Anaerobically Overtrained?

It doesn’t come as a big surprise, but life can be challenging with a little baby in the house. After taking her time sleeping through the night, she has now started to wake far too often. And for some unknown reason, we seem to have settled on a parental pattern – during the day she’s Niamh’s baby, during the night she’s mine. A 4:29 am wake-up call on Monday was the low point so far, because even though Maia managed to fall back asleep afterwards, I did not. Last night was almost a relief in comparison, a 1 am nappy change was enough to send her (and myself) back to sleep until 6:13, and since my alarm had been set to 6:15, this didn’t cause any problem for once, especially since she fell back asleep after a bottle.

The original schedule for Monday had called for 11 miles, but with my recent rant about not recovering enough I cut that down to 9. I felt very good, actually, and the miles passed by very quickly. I t was probably a tad fast for an easy run, but the heart rate was pretty low, and I felt good, so why not take it.

Today was a different matter. It started badly and got worse, basically. After dealing with the aforementioned Maia problem, I got the shock of the day when my Garmin refused to come to life. And that on the day of mixed intervals, the one workout where I definitely need the damn thing! Dead as a dodo it seemed, but I remembered reading about other people having the same problem and booted up the computer. I found the solution, pressing the Mode and Lap/Reset keys together for a few seconds brought the device back to life. This is even mentioned in the manual, but for some reason only known to the technical writer it's not in the troubleshooting section but on page 6 where the function of each key is explained. Strangely enough the battery was half-empty despite being fully charged last night, but it had enough juice to last my workout.

Eventually, and of course a good bit later than planned, I made it out of the house, functioning Garmin on the wrist. Unfortunately the weather has turned again and it was really windy (the weather page lists wind speeds of 20-25mph, with gusts of up to 40 mph). I could have gone to Ard-na-Sidhe, but that road was so dark that I thought I’d probably run into a tree there and I opted for the road towards Killorglin instead. Initially the weather didn’t seem too bad, and 2 miles of HMP were no problem. As soon as the first recovery interval started I thought that this had not felt like HMP effort, and when I turned around and felt the full force of the wind against my face I knew why. To make things worse, the next 2 fast segments were not only against the wind but slightly uphill as well. The 2k at supposed 10k pace were as slow as 6:49, and then I completely lost focus during the mile at 5k pace, caught myself jogging along at 7:20 pace after my mind had started drifting, and did no better than a totally embarrassing 6:59! I even hesitate to put down those numbers because they are so bad. Half a mile at 3k pace (which should have been sub 6:00 pace, wind or no wind, especially since it was slightly downhill) brought a slight improvement but still only 6:17 pace.

I’ve had plenty of less than satisfying workouts during this build-up, and I have done plenty of moaning about it, but this one was by far the worst. I don’t feel the need to go on about it any further. I didn’t feel good today, but I also worked a lot less hard than I should have, no excuses. With less than 4 weeks to go I’m wondering if there is a point in trying to push myself faster than HMP pace if my subconscious self is seemingly unwilling to do so. Well, there’s one last race coming up on Sunday, and I’ll see how that goes. Somehow I’m always able to find a few extra seconds out of nothing if there is a bib on my shirt.

One more source of slight frustration is provided by my weight. I’m about 145 pounds at the moment, pretty much the same I was for my last marathon but 3 pounds heavier than a few weeks ago, and despite attempts to lose a few, the weight curve is actually pointing upwards. I’m definitely blaming Niamh for this. Imagine the scenario. You have eaten a healthy breakfast, a healthy lunch and a nice, decent dinner. Maybe you’re a tiny bit peckish, but nothing you can’t handle. Then this appears in front of you:



And the next day it’s tiramisu, followed by rice-cream the next day, and maybe some blackberry ice cream the day after. All of it homemade and all of it absolutely delicious. You could not resist either, don’t pretend otherwise. I’m definitely up against it here.

29 Sep

9 miles, 1:10:37, 7:51 pace, HR 140

30 Sep

8.5 miles, 1:03:48, 7:30 pace, HR 153
2m @ 6:41 (157/170), 2k @ 6:49 (167/175), 1m @ 6:59 (170/176), 0.5m @ 6:17 (169/174)

Monthly Mileage: 327

Not so Good

With 4 weeks to go, I’m in the last stages of heavy training for Dublin. I’ve still got one race to go, next week, and after that the taper awaits. I’m in two minds about that. On one hand, I can’t wait to get to Dublin and put into practice what I have been training for all those months. On the other hand, I wish I could come up with some magic formula that would hand me the 5-10 seconds per mile improvement that I would need to break 3 hours. Alas, no such formula exists. Now I’m unsure if I should accept that the 3 hours might be just outside my grasp this time round, or if that is merely a defeatist, self-fulfilling attitude. One thing is pretty clear; if I don’t expect to break 3 hours, I won’t manage it. The mindset would be all wrong.

After Thursday’s and Friday’s hefty dose of back-to-back workouts I was in dire need of some rest and recovery. Alas, neither was to be had in the required amounts, and I only have myself to blame. I spent all of Friday evening trying to add a few video clips of Maia into one sequence, and since this was the first time I had been doing anything like that it took much longer than it should have. It was well past midnight when I finally made it to bed, and with Maia waking screaming well before 7 am, I did not get much sleep.

Saturday’s run was strange too, but this time it wasn’t my fault for a change. I went for 8 miles along Caragh Lake, 4 miles out and 4 miles back. To my surprise I passed not just one but two crews of workers on my way out, and by the time I was on the way home they had started re-surfacing the road, and I could not pass. At least there was an alternative route back home, but that meant crossing the saddle between Seefin Mountain and the Water Witch, and a 300 feet climb within a mile was not exactly what I’d had in mind on my recovery day. It was my only option of getting home, though, short of a swim across the lake in my running gear.

I went to bed 2 hours earlier last night, but with Maia waking before 6am I still didn’t get the right amount of sleep. After a bottle, some cuddles and a nappy change I brought her into our bed, where she promptly fell asleep again. Alas, no such luck for me. After staring at the ceiling for a long time the boys eventually woke, and after their breakfast Niamh got up herself, and I got ready to go out.

As I was putting the Garmin on my wrist, Niamh, out of the blue, commented “Are you running half-marathon pace today?” I was stunned. “How did you know that?” “You have the look in your face of somebody who is about to be tortured!” Up to now I had assumed she had never even heard the term “half-marathon pace”, but I was wrong, obviously.

Well, the plan was indeed 2x4.25 miles at HMP, with half a mile recovery in the middle. I had tried to come up with an alternative route that would not feature all those hills on my way to Cromane, but failed. The road is very similar to the second half of the Bantry half marathon. No big hills but steadily up and down, and all the climbs are longer than you’d wish. I didn’t feel too good from the start. I’ve obviously not completely recovered from the rather strenuous double header, and yesterday’s unexpected mountain stage didn’t help either. I managed to somehow resemble half-marathon pace on the first interval with an average pace of 6:42 and avg/max heart rates of 165 and 171 respectively. Things fell apart completely on the way home, though. It wasn’t for lack of trying, but initially I could not even get under 7:00 pace. Salvation of some kind came in the form of two dogs who started chasing me a mile into that effort. I managed to shake them, and all of my sudden my heart rate was in the correct zone and my speed had increased. But I was still struggling to get under 6:45, and when the hills started again on the last mile I was at the end of my strength, underlined by the fact that I was wheezing badly. That’s something I always do once I pass a certain threshold, and I’m wondering if I’ve got a mild form of exercise-induced asthma. It doesn’t really bother me though; I still manage to get sufficient amounts of oxygen, even though it might not sound like that. Anyway, I seriously contemplated calling it quits a mile early, but I knew that if I kept going the torture would be over within 7 minutes. If I dropped out, on the other hand, I’d hate myself for the rest of the day. So on I went, but the shocking truth is that I didn’t even manage marathon pace over those miles, never mind HMP. The heart rates were almost identical to the first interval (164 avg/171 max), but the pace was 12 seconds per mile slower.

Numbers don’t lie. I did ask too much from myself today, and I’m obviously not getting enough recovery between workouts. There’s no need to comment any further on that. Next week will be slightly lighter with the race in mind, and then we’re entering taper time. That’s probably a good thing, because I might be tempted to overdo things even more otherwise.

I hesitated to embed my video from Friday night because it’s probably mind-bogglingly boring to anyone but family, but I’d probably get requests anyway if I didn’t post it. Watch it if you want, but don’t complain if it won’t provide the 4 most riveting moment of your life.

