of the pain in my knee on all those downhills, but decided that my knee was getting better and I would be able to run through any pain. This worked out reasonably well. It did hurt, especially on the steep bits, but now I’m convinced that I’m definitely on the way to recovery again, and I need some more hills for my running. All those flat miles won’t cut it.

I kinda woke up for the second half, and started noticing the various life forms around me, apart from the usual assortments of cats, dogs and birds I came across millions of gnats (annoying), sheep (panicked), cows (mating, not a pretty sight), horses (beautiful), rabbits (fast) and one badger (dead). Eventually a few early risers on their way to work appeared on the road as well. The run went well enough, much better than last week when the second half had turned more and more into a death march with each mile. On the other hand I was much slower than anticipated, and certainly slower than it felt like. I guess the sleepwalking first half was mostly responsible for that, I remember looking at my watch after 8 miles, seeing 1:08, managing to calculate the pace (8:30) in my head and being surprised at the slow progress. I resisted the temptation to speed up, especially as the long 3-mile climb was about to start, which didn’t exactly help the average pace. I guess I should be reasonably happy with the second half of the run, which must have been around 8:10 to make up a bit of time. That’s still slow, but it was a long run, and after so little sleep I won’t split hairs. Maybe I should take all those hills into account. They were bound to slow me down.

I think I’ll sleep in on the weekend. Any screaming kids will be Niamh’s problem (yeah, right!).

19 Jul: 10 miles, 1:24:43, 8:28 pace, avg. HR 135
20 Jul: 22 miles, 3:03:41, 8:20 pace, avg. HR 145

Sore

I guess there are still one or two points I have yet to learn about running – no surprise here. The last two workouts went exactly the opposite way I expected them to go, one good and one bad. Now, if I could figure out those things in advance rather than with help of hindsight I might be able to train smarter.

I was already writing my next blog entry in my head before yesterday’s workout. On the cards were 12 miles, with 9 of them at 7:15. Okay, the original plan said 10 with 8, but I added a mile to both the warm-up and the faster part. I have tried that workout twice before in the last month and never managed to get the pace better than 7:25. I expected the same again and already formulated sentences in my head about how I can’t understand how I can run 6:12 in a race and it feels almost effortless but can’t hit a minute slower than that in a training run.

Well. After 3 slow miles I pushed the accelerator and took off. The first half mile was slightly downhill, which helped I guess. This was in Valentia, relatively unknown territory to me, which meant I wasn’t quite sure where the imaginary mile markers are, but it became obvious soon enough that not only was I running the required pace, I was exceeding it by a good margin. This was confirmed at the turn-around point after 3 miles, when only 21:04 had passed (7:01 pace). I took it a bit easier on the return leg, but keep in mind that the last half-mile was uphill, and in light of that 7:21 pace isn’t too far out. The third sector (with the downhill half-mile again, obviously) was closer to target pace, 7:12. I faced an unusual problem on that stretch, namely that I was staring right into the sun. I had left my shades at home, and by now the ubiquitous clouds were gone and the sun had risen and I was running straight towards it. Whenever I tried to look down my running form became hunched, and as soon as I corrected that I was looking into the ball of fire again. This went on for nearly two miles, when the road finally turned a few degrees, enough for me to avoid the straight gaze.

I was a happy man after that workout. I had hit the target time and the effort had definitely been manageable. I finished the run with the knowledge that I could have run further or faster, which is what you should always feel like after a workout, isn’t it?

I was already looking forward to today’s run, the second part of that double header, and I was confident I’d finally be able to nail both parts of the workout. Maybe it would have gone better had I been a bit more cautious? After another slow warm-up I was supposed to hit 8:00 pace for the next 10.5 miles. I did very well for the first 2.5 miles of that, but then got a bit taken away. Without really noticing I sped up, and even when I realised that I was getting ahead of target I didn’t reign myself in, which, in hindsight, I should have done. As I was flying along at 7:45 I felt really good, and was still confident that I had another gear or two in store for later on. The first doubts didn’t appear until near the end of the segment, when I finally started to tire. The plan was to get down to 7:15 pace again for the next 3 miles, and even though I tried really hard, the legs were gone. I didn’t get faster than 7:30, and even then the end of that segment couldn’t come fast enough. The last time I tried this kind of run I managed to draw out the faster part for a bit longer, but there was no chance of that happening today. I couldn’t believe that the massive increase in effort only resulted in a lousy 15 seconds per mile improvement, but I can’t really argue with my watch.

The obvious answer is that I shouldn’t have run the preceding part faster than planned, and I’ll keep the lesson in mind. Next time I try this I won’t be quite so cocky, believe me. The figures for the run aren’t that bad, actually. The average pace was sub-8, even with a very slow warm-up, but the point is that the 3 fast miles were the most important part of it, and I screwed that one up. I'm tired and sore now. Tomorrow will be easy.

17 Jul: 12 miles, 1:30:28, 7:32 pace, avg. HR 151, with 9 miles @ 7:12
18 Jul: 18 miles, 2:23:36, 7:58 pace, avg. HR 148, with 10.5 miles @ 7:50 and 3 miles @ 7:32

Mile High

I sure hope this Valentia holiday won’t be the end of me. Due to the longer commute I have to get up earlier than usual, and since everyone else is on holiday and staying up late I tend to get to bed later than normal as well. For the past weeks I’ve been surviving on 6 hours of sleep each night, and even though I got closer to 8 during the weekend I don’t think that’s sufficient.

As already mentioned in my race report, I kept the mileage up on Saturday and ran 15 miles in spite of the race the day after. It was quite warm to start with, but after a short and sharp rain shower any fears of overheating had dissipated. I did the Valentia loop again, twice, with some out-and-back section tagged to the end of it. The road is becoming very familiar by now.

On Sunday I managed somewhere between 6 and 7 miles, with the race, the warm-up and the cool-down. The race went reasonably well, and with those miles I pushed myself to over 100 miles for those 7 days. All in singles, and all of them at slow pace, apart from the race, obviously. Now, most people wouldn’t recommend running your first ever 100-mile-week on the same week as your first hill training session and with a race as well. I’m perfectly aware that I’m playing with fire here. It just happened like that, I increased my miles each week, and the week where I reached 100 just coincided with the hill training and the race. The thing is, I feel pretty good. I expected to be constantly fatigued on that kind of training, but the truth is that I feel totally fine. The legs are heavy at the beginning of each workout, but always come round after two or three miles.

I’m probably the slowest 100 mpw runner on the planet. That’s ok, someone has to be, and the point of that training is to become faster, and eventually someone else will become the slowest. Of course I’m spending a lot more time on the road than the average runner at that distance. All I can point to is the sentence in my previous paragraph: I feel fine.

I keep reading articles on the Internet and as well as the odd comment here that I’m overdoing things, and that that kind of mileage is counter-productive. I always shrug my shoulders when I come across that. It works for me. I’ve gotten faster with each mileage increase, and my time in yesterday’s race is a clear sign that the improvement is still ongoing. As long as that continues I don’t see the point in trying a different strategy.

