Over the Hill and Far Away

The weather forecast for today’s race was pretty much the same as for the last 2 days, cold, clear skies with the occasional wintery shower. There were 2 rather heavy showers in the morning which didn’t bode too well, but luckily it remained dry for the actual race.

Niamh had done a pub quiz the night before, and came home well past midnight; coupled with Maia’s sickness it meant a very busy evening for me, especially as she refused to sleep in her bed – she slept soundly in my arms though. It could have been worse I guess, and somehow I still got plenty of sleep. As it turns out, Niamh’s team won the quiz and she came home with a very nice looking hamper (cheese, wine, chocolate, …) and gained my perpetual permission to go on pub quizzes. I told her that unfortunately I would be unlikely to continue the family's winning streak today.

I had a rather unconventional warm-up; I ran the 4.5 miles from our house into town. It sure guaranteed me being warm enough for the race, and I don’t think I had done myself any harm. There were a lot of runners at the start, the turn-out was about 130 which delighted the organisers. I pushed myself towards the front of the field, and when we set off I went out with the front-runners. One guy in a green singlet took off at the front like a rocket, and the rest of us settled into place. I was in about 6th position, and it felt comfortably hard, but a glance at the Garmin told me that I unfortunately was running way ahead of my abilities at 5:30. By the time we left town I was at a more realistic pace, just a tad slower than 6:00, and in 10th position.

I have mentioned it before, I always lose time on the ups and regain it on the downs; it wasn’t even a hill, just a bridge with a big hump, but it was enough to send me back into 13th position, and – male ego being stung – behind the first female runner. I was tempted to ease up, let them go and keep my place in the field but eventually managed to kick myself into action. About 2 miles into the race I was over 20 steps behind a group of 3 runners, but when the course dropped a bit I managed to pull level, and just before the halfway mark I had overtaken them all, including the eventual female winner (who afterwards told me she tried to stay with me but could not).

I even managed to get a gap between us, but a look at the elevation profile shows you that we were about to climb 200 feet in less than a mile. This ensured two things; one, a personal best was out of the question today, and two, I lost one place. Actually I was pleased that only one runner managed to get past me, and that it took him half of that climb. Up on top we had a breathtaking view over Dingle Bay, or maybe I was merely out of breath from the brutal climb. I was about 20 steps behind 10th place, and I knew that I would have a chance to regain that position on the eventual downhill. We remained like that while running along Sunhill; I might have managed to pull a little bit closer, but not much.

With a mile to go the course finally dropped again, very steeply back into the centre of Killorglin. The descent went very well, the distance between myself and the runner in front melted like ice in the sun, I flew past, and despite being barely in control (one false step would have sent me into hospital) I arrived at the foot in one piece and with a commanding lead on 10th place. The rest was flat along the main road to the other end of town. I managed not to look back, because what good would that have done anyway? All I could do was to run to the finish as fast as possible, no matter how close or far away I was. Gaining another place was not on, the runner was way ahead of me, and I crossed the line in 10th place, 39:28 according to my own watch, or 39:30 official time. I was pleased with that, after all I haven’t done any fast running since the marathon 5 weeks ago. Who knows, on a flat course I might even have threatened my PR, but with that massive hill this was out of question today.

Racing felt great today!

29 Nov

13.2 miles, including:
Killorglin Puck Warriors Jingle Bells 10k, 39:30, 6:23 pace, HR 177, 10th place

Someone said:

Hi Thomas,
I'm hoping that you or somebody on your blog will be able to give me some advise. The week after completing the Dublin marathon I developed a pain just below my ankle. It is at its worst first thing in the morning when I get out of bed. The strange thing is that it seems fine when I run on it. I have replaced running with an hour on the bike in the gym each night for the past two weeks but the problem remains. Do you think I should go back running, stay on the bike or give it complete rest. (I hate rest!!)

My answer: I have a rather more casual view on injuries than most runners, something that backfired rather spectacularly on me at the beginning of the year. I can’t speculate on the nature of the problem, but if it seems fine when you run on it, it would do just that – run on it (I hate rest just as much). Other people would be much more cautious, and the decision is yours only. I’ve had a pain in my left foot since April, and I’m still running. Massaging the foot regularly has helped a lot.

Enviably fast runner Eric recently spent 21 miles on a treadmill, something I cannot even begin to contemplate. His answer to my comment also reveals a difference in our winter outlook. He prefers running in –20F and snow rather than 40F and rain. I disagree, which probably means we should never swap locations.

Incidentally, 40F and rain was pretty much what I have been dealing with over the last few mornings. On days like that the most difficult part of the workout is opening the front door. Once you have mastered that obstacle, the run itself will be fine. As a result of the slowly increasing mileage, Wednesday went into double digits, but 10 miles at an easy effort doesn’t particularly tax me. I was more worried about Thursday. After Tuesday’s scare I had real doubts if doing the same set of exercises was a good idea, but eventually decided to go ahead with them anyway because I didn’t think it was the exercises that brought on the episode. I made sure to pause long enough between each drill to bring the heart rate down, and guess what? I felt fine. The only reason why I cut it short by a minute or two was the next freezing cold rain shower.