27 Sep

8 miles, 1:03:40, 7:57 pace, HR 143

28 Sep

13 miles, 1:35:30, 7:20 pace, HR 155
2 x 4.25 miles @ 6:42 (HR 165/171) and 6:54 (HR 164/171)

Weekly mileage: 75

Back To Back

We’re having the nicest spell of sunny weather since probably the start of the year, but it’s also getting really cold during my runs. The temperatures were about 5C/40F over the last few mornings, and that feels really cold, especially at the start of the run when I'm not warmed up yet. I’m sure I will get used to it quickly enough.

I also saw the stars for the first time in a long, long time. Throughout the summer it was cloudy every single morning. At least I think it was every single morning – I genuinely cannot remember when I last saw a brilliant night sky, until this week that is.

I took it easy on Wednesday, but I think the low temperatures made me run a bit faster than I otherwise would have. My fingers felt like falling off, and the first thing I did on my return was to dig into my winter clothes until I found my light gloves. I wanted to make sure that I would not leave the gloves behind for another day. This turned out to be a good move.

As I was already making changes to this week’s schedule, I fiddled with the workouts a bit more. Over the last few weeks I have done tempo runs on Thursday followed by a long run on Friday, with the exception of the race week, of course. Yesterday I decided to run a marathon pace run instead, followed by a long run today, which is the "classic" back-to-back workout that had been proposed by Mike’s Mystery Coach.

Out I went on Thursday for 10 miles, with 7 at marathon pace, which should have been 6:52, but, like almost all training runs of that kind, ended up being closer to 7:00. At least I managed to run 6:56 this time round, which is the fastest “marathon pace” run I’ve done so far. Of course my true marathon pace will not be revealed until the end of October, but that’s a different issue. In any case, I was reasonably pleased with the run. I felt ok, and I was reasonably confident that the effort level had been correct.

For today’s long run I decided to wear my racing shoes. This was the first time I have worn that pair outside a race for the entire training cycle. My problems with PF had stopped me from wearing them for any training runs, but since that has been improving ever since I started massaging my left foot twice a day I decided I could risk it. The hope was, of course, that the lighter shoes would enable me to run fast enough to hit the proper pace for a change. In fact, I was quite looking forward to the run, even though I knew it would be a tough workout. The plan was to run 10 miles at 91% of marathon pace (7:30) and 10 miles at marathon pace (6:52).

I started out really well. Normally it takes me about 2 miles to get warmed up properly, and that’s when I start hitting the correct pace. Not so today, within half a mile I was doing 7:30, and for the next few miles I continually had to slow myself down whenever I glanced at the Garmin because the figures kept being around 7:00-7:20 more often than not. I eventually turned off the backlight of the watch and decided to run purely by feel. I must have slowed down towards the end of that loop, which was unsurprising because it starts getting hilly at that stage, with mile 8-9 sporting a 100-feet raise in elevation. I turned the light back on when I got close to our driveway, and the pace was almost spot on at 7:29. After having a drink (and subsequently feeling too full for a few minutes afterwards) I set out for the second half of that run. Initially I almost hit the pace, but eventually things started to go downhill, and not just from an elevation point of view. Try as you might, 6:52 was as elusive as ever, and the figures seemed to gather around the 6:58 mark. By mile 15 I definitely started to tire, and my mile 17 I was suffering, though that coincided with a return of the hills, which definitely contributed to that feeling. The Dublin marathon sports a few hills from the halfway point to the 20-mile mark, and my route today resembled that fairly closely, so it should have been a fairly specific workout. Mile 18-19 sported the same nasty climb again, and even a stronger last mile didn’t get me under the 7:00 pace mark for that loop. On the plus side, I felt ok afterwards. My endurance is there; in fact I'm sure it was there all along. I could have run a marathon on pretty much any day in the summer; however, racing a marathon is an entirely different task altogether.

I should take solace from the fact that despite not hitting the desired paces I’m still in my best shape ever. On 15 May I had run 17 miles with 15 miles at (then) marathon pace of 7:10 and was ecstatic afterwards, because it showed me that I was in shape to run 3:10 in Cork, which subsequently happened. Today’s run was better than that, and a new PR is pretty much a given unless I get ill or injured (and/or do something truly stupid). However, my target is more ambitious than that, possibly over-ambitious this time round. Of course there will be more marathons to come, and if I can keep on improving for a little bit longer then the 3 hours barrier will fall sooner or later. Distance running is a long game in more than one sense. I’ll try and keep that in mind.

24 Sep

9 miles, 1:10:50, 7:52 pace, HR 139

25 Sep

10 mile, 1:11:59, 7:12 pace, HR 156
incl. 7 miles @ 6:56

26 Sep

20 miles, 2:25:04, 7:15 pace, HR 152
with 10 miles @ 7:29, 10 miles @ 7:01

Small Changes

Both yesterday and today Cian got up at the same time as me, just like his older brother used to do last year. I really hope he is not going to make a habit of this. Firstly because preparing his breakfast means I’m delayed in getting out of the house (I had to sacrifice a mile yesterday because of that), and secondly because getting up so early invariably means he is absolutely knackered in the evening and turns into the 4-year old from hell.

For some reason I had originally determined that this would be a recovery week. Well, I know the reason – I blindly followed the original schedules from the Brain Training book, and this week just happened to be one of the easy ones. It only occurred to me yesterday that it would have made a lot more sense to have the previous week as an easy week, to aid my recovery from the race. Ah well. Feeling really stupid is a powerful motivator to remember your mistakes and avoid them next time.

I decided to deviate from the schedule this week. I didn’t fancy today’s mixed intervals even though the recovery-inspired easier version of the usual workout didn’t look too daunting. I just wanted a change. I had recently read something about Veronique Billat, and decided to run her 30/30 workout today. I know perfectly well that doing this type of workout just once isn’t going to bring a lot of improvements. I just fancied a different kind of speedwork to keep things more interesting, and that’s the one that sounded appealing.

The above websites mentioned that 20 intervals would be normal, so I programmed the Garmin for 22 and gave myself permission to call it quits earlier. It was a strange workout, hard and easy at the same time. Hard because running so much at mile race pace is tough, and easy because 30 seconds are always manageable, even when you’re already knackered. In the end I did the entire 22 intervals, and probably could have done a couple more. The average pace was 5:35, which is better than expected. All in all, I was pleased.

And my homemade blackberry ice cream (made from self-picked blackberries, of course) is divine. I just thought I should mention that, for no reason other than to make you jealous.

22 Sep

8 miles, 1:03:05, 7:53 pace, HR 139

23 Sep

7 miles, 54:17, 7:45 pace, HR 149
22 x 30/30 @ 5:35 avg.

Stunned

The apocalypse is upon us. What was never supposed to happen, has happened. Doom and Gloom. Unbelievable. The sky is falling. Kerry have lost the All-Ireland Football Final. How could that possibly happen? Everyone around here knows that Kerry have a God-given right to win the Football Final. There will be repercussions. I bet the manager won’t be sleeping easily for a while.

Let’s concentrate on running, there is more fun to be had that way. Saturday was always going to be an easy run, after the very tough workouts on Thursday and Friday. I felt very stiff initially, but was surprised how quickly I managed to settle into some decent pace, and the miles passed by easily. I know that I tend to recover very quickly form the long runs, but this time I manage to surprise myself.

The one thing I haven’t done a lot is running at marathon pace, and I’ve started adding a few of those runs to my training recently. I decided to attempt that run again today. Two weeks ago I was happy enough to settle for 7:00 pace, but of course after last week’s race the expectations have changed, and I was aiming for 6:50. I managed just fine for the first half of the run, but started to struggle on the second half. Maybe I was asking too much from my legs, or maybe the fact that there was a 90 feet elevation gain over those miles had more impact than expected, but I wasn’t able to keep the pace going. I ended up running slower than on my last attempt, which is disappointing. I will probably try the same again next week and hope that by then the legs will have recovered from the race. That should give me a better view of where I’m standing right now.

This week has served more than one reminder why I hadn’t expected to run 1:25 in Blarney. My training paces never managed to emulate my race efforts, and the same is still holding true. It’s not for lack of trying, and it’s not for lack of confidence. I definitely expected better times before all of my workouts this week and ended up slightly disappointed each time. I guess there is just no replacement for race day adrenaline.

20 Sep

8 miles, 1:03:06, 7:52 pace, HR 140

21 Sep

12 miles, 1:25:41, 7:08 pace, HR 153
incl. 9 miles @ 6:59

Weekly mileage: 81

Recovery? What Recovery?

I have one last note about the Blarney half marathon. There is a series of videos on YouTube, apparently taken around the 12-mile mark, though I think it was closer to the end. This particular video features both Grellan and me. Grellan is the runner in white singlet and black headband, 3:00 into the video. I’m the idiot in the dark outfit (not the purple one, two runners later) who’s checking his watch not just once but twice, almost a minute later.