I’ll continue with the same mileage this week. I ran 16 miles this morning, slow and steady to recover the legs from the race, especially the calves, which started to complain each time I pushed the pace a bit. I’ll try another double header tomorrow and Wednesday, but may pull out of it if I think I can’t pull it off.

14 Jul: 15 miles, 2:00:28, 8:02 pace, avg. HR 146
15 Jul: 6+ miles, incl. 5k race in 19:16
16 Jul: 16 miles, 2:14:40, 8:25 pace, avg. HR 143

Weekly mileage: 100+ (I’ve been looking forward to typing this for a long time)

Killarney 5k Fun Run

I’m not supposed to sit on the computer, so in marked contrast to my usual epic race reports, this one will be short.

With the dearth of races around here I can never resist this event, even though the timing is less than perfect, it’s always in my base building phase. I told myself to run it as a hard workout, but knew perfectly well that I would not hold back as soon as I was over the start line. I even contemplated to taper for a day or two, but decided against it. I’m not training for a 5k, I’m training for a marathon, and kept my heavy mileage going. It meant a race on tired legs, but that’s a feature of all my short races.

I wasn’t sure what to expect. As ecstatic as I had been with my previous PR of 19:52 when I ran it, by now it was looking embarrassingly soft, especially when compared to my best 10k time. On the other hand I hadn’t done a single speed workout in months, and my legs were tired from the high mileage. But I suspected that a new PR might be on the cards anyway.

The event is definitely not for the purist racer. It’s a fun run, not a competitive race, which shows by the number of, let’s say, less-than-athletic runners at the start. They went even more towards the fun run part this year by not giving out numbers, so I guess we won’t be seeing any online results either. Anyway, I started near the front, but hesitated for a split second at the start and was immediately boxed in by a bunch of kids. They seemed to form a solid barrier in front of me, but ran a bit slower than the pace I had in mind. Eventually I had to deliberately drop back behind a few people to be able to get to the side and run past all of them. From then on I had a clear run all the way.

I kept reeling in runner after runner, which is always fun. Usually the overtaking part more or less stops after a while when the field is settled, but I managed to keep it going all the way to the end. For the first half, some guy was right on my shoulder and wouldn’t relinquish this place. I expected him to stay there for the entire race and outkick me at the end but around the 3k mark we went up a small incline and he fell back. This seemed to set the tone for the rest of the race, on the flat bits I usually managed to draw up to the person in front of me and on the next incline I went past. Not that there were any hills, just tiny changes in elevation. I felt comfortable all the way, so much so that I questioned my commitment to the race. I’ve definitely got the marathon runner’s mindset, and I never pushed far enough into the pain zone to feel the acid burn in the legs and the breath of fire in the throat that you’re supposed to feel when you’re running a 5k. On the other hand I never seemed able to run any faster. I had plenty of strength in the legs but was definitely lacking speed.

Anyway, the finish is the only hard part of the course, going up the only real hill. I pushed as hard as I could and pressed the button on my stopwatch as I crossed the non-existing finishing line in 19:16. In comparison to my 10k time this is still soft, but then again I was nearing the peak of my fitness for that 10k, while I’m still in the building phase as of now, as mentioned. I was reasonably pleased with my time. I have another chance to better it in 2 weeks' time.

Killarney 5k Fun Run, 19:16, 6:12 pace, a PR by 36 seconds.

Friday the 13th

Unlucky for some, unremarkable for most. My training is going pretty well and I’m happy with it. I admit I did exaggerate a bit in my last entry when I said I deliberately tried to break my knee. It was more a rigorous test rather than a calculated ploy to cripple myself, but I was definitely happy with the result. A few people have cautioned me because the hill circuit and the following long run were two had runs in a row. That is true, but I think they were stressing two different parts of the system, which is why I think I can get away with that sort of behaviour. It’s all part of testing my boundaries. I’m sure I’ll cross the line eventually if I go on like that, but I should be able to learn form that experience. I have found that I’m much more capable of withstanding heavy training than I used to think. If I had never tried to test myself I would never have found out.

Nevertheless I took it easy on Thursday. Since I’m commuting from Valentia it meant that even a 12-mile run necessitated an early 5:30 wake-up call, and coupled with a feeble attempt at something resembling a social life the evening before it meant a rather short night. As soon as I got up I noticed the calves were quite sore, much more so than the day before. Tuesday’s hill run had finally bitten, DOMS be cursed. If I needed another reminder to take it easy, that was definitely the most effective one. I consequently ran the 12 miles at leisurely pace, and I did two out-and-back samples of the flat shore road rather then the much hillier loop through the island. My knee started playing up with a few miles to go, so I accelerated a bit, which always brings relief. This worked again, at the expense of a slightly higher heart rate.

I felt much better today, both from a fatigue as well as a soreness point of view. Which is good, since 18 miles were on the program. This is the run that was originally pencilled in for Wednesday, but I ended up swapping those two round. Again I didn’t get more than 6 hours of sleep, but somehow I felt rested enough. It was still quite dark by the time I hit the road, 5 am. The streetlights were still on. Yesterday I had not met a single soul on the entire workout; the only living creatures I came across were birds, cows and rabbits. Today it was a bit busier, mainly because I ran the entire loop, which incorporates the “main” road through the island. From our house that means about 2.5 flat miles, 1.5 miles of climbing, 1.5 miles of downhill and another flat bit to complete the loop at 5.7 miles. I did that 3 times, and added just under a mile to the end of the workout to make up 18 miles. It went pretty well. Towards the end of the second loop my knee started hurting, but not the same way it usually does, a sharp pain rather than the familiar dull one. The pain went away again half a mile later, and I had forgotten all about it at the end of that loop, which is why I didn’t hesitate to go out a third time. I think it was not related to my already established knee problem, at least I like to think so. It totally cooperated during the third loop, which encouraged me no end.

I ran into a herd of cows just before the end of the third loop, almost literally. They started coming out of a field just as I was passing by, and I ended up surrounded by approximately 30 of those big beasts. They stank!!! Most of them were completely undisturbed about my presence, but a few of them seemed to panic and ran off. God knows why, they each weigh about 10 times as much as I do. Luckily the leading cow in the herd seemed to know where to go and walked into a side path and even the panicky ones followed her off the road. The whole encounter probably lasted less than a minute. That's my third close cow encounter in short succession.

My mother-in-law remains unable to comprehend the level of training I’m doing. Last night she suggested turning on the oven before I go out running so that it would be nicely warmed up on my return to bake some bread. I really didn’t want to tell her that I’d be out for 2 and a half hours, and therefore it didn’t seem such a good idea to me. I just pretended to forget in the morning.