Because there is a race on tomorrow I limited myself to 6 miles this morning. I added a few strides on the way home, to remind the legs what faster running feels like. If that helps for tomorrow or not I don’t know, but it sure was fun the stretch them out once more. Obviously I turned off the HR alarm for that, which felt strangely satisfying. I have vowed to turn it on again after the race, though.

26 Nov

10 miles, 1:20:38, 8:04 pace, HR 146

27 Nov

9 miles, 1:11:34, 7:57 pace, HR 147

28 Nov

6 miles, 47:08, 7:51 pace, HR 148
including about 8 x 20-30 secs sprints

Good News and Bad News

Look what arrived in Monday’s post. On the back side it says that I am accepted into the 113th Boston marathon, and to confirm this, a search on their website has me listened as one of the entrants. I guess it’s time to book a flight; and to check the Visa requirements.

I’m slowly cranking up my mileage and I can already feel an improvement in my fitness. Those runs of 2 hours seem to have a magic effect on me, I can feel a drop in the HR even one day later. Surely I’m not imagining the figures on the Garmin, especially now that the new battery seems to have fixed the problems. I noticed a lower heart rate last Tuesday, and the same happened again today.

Monday’s run was not without difficulties. The forecast frosty temperatures never arrived, but the wind and rain did. I had fallen asleep listening to the storm outside, and when the alarm sounded at 5:25 am it still didn’t sound any better. As I was getting ready I could not help looking out of the kitchen window into the darkness and thinking that it felt less than inviting. Of course I went out anyway, and it wasn’t as bad as it had sounded. This was my first lap around the lake since the marathon, and beforehand I had been wondering if I would be able to run all those hills and still remain under the HR threshold. I needn’t have worried. The HR alarm did beep at times, but I was always able to get it back under control without problems. In fact I reached the high point in a time that I would have regarded as decent in the previous training cycle despite being careful not to exert myself; admittedly I may have been assisted by the strong wind pushing me from behind. Then I had the chance to test my downhill running skills, which will be sorely tested in Boston. I felt a bit awkward at times; I guess there is room for improvement. The second half of the run was a lot more challenging against the blustery wind (average wind speed 30mph, gusts of 40 mph), but I was surprised how well I felt, even on the last miles I was not the least bit tired. What did bother me was my left hamstring, which started tightening up badly with a few miles to go. When I reached home I felt like I could run a second lap without problems as long as someone took care of my left leg in the meantime. This area kept bothering me for the entire day. I’m not sure what to do. I can easily reach my toes without bending the knees, so tightness should not be a problem; I keep stretching it regularly, and that does provide some relief, but only for a short while.

As already mentioned, today’s reward for running 2 hours on Monday was an improved heart rate. I managed my first run under 8:00 pace since the marathon which pleased me no end, but then disaster struck. I was doing some exercises afterwards (bounding, skipping, high knees, …) and about 5 minutes into that my heart went mental. The HR on the Garmin went beyond 220, and when I felt my pulse it was extremely fast, shallow and irregular. It was a bit scary, but this has happened twice before and I wasn’t worried about dropping dead. Of course I stopped exercising immediately, but didn’t feel quite right for another couple of hours.

The whole episode could be caffeine related, but that is only a theory. After the last episode, two years ago, I completely cut my coffee intake and did not experience any more problems afterwards. In the last few weeks I have drunk between 1 and 2 cups each day, which isn’t exactly a lot, but it’s one or two cups more than I used to drink before the marathon, and eliminating coffee is the first thing on my list. Back then I had a health check which stated that I was completely healthy and that my heart was perfectly fine.

I have a sore throat at the moment (like Shea and Niamh, and Cian had been sick already), which might have something to do with it. I was also quite tired because Maia had woken at 4 am and kept torturing us for the next 90 minutes (most likely she’s got a sore throat as well), and the sleep deprivation did get to me. As far as running is concerned, I’m not too worried. The last time this happened was during the warm up for a half-marathon; for some reason I still decided to race, and subsequently had my best ever race up to then. If anything, regular exercise should be beneficial. Anyway, it’s definitely not a heart attack, it doesn’t fit any of the symptoms. I’d still like to know what it is, though, but the doctor didn’t come up with anything last time. I’m not a complete idiot (I said complete, right?), if I thought there was something seriously wrong I’d stop running immediately.

24 Nov

15 miles, 2:04:16, 8:17 pace, HR 146

25 Nov

8 miles, 1:03:32, 7:57 pace, HR 147
subsequent heart palpitations

End of Week Report

I love running, and for as long as I can I will continue running. But that doesn’t mean I don’t get frustrated from time to time.