Am I just paranoid, or is there something odd about my running style?

After 9 easy miles on Wednesday, I had another pair of cruise intervals on schedule. I wondered if it was wise to run at HMP yet again, 4 days after the race, but went ahead anyway. I was quite confident I’d be able to run at 6:30 pace, after all I have proven conclusively that this is my true race pace for that distance. It was quite surprised when it turned out that my HMP training speed was essentially the same as last week. It wasn’t because I was not working as hard as on Sunday; my heart rate during the intervals was actually higher than the average HR from the race. Maybe the fact that I was wearing my normal trainers rather than my racing shoes is a factor? They are 3.5 ounces each heavier, which allegedly means a slowdown of 7 seconds per mile, which would account for at least some of the discrepancy. That of course begs the question if I should wear my racing shoes for those workouts. I haven’t worn them at all outside of racing. My was worried about my PF, because the pain always seemed to flare up in the days after a race. Now that there seems to be an improvement I might be able to get away with wearing them more often.

If you’re reading this blog on a regular basis you know that I always do my long runs on the day immediately following a tempo run, and this week was no exception. I decide to run 22 miles, the longest run of the present training cycle so far. In the past weeks and months the long runs have always served as a great confidence booster. Even if my speedier workouts were below par, I could always take heart from how well the long runs went. I was therefore quite confident about today’s run.

Things didn’t quite work out to plan. I felt slow and sluggish from the word go. When I checked the watch at mile3, my pace was slower than 8:20, even though it definitely felt faster than that to me. I also noticed that I started to check the distance on the Garmin every 30 seconds or so, barely 4 miles into the run. That is a seriously bad sign, and the first thing I did was to turn off the backlight of said device. It was almost pitch dark, more than two hours before sunrise and with the moon hiding behind the clouds. I could make out the road but not much else, and this meant I could no longer see the figures on the watch. This worked, I eventually managed to tune into the run, but it never felt particularly smooth. I got back to our driveway at the halfway mark, had some water, and decided to run the same loop for a second time. I had toyed with the idea of running a couple of shorter loops, but deliberately went back towards Cromane, to make sure that I would not be able to bail out early. This was probably a good idea, because around mile 18 or 19 I had a rather bad low and felt like dying on my feet. However, I managed to pull through that and even had a decent finish.

With the heavy legs I was never even remotely tempted to speed up towards MP, and boy was I glad when I got home. I was almost crawling into the kitchen, and could only mumble “this better be worth it in the end” when Niamh enquired about my run. Cycling to and from work did not come easy today. But it felt very satisfying to note a big fat 22 into the log.

17 Sep

9 miles, 1:10:42, 7:51 pace, HR 140

18 Sep

12 miles, 1:25:53, 7:09 pace, HR 159
incl. 2x4 miles @ 6:40, 6:44

19 Sep

22 miles, 2:54:56, 7:57 pace, HR 144
first half @ 8:03, second half @ 7:50

Looking Back, But Not In Anger

I’m in two minds about Sunday’s race. On one hand, I lowered my PR by a significant amount into a territory that I would have rejected as fantasy when I was standing on the start line. On the other hand, I can’t stop wondering what would have happened had I tried to stay with Grellan.

I had felt comfortable enough when I let him go, it was the numbers on the Garmin that made me slow down. Smart move or chicken? Judging from his report, he seems to have managed to reach the finish line just as his strength was running out. I, on the other hand, still felt like I had plenty in the tank, but that didn’t help with cutting the 50 seconds deficit I had on him at the end. I can tell one thing for sure. Put into the same position again I would try and stay with him, if only to find out what would have happened.

I found plenty of photos of myself from the race, from miles 4, 5, 5, 12 and 13 respectively. As I mentioned to Niamh, long distance running is not a beauty contest.

I felt pretty good on Monday, if a little tired. That tiredness was mainly caused by Maia, though, who did not accept the fact that Daddy had run a strenuous race as sufficient reason to have a peaceful night. It was still 5:37 in the morning when she woke me for the last time. I had planned to get up at 6am, and there was no more sleep to be had after I had dealt with the problem. She did sleep peacefully once I went out for my run, making things easy for Niamh. Typical.

10 easy miles on Monday went by without a hitch, and I felt good. There was less soreness than expected in the legs, and I felt rather comfortable. Today was a bit tricky. The schedule has mixed intervals on Tuesday, but I did not think that would be too smart a move. Running 10k, 5k and 3k pace a mere 41 hours after crossing the line of a half-marathon is asking for a bit much. For some reason, though, I had already programmed the Garmin with the workout, and even though I had initially decided to simply run 8 easy miles, I could not quite resist temptation. I successfully argued with myself that running the intervals at marathon pace would be a good idea. Of course, the marathon pace target has moved as well on Sunday. Until the moment I was over the line I was content with an MP of 7:00, but the target has shifted to 6:50 now. It was that pace I started to tune into for the first interval. After that, I got a bit careless, didn’t even check the Garmin for most of the other repeats, and ran a bit faster than that. Last week I would not have been able to tune into that pace with still slightly stiff legs. Today it wasn’t even particularly hard. It’s amazing the difference a bit of confidence can make. I guess the Brain Training guys would regard this as a given.

Anyway, I ran 2 miles at 6:49, 2 k at 6:35, 1 mile at 6:37 and half a mile at 6:24 pace, and I should probably point out that the last two were on an uphill road, because I ran alongside Caragh Lake and those two sections just happened to fall on a climb. I hope I haven’t completely f***ed up my recovery. Tomorrow is definitely an easy day, and Thursday’s intervals at half marathon pace (which should of course be run at my “new” HMP of 6:30) will tell how I’m coming along.

15 Sep

10 miles, 1:23:09, 8:19 pace, HR 136

16 Sep

8 miles, 58:21, 7:18 pace, HR 154
2m @ 6:49, 2k @ 6:35, 1m @ 6:37, 0.5m @ 6:24

Good Times

I did a lot of races this summer, more so than usual. I had a fantastic 5k in Killarney where the “equivalent” time for the marathon went under 3:00 for the first time ever. However, since then I have not managed to replicate that achievement, and I have lost my earlier optimism about being able to break that mark in Dublin. Today’s half marathon in Blarney was the first long distance race in along time. I felt that I needed to run about 1:25 in this race to have a realistic chance of breaking 3:00 for a full marathon. However, recent races as well as training runs have shown that to be out of reach. As we drove towards Blarney today, I was merely hoping to better my personal best of 1:27:52, set last year in that very race, on a scorching hot day (well, scorching for Ireland, that is).

A few weeks ago I had been interviewed, by the Irish Times no less, and had mentioned to the journalist that I’d prefer racing in the rain than the sun. Today was the day where that statement would be put to the test.

Niamh only decided at 8:25 today that she and the kids would come with me. It had become obvious that the rain would not cease for the entire day, and with 4 children in tow, this would be a problem for her. However, she decided to bundle everyone into the car, and by 8:48 we were on the road.

This was my third time in a row at this race, so we knew the road well and I got ready in good time. I’m starting to recognise quite a few faces these days, and I’m also being recognised, which meant I had a few chats before the race. I met Grellan at the starting line, we only had time for few words before the start, and off we went.

I found myself immediately behind Mary Sweeney (a running legend around here) and Grellan, but after about half a mile I checked my Garmin, and the 6:18 pace made me back off a little bit, despite feeling perfectly comfortable at the time. Mary did slow down a little bit further on and I went past her shortly before the first mile marker, just like I had done in Liscarroll 3 weeks ago, but Grellan was about 10 steps ahead of me at the time (mile 1 in 6:35). Over the next 2 miles I managed to keep contact; in fact, I’m sure I managed to close the gap. I could have drawn level if I surged, but surging uphill so early in the race is not a good idea; at that stage I still expected to be able to catch him later on. (miles 2 and 3 and 6:29, 6:41)

The course is not easy by any means. The first half is uphill, the second half is downhill. That’s what the course profile says, but that’s not what it feels like. You do notice the uphill part, no doubt. However, I could have sworn the second half is mostly even. This had confused me last year and the year before, but this time I was already familiar with that peculiar sensation, and was prepared for it. (mile 4 in 6:37)

Eventually the course got steeper, and by mile 5 it got really steep. It was at that stage that I completely lost contact with Grellan. I don’t know how far ahead he got, but it must have been well over a minute, maybe even two. I more or less held my place in the field at that stage, though I was not concerned about that. I just put my head down and ran, trying not to cook myself. I know my pattern these days. Despite all the hills I’m running day-in, day-out in training, I tend to lose ground on the climbs. I do, however, make up for that on the downhills, and my time was soon to come. On a positive note, I noticed that the official mile markers coincided very closely with the figures on my GPS. At least I could trust those numbers (miles 5 and 6 in 6:53 and 7:23). By the time I reached the apex of the course, close to the halfway mark, my average pace was at around 6:50. I could not remember what it had been last year, but I knew it had been slower. A new PR was almost a given at that stage; I still felt very comfortable, and the better part of the race was yet to come. I overtook no less than 4 runners on the first, steep downhill (mile 7 in 6:20). At the foot of that I looked ahead and saw a number of runners ahead of me, but not the white shirt I was looking out for. Grellan, where are you? The chase was on!