On Thursday I forgot the key to the house and inadvertently locked myself out when I went for my run. The whole house was still asleep at the time of my return, and I really didn’t want to wake the kids by ringing the doorbell. I managed to crawl through the bathroom window like a burglar, and nobody woke. In fact they were all still asleep by the time I left for work. Lucky for some.

12 Jul: 12 miles, 1:39:28, 8:17 pace, avg. HR 141
13 Jul: 18 miles, 2:28:51, 8:16 pace, avg. HR 146

Break a Leg

About ten years ago, Tony Adams (a very well known English football player) was suffering from a very persistent ankle injury that threatened to prematurely finish his career. Eventually his manager sent him to a specialist in France. The first thing he made him do was to jump one-legged up a staircase – on his injured foot! When Adams reached the top still in one piece the doctor told him to go home, he was fine. Within no time, he was playing again in the Premier League. In his subsequent autobiography Adams said that he felt the doctor was deliberately trying to break his ankle, and when it withstood the pressure he realised the problem was mainly in his head.

With that story in my mind I deliberately tried to break my knee yesterday.

This pain in my left knee has been a constant companion for three weeks now and I while I have managed some heavy mileage in the meantime I have been avoiding any hills because running downhill hurt a lot.

Yesterday I did hill repeats.

That wasn’t just out of self-loathing. When I drew up an outline of my training cycle I pencilled in the week beginning on 23 Jul as the first week of a hill phase. Since it’s advisable to introduce that kind of training gradually I planned one day of hill repeats in each of the 2 weeks before that, and therefore I was due one. But with my knee issues I wasn’t sure if I would be able to do even one hill run, never mind a whole set of them. Consequently, yesterday was primarily a way to see if the knee would withstand the workout.

I got a pleasant surprise when I arrived at the base of said hill. Last year that was a road in desperately bad condition, with potholes every few meters that on more than one occasion nearly made me go over my ankle. Not only have they filled the holes in the meantime, they even covered the entire surface with a layer of compact dirt. Perfect! How did they know? After that good start things could only go well. I started out with two ascends of steep hill running, concentrating on lifting the knees as high as possible. It felt surprisingly easy. On the third repeat I added a few steps of bounding into the mix on 3 occasions, and the HR immediately shot up by 10 bpm. I took it very easy on the downhills (no need to overdo things), and did 3x200 strides at the bottom with 200m of jogging in-between before starting the next set. After three sets my knee let me know that it had enough, and since you are supposed to take it easy on the first workout of that kind I said goodbye to the hills and was content to run the rest of the workout on flat terrain. I added a few miles at the end to boost the mileage a little bit.

The last time I tried that workout my calves were almost comically sore for 5 days afterwards. Today I felt mostly fine, but there was definitely some soreness at the top of the calves. Nevertheless I headed out for my long run. My normal long run day is Friday, but I will be in Valentia on Friday, and with the extended commute from there I would have to get up at 4 am for 22 miles. I decided to swap Wednesday and Friday around to take advantage of the fact that Niamh and the kids have already left Caragh Lake and I didn’t have to come home in time for family breakfast, which allowed me the luxury of a lie-in until 5 am. The weather was perfect today, cloudy and mostly calm, and I headed out for the first of 3 loops. I decided to start with a flat 5-mile loop to Ard-na-Sidhe, then a hillier 10 mile one along Caragh Lake, with a final loop on the same road again but with a closer turn-around point for 7 miles. I also resolved to ignore the pace and be content with whatever the legs would be able to deliver.

The first loop went okay, if a little bit slow. I mostly managed to suppress any urge to speed up, but the next 5 miles took exactly 40 minutes. After that the wheels started to come off. I wasn’t quite sure quite where the legs started to grow those extra weights, but it was getting increasingly difficult to keep going. The miles, which had been flying by until now, started to get more and more drawn out (don’t you just hate it when that happens?) and I had the feeling of slowing down a lot. In actual fact the pace only dropped by a few seconds per mile. I was quite weary when I reached our driveway, but headed out for the third loop anyway. “The turn-around point is just 3.5 miles from here”. That made it sound easy; 3.5 miles are always manageable, aren’t they? They were, but I was definitely feeling quite low. However, the point of running a loop like this was that I wouldn’t be able to bail with a mile or two to go. There is no option but to keep running until you’re home, and that’s exactly what I did. To be honest, running seemed to become a bit easier again on that stretch, but I put that down to being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I definitely had had enough at the end.

I didn’t hit the wall out there. I know what (suspected) hypoglycaemia felt like in the final miles of last year’s Dublin marathon, and today wasn’t anything like that. My glycogen stores might have been slightly low to start with today, but I think the legs were just a bit weary after all the running I had done over the last few days, and especially with that hill workout only 24 hours earlier. Besides, running 22 miles is supposed to be tough. That’s pretty much the point of the exercise. Next week will be easier, I hope.

10 Jul: 12 miles, 1:42:13, incl. 3 hill repeats, avg. HR 146
11 Jul: 22 miles, 3:01:12, 8:14 pace, avg. HR 147, 5/5/5/7 splits 42:26, 40:00, 40:46, 57:59 (8:29, 8:00, 8:09, 8:17 pace)

A Sunny Weekend

My, my, doesn’t time fly. It’s been three days since my last entry, and I feel slightly guilty because I spent most of the last three evenings in front of the computer but couldn’t wean myself off YouTube. The reason is, Caragh Lake has belatedly joined the civilised world and we finally got broadband in our house. I felt like a kid let loose in the candy store, but at least I managed to keep the bulk of each day computer free.

Despite the late nights my running over the weekend felt just great. I can’t quite explain why I felt so good. I expected to be crawling after Friday’s 20-miler, but the truth is that the legs felt fresher than they have for a while. I ran 13 miles on Saturday, very relaxed and easy initially, but then the fun took over and I got a little bit faster with each mile. I managed to hold myself back and didn’t move into tempo run territory because I didn’t want to ruin the legs again, but sub-8:00 pace has rarely felt so easy. And all this despite the fact that I went back to the much hillier Caragh Lake road. I got fed up with the same Ard-na-Sidhe loop again and again and decided to risk the up-and downhills despite the ongoing knee issues.

And since it went so well on Saturday I went back there on Sunday, but for a shorter loop. Again, my legs felt surprisingly fresh and again the pace kept surprising me. I certainly didn’t expect to feel so good, at the end of my highest mileage week ever. Not that I’m complaining, I take a good day or two anytime. Maybe it has something to do with the time of the day. Maybe the legs just feel better at the weekend when I’m running at 9am in the morning rather than at 6am. I’ve read somewhere that early mornings are the worst times for a run because your muscles are cold and stiff (not that I’m going to change my habits). Maybe there is something to it.