The weather recently has been shite as we say around here, excuse my language. A few weeks ago that amount of wind would have sent me to the elves of the Ard-na-Sidhe road, but I decided to be less of a softy and face the conditions head-on on the Caragh Lake road. It’s never as bad as it sounds anyway. The road is still somewhat sheltered by two mountains, Seefin and Callahaniska, but there is one corner where the wind comes through the gap between the two of them and you get some kind of funnel effect. I’ve named that stretch “Windy Corner”, and twice on the last few days the wall of wind hit me so suddenly that it quite literally took my breath away. Today was particularly bad; I had seriously considered the Ard-na-Sidhe road, but running up and down the same stretch of road 3 times in each direction just doesn’t have that much of an appeal to me. I might have reconsidered had I known that by mile 1.5 I would be caught in a short but sharp rain shower. That happened a second time, around the 5-mile mark, when it rained so heavily that I was soaked right through within seconds.

The little bits of technology I keep carrying around are even more frustrating. The Garmin’s chest strap has finally given up completely, and I’ve been wearing the Polar HR as well as the Garmin on my recent runs. The biggest problem I have is remembering to press the start and stop buttons on both devices. That won't be a problem in the future because by now the Polar has finally given up the ghost as well. At least I have finally managed to purchase a replacement battery for the Garmin. Let’s hope this will solve the problem from tomorrow on.

I have noticed an improvement in my paces recently, but with the lack of a proper HR monitor this might have been the result of me inadvertently crossing my self-imposed threshold. But my runs are still all of the easy variety. I will keep building my mileage for the next two weeks, and then the proper aerobic base training phase will commence. I’m looking forward to a few faster runs already.

My legs will get a faster workout before that though, because there is a 10k race in Killorglin next Saturday. It does not fit into my training schedule and I certainly won’t be in my best 10k shape, but with a race so nearby I can’t possibly refuse participation.

The weekend has been stressful. Niamh had some work to do on Saturday and had to leave at 8:30, which meant I had to get up early for my run, and then I had to mind our entire unruly brood on my own. I still managed to bake my most complicated dinner ever, which went down extremely well. Unfortunately Niamh forgot to reset the alarm clock, and since it woke not only us but also the boys it meant yet another early morning. At least it enabled me to have time for some clandestine shopping; Cian’s birthday is in a fortnight, and I managed to track down the perfect present. I’m almost as excited as he is.

20 Nov

10 miles, 1:22:49, 8:17 pace, HR 148

21 Nov

9 miles, 1:13:54, 8:13 pace, HR 146

22 Nov

7 miles, 57:06, 8:10 pace, HR ???

23 Nov

9 miles, 1:12:26, 8:03 pace, HR ???

Weekly mileage: 63+

Darkness Falls

We have now definitely entered the part of the year when a day without heavy rain and winds under the gale-force marker automatically qualifies as a nice day. Add to that the inevitable darkness, both in the morning when I’m running and in the evening when I’m cycling home from work and the conditions are generally getting more challenging.

At least I’m starting to get used to running slowly all the time. The mileage is still fairly low, at least compared to what I’m used to, but that will change soon enough. I recently studied my training plan and thought about adding a few miles here and there, but managed to reign myself in so far. I’ll see how I get on first before I make any drastic changes.

For real-life reasons, my long run day is going to be Monday this training cycle, and I ran 14 miles on Monday to get into the swing of things. That does not qualify as a long run yet, but that too will change soon enough. It was quite windy, which I noticed especially after the turnaround point, but at least the forecast rain held off until after I had gotten home – I did have to pay for that good fortune during my cycle commute, though. Tuesday and Wednesday were both easy 7 milers. The Garmin HR sensor started acting up again yesterday; it really is time to change the battery, but I haven’t yet managed to get a replacement. This morning I decided to wear my ancient Polar HR monitor as well as the Garmin. It meant strapping on not just one but two chest straps, and it felt like running in a corset; all too typically, the Garmin behaved impeccably and the data was the same on both. I was amazed that the Polar HR thing is still working. I got it almost 4 years ago, and never changed the battery that was only supposed to last for 2 years (and I’m sure I used it a lot more than the average user would have).

Anyway, yesterday I got soaking wet, but today was a nice day, at least according to the definition from the start of this entry. At least I don’t need a headlamp in the morning at the moment because the moon is so bright. Since that won’t be the case next week, I’ve ordered a new one. My trusty old Petzl is definitely on its way out. The case has developed a big crack, and the rainwater is killing the batteries. I remember talking to some runners in Cork a while ago who all called me a weirdo for running with a headlamp. It’s different for those pampered city guys; they can always find a lit street. The nearest street light from my house is at the kids’ school, 2 miles away (I could run around the school yard – hours of fun) or in Killorglin, 5 miles away (I could run up and down the main street – just as much fun). I think I’ll stay on my beloved Caragh Lake loop and risk being called a weirdo.

17 Nov

14+ miles, 1:56:47, 8:19 pace, HR 143

18 Nov

7 miles, 58:03, 8:18 pace, HR ???