In Liscarroll I had been ahead of him, this time I was behind. Psychologically it is better to be the hunter, but if you are too far back, that’s not going to help. However, for the next miles I flew down the road at unprecedented pace for such along distance. I must have overtaken at least 5 runners per mile, probably more. What surprised me was the number of female runners amongst them. Last year I had been overtaken by 3 women at mile 5; I had managed to draw one place back later on, but the other two stayed ahead, and they were the two fastest women in the race. This year the female contest was far more competitive.

Anyway, I felt I was running great. The road felt level, but I was doing 6:08, 6:12, 6:19 and 6:13 pace until the 11-mile marker, and I could not possibly do that on a level ground on such a long race. I really enjoyed it. I knew I was flying along to a new PR, the pace was hard but manageable, and I was able to keep a relaxed but fast running form, always a good sign. Even better, I kept overtaking runners the entire time, and there was never any danger of being overtaken myself. However, that white shirt was still not on the radar screen. I forgot to check the watch at the 10 mile marker, but I was faster than I had been in Ballycotton earlier this year when I had set my PR for the 10-mile distance. Mathematically speaking I had set a new PR already at that stage. In that race I had felt crap earlier on, due to a too-fast start, but recovered and had some very good late miles. I felt I would have run an excellent race over a longer distance, but ran out of road. If that had been a half-marathon, I would have done very well. Today, I was running that race.

I kept pressing hard, but despite all the effort I must have slowed down eventually, on the second-last mile. It passed in 6:32, the slowest mile for a while, but still not too shabby. It was at that stage that I was starting to feel the effort. In almost every race there comes a point when you really wish this were over and you could finally relax. I had reached that point.

With one mile to go I spotted a fairly large group of runners a good bit ahead of me, and I thought I saw Grellan’s white singlet amongst them. However, this was too close to the finish and I would not be able to catch up. In a longer race I would have managed it, I guess, but the race is over when you cross the line, not when you manage to catch up. With the finishing line coming into sniffing distance, I managed to increase to pace again, giving it all. It was downhill, but running 5:50 pace with 12 miles already under the belt still feels awesome. I still caught more runners, and after a final sprint (5:47 pace on the last bit) I crossed the line.

The provisional results have me in 56th place in a time of 1:25:10, but my own watch said 1:25:15, and that’s what I’m going by. I more than pleased to have bettered my previous PR by well over 2-and-a-half minutes; I had thought the times of cutting so much off my PR were over already. Grellan got credited with 1:24:21; I congratulated him to the run of his life, but he didn’t agree (he obviously thinks that one is still ahead of him). I didn’t mind being beaten – my own time was more than satisfying. I met Niamh later on (they had been to a play centre), and we went to Blarney Castle, which the children enjoyed immensely. Niamh later said she was glad we all had come – good times were had by everyone.

I definitely proved myself right about the racing conditions. Racing in the rain is preferable. You might not find anyone but 508 running idiots out there in the wet, but they will have a good time.

And the marathon predictions? Well, MacMillan gives me an equivalent time of 2:59:48. Damn! A bit faster, and I could relax. I bit slower, and I could accept. As it is, I will have to run the race of my life in Dublin. This is going to hurt.

12 Sep

8 miles, 1:04:02, 8:00 pace, HR 137

13 Sep

5 miles, 40:01, 8:00 pace, HR 136

13 Sep

16 miles incl:
Blarney Half Marathon, 1:25:15, 6:30 pace, HR 170
56th overall, 10th in M35 age group

Weekly Mileage: 73

Cruising

To answer by7’s question: no, I don’t feel the PF at night. I feel some discomfort after getting up and walking around in my bare feet, but it usually only really hurts on the first mile of a run (which is always early in the morning). I can also feel some discomfort after a massage or strengthening exercise, but that’s different, I guess.

Niamh rang me from Tralee on Sunday; our car’s clutch had given up while she was there with Maia and the boys. Luckily we are still with the AA (and even better, that’s the Automobile Association rather than Alcoholics Anonymous), and she got it towed to our mechanic and 48 hours use of a replacement car for free. I managed to pick the fixed car up yesterday evening. I had to run there – one more reason why it’s good to have a runner in the house, as I had to point out to Niamh.

The weather in the last few days has been … challenging. I got kind of lucky yesterday because by pure chance I managed to coincide my easy run in the morning with a break in the rain and only had to deal with the gale force wind as a result. Running up and down the Ard-na-Sidhe road three times was soon getting old though. I have done that same mile-long stretch of road far too often this week.

I therefore tried to think of an alternative route for today’s HMP intervals, but did not come up with anything. If the wind had quietened down overnight I would have gone to Cromane instead, but that’s totally exposed and the wind is coming straight from the Atlantic, so back to Ard-na-Sidhe it was. The first interval went okay, but I got fed up with trying to avoid all those potholes and opted for the Caragh Lake road towards home for the second repeat. Just as I was passing our driveway I spotted one of our neighbours slowly cycling along. I was astounded that he would go cycling in that weather, and he was astonished that I managed to overtake him while running, even on a slightly downhill stretch. Sadly, the rest of the second fast segment didn’t go quite as well, and I missed my target pace of 6:40 by a few seconds. I guess I should be content though; it was faster than last week.

I’m skipping the long run this week because I don’t want to wear myself out before Sunday’s half-marathon. On the road early today I reckoned it would have made more sense binning the tempo workout instead, because now I’m running HMP twice within four days. However, by that time it was too late to swap and I went ahead with the workout.

At least the worst of the weather is supposed to be behind us; at least for now. But I can still expect to get wet on Sunday. That way I can decide if I really prefer racing in the rain to racing on the hottest day of the year, which was the case last year.

10 Sep

am: 8 miles, 1:05:51, 8:14 pace, HR 141
pm: 2.5 miles, 20:14, 8:06 pace, HR 140

11 Sep

am: 11.3 miles, 1:22:13, 7:17 pace, HR 160
        incl. 2x3.75 miles @ 6:38, 6:44
pm: 5 miles, 37:58, 7:35 pace, HR 142

Getting Better

A few days after the Connemara Ultra, all the way back in April, my left foot started hurting. I ran through it. It got rather painful over the last 6 miles in Cork, but I managed to run through that as well. Ever since, the problem has been there. The first mile of each run hurt, sometimes more, sometimes less. I think it is PF, but since I never got it checked out I can’t be entirely sure. I was hoping it would go away, like most ailments do, but 5 months later it’s still there. The pain is never bad enough to convince me to stop running, but it got markedly worse in the days after the Liscarroll race two week ago. I also got some discomfort in my left hamstring, and occasionally a twinge in the outside of my left knee, but I think they are follow-on injuries, caused by a subtle change in gait due to the foot pain.

I started stretching more regularly and I started doing a few strengthening exercises. But what seems to make a difference is massaging it every day. I can easily find a number of sore spots. Interestingly, when running it hurts in the arch of the foot, but the massaging clearly shows that all the sore spots are in the heel. Anyway, early signs indicate that massaging the heel once or twice a day seems to lead to some improvement. Today was the first run in ages where I didn’t wince at all at the start.

The weekend weather was not too bad, which we used to plant a number of fruit trees in a newly cleared section of our garden. In 2 or 3 years we will hopefully have our own apples, pears, cherries and plums to harvest. I can hardly wait! Unfortunately, the weather forecast got it right for today, the heavy rain duly arrived, and tomorrow is supposed to be worse again with high winds as well. Just like last Tuesday, I had mixed intervals on the schedule, and again I opted for the Ard-na-Sidhe road. I probably could have run it on a different stretch because there was very little wind, and a less uneven road surface might have been preferential. At times I was slaloming around barely visible waterlogged potholes while running close to 6:00 pace, which wasn’t ideal to say the least. I was still happy with the way the workout went, especially when I compared the figures to last time.