Just to prove that theory, today felt tougher again, but compared to last Monday’s painful jog it was a lot better. I combined the Ard-na-Sidhe loop with the Caragh Lake road, but did the flat loop first in order to force the legs over some hills later on when they were tired already. I didn’t feel anywhere near as fresh as the days before, but it wasn't too bad. Towards the end of the run I even added 6 or 7 strides into the mix. That's something I've badly neglected over the last few weeks and I felt guilty about it. But I was astounded how quickly my heart rate returned back to normal after each set. That's not something that happened all of a sudden, though. I’ve noticed in the last two weeks or so that my heart rate has been steadily dropping. I remember something similar happening during my last training cycle when I consistently hit 80 mpw. There seems to be some threshold in my legs; as soon as I hit that mileage they start improving. Which is good, I just hope that the improvements will continue.

There will be a bit of disruption over the next few weeks, because we’re off to Valentia Island again. In fact, Niamh and the kids will go there tomorrow, and I’ll follow a day later. Since I’ve used up a lot of my holiday allocation already for this year (I’m keeping one week for November when the baby arrives) , I’ll have to commute from there. It’s not far, the drive from there to Killorglin is about 45 minutes, but that’s a lot more than the 10 minutes it takes from Caragh Lake, and that will mean getting up 30 minutes earlier. Ugh. At least Valentia is a nice place to run, as long as the weather cooperates.

7 Jul: 13 miles, 1:41:52, 7:50 pace, avg. HR 149
8 Jul: 9 miles, 1:09:58, 7:46 pace, avg. HR 149
9 Jul: 15 miles, 2:03:16, 8:13 pace, avg. HR 142 (!), incl. 6-7x1000 strides

Weekly mileage: 92

Fame at Last

I checked out the Bantry Bay Half Marathon website the other day and lo-and-behold, they’ve got a trailer of their DVD online. And what do I see? Me! About two thirds into the video there are three second of a guy in a yellow singlet at the finish. Yup, you are looking at yours truly. My upper body is bouncing sideways like a dinghy in gale-force winds, but I was well and truly knackered at that point after desperately chasing a 1:30 finish. (blogline readers: the video doesn't display in bloglines. You'll have to come to my site to view it in all its glory)



Was that really only 2 months ago? It seems like ages since I have last raced. I’ve covered a lot of training miles since then, and there will be many more until the Loch Ness marathon.

After Wednesday’s strenuous run I was happy enough with 8 easy miles on Thursday. Just go out and get the miles in. The weather has been desperate during the last few weeks (I think we just had the wettest June since recordings began), but I have been generally lucky in the mornings, but not so over the last 2 days. It was raining heavily on Thursday, and for someone who’s wearing glasses this is a major nuisance. I should have left them at home, I would have seen a lot more. Strangely enough my knee acted up again. I didn’t expect that. Maybe it has something to do with the surface of the Caragh Lake road. It’s a road surface, alright, but somewhat rougher than a normal road. This shouldn’t really affect my knee, but maybe somehow it does. Anyway, I managed the required 8 miles just fine.

And today I finally got a 20 mile run under my belt. It has been quite a while since my last one. I originally planned 10 miles alongside Caragh Lake and two loops to Ard-na-Sidhe, but one look out of the window this morning was enough to change my mind. It was bucketing it down, and the trees were swaying in the wind, which almost always means a trip to Ard-na-Sidhe to get a little bit of shelter. 4 loops out-and-back it was, but that had the advantage that I could sneak back home after 5 miles to answer a call of nature and to change my shirt, which was soaked through. By now it had stopped raining and the next three loops were run in slightly more agreeable conditions. Check out the contrast for Mike’s long run this morning in Tucson, Arizona – 88F/31C at 4 am in the morning. Unimaginable to me! For running purposes I think I prefer the Irish rain. Anyway, the run went ok. It was a bit slower than expected but my resolve to be more relaxed about the pace held, I only accelerated a bit on the final loop which was the only one covered in less than 40 minutes. I was quite happy to have managed 3 runs of at least 2 hours this week. This should be just the thing I need to boost my endurance.

When I think about it, getting up at 4:50 am to go running is ridiculous. A car passed by a few minutes into the second loop, still before 6 am. The driver must have thought I was completely barmy. But what would he have thought had he known that I had already covered 6 miles by then? And to think that I’m planning to do this every week for a while. Maybe runners are a different breed.

5 Jul: 8 miles, 1:05:13. 8:09 pace, avg. HR 143
6 Jul: 20 miles, 2:45:27, 8:16 pace, avg. HR 143, 5-mile splits 43:03, 41:28, 41:01, 39:55 (8:36, 8:17, 8:12, 7:59 pace)

Rainy Day

Since it is July 4th today I don’t know how many people from across the Pond are going to read this, so I take the opportunity to draw on a point made my Grellan in his comment yesterday.

I’ve used running calculators like the McMillan one plenty of times, and I have found them to be reasonably accurate for anything up to the half-marathon distance. I never managed to get anywhere near my projected marathon time though. I think that is where the wall comes in. Very good runners may be able to push the wall past the 26-mile mark, but I and, I suspect, the majority of runners are not. Last year in Dublin running got markedly more difficult after the 23 mile mark, and even though I managed to keep the pace going pretty well, there is something that keeps me from running my predicted times; I’m always several minutes slower. Therefore, I don’t think that a marathon time of 3:25 a few weeks after a 1:32 half is bad. My prediction would have been between 3:20 and 3:25, and that’s where you ended up. But keep going. For someone who has been running for a year and a half those are impressive times. In fact, your marathon PR is better than mine (though I definitely intend to change that in October).

After feeling like someone needed to scrape me off the pavement on Monday I didn’t expect a brilliant workout on Tuesday. Nevertheless I decided to press ahead with the double header for as long as I could stomach it; I could always dial back the pace if it got too much. After a slow 2 miles warm-up I tried to press the accelerator to 7:15 pace, but like last week did not manage to reach that pace. In fact, it was worse than last week, my splits for each 2.5 mile segment were 18:34, 18:51 and 18:44 (7:25, 7:32 and 7:29 pace respectively). Don’t ask me what happened. My only comment in the logbook was “crap”, and let’s leave it at that.

After that, I definitely didn’t expect much for today. In fact I toyed with the idea of just running slowly at recovery pace, but once I was out on the road decided to give it a try anyway. A slow warm-up was followed by 10 miles at 8:00-8:05 pace. That was pretty much acceptable, and I surprised myself by how well I felt. Well enough, in fact, to push the foot down once again for 3.5 miles at 7:15 pace, and this time I definitely surprised myself by actually hitting that pace. I really don’t know why I’m seemingly unable to run 7:15 for a normal run, but have now managed it twice with 12 miles in the legs. It just doesn’t seem to make an awful lot of sense. However, I’m not complaining. All of a sudden my fears of overtraining are gone (to return again, no doubt) and I’m feeling good again. I’ll follow this up with 8 very easy miles tomorrow. No need to push the pace. I noticed that I’ve slowed down a little bit over the last 2 or 3 weeks. Mainly this is down to me not being so hung up about pace any more. I used to run every single run under 8:00 pace, now I’m a lot more relaxed about it. As my mileage is creeping upwards again, this is probably a good thing.