19 Nov

7 miles, 56:43, 8:06 pace, HR 146

Downhill Training

It’s a given fact, real life does interfere with running. You just have to work around it. Yesterday Niamh drove to Cork with the twins for an assessment. Since I had slept longer than expected I sacrificed a mile of my early morning run to ensure I’d be home in time and not delay her departure. It was a sacrifice in vain, she left half an hour late anyway, and it wasn’t down to me. I had to mind Cian and Maia on my own for basically the entire day, which was harder than predicted because Maia eschewed her lunchtime nap. I still responded negatively to Niamh’s question if I had found more respect for her daily task. I am a father of four children, and have looked after them plenty of times. I was already well aware how much work it is.

During the run itself I had managed not to look at the Garmin at all. Afterwards I was a bit surprised at how slow the pace had been, but all of my runs are more like gentle strolls through the Kerry countryside rather than hard training these days. 8:30 pace just happened to be my easy pace that day.

As Mike and Yvonne have commented and a lot of people have written countless times, training for the downhill sections is key for Boston. So, how DO you train for downhills?

My number one method is doing a lot of downhill running. The loop around Caragh Lake contains a 3-mile downhill section, from the highest point to Blackstones Bridge, and if I run this twice a week it should give my legs a good workout. In fact, I do believe that this training enabled me to run the last miles so fast in Cork, and who knows, maybe I would not have suffered as much in Dublin had I not preferred the flatter Cromane loop for my long runs in the most recent training cycles (I tried to go for speed rather than strength. It was worth a try).

The second, and less important method, is trying to improve the strength of my legs, and I started doing squats for that. When I say I started, I do mean that – I did the first such workout on Saturday. After a few sets of air squats and squats with dumbbells (I’ll add one-legged squats as well) I originally felt I had not done much because I wanted to ease into that kind of thing. But when my leg almost buckled under me on my way to a well-deserved cup of tea I figured that I probably had done more than enough already.

Guess what, I was sore today. I slept for 9 hours (with one interruption at 4 am for Maia’s bottle), and would have slept longer had Shea not demanded breakfast. With the legs begging for mercy I expected to be even slower than yesterday, but that was not the case. The weather was the opposite of yesterday, rather than a lot of wind and little rain it was little wind and lots of rain (those are the only options at the moment, apparently). I was passed by two cars whose drivers must have thought I was completely bonkers, running around in the rain on a Sunday morning.

Before going out I measured my resting heart rate. It had been as low as 38 before the marathon, but didn’t go under 43 today. I wonder how long it will take for that to drop again.

Running at such an easy effort day after day enables me to increase the mileage and still feel like I’m recovering from the marathon as well as the previous training cycle. I think I need this mentally more than physically. I had felt stale and chronically exhausted from the amount of speedwork during the summer, and a break from that is exactly what I’m yearning for. The miles themselves are all fun, it’s the speed that kills me.

15 Nov

9 miles, 1:16:34, 8:30 pace, HR 144

16 Nov

8+ miles, 1:06:55, 8:19 pace, HR 144

Weekly mileage: 56+

Small Steps

I got my hopes up a little bit too early. On Wednesday I thought I was making real progress, when I ran my 6 miles at 8:06 average pace, and without setting off the HR alarm. This was clearly a nice, decent improvement on earlier runs.

Then I did 12 miles on Thursday. Originally I planned to run the Cromane loop, but then changed my mind and ran the much hillier Caragh Lake road instead. The out-and-back route contains 6 proper climbs; since Boston is hilly, my training runs are going to be hilly as well.

It took a lot of slowing down on those climbs. The one leading to the turnaround point featured nearly 250 feet elevation gain in less than a mile, and at times I had to slow down to a virtual crawl to keep the heart rate down. It clearly showed that I still have plenty of work to do. This comes as no great surprise. The last marathon had been a mere 17 days ago, and I’m basically on week one of my Boston training. I just didn’t expect the run to be quite so slow.

I also suffered from a severe case of the stupids. “12 miles at 8:00 pace, that will take me 1:20, let’s say 1:25 to take into account my slower pace these days and set the alarm for 6:10 am.” I was a bit surprised at how bright it was when I set off, but so close to Full Moon that wasn’t particularly alarming. It wasn’t until I was back home and saw that the run had take 1:40 that I finally and belatedly realised that 1:20 at 8:00 pace will give you 10 miles rather than 12. Thomas, you idiot. I was late for work.

Today’s run reinforced just how much out of shape I am. I was stiff and tired and the legs were distinctly unhappy about having to move again. This did come as a real surprise. 12 miles aren’t exactly a long run anymore, and I can’t remember the last time I was so sore the day after a run at such leisurely pace. And of course I was slow again today. In all honesty, I do expect rapid improvements from here.

My mum has just left, the week has passed very quickly. She even had a few nice days, weather wise. She’ll be back in spring.