2 Sep: 3k @ 6:42, 1m @ 6:28, 1k @ 6:14, 0.5m @ 6:02
9 Sep: 3k @ 6:38, 2k @ 6:28, 1k @ 6:12, 0.5m @ 5:53

I’ll take that improvement, especially with the longer second segment. Those mixed intervals will get harder as the length of the segments are increasing; I’ll see how I get on, but I’ll have to decide if I should opt for a different road. Even if there are no flat roads, I could at least opt for one with a smooth surface. It seems rather obvious when putting it like that, doesn’t it?

8 Sep

9 miles, 1:13:46, 8:12 pace, HR 135

9 Sep

8 miles, 1:00:32, 7:34 pace, HR 158
3k @ 6:38, 2k @ 6:28, 1k @ 6:12, 0.5m @ 5:53

What's Marathon Pace?

After a back-to-back workout on Thursday and Friday, a very easy 8-mile run was all I had in mind for Saturday. A lie-in would have been nice, but with 4 children sleep can be a lottery, and this weekend I’ve drawn a blank. Ah well. I’m sure I’ll sleep again someday.

I passed lots and lots of blackberry bushes on yesterday's run, and on the return leg I could no longer resist temptation. I stopped for 5 or 10 minutes and just shoved as many of them into my mouth as I could manage. If that included the odd worm, so be it (it’s the only way for my to get animal protein anyway). Yummy. Eventually I managed to wean myself off nature’s buffet and continued with my run.

Talking about blackberries, another advantage of cycling to work became apparent a week ago. I had spotted a massive array of bushes with gazillions of juicy berries, and the next day I made sure I brought along a container, which I filled to the brim on my way home. In a car I would not have noticed them. I did the same the following day, and again once or twice this week. Add to that the berries we picked in our garden and some more I picked from another spot beside the Lake over the last two weekends and you can imagine the masses of berries we have managed to bring home. So far we’ve had blackberry crumble, blackberry brioche, cinnamon-and-blackberry cake, blackberry muffins and just plain blackberries, as well as about 10 pots of blackberry jam, some of them for giving away, and the season is still going on. My usual diet is taking a bit of a hit at the moment with all the added sugar, but that’s a sacrifice I’m more than willing to pay.

Because I didn’t quite manage to get down to marathon pace on Friday I decided to give it another go, but this time without running 15 miles in advance. It went really well. After 2 miles of warming up I hit 7:00 pace pretty much instantly, and held it fairly comfortably over the next 8 miles. The heart rate surprised me, apart from a few climbs it stayed below 160 all the time rather than going into the low 160s as I would have expected. On days like that I still dare to hope that 6:52 pace on race day is not completely out of the question yet. With 7 weeks to go there are still a few weeks of full training left, and with plenty of miles at MP and HMP, maybe I’ll manage to squeeze out a few extra seconds. Plus with lighter shoes and possibly a few pounds less on my frame I might still be in with a chance this time round. As I’ve said, on days like this I still dare to hope.

6 Sep

8 miles, 1:05:51, 8:13 pace, HR 135

7 Sep

12+ miles, 1:27:35, 7:14 pace, HR 155
incl. 8 miles @ 6:57 pace

Weekly mileage: 80+

Challenged

I think the weather is getting to me a bit. It certainly seems to knock everyone else as well. There is hardly a smile to be seen around the office at the moment.

Wednesday’s run was an easy 8 miler that would not have been worth mentioning had it not been for the conditions – heavy rain and gale force winds. My thought when leaving the house was “I wish I had a treadmill”, which I presume will be repeated a few times over the winter. I tried to find some shelter on the Ard-na-Sidhe road, and despite being battered by the wind and drenched by the rain I managed to pretty much tune out of it and hardly noticed the repetitive pattern of running up-and-down the same stretch of road three time. Niamh sarcastically inquired how my run had been, and gave me “that look” again when I responded with “strangely enjoyable”.

Thankfully the conditions were much better on Thursday, no rain and just a bit of a breeze, which enable me to do my cruise intervals on the Cromane loop. The plan was fairly simple, 2 miles warm-up, 2x3.5 miles tempo with half a mile of recovery in-between, followed by a cool-down. I followed my recent decision not to get too stuck on the actual pace; anything around 6:40 would do me just fine. I felt a bit stiff and awkward when the first tempo part started; it took me about 2 miles to really get into it, but from then on I was flying, below 6:30 pace and feeling good. That part of the road may have been very slightly downhill, but if so then it only made up for some earlier uphill parts. I was tempted to keep going through the recovery interval because I had such a great rhythm going but settled for recovery pace after all. Again I felt stiff and awkward when the second tempo section started, and again it took some time to get into it. The last half-mile of that tempo run was uphill, which added to the challenge. I ended up with 6:43 and 6:46 pace for the two tempo runs, but I think I would have been faster without the recovery interval, which really had broken my rhythm.

The weather forecast for today, Friday, had been dire, and unfortunately it proved all too accurate. The rain came down by the bucket load, and the wind had picked up again. I guess I should be grateful that it topped out at 25 mph rather than reach gale force again; small mercies and all that. The schedule had originally called for a short-ish MP run, but since my last two long runs had been fairly short (18 and 17 miles respectively) and I’m not planning on a long run next week (because of the half marathon race) I decided to change it to a 20-miler. It was ridiculously dark when I stepped outside just before 5:10am, and after stumbling around the driveway and nearly running into the bushes I went back to pick up a light source. My trusty old headlamp has given up the ghost and I haven’t got a replacement yet, but borrowing Shea’s cheap toy-flashlight did the trick. It even survived the run in the rain, which somewhat surprised me.

I felt surprisingly good early on and crossed the hills that make up the first 10 miles in very good time. Last month I had done 20 miles on the same route, and had accelerated to 7:30 pace after mile 10, and to 7:00 pace at mile 15. I decided to try and replicate that workout, which would form a nice back-to-back workout with yesterday’s cruise intervals. I felt confident I would be able to pull it off. The first 10 miles went by quickly, and holding 7:30 pace felt easy over the next 5. It was then that I hit the buffers. Try as you might, I could not get down to 7:00 pace. It was not for lack of trying but the legs were gone. In the end I worked as hard as felt prudent and ended up with 7:15 pace. I was wiped out afterwards.

At breakfast I remarked to Niamh “I know it’s not something normal people would ever say, but I should not feel so tired after running 20 miles”. I got “that look” again.

3 Sep

8 miles, 1:05:57, 8:15 pace, HR 141

4 Sep

11 miles, 1:20:06, 7:17 pace, HR 158
2x3.5 miles @ 6:43, 6:46

5 Sep

20 miles, 2:33:43, 7:41 pace, HR 151
miles 10-15 @ 7:28, miles 15-20 @ 7:15

The First Day

It’s a great moment in every Big Boy’s life: the first school day.

I could not possibly miss Cian’s big event, so I went along to the school, and Niamh dropped me at work afterwards. It meant I had to run home in the evening because there was no way to put the bike into the car with all the kids in it. It wasn’t ideal because I had planned a speed workout for Tuesday, and I usually feel quite stiff the day after a double. I made very sure I ran very easily on both of Monday’s runs. Interestingly, the heart rate was the same for both runs, however, the evening one was a whopping 26 seconds per mile faster, despite the same very easy effort. I have noticed that same evening effect before, but not at such a margin. I’ll still be a morning runner, though. The practicalities of life do not leave me any other option.

I had made very sure that I would take it very easy on Sunday and Monday to feel ready for Tuesday’s mixed intervals. This was a completely new type of workout for me, and I had been intrigued as soon as I had read about it in the schedules, months ago. It will get tougher, but today it meant 3k at HMP, 1 mile at 10k pace, 1k at 5k pace and half a mile at 3k pace. With all the negative experiences at faster paces in the recent weeks I had already decided not to get too hung up with the actual paces; if I would hut something like 6:40 as HMP, 6:30 as 10k, 6:15 as 5k and 6:00 as 3k pace, I would be happy.