I made once change in the office. I think my knee felt so bad because my chair was quite low down, so I changed it and adjusted it a good bit higher on Monday. This resulted in me looking down at the screen all day, which gave me a really bad pain in the neck. On Tuesday I gathered the fattest computer manuals I could find and used them as a monitor stand. The pain in the neck is gone, and my knee seems to be getting better, now that the lower leg is at a different angle. I dare to hope again.

3 Jul: 10 miles, 1:17:28, 7:44 pace, avg. HR 153 (?), 2.5 miles split paces 8:30, 7:25, 7:32, 7:29
4 Jul: 17 miles, 2:16:36, 8:02 pace, avg. HR 149, 2.5 miles w/u, 9.5 miles @ 8:00-8:05, 3.5 miles @ 7:13, 1.5 miles c/d. Much better.

Monday Blues

What’s the best bit about the weekend? That you don’t have to go to work, of course. And what’s the best bit about not having to go to work? That you don’t have to sit in an office chair that causes a world of pain in your knee.

I spent two blissfully pain free days at home, even though I definitely didn’t hold back on my training runs. Today, Monday, I’m back in the office, and within 2 hours my knee was so sore that I sat down in the middle of the floor and started doing stretching. Of course I got funny looks from all sides. I didn’t care, as long as my knee felt better afterwards.

I’ve harboured hopes that I’m slowly getting better. Maybe I am. But today’s pain is a stark reminder that I’m nowhere near recovered.

12 miles on Saturday didn’t sound too tough; after all it was the same workout as the week before. The weather was changeable, mostly cloudy with the occasional shower. At one point the sun came out at the same moment as the rain started. Anyone in Killorglin looking towards Caragh Lake must have seen a beautiful rainbow, and I was there right beneath it (I didn’t find a crock of fairy gold, though). My knee started hurting after a small downhill section, plus I was a bit bored, so I decided to throw in a fast mile, both to alleviate the knee issues (it really hurts less when I speed up) and to have a bit of fun. I tried to stay aerobic at all times, and 6 minutes and 47 seconds later I thought “that was fun, let’s do it again”. But then I remembered that I had planned a faster run for Sunday. If one fast mile hadn’t already ruined my chances of a decent workout, a second one would surely have done so, and I decided to just drudge along at daydreaming pace for the reminder of the run.

I tried to put a bit of effort into Sunday’s workout, but it didn’t go entirely to plan. It could have been the residue of Saturday’s faster mile, or maybe the combined miles from the last few days, but the snap just wasn’t there and I didn’t get faster than 7:25 pace on average. That’s not even my planned MP, and after a run like that I always start doubting myself. It just doesn’t feel realistic to aim for a marathon pace of 7:15 when I can’t even hit it for a few miles during a training run. On the other hand, I ran a half-marathon at 6:51 pace two months ago, and in light of that 7:15 marathon pace doesn’t look particularly outrageous. Plus, prior to that race I struggled to run below 7:15 for even half the race distance during training, but the race day adrenaline proved to be powerful stuff. I guess I’m hoping for more of the same come October.

I got a bit of a surprise when I added up my miles for the week, because 85 was definitely a bit higher than expected. Not that I’m complaining, but I expected to feel a lot more fatigued when running that kind of mileage. Since the week went pretty well I’m adding a few more miles, which might bring me over 90, depending on how I feel.

I really have to admit that today’s run didn’t go too well, though. I’ve finally reached the level of 3 runs of 2 hours or more per week, and it might be taking its toll. It’s been a while since 15 miles felt so long, and I was definitely dragging my legs over the last 5-mile loop. The windy conditions didn’t help, but maybe I should be grateful for the low temperatures. I don’t think I’d be able to run my mileage if it were any hotter. By the end of the run I checked the HRM and couldn’t believe that it only read 147. My heart might have thought of it as a recovery run, but my legs had entirely different ideas.

Last week’s Monday run had been as easy as they come, which set me up for a double header on Tuesday and Wednesday. Today I don’t think I’ll be up for it. I might follow Eric’s advice once more and only do those every second week. I’ll decide tomorrow. If I can stomach a few faster miles, I’ll give it a try, otherwise I’ll just be happy to keep churning out the miles.

30 Jun: 12 miles, 1:35:46, 7:58 pace, avg. HR 148
1 Jul: 8 miles, 59:28, 7:26 pace, avg. HR 157
2 Jul: 15 miles, 2:05:36, 8:22 pace, avg. HR 147

Weekly mileage: 85

That’s my boy!

Tuesday, 26 Jun:
Me: Cian, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Cian: A fire-fighter. Daddy, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Me: A marathon runner.

Wednesday, 27 Jun:
Me: Cian, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Cian: A fire-fighter. Daddy, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Me: A marathon runner.

Thursday, 28 Jun:
Me: Cian, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Cian: I’ve changed my mind, Daddy. When I grow up I want to be a marathon runner like you!


I took it relatively easy on Thursday after the double header, and just ran 8 miles at some reasonable pace. I discovered that, like on the day before, my daydreaming pace is about 8:10. If I want to run faster than that I have to put my mind to it. I ran about half of the workout at daydreaming pace, and half of it at about 7:50 pace, and combined with a slow warm-up it produced 8:05 pace overall. I had yet another run-in with the pack of dogs that lives about 2 miles away from us and has attacked me before. I don’t know the owner personally, but apparently she’s an eccentric German lady who picks up stray dogs and keeps them. Unfortunately she make no attempt at controlling them, with the result that all her neighbours are basically barred from walking on the road, and a lone runner like myself gets attacked regularly. I know from personal experience that the fucking useless police are doing fuck all about it, even when you get bitten. I avoided a bite this time, mainly thanks to a stone I managed to pick up and hurl at the pests, but I’m so pissed off about the situation, I haven’t got the words for it.

When I checked my online running log yesterday the sentence “longest run in the last 13 weeks: 17 miles” struck me as unacceptable and I decided there and then to pump up today’s mileage to 18. It won’t make any difference to my endurance in October if I run 17 or 18 miles now, but it made me feel better, because in my world long runs start at 18 miles. For this I had to get up at 5am, which is why I didn’t particularly appreciate Cian’s refusal to fall asleep until way past 11pm. The alarm subsequently ripped me from very deep sleep, and it took a bit longer than usual to get out of the door. I faced the problem of how to run 18 miles. A trip around Caragh Lake is out of the question because of the long downhill sections, and I really didn’t fancy 3 out-and back trips on my usual 6-mile loop, because that would take me past the crazy dog lady’s house no less than 6 times, and I had no intentions of chancing my luck. I eventually decided to run part of the Caragh Lake loop, 4 miles out-and-back, and to add 2 loops on the Ard-na-Sidhe road. In fact that’s pretty much the same route I used to run for most of my long runs last year, before I started doing the whole Caragh Lake loop regularly instead.