12 Nov

6 miles, 48:35, 8:06 pace, HR 144

13 Nov

12 miles, 1:40:54, 8:24 pace, HR 147

14 Nov

6+ miles, 50:53, 8:25 pace, HR 143

Questionable Rewards

The marathon was over two weeks ago, but I’m still in the “I deserve a reward” state of mind. Even before the race I had firmly decided to let the discipline slide. I had been very restrained for a lot of weeks, eating raw food, going to bed early, cutting down on sweets (apart from Niamh’s desserts), no caffeine, and so on. But now is the time to relax, and that’s exactly what I’m doing. I discovered that drinking coffee black with 2 sugars gives me a massive buzz that rivals that of several illegal drugs, and that’s why I’ve got one beside my keyboard right now (NO! Not an illegal drug. Black coffee!). My sweet tooth is in paradise, and the chocolate bars in the kitchen cabinet are cowering in fear whenever I go anywhere near. Extra cream and sugar on the porridge? Ah go on, have another one! At some stage I’ll have to start reigning myself in again, especially since the weighing scales start whimpering whenever I step on them; I’ve gained 6 pounds since the marathon (well, since 3 days before the marathon, when I started carbo-loading). I hope they’ll melt off once the mileage goes up again.

The worst of the last storm left us on Monday morning, but not until after my run which left me rather frozen. 4C/40F feels cold, especially in the rain and gusty wind. I was thinking about digging out the long sleeves and the tights, but luckily the temperature has picked up again.

The Garmin seems to behave again, or at least the HR readings are believable. With my fitness picking up/my recovery going on it gets easier to stay under my self-imposed HR threshold, and yesterday was the first run that passed by without the HR alarm going off even once. Today I went out alongside Caragh Lake for the first time since the race and managed to repeat that feat, even though the road is much more undulating than the Ard-na-Sidhe road that I had been using up to now. I would have enjoyed it more if the wind hadn’t been quite as strong and quite as cold, but that too is supposed to improve tomorrow (if only for the rain to return on Thursday).

My mum is here this week, and with the improving weather she can hopefully enjoy the scenery if Niamh can drag her away from the housework she keeps insisting on doing (she broke our Hoover yesterday, which should make this easier). She was thrilled when Maia managed to say “Oma” (German for grandmother) last night, but it might have been a once-off. The kids all love having visitors, but if that is because they enjoy the company or the presents that these people invariably bring, I’m not quite sure.

10 Nov

8 miles, 1:06:20, 8:18 pace, HR 143

11 Nov

7 miles, 58:39, 8:22 pace, HR 144

Easy

I have to be careful what I’m writing these days. Niamh occasionally reads this blog, some work colleagues have mentioned it, and now my kids started reading when they saw the Halloween pictures of themselves. Niamh asked me slightly worried if the content is suitable for them. I assured her it is. I think I swore once or twice, but apart from that it’s child friendly. Apart from the fact that it makes Daddy look like a nutcase, that is.

Case in point, I went running yesterday and today even though the weather was all but inviting. I somehow managed to time both runs to perfection; both Saturday and Sunday featured downpours of biblical proportion, and yet I managed to squeeze in a run into a nice window of opportunity. I hardly got wet, and the rain either held of or was down to a mere drizzle. I got lucky, because on both occasions it started raining very heavily within minutes of my return.

I was tempted to remove the whining last paragraph from Friday’s entry as soon as I posted it. In reality, running easy isn’t as bad as I made it sound, and most of the time I’m perfectly ok with it. I can relax, and enjoy my me-time. If the weather is nice I can also enjoy the surroundings because after all Caragh Lake does have some stunning scenery, and I never get tired of it. As I found out today, mentally I find it easier to run for 10 miles; 5 miles are so short that it hardly seems worthwhile.

My Garmin started acting up this morning. Initially it didn’t report any HR data at all. When I re-paired it, it picked up the signal again, but as soon as I started running I noticed that the HR was stuck around 100 bpm, which cannot be right. I suspected the battery in the chest strap might be empty, but after 4 miles it suddenly started behaving again, and the readings were fine afterwards. Because of these problems I didn’t get any initial feedback on my HR and it didn’t sound the alarm if I went over 152, so I might have run a little bit fast on the inclines. It was still an easy run, and I enjoyed it. Our garden is water-logged, some local roads are closed, parts of the country are bound to be flooded, but at least I managed to get my runs in.

I started working on my training plan for Boston. I will be following the training schedules outlined in Ron Daws’ book Running Your Best, which is basically Lydiard training. Starting tomorrow there will be 4 weeks of building the mileage, 6 weeks of aerobic base, 4 weeks of preliminary speed, 4 weeks of anaerobic training, 3 weeks of sharpening and 2 weeks of taper. I haven’t got the details worked out yet (and they’ll change as the weeks go on anyway), but I know what I’m going to do over the next few weeks at least.