Alas, the workout was hindered by the truly appalling conditions. I had woken several times during the night when the howling wind threw some ferocious rain against our window. Of course I still went out running, but it had to be along the Ard-na-Sidhe road, where a few trees provide at least a minimum of shelter. The road is very uneven, with a bad road surface and a few ups and downs, but I have run mile repeats on it plenty of times before in previous training cycles. I followed the schedule to the letter and only did 1 mile of warm-up, which meant I was still not quite ready when the alarm for the HMP section came on. I was struggling over the first k or so, but settled eventually. The rest period between the faster runs lasted only 2 minutes, which brought bad memories of some botched mile repeats. I did not feel good over the first half of the 10k section, but then, out of nothing, things changed. Without any conscious input from myself I started to relax all of a sudden, and the workout, which had started to turn into a struggle, was transformed. All of a sudden I was able to run faster with less effort; I settled into a fast but somehow still relaxed pace, and felt pretty good about it. I tried to repeat the same fast-but-relaxed style over the final two segments, and more or less got it right. The constantly undulating road didn’t help, but I managed reasonably well. I more or less hit the times I had in mind, even if they don’t match the times in the schedule. I felt pretty good about the workout, and am already looking forward to next week’s second instalment. That has to be a good sign, as it stands in marked contrast to how I felt about the mile or 1k repeats. At the very least I should get some more enjoyment out of my training, which has been lacking at times this summer.

1 Sep

am: 9 miles, 1:19:54, 8:52 pace, HR 131
pm: 5 miles, 42:11, 8:26 pace, HR 131

2 Sep

7 miles, 52:57, 7:34 pace, HR 154
3k @ 6:42, 1m @ 6:28, 1k @ 6:14, 0.5m @ 6:02

A Busy Week

A few things have happened recently that seem to have changed some people’s perception of my running. I got my cheque for winning the M35 age group in Liscarroll, which amazed my mother-in-law. “Why doesn’t he run more races like that, where he can win some money?” Maybe it’s not such a waste of time then, eh?

Secondly, on Monday I got a phone call from a reporter from the Irish Times, Ireland’s premier newspaper. She was writing an article about the weather, and had come across this blog. She rang me, and we did an interview. The article was printed on Friday, and also appeared in their online version (Not sure how long the link will last, because they tend to archive the articles. Stupid or what!). I got quite a few comments from friends and colleagues, and Niamh was particularly pleased that she got a mention as well. That’s one way to collect brownie points.

The run on Saturday was amazing. I had not read Mike’s comment about taking it easy yet and followed through with my schedule which called for 17 miles. 9 miles at steady pace, 7 miles at MP, 1 mile at HMP. I had run a similar run last week, with a shorter MP section. Despite, or maybe because of, a less than satisfying speedwork on Friday, I felt very good from the start. I had to hold myself back on the first section, because I felt like running faster. The breaks came off eventually, and I settled into what felt like marathon pace. Last week I had started that section too fast and slowed down all the way to 7:20. Today I felt much better, kept the pace and knew that I could have run faster, but felt that it would not have been an MP effort any more. I had plenty left in the tank for the HMP mile, and unlike last week I felt in full control. At the end I was tired of course, but I felt great. Pleasantly tired is probably the correct description. Once more I got reminded that I hate running 10k pace or faster, but love the long runs.

After reading Mike’s aforementioned comment I took it very easy today, and intend to do so again on Monday. I will have to decide if I’ll add a third easy day on Tuesday, or if I go ahead with the “mixed intervals” workout, which sounds intriguing. I think I should be ok for the rest of the training cycle. From now on there will only be one speed workout per week, the second fast workout consists of cruise intervals. I can’t say for sure yet, of course, but I think this will suit me much better than those two speed sessions per week that have been going on until now. I’ll probably see the program through to the end, but I don’t think I’ll use it again for the next training cycle. I’ll still take some points that I really like about it, from the fartleks to the strength training and the stretching exercises.

The most important event of the week was of course Kerry’s annual humiliation of our dear neighbours Cork in the Gaelic Football Championship today. They made us sweat more than once this year, but of course they came through in the end. When things are getting tough and everyone else is losing their heads, it’s always great to have the best player of the decade in the team, I guess. Now for Tyrone in the final, and this time it’s payback time.

Have you gotten over it yet, Grellan?

30 Aug

17 miles, 2:08:42, 7:34 pace, HR 151
miles 1-9 @ 7:59, miles 9 – 16 @ 7:09, mile 17 @ 6:38

31 Aug

8.5 miles, 1:13:24, 8:38 pace, HR 133

Weekly mileage: 75 miles
Monthly mileage: 361+ (by far the highest this year, but less than last year)

Stale

I’ve been whinging about this enough by now. Time and time again I have been unable to hit the prescribed pace for my workouts, and I should have faced reality long ago. My time from Killarney is not representative of my present level of running; all the other races have shown as much, and I should have altered my targets accordingly.

It became patently clear on Wednesday, when I tried to run 1k repeats once more. Last week’s session, in Valentia, had gone pretty well, and I was reasonably confident I would be able to do ok again. But the early signs were not very good. When the alarm clock went off my first thought was “Oh no! I’m still tired”. The second, a split-second later was “OH NO! SPEEDWORK!”. I warmed up for 1.5 miles on the road, and then got down to it. The road isn’t as flat as the Valentia Shore road was, but the majority of my repeats have been run on the same stretch. The first one was slow. Never mind; the same had happened last week. The second one felt already much harder than it should have – and it was just as slow. The third one was slightly better, but by then I was already knackered. I thought about bailing out – in fact, I had thought about bailing out early in the second repeat. I stuck to the task. The fourth repeat was the slowest yet. I bargained with myself – one more, then I’ll call it a day. I ran another slow one. And, for some reason I decided to add another one, to make it 6 after all. It was the slowest of all.

3:54, 3:53, 3:49, 4:01, 3:51, 4:02

That’s 11 seconds per repeat slower than last week. I’ve got plenty of excuses: I was tired from lack of sleep, I was tired from too much driving, I was not recovered from Sunday’s race, the road was not as flat as last week’s, yesterday's run had been in the evening, giving me half the normal recovery time; none of them are any good. Call it a bad day? There have been too many of those. Time to face the facts. I’m not as fast as I’d like to be.

I thought about it, and decided to take it a bit easier from now on. I feel stale. My racing times have held up ok through the training cycle, but they have not progressed either, and that’s not a very good sign. To be honest, I think there is too much speed training in this program. I feel stale and tired all the time, and have felt so for a number of weeks. The next workout was 5.5 miles at 10k race pace – a ridiculous suggestion if I’ve ever heard one. I can’t do that without a number on my chest, a runner in front of me, and Grellan chasing me.

I decided that anything below 6:50 pace would do me for that run. This would still be a progression from the last training cycle – back then I had found it impossible to go under 7:00 for tempo runs. Whether that means that I should do more of those runs or if there’s some attitude problem is up for discussion. In the end, I wasn’t able to run under 6:50 either. I managed it for the first half of the run, but got increasingly tired and slower an the return leg, and ended up with 6:55 pace. Not exactly brilliant, and not even the pace required for a sub-3 marathon. It’s time to adjust my targets, I guess. I’m reasonably confident of a new PR in Dublin, but it might not be by as much as originally hoped for. The next race is 2 weeks away, the half marathon in Blarney. This will give me a much clearer picture where I’m really standing.

27 Aug

8 miles, 1:03:25, 7:56 pace, HR155
6x1000 in 3:54, 3:53, 3:49, 4:01, 3:51, 4:02

28 Aug

8 miles, 1:04:08, 8:01 pace, HR 143

29 Aug

9.55 miles, 1:11:29, 7:29 pace, HR 157
incl. 5.5 miles in 38:02 (6:55 pace)

Meet the Bloggers

Ideally, after running a tough race, you take it easy for at least a day or two. Not just when running, but generally. However, when I got an email from Mike a couple of weeks ago telling me about his trip across the Atlantic, I had to follow his invitation and drive up to Galway on Monday. Meeting a fellow running blogger you have been in contact with for a couple of years? This was too good an opportunity to miss.

I didn't know if I would be able to run later that day, so I ran easily on Monday morning, just over 8 miles. I felt a bit stiff, which was to be expected after Sunday's race. I was perfectly content to plod along for an hour, but cut the originally planned distance of 9 miles short. I didn't want to be late for work, especially as I was only going in for half a day.

At lunchtime I set off heading northwards. Traffic was heavier than expected, and I didn't arrive in Galway until 5pm. I was sitting in the hotel lobby answering a phone call when a familiar face turned up. I didn't have to ask twice - I recognised Mike immediately.

After a bit of a chat we set off for a run. At one stage Mike was worried that the pace was too slow for me, but I felt fine. In fact, anything faster would have been uncomfortable, with the race and the long drive leaving some effect on the legs. This was the first time I ever did a few miles with a running buddy. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and Mike was excellent company. The hour flew by in no time at all. The only drawback was that I apparently make funny faces while trying to run and taking self-portraits at the same time.