The run went fine, especially considering that it was just 2 days after my double header, which, a fortnight ago, took me 5 days to recover from. I felt pretty good today, and after covering the first 3 miles at about 8:30 I managed to speed up sufficiently to get the average pace down to 8:00 at the end. My heart rate was also pretty low, which is always an encouraging sign. Running 18 miles didn’t particularly tax me; I think I’ll pump my longest run up to 20 next week. The knee held up fine again. It did hurt on every downhill stretch, but was fine otherwise. But sitting in my office chair at work once again left me in agony. I can’t find a sitting position that doesn’t cause a lot of pain. I still hope to heal soon, but I am relieved that at least my training doesn’t seem to be affected.

28 Jun: 8 miles, 1:04:47, 8:05 pace, avg. HR 151
29 Jun: 18 miles, 2:24:02, 8:00 pace, avg. HR 148

Doubled Up

One double header later I’m convinced that I will be able to train through the knee pain without too much trouble. I know some people out there think I’m overdoing things, but I seem to be getting injured exactly once in every training cycle I’ve ever undertaken, and that included plans that didn’t go past 55 miles. It just seems to happen every time. On the plus side, I always recover quickly, and without making any drastic changes to my training. So far this injury is following the same pattern.

On Monday I found out that running 8:40 pace hurts just as much as running 8:00 pace. On Tuesday I tried to find out what 7:15 would feel like. The plan called for 10 miles, with 2 miles warm-up and 8 miles at marathon pace, which for some reason I still think of as 7:15, because that’s my target MP, but apparently not my “present” MP. After a slow and steady first two miles I cranked up the volume, but never got going properly. The run was basically cut into 4 segments of 2.5 miles each. I was reasonably happy with the first tempo segment, but not with the following ones. At least twice I caught myself day-dreaming instead of concentrating on the effort, and of course each time I had already slowed down by quite some bit. The problem wasn’t physical, I could have run faster, it was purely mental; I seemed to be unable to keep the mind set on the effort. The paces for each segment were 8:30, 7:20, 7:28 and 7:26, which gives an average pace of 7:25 for the main part of the run. When I got home I was less than happy about the paces, but I have since played with the idea that those might have been the “correct” paces anyway, i.e. my present MP rather than my planned one. Oh, and the knee felt pretty good. In fact, about 5 miles into the run I remember thinking “funny, my knee doesn’t hurt at all”. Of course as soon as that thought had entered my head the pain returned, because I got conscious of the issue again. Even so, it was definitely manageable.

A double header also has a second part of course, and today called for a 17 miles run, with 10 miles at 8:00 pace and 3 miles at 7:15 (plus warm-up and cool-down). I was a bit apprehensive about my knee, but again it felt better once I hit the faster paces. Why that’s the case, I can’t be sure. Either the different biomechanics of 7:15 pace put less stress on the injured part, or the concentration required to hit 7:15 is sufficient to take my mind off that knee. Either way I was happy with the way I felt. I even allowed myself to hope that I’m already getting better, but at lunchtime I was hurting quite badly again. Running for several hours seems to be fine. Sitting in an office chair leaves me in agony.

The run was a bit of a mixed bag. As much as I tried to tune into 8:00 pace, I never quite managed it. I kept checking my times at each turn-around point (every 2.5 miles), and the pace was always between 8:05 and 8:10. It’s not too far off the planned pace, but I was annoyed about the fact that I kept missing the target. It also didn’t bode too well for the speedier section. When that part of the run arrived I accelerated and hoped for the best. To cover 3 miles at 7:15 pace takes 21:45, and when I checked my watch at that point it showed 21:46. Pretty good going. In marked contrast to my last effort from 2 weeks ago I felt good enough to continue the faster pace for another half mile before I eased off. Even then I still felt fine, but thought that a proper cool-down might be better, especially keeping in mind that I was injured already. As far as the course went, the out-and-back loops of the Ard-na-Sidhe road make a lot more sense for that kind of workout than the loop around Caragh Lake. Not only do I not have to cross two mountain ranges in the first 12 miles (slight poetic license here), the road for the faster part is also reasonably flat. Maybe that’s why I felt so much better than last time; or maybe it’s because I took it so easy on Monday; or maybe it’s because those runs do get easier, just like Mike had promised; or maybe I’m generally a little bit fitter than 12 days ago. Whatever the cause, I’m satisfied with today’s work.

26 Jun: 10 miles, 1:16:56, 7:41 pace, avg. HR 157 (incl. 8 miles at 7:25 pace)
27 Jun: 17 miles, 2:16:08, 8:00 pace, avg. HR 150 (incl. 10 miles at 8:05-8:10 and 3.5 miles at 7:15)

Tentative Steps

Well, the pain issue remains unchanged. I’m resigned to the fact that it will be a constant companion for some time to come. I can live with that. As long as it doesn’t get any worse, I can train through it. I know, I know, just because I can train through it, doesn’t necessarily mean that I should, but so far, so good. Since it flared up last Wednesday, I have covered over 60 miles, and it definitely hasn’t got worse. I’m not entirely sure if it really is ITBS – but then again, it doesn’t really matter to me what exactly the cause is. I just want to be able to continue running.

As to what caused the injury, that’s anybody’s guess, of course. Running on cambered roads is supposed to be a factor, but we’re talking about rural Ireland here. The choice is between running on cambered roads or to stay at home. I tend to run along the crown of the road. Yes, that’s bang in the middle. At the times when I do my running that’s not really an issue, the roads tend to be deserted at 6 or even 7 am. What could be a contributor is the fact that I only brought one pair of running shoes on my holidays, and obviously wasn’t able to rotate pairs as I usually do. Plus, that pair got rather worn out, by the time I came back home they had accumulated just over 500 miles. They still felt ok (I usually get a few twinges when wearing a worn-out pair), and were retired immediately as soon as I got back home, well before the knee problem materialised. However, that’s the only thing I can think of, really. Mike might be on to something in his comment when he blamed my higher paces this time round, even for the easier runs. Possibly. Who knows.

I did indeed run 9 miles on Sunday, as per the revised plan, in order to finish to week at 80 miles. I’m slowly squeezing into the kind of mileage that I produced while training for my ultra, but it’s way short of the 100 miles that I unwisely stated as my training goal a few weeks back. Of course, the knee issue casts a bit of a shadow on my plans. I’m not even thinking about raising the mileage this week, and maybe this time next week I’ll have found more confidence to put some pressure on my system again. Or maybe I’ll have found out that I can’t train through the pain after all. We’ll see.