8 Nov

7 miles, 57:56, 8:15 pace, HR 145

9 Nov

10+ miles, 1:22:12, 8:10 pace, HR 144

Taking Stock

With the marathon almost two weeks behind us, I have recovered from all the usual immediate ailments like stiff calves or quads, but some things have stayed with me. My left hamstring still hurts; that’s no surprise, it has been hurting since the Connemara Ultra in April, and I didn’t think that abusing it for 26 miles would be a cure. It’s rather annoying though; it doesn’t just hurt when I’m running, the pain is there all the time. Stretching does temporarily alleviate the discomfort somewhat, which at least forces me to stretch regularly. Maybe I should be more worried about the problem than I am, but the fact is that I have run on it at all speeds and distances, from 30 seconds all-out intervals to a 3:05 marathon, and it never got any worse. It’s just “something” I can’t get rid of. I’ll probably get some more massage in the next few weeks, but nobody in Killorglin offers a sports massage (not that I would expect it in a small place like that) and driving to Killarney after work has provided too many scheduling headaches to make it worthwhile, as I found out in spring.

The other area that has flared up is my right heel. I’ve had that pain in my left heel since April and finally managed to get on top of it after massaging it rigorously twice a day, but since the marathon the right heel started acting up in the same way. I’ve started massaging that as well, and I’m already experiencing some noticeable improvements. Unfortunately, massaging my hamstring doesn’t work in the same way. It might if I actually knew what I was doing, who knows. Maybe I should invest in a foam roller? It would certainly be cheaper than a regular trip to the massage centre (not as relaxing, though).

I’m still running nothing but slow 5-milers, and I’m already getting bored of them. I did set the alarm for 6 miles this morning, but Maia had a bad night, and when Maia has a bad night then Daddy has a bad night, and I opted for 10 more minutes of a warm bed. In fact I had woken at 5am with a fearsome storm howling outside and decided to skip the run. By 6:40 it seemed much better, and I went out anyway. It did cross my mind that I’m a nutcase to go running in those conditions when the next marathon is still half a year away, but I figured I’d better get used to running in the wind and rain again, because if this winter is anything like the last two, there will be plenty of that to come. As it turned out, the conditions were not half as bad as feared.

I was tempted to ignore the 80% HR training threshold. I know that my pace will come down eventually as I’m recovering from the marathon, but so far I’m only plodding along at 8:20 pace, and I’m already wondering if those slow and short runs are doing anything for me. In a rare moment of sanity I did figure out that I should give the low HR training a little more time. But if I'm already impatient after just one week, the next few weeks might become taxing.

6 Nov

5 miles, 42:05, 8:25 pace, HR 147

7 Nov

am: 5 miles, 41:35, 8:19 pace, HR 145
pm: 5 miles, 40:20, 8:04 pace, HR 149

More Photos

Since there is very little to tell about my running, I thought I might as well post some more Halloween photos. After all, they are worth posting.

Lola’s costume was the only one we bought, but we had to try half a dozen shops until we found a devil’s fork. She loved it, but when Mummy painted her face, she initially thought she looked stupid and wanted to hide her face. As you can see, she eventually changed her mind.

Cian made a vampire mask in school, which he demonstrated very proudly to me last week. But after Mummy put on his face paint, he refused to wear the mask because he decided that he already looked perfect. We didn’t argue, and in my opinion Mummy’s talent for face painting is stunning.

Shea recently got interested in Greek mythology (I bet you thought 7-year olds don’t do Greek mythology) and his favourite story is Theseus and the Minotaur. He decided to make his own mask, which he designed himself, and with Mummy’s help it took shape. I thought it was the scariest mask I saw all evening, but the most impressive thing is that it’s all his own work.

I guess it doesn’t hurt to sat a few things about my running. To answer Mike’s question, my max HR is about 190, and 152 is 80% of that, which is why I chose it as the upper threshold for the next few weeks of recovery running. It's easy to stay under that on the flat, but I have to slow down considerably on climbs. What struck me is that yesterday’s run was a good bit faster than Monday or today, at the same HR. Since the conditions were pretty much identical, I guess it must have been the lighter shoes (Nike Luna Trainers vs. Asics Stratus). I am really surprised to see such a difference.

4 Nov

5 miles, 41:02, 8:12 pace, HR 146

5 Nov

5 miles, 41:50, 8:22 pace, HR 147

Back to the Daily Grind

… as Niamh ruefully said last night. I’m not sure what’s grinding her down since I’m the one who had to go off to the office this morning when the holiday had ended much too soon, as holidays invariably do.

It was good to take a week off after the marathon. It definitely helped recharging my batteries, especially the mental ones. After the marathon I had felt like never running again, but within 4 days the old itch had returned, and I was back out, just like Niamh had predicted. She might know me better than I do myself.

The week in Dublin included Halloween, and all the three older ones unanimously decided that we should spend every Halloween in Dublin. There are a lot more houses in Dublin than in Caragh Lake, and trick-or-treating is much more rewarding. They came back with bags loaded with loot. I think they’re still on that sugar high, even though they’ve still not finished all their sweets. We also managed to carve the least scary pumpkin in history.