After a meal and some Guinness it was already time to hit the hay. I left very early on Tuesday morning to be back in Kerry at 9 o'clock, but managed to say good-bye to Mike (sorry for waking you - I intended to write short note, but you woke up instead). It's amazing how quickly you can cover the distance on empty roads - it only took me about 2-and-a-half hours to reach Killorglin. The trip yesterday had taken almost 4 hours. I was so early that I had time to drive home, have a shower and cycle into work. Niamh was grateful to have use of the car, and the kids were excited to see their daddy earlier than anticipated (it's great when they're still young enough to idolise their dad!).

Since I did not run in the morning (even I have limits to the wake-up time), I ran when I came home from work. I was undecided if I should take it easy or attempt this week's speed workout, but my legs turned to jelly after cycling home, and easy it was. I'll adapt this week's schedule accordingly.

25 Aug

am: 8.5 miles, 1:11:49, 8:27 pace, HR 140
pm: 8.3 miles, 1:08:33, 8:17 pace, HR 144

26 Aug

7 miles, 55:28, 7:55 pace, HR 145

Spot That Donkey

It wasn't hard to sell a drive to Liscarroll to Niamh and the kids. Two months ago (actually, the day of the Cork City marathon) we had driven to that very place and visited the Donkey Sanctuary. We adopted a donkey called Jacinta (well, it's sponsoring, but they call it adoption), and all the kids were very keen on the idea of visiting her again. That way I could justify driving over 90 minutes for a fairly low-key race, though when Niamh asked how long the race would be, she wasn't too impressed that we were driving so for for a mere 5-miler. She expected 10 miles at least. As it turned out, the race was billed as am 8k which is a tad short of 5 miles; I guess we're going metric these days.

The last 2 days were reasonably easy. I tried to keep a balance between keeping my marathon training on track and not sabotaging the race, so I ran measuredly on both days; just over 13 miles on Friday and 8 miles on Saturday.

My best race ever had been the Killarney 5k last month, and I had run 3 miles on that morning to test my sore back. Since then it has become part of my race preparation to run 3 miles in the morning; it had worked then, maybe it will work again on day. Therefore I ran 3 easy miles in the morning. If it made a difference, I can't tell.

We made it to Liscarroll in good time and without losing our way (a bit of a miracle with the lack of signposting). I saw Grellan before I had even left the car; as I was signing up the guy at the table (John Walsh from Ballycotton) already knew me from my blog, and a few minutes later, at the toilet, some other bloke recognised me as well (he even apologised for not even letting me have a pee in peace). If I ever get big headed then you know that's because I'm slowly turning into some sort of celebrity in the running scene.

The weather had changed between cloudy, sunny and rainy, not particularly unusual in our corner of the world. By the time of the start the sun was shining, and later it turned cloudy again. All in all, the conditions were pretty good. We lined up to the start to Grellan's words “let the pain begin”.

I immediately settled behind a runner well known to me, Mary Sweeney. I tend to have similar times to her; she was way ahead of me at Ballycotton, but I managed to beat her last year in Killarney and Blarney as well as this year in Bantry and Cork. But she seemed to slow down at the first climb, less than half a mile into the race and I went past. The other runner I had hoped to have around me was Grellan, but I could not see any sign of him initially. When I heard footsteps approaching from behind I was sure it was him, bit a quick glance told me I was wrong. That runner never managed to draw level and I kept my place. A quick scan ahead told me I was in 13th place, assuming that I had not missed anyone, of course. I managed to run past one more runner before the first km, and found myself a few seconds behind a group of 4 but could not close the gap. Around the first mile marker one of that group could not hold the pace any more and fell behind, which left me in 11th place. From then on I was pretty much on my own, which wasn't ideal. I had hoped for some other runner to give me a good fight; it's those kinds of fights that lead to good times. Running almost on my own, this felt more like a time trial.

During the entire first half the course was never even. Each climb was followed by a descent to be immediately followed by the next climb. As we were nearing the halfway point I reckoned that we must have gained a good bit of height, which of course meant a downhill second half of the race. Thank God for that, because my legs felt increasingly heavy. The biggest climb had been around the 2 miles point, with a gain of about 90 feet in half a mile. Not exactly Mont Ventoux but enough to make me feel like the lactic acid had started curdling in my legs.

As I was turning a corner, around the halfway mark, I took a quick look behind me. And who did I spot, but no other than Grellan chasing me. The race was on.

The second half was easier than the first half, it was mostly a gentle downhill. The drawback was the we ran along a busier road and had to take care – but, in fact, each driver we encountered was very careful, and it wasn't exactly a busy highway. In fact, I spent a good bit of time running in the middle of the road where there was no camber. That's what I'm used to, and that's where I felt most comfortable.

My main worry was to keep ahead of Grellan. I started to hear his footsteps behind me, and at one point I could not resist looking backwards, and there he was, probably half as close as he was the last time I had checked, the bastard! I tried to increase the effort, which had been slightly lacking during the last few minutes. The last thing I wanted was to lead all the way and then get overtaken right before the finish, but that was a realistic possibility at that point. With about 1km left to go, the road started climbing again. I tried hard not to look back and to concentrate on running faster instead. Having Grellan right behind me was most likely a good thing – I doubt I would have worked equally hard otherwise. We came back into Liscarroll and turned a sharp left corner. That's where I had a last quick peek behind me, and I knew that I would stay ahead unless he had an unbelievable sprint finish in him (which can't be ruled out, that's how I got beaten in Kilgobnet 3 weeks ago). Anyway, I flew down what was probably the High Street, and after on more left turn there was the finish line. I crossed it, still in 11th place if my counting at the start had been correct. Grellan was right behind me, and Niamh and the kids saw us crossing the line in quick succession.

We chatted for a few minutes; the other runner who had been talking to me earlier (sorry, I never even thought of asking your name – my bad) came over and mentioned how my blog is such an inspiration (to which Niamh later remarked “he reads all that, and he thinks you're inspirational rather than completely mad???”), and with all that we left for the Donkey Sanctuary to visit our 4-legged family member.

Before the race, Niamh had inquired how long it would take me and my answer had been between 31 and 32 minutes. This turned out to be correct, my final time according to my Garmin was 31:06, and the distance was pretty accurate, though Grellan's watch of the same design found it slightly short. The mile paces were 6:13, 6:21, 6:30, 6:19 and 6:08, which reflects the undulating course. My average HR was 178 with a high of 187; that's pretty high and a sign that I must have worked pretty hard even though I felt that on a really good day I could have squeezed out another ounce of effort. All in all I'm reasonably happy. I think the 5k in Killarney was a once-off. Efforts like today, Kilgobnet and Ballydavid are more representative of my level at the moment. MacMillan gives an equivalent marathon time of 3:03:57, and that's where I think I'm standing right now.

22 Aug

13.1 miles, 1:45:08, 8:01 pace, HR 143

23 Aug

8.2 miles, 1:06:19, 8:05 pace, HR 146

24 Aug

12 miles, including:
Liscarroll 8k, 31:06, 6:18 pace, HR 178, 11th place

Weekly mileage: 79+

Late update: Not only did I indeed come 11th, I also won the M35 category! Results are here. And the race report from Grellan's point of view is well worth reading!

Two more Workouts

The holidays have slightly messed up my schedule, but with a little bit of good will I can work around that. The biggest annoyance is the commute this week, it takes almost an hour each way to get from door to door, and obviously cycling to work is out of the question. I also found that I’m too tired to do my usual strengthening exercises in the evening – not a problem for a week or two, as long as I pick up the slack again next week.

Anyway, Niamh dropped me off to work on Monday morning, I ran home to Caragh Lake in the evening, cycled into work on Tuesday morning and got picked up by Niamh again in the evening. That way I could get some extra sleep on Tuesday, and Niamh had the car for those two days; otherwise she and the kids would have been more or less confined to the house (which they are now, for the rest of the week). I jiggled around my schedules and did my long run on Tuesday, which meant getting up at 5:20 (it would have been well before 5am had I slept in Valentia). The plan was to run 11 miles at steady pace, 6 miles at marathon pace and one last mile at half marathon pace. I noticed early on that the legs felt quite sluggish. Steady pace should be around 8:00 for me, but again and again I found myself slacking off and dropping down to 8:30. I did try and pick it up a bit and by mile 11 put the accelerator down. The next question was, what should marathon pace be? Following the book’s charts, it should be 6:40 according to my 5k time. The pace I need to beat 3 hours in Dublin is 6:52. I thought I would do well to run 7:00, and that’s what I initially aimed for. To my dismay, the legs would not follow. After about two miles the average pace was around 7:10, the legs seemed to work as hard as they could, but a look at the HRM told me that at 150 bpm I should be able to run a good bit faster. I also felt far too comfortable (apart from the legs, that is). I tried to pick it up a few times, which certainly increased the heart rate but did not do much for the pace. Worse was to come at the turnaround point, when I realised that I had been running with the wind on my back; the return leg would not only be slightly uphill but also against the wind. Of course the pace dropped after that. In the end I ended up with 7:12 pace for that segment. I put all I had into the last mile, and managed to squeeze out a 6:41 mile; then I was well and truly finished.