The one thing I’m planning for this week is another stamina-building double-header. Following the advice from some people who have been through that kind of training themselves I took it really easy today. It was a slow run, much slower than anything in the last 2 months. I don’t want to be tired going into the double header to start with, and basically ran as slowly as I could. I left myself an extra 5 minutes in the morning to ensure that I wouldn’t feel pressured to speed up during the run, but that bright idea was scuppered by the fact that Shea got up at the same time, and I had to prepare some breakfast for him, made worse by the fact that I was starving myself at the same time. It was really windy this morning, which would have driven me onto the Ard-na-Sidhe road anyway, even if I hadn’t planned to do so already. It’s basically the flattest piece of road I’ve got available, and since running downhill hurts like hell it’s the most logical choice for a running route. The Caragh Lake loop with its 3-mile downhill section will be out of bounds for quite some time, I guess.

Anyway, I ran as slowly as 8:40 pace today, which should leave me well rested for tomorrow and Wednesday. I haven’t yet dared to run tempo pace on my hurting knee, but I guess I’ll find out tomorrow if it’s possible or not. Since today I know for sure that running slower doesn’t make a difference. The knee felt exactly the same at 8:40 pace today as it did at 7:36 pace a few days ago, which makes me hopeful that 7:15 pace won’t be any different either. There’s only one way to find out, I guess.

24 Jun: 9 miles, 1:10:15, 7:48 pace, avg. HR 157
25 Jun: 12 miles, 1:43:53, 8:39 pace, avg. HR 140

Weekly mileage: 80

Knee’s Up

The pain in my left knee that I alluded to in my last entry remained rather persistent. And it looks like it will be a companion for a few weeks to come. After being in quite some pain after the end of Wednesday’s 17 mile run, I googled for the likely explanation, and the one that sprang out immediately was Iliotibial Band Syndrome, or ITBS. That’s, of course, an injury that’s all too common in runners, and it would make perfect sense to add it to my list; after all, I’ve had most other common ailments in the last 2 or 3 years, and that one was still missing in my collection. I’m not 100% sure if that’s really my injury, though. The knee first started hurting when running uphill, while ITBS is supposed to hurt when running downhill, and on Thursday I was in serious pain after the run, when that injury is supposed to stop hurting immediately after your run.

Whatever the exact cause, after a few miles into Thursday’s planned 8 mile run, the knee got worse with every step, and eventually I had to cut the run short and slowly make my way back home. I was already at the 3.5 mile point of an out-and-back run, which meant I only lost 1 mile of my planned mileage, and towards the end of the run I actually seemed to feel better again. However, as mentioned, I was in quite some pain afterwards, and very reluctantly came to the conclusion that I was injured and most likely would have to rest. ITBS can easily take 6 weeks to heal, and in the dark clouds forming in my head I could see the marathon drifting away.

However, I started doing the stretches mentioned here, and I also came up with some strengthening exercises from that site (which, btw, I find excellent). I’m a great believer in strengthening exercises, I prefer them to ice, drugs, rest or any other treatment (plus, of course they can be combined with any of them). In the past few years I’ve overcome achilles tendinitis, shin splints, plantar fasciitis and a few more twinges, and strengthening exercises always seemed to help very quickly.

The stretches had one immediate effect, namely they immediately alleviated any discomfort in my knee, at least for some time. This ensured that a) I did them frequently and b) I got more optimistic as the day wore on. By the evening I had formed some kind of plan. The originally planned 20-mile run was out of the window. Instead I would set the alarm in time for 15 miles, and I would run a series of 5-mile loops to Ard-na-Sidhe, giving me the chance to bail out at any time. I also promised myself to go straight to back if the predicted heavy rain would materialise.

Come next morning both the weather and the knee cooperated and I set out. The knee started hurting after a few miles, but it was more a discomfort rather than pain. It definitely was worse on the downhill stretches; the uphills were mostly pain free. After 5 miles I did not hesitate to turn around for a second loop, and after the end of that the knee still had not gotten any worse; the discomfort just stayed at a manageable level, so I set out for a third loop. I was happy to just be able to run, maybe that’s why I got slightly taken away as far as the effort level went. The times for each 5-mile loop were roughly 41:00, 38:30 and 38:00. While that isn’t exactly flying, it was faster than what I had planned.

Again, the knee held out for the rest of the day, and I decided I would be able to slightly increase my miles for the weekend. There’s no rational explanation to this. I had lost 6 miles of my planned weekly mileage of 83, so if I added 3 miles to the weekend runs, I’d still be able to reach 80. Of course 80 is just as arbitrary a number as any other, but psychologically it will make me feel better about my training. Of course, that’s under the provision that my knee will hold up.

Anyway, following that reformed plan I ran 12 miles today (Saturday). The knee was similar to Friday, it remained at a certain level of discomfort; bad enough to be conscious of it at any time, but not so bad as to cause me to bail. I guess I get injured easily, but I also heal quickly. I’ve had plenty of twinges and tweaks in the recent past, but they always got better even without too many compromises in my training, and mostly without the use of drugs. The packet of ibuprofen that I bought a long time ago is still in my cupboard. It’s nearing its expiry date – a sign that I’m rather restrained when it comes to using it. I know, most people wouldn’t hesitate in popping those pills far more regularly than I do. I just happen to believe in the natural healing capacity of your own body, and drugs are very much a last resort, when I’m getting desperate.

21 Jun: 7 miles, 56:09, 8:01 pace, avg. HR 143
22 Jun: 15 miles, 1:58:23, 7:49 pace, avg. HR 154 (split paces 8:12, 7:42, 7:36)
23 Jun: 12 miles, 1:34:17, 7:51 pace, avg. HR 153

Clouds on the Horizon

I really did not feel my best over the last few days. I don’t know if it was a cold I was fighting off, the shock of being back from my holidays or the fatigue from the double header workout, but every day the alarm went off much too early and I had to heave an unwilling body out of the bed, and started each run with an audible groan. The first two miles were always a drag and I constantly contemplated returning home and going back to bed. Of course I never did, and after two, or maybe three, miles I always felt better and managed to finish the workout.

Monday was pretty bad, actually. Even after the first 2 miles I somehow felt like I was dragging my feet along the road, and the 12 miles just couldn’t pass soon enough. After 9 miles I really had more than enough, but at that stage all that was left was to return home. The numbers in the logbook may make it sound like an easy run with 8:06 pace and an average HR of 142, but take my word for it, it felt much tougher than that. After that workout I seriously doubted my ability to run a marathon at anywhere near my target time.

I did feel better on Tuesday, though. Not on the first two miles, granted, they just dragged as badly as any other miles for the past few days. But when I upped the pace and started concentrating on a bit of tempo, the shackles seemed to fall off and I managed a decent run. From my stopwatch I could tell that I was moving along at roughly 7:15 pace. This is my planned marathon pace, but that fact is merely coincidental. I didn’t plan a marathon pace run, I just ran along at a reasonably strong pace that felt manageable easy enough. I checked my HR monitor a few times, and even on the inclines it stayed around 157-160. This definitely felt manageable for marathon pace, and all of a sudden I felt a lot more optimistic.