Even more importantly, at least for the parents, was Maia’s first birthday. Isn’t it amazing how quickly time passes? The birthday girl didn’t quite understand what was going on, of course, but she definitely liked the attention, and she loved the toys she got. We all enjoyed the birthday cake, and since I had just run a marathon, Niamh and Nana insisted that I would get two pieces. I didn’t complain. There’s a time for restraint, and this was not it.

Coincidentally, this also marks the anniversary of me getting rid of my car, something I remembered as I was cycling to work this morning. For once I had managed to be ahead of time, I had done that before the oil price had gone into orbit, and not just for financial reasons either. That’s not to say that it wasn’t worthwhile financially; the money used to run out well before the end of the month, these days I’ve actually still got something left by payday. With the recession amongst us, that’s definitely a plus.

I have cautiously returned to running. I have set the Garmin to beep whenever the HR goes over 152, which so far has happened at each run. As the recovery from the marathon goes on I should be able to increase the pace without crossing that threshold. At least I hope so. At the present rate I’d go nuts if I had to crawl around like that for 5 more weeks.

2 Nov

4.5 miles, 36:58, 8:14 pace, HR 146

3 Nov

5 miles, 42:15, 8:26 pace, HR 146

On the Way to Boston

I didn’t know how long I would rest for. On Monday evening I felt like never running again, on Wednesday I still felt like taking two weeks off, and on Friday the old itch seemed to return. When I saw the weather forecast and got annoyed by the prediction of rain, I knew I was ready for a return.

My legs had already been fine, but mentally I needed the break more than physically. It’s a bit strange because the heart keeps thinking of Cork as a very successful run and Dublin as somewhat of a failure, and then the head points out that the Dublin time was 4 minutes faster.

Anyway, I managed to squeeze a run between the early morning rain showers. This proved that Niamh knows me better than I know myself, because she had predicted a return to running before the week is out. It was not long, and it probably was faster than I should have, but I guess after four days of idleness the legs were itching to burn some rubber. We’re still in Dublin, and will drive home tomorrow, and I will only run if I have time and if the weather is agreeable. Next week is still an easy recovery week of unstructured running before the next training cycle will commence, provided I feel ready. I will type out a proper training plan once I find the time, but I’ve already decided that the first 4-6 weeks will consist of only easy runs with a ceiling of 80% HR. I’ll set the alarm on the Garmin to make sure I’ll stay there (I didn’t today).

The official marathon photos are finally ready, after a long wait of 5 days. Needless to say, I won’t be spending my money on any of these shots. I think that all of them were taken during the last mile, and Niamh’s comments were not too flattering.


There are at least a dozen sets of photos from private photographers to be found on the Internet, but somehow I managed to squeeze past all of them without registering apart from one that shows me being chicked at mile 25. Not that I’m overly keen on being reminded how wrecked I looked.



The kids enjoyed Halloween, and I’ll post some photos next time. There’s no need to mix those lovely shots with the ugly ones of me in the same post.

1 Nov

4.5 miles, 35:27, 7:57 pace, HR 154

October mileage: 210

Post Mortem

If you spend months preparing for a marathon, an analysis is inevitable, isn’t it? I have now had two days to think about the race, what went well and what didn’t, and what I can do differently next time. Yes, I’m already looking forward to the next one.

I have absolutely no regrets about going for a sub 3 hours time. I’m sure I could have shaved a minute or two off my final time with even pacing, but what would have been the point of that? Nobody is going to aim for a 3:03 marathon, at least nobody I can think of. It’s too close to 3 hours, and you inevitably start aiming for that.

Before the race I was quite confident that I could pull it off, and during the race I kept believing for a long time. The timer at the halfway mark, when I realised I was 20 seconds behind target rather than 20 seconds ahead as I had thought up to then, was the first time that doubts crept into my mind, and even then I still thought I had a good chance. It wasn’t until mile 19 that I had to admit to myself that the target was slipping away, and at that point my legs went boom and 5 minutes later I knew I was out of the hunt.

I did mention the stomach cramps in my race report, and I think they were a major factor. I initially blamed the untested brand of carbohydrate gel at mile 15 for almost throwing up, but in actual fact my stomach had been revolting for several miles already, and I don’t think the gel was directly responsible for the reaction. I also couldn’t stomach any of the sports drink. Each time it was on offer I would take a bottle, just sip a minimum amount, and then threw the bottle away, feeling guilty about wasting the content. I just could not swallow the sweet stuff, and I think I just ran out of glycogen at mile 20, the classic cause and the classic distance for hitting the wall.

I really had not expected for that to happen! Two years ago, in the Dublin marathon, I held up well until mile 22, last year in Loch Ness I was fine until mile 24, and in Cork I was fine until the end. After that sequence I don’t think it was unreasonable to think that I would be able to last the distance on Monday as well. I now know better.