I did rationalise afterwards; I had run more than 20 miles on Friday and more than 15 on Sunday, both of them hilly. No wonder the legs felt dead on Tuesday. I’ll try and get some more rest for future workouts; as I’ve said the holidays have messed up my schedule. A return to my normal week might bring some sanity back to my training.

I made sure to take it really easy on Wednesday. I even cut a mile off the intended mileage, to ensure that I would have plenty of time and would not feel the need to speed up to get to work on time.

I started a new training phase this week, which replaces the 400s with 1000s and the mile repeats with tempo runs. I did 4x1000 today. According to the book the intended pace was my 5k pace, 5:55, which translates into about 3:41 for a km, but after the humbling experience of last week’s mile repeats I did not expect to hit that pace. The legs felt very sluggish initially; maybe this was because I had not run a fast workout for a week, but somehow I doubt it. Anyway, my times for the 4 repeats were 3:49, 3:46, 3:42 and 3:41. I’m pretty sure I have never done a repeat session where I managed to speed up with every interval, not that I’m complaining. In the end I even managed to hit the prescribed pace, which was rather pleasing. All in all I’m happy enough with that workout. I think the 3 minutes recovery interval helped a lot, compared to the 2 minutes I was given for the mile repeats. This made a massive difference. Maybe I would have been better off with the longer breaks for the mile repeats as well, but that’s something to think about for the next training cycle.

19 Aug

18 miles, 2:19:53, 7:46 pace, HR 144
miles 11-17 @ 7:12, mile 17-18 @ 6:41

20 Aug

7 miles, 1:00:18, 8:37 pace, HR 134

21 Aug

7 miles, 54:53, 7:50 pace, HR 151
4x1000 in 3:49, 3:46, 3:42, 3:41

Island Crossing

No, Mike, I don’t think Dublin will feature 700-feet climbs in less than 2 miles, but I happen to believe that running hills will provide benefits even if your chosen marathon course has a different elevation profile. Lydiard’s boys ran a very hilly long run every week, and I recently read an article by Nobby where he stated his believe that a slow hilly long run will provide more benefits than a fast flat one (personally I think that your training should include both types). Ok, admittedly I didn’t quite realise just how steep Friday’s hill was, and might have chosen a different route had I known. Still, I thought the elevation profile of that run looked rather cool. I’m starting to suspect that Jamie and me are the only runners out there who thoroughly appreciate big hills.

Yesterday I ran from our holiday house in Knightstown all the way across the island to Bray Head. There is an old tower up on the cliffs, from where the Brits watched out for Irish smugglers 100 years ago. The tower is still there (and the smugglers haven’t entirely gone away either, allegedly), and it’s a great landmark to run to. I paused for half a minute when I reached it, looking out at the rather wild sea. I was standing on one of Europe’s most westerly points and for nearly 2000 miles there was nothing but winds and water ahead of me. Unfortunately I had to deal with plenty of both on the run, the weather kept worsening by the minute, and by the time I was back home it was blowing at near gale force strength, with matching rain. I still added a loop through Knightstown, partially to bring the distance past the 15 miles point, but mostly so that I could claim to have run the entire length of the island of Valentia.

If I thought yesterday’s weather was bad, today was even worse. Because I’m back at work I had to get up at 5:45 am, which was tough. Then, within 2 minutes of leaving the house a massive downpour left me with that all-too-familiar drenched feeling for the rest of the run, and the fact that the wind never stopped didn’t help. It came from the side, which meant that it felt like battling against it for the entire run. Valentia can be great for running; it has all kinds of roads. The shore road is basically completely flat, most of the rest of the island is undulating, and if you want steeper and/or longer hills, they are there, too. But the geographical setting means that we get the full force of the Atlantic weather, and all that wind and rain is starting to get to me.

Things will be slightly different tomorrow. On Niamh’s suggestion I’m staying in Caragh Lake tonight to give me 30 minutes of extra sleep due to the reduced commute. I’ll do my long run tomorrow, and (Mike will be delighted to hear this, I guess) because I’m planning on including some miles at MP and one at HMP I will run over a flat(-ish) course, probably towards Cromane. Since I will have a race on Sunday, the hope is that doing my long run 5 days beforehand will leave them in a better state. Of course, there is still a set of 1000s to come, which might have an effect as well.

P.S.: Apparently, after the wettest June on record and a bad July, we've already passed the mark for the wettest August on record, with 2 weeks yet to go! Half the country is flooded. This summer has been ... interesting.

17 Aug

15.3 miles, 2:03:06, 8:03 pace, HR 143

18 Aug

am: 9 miles, 1:13:47, 8:12 pace, HR 137
pm: 5 miles, 39:14, 7:50 pace. HR 142

Weekly mileage: 85+

Summer Holidays

One week of holidays is not a lot – time has flown, and I can't believe I'm basically at the end of my time off already. We will stay in Valentia for another week, so Niamh and the kids will have one more week of holidays, and I will commute from Valentia to Killorglin. I know, it's rather unusual to be able to commute from your holiday destination, but that's the way it worked out for us when we bought our house, just 25 miles from where Nana and Gaga had their holiday home. I got loads of sleep this week, and I did indulge myself with plenty of coffee, chocolate and other things – hey, this was my week off. In fact, I'm surprised I only gained 3 pounds. I feared a lot worse.

Running last week was a mixed bag. My set of 14 quarter repeats went very well; so well that I started to think I am getting the hang of this fast running business. I started a bit fast and slowed down slightly over the last few repeats, but I was rather pleased with the workout. However, Thursday's mile repeats brought me back to earth with a bump. The plan was to do 5 repeats, but unfortunately I was totally knackered after three. The fourth mile was against an increasingly strong wind, but how strong that wind really was and how much it was a mental block is up for debate. Anyway, I started that repeat at 6:30 pace but could not sustain it, and despite trying to push harder, I was running as slowly as 7:30 at the end. I managed to pull myself together for the last one, and only ever concentrated on running towards the next target – to the next pole, to the next driveway, around that bend ... until I was done.

I think my problem was lactic acid. I have the basic speed, and the quarters are going well because 3 minutes break between each is enough to recover. However, the program is less generous with the mile repeats, and 2 minutes break is obviously not enough. If there were more repeats on the schedule I might do them with 3 minutes break next time, but the workouts will change now, the quarters are going to be replaced by 1000s and the mile repeats are going to be replaced by continuous runs at 10k pace. My first thought was that I would not be able to run those workouts; if I can't do them with a break in the middle, how could I possibly do them in one go? Then I remembered that I have a 5 mile race on Sunday week, which will take place instead of that tempo run. Somehow I'm able to run fast enough if there is a number pinned to my shirt. Funny that.

The long run yesterday was much better; Niamh looked at me as if I were deranged when I told her I was going to run towards Finnian's Bay. There is a mountain inbetween, and Niamh's comment was that she doesn't even want to drive up there; as it turned out, I underestimated how steep the road was (up to 18% according to the Garmin???). I managed to drag myself up to the summit and started the descent on the other side, but when I saw that the other side was even steeper I turned around immediately because I didn't fancy two of those hills in quick succession. I didn't even get to relax on the downhill because it was too steep for that, I had to break all the time.

I started to make little deal with myself on the way home. Going straight home would have yielded 16 miles, not a lot. I thought that an extra 2 miles out and back each way would get me to 20 miles; then I lost heart and thought one mile each way would do. Then, while running that extra stretch, I did a similar game as on Thursday – just run to the next pole; then the one after that; then the next driveway; then past that tree. By pushing that way I managed to get myself past the 20 miles mark. Good enough!

11 Aug

8 miles, 1:03:56, 7:59 pace, HR 139

12 Aug

am: 10.8 miles, 1:24:57, 7:53 pace, HR 147
14x400 in 83, 84, 83, 85, 82, 85, 85, 86, 84, 87, 85, 90, 82, 86
pm: 6 miles, 46:07, 7:42 pace, HR 145

13 Aug

8 miles, 1:03:52, 7:59 pace, HR 139

14 Aug

9 miles, 1:08:39, 7:38 pace, HR 155
5x1 miles in 6:13, 6:38, 6:19, 7:04, 6:28

15 Aug

20.35 miles, 2:45:31, 8:08 pace, HR 146

16 Aug

8.06 miles, 1:03:40, 7:54 pace, HR 139