At the beginning of the week I had decided to follow Eric’s advice to not do a double header this week. Instead I’ll pump up the mileage a bit, and when I scribbled down a few figures that seemed reasonable they added up to 83 miles, so that’s the plan for this week. It meant a 17 mile run today, and after last night’s weather forecast I really didn’t look forward to it. The weather has been rather dreary ever since I’ve been back (and no, this isn’t just my perception), but for this morning they predicted heavy rainfall. Luckily they were out by a bit. The conditions were fine, it didn’t rain at all when I set off, and a few drizzly showers along the way didn’t dampen my mood. The best bit was that all of a sudden I felt much better again. Maybe the cold that had threatened to pay me a visit has moved on, or maybe it really took five days to recover from the double header, but all of a sudden running was a joy again. The by now very familiar loop around Caragh Lake always seems to lift my mood, and even when I got to mile 8.5 and faced 3 miles of climbing I didn’t mind. Those ascends are never as bad when you actually have to do them then what they seem like from afar.

Anyway, even though I started out slowly (3 miles at 8:30 pace) and even though I didn’t pay any attention to my pace at all, by the end of the run I had the average pace down to 8:02, which again pleased me. I might have missed the magical 8:00 by over half a minute, but I didn’t care, it was more important to me to run easily and to know that I could have run faster, if that makes sense.

Oh, and I nearly forgot, last night I attended my first yoga class in nearly a year. I was a bit self-conscious, being the only male member of a group of about a dozen people, but the teacher seems nice enough. Afterwards she asked me if I run a lot. How did she know? She lives a couple of miles away from our house and has seen me on the road on a few occasions when she was out cycling.

There has to be a downside to everything, and in my case it’s a pain in my left knee. I felt it on every climb today, but it wasn’t too bad, it didn’t stop me from running and it didn’t stop me from feeling good overall, but it’s a worry nonetheless. I did google a bit, and immediately came across a description of an injury that most runners are only too familiar with, but I don’t even want to spell it out for fear of jinxing myself. So far I’m still in hope that it’s something else and might go away.

18 Jun: 12 miles, 1:37:17, 8:06 pace, avg. HR 142
19 Jun: 8 miles, 59:45, 7:28 pace, avg. HR 152
20 Jun: 17 miles, 2:16:44, 8:02 pace, avg. HR 149

As promised

The journey from Kerry to Bled was rather arduous, to say the least. A five hour drive from Kerry to Dublin was followed by a 5am rising, a taxi to the airport, one flight to London, a second flight to Klagenfurt, two trains and another taxi ride until we got to our destination. The taxi driver got quite excited, when he heard our destination, though. “Villa Istra! Are you famous? Villa Istra is really special!” Apparently only the rich and famous stay there – and us, of course. I had to admit, it was rather splendid.

The wedding day started out cloudy, but luckily brightened up soon. After getting ready (especially the most beautiful flower girl in the world), the proceedings got underway. The ceremony itself took place in the church on the island, which is as romantic a setting as it gets, really.











Afterwards, Lola and Shea got some rest on a bench, only to be turned into an impromptu attraction for Japanese tourists. Suddenly there were more … and more!

The wedding dinner was held in the fantastic surroundings of Bled castle. Considering half the guests were Italian, and half Irish (plus some from Canada, New Zealand, Nepal, Slovenia, and, as Gaga pointed out in his speech, the Kingdom of Kerry), I expected the Italians to be civilised and the Irish to be the drunken rowdy crowd. Imagine my surprise, as it was the other way round, at least initially. By 1 am or so both parties had found a common level. A great time was had by all, and the kids stayed up until late. Cian eventually fell asleep, and missed the wedding cake, much to his chagrin.

We stayed in Bled for 4 days, before we took the bus to Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital. It’s a small city for a capital, but then again, Slovenia is a small country. Shea’s favourite place was the dragon bridge. He insisted on crossing it as often as we could. We also had time for a day tour into the Podojna caves in the south of the country. The photo doesn’t really give a proper impression of the place. Take it from me, it’s breathtakingly beautiful and well worth a visit, should you ever find yourself in the vicinity.


After only two days we moved on again and crossed the border into Austria. Our next destination was Graz, not because we were terribly keen on visiting it, but because it was a convenient stop, half-way between Ljubljana and Vienna, our next destination, but with a flight for the children and grandparents to return home directly. As it so happens, many years ago I was born just 50 miles away from Graz. But my family moved away when I was only 2, and never returned. Nevertheless, I was expected to be the tourist guide for the rest of the troupe; Nana seemed to think that the bare fact that I was born not too far away from there automatically made me an expert on the local sights. I didn’t know the place at all, but used a run on the first morning as a scouting mission. I was very pleasantly surprised. Not only do they have a very beautiful old town, but the setting around the central hill is spectacular. And not to be outdone by the old buildings, some very imaginative modern architecture can be found as well. The Friendly Alien was Shea’s favourite – though it might not be to everyone’s taste.






Really, I don’t know how Niamh had managed it, but somehow she had persuaded her mother to take the children back to Dublin with her while the two of us spent four days in Vienna, where we had met 14 years ago. Everyone who had heard the plan had predicted that Niamh would return pregnant. That was true – but not quite in the way they had anticipated. The biggest surprise in Vienna was our old student’s residence. What used to be a rather run-down building is now a stunningly posh designer hotel, including a spanky restaurant. We didn’t eat there though, our budget didn’t allow it. Vienna is a stunningly beautiful city. The inner part is so full of palaces (or palais, as they call them) that you walk past less impressive building that in most other settings would be an attraction themselves. Even the museums are stunning. Well, after 4 days of that, we took out leave and returned home (via yet another country, Slovakia, because our flight went direct from Bratislava to Dublin).

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Running: I did 10 miles yesterday, on very heavy legs. That double header really knocked the stuffing out of me. Most people wouldn’t realise just how tough a workout it is, until you try one yourself. I followed it up with 8 miles today, and the legs were still stiff and heavy, at least initially. On the way back, as I was running along the shore of Caragh Lake, I noticed a guy in a boat ahead of me, slow enough to make it catchable but fast enough to be challenging. I chased it for the next 2 miles, until I got ahead. And just as it looked like I would have to return home on my own, I spotted a runner ahead of me on the road. Road kill! How exciting! This guy ran a lot faster than most people I see on these roads. In fact, I really had to strain to chase him, and got down to about 7:00 pace. I know, I know, that’s childish, and the other guy probably didn’t even realise that I was there, so it wasn’t even a race, but I had fun anyway. I slowly drew closer, but on the last climb towards home, he stopped running and walked, I was almost disappointed, and of course I caught him in no time. Nevertheless it was a fun way to end the run.

16 Jun: 10 miles, 1:19:57, 7:59 pace, avg. HR 151
17 Jun: 8 miles, 59:28, 7:26 pace, avg. HR 157 (splits pace 7:38 and 7:13)

Weekly mileage: 66 (due to Tuesday’s 0)