What caused the stomach cramps? Well, I had been stupid, and I can only blame myself. In the days before the race I had been reading about the positive effects of caffeine for long distance running, and decided to give that a try. Of course I had not tested that in training, but let’s get real. For a long run I have to get up at around 4:50am. If I wanted to ingest caffeine an hour before that I would have to get up at 3:50, and that’s just not going to happen. I don’t think my stomach took well to the 335ml of Red Bull, delivering about 100mg of caffeine if I read the label right, an hour before the race started, and eventually it rebelled. The stomach cramps didn’t stop at the finishing line, they went on for the rest of the day and the following night, and it wasn’t until Tuesday evening that it felt somewhat ok again.

My legs, on the other hand, are recovering well. I can walk down the staircase without wincing, which is good because I seem to be going up and down like a yo-yo all day. On the other hand, I have absolutely no intentions of running at the moment, and I won’t be heading out of the door until the urge to hit the road again comes back in earnest, however long that takes. The fact that it’s absolutely freezing and miserable outside doesn’t help I guess, but even the perfect weather conditions couldn’t entice me at the moment.

So, what’s next? The plans haven’t changed, my next marathon will be Boston in April. I don’t know if I can break 3 hours there, the course is difficult, and the number of runners on the road might be a problem. First and foremost I am determined to enjoy that occasion, it’s not every day that you cross the Atlantic to run a race.

I will also change my training again. I feel almost ungrateful to diss the Brain Training approach, after all it DID deliver a 4 minutes PR. But I really think that it is not for me, the amount of speed work kept grinding me down, and the fact that I never hit the projected training paces didn’t help. It did open my eyes to the fact that I had not done enough speed work up to now, and now it is question of finding the right balance. So, for my next training cycle I’ll hop back onto the mileage bandwagon, but hope to incorporate more fast running than last year. I have yet to plan it in detail. This will have to wait until we get back home to Kerry on the weekend. For the rest of the week we’re in Dublin for a holiday. Maybe I’ll be able to face the road again once we’re back home.

Time Waits for No Man

And time waits for no one, and it won't wait for me
Yes, time waits for no one, and it won't wait for me
(Rolling Stones)

I have been training hard all summer. In fact, I think this was the hardest training cycle I have ever put myself through. Because the Cork City marathon had been as late as June, it meant a shorter than usual buildup for Dublin, and I made one big change: I sacrificed miles for speed. I was following the “Brain Training for Runners” program, with all its various types of speed workout, and with fewer miles than in previous training cycles. Unfortunately the training didn’t go quite as hoped for, I was consistently unable to achieve the training paces I was aiming for, and eventually I cut back on the speed training because I felt tired and stale. At that stage I was happy to settle for less. But then I had two great preparation races, running 1:25 in the Blarney half marathon, and then did even better, running the 15 miles from Cork to Cobh in 1:37 and feeling absolutely fantastic all the way. This reset my expectation: I was again aiming for sub-3 hours.

Prior to the race I had been in contact with two runners, John Desmond and John McLaughlin. John D wanted to set off at 6:45 pace (minutes per mile, that is), John McL was in favour of 6:55, with my preferred pace of 6:50 right in the middle, which left me wondering if I would be running on my own. I met John McL at the Expo the day before the race, and I bumped into John D and the start of the race, all by chance.

It was a freezing cold day, and it made me swap my trademark green singlet in favour of a t-shirt, and I also wore gloves. Despite that I was shivering at the start, and the gun could not come soon enough. When it finally sounded I was originally blocked in by the sheer number of runners, and it took almost half a mile to push through the worst. I am used to much smaller races, and after half a mile the field is usually settled. Not so here, which I found confusing, but I put my head down and tried to run my own race.

I could see John D ahead of me, and by the second mile I was just a few steps behind. I thought about pushing ahead and joining him, but when I looked up a few minutes later I could not see a sign of him. I hoped for his own sake that he had not started too fast, and just got on with running on my own, surrounded as I was by plenty of people.

The first miles passed in 6:54, 6:42, 6:59 and 6:44. I am quite surprised now to see the figures going up and down that much, I felt I was running at a much more even pace, around 6:50.

That’s the pace on my Garmin GPS, of course. The official miles were always a few seconds late, adding about 2 seconds per mile, I guess. I had taken that into account, which was why I was aiming for 6:50 pace rather than 6:52, which is the pace required for a sub-3.

By mile 3 my calves already felt heavy, which was a seriously bad sign; it was far too early to get into trouble. I was especially surprised that it would be my calves acting up. If it had been my left hamstring (sore since April), my left foot (inflamed since April) or my right foot (dermatitis since September) I would have understood, but my calves had waited until now to act up. But I was still on pace, I was still feeling strong, and eventually the heavy feeling went away as I settled into the race. By mile 5 someone called “Hello Thomas”, and, unaccustomed as I am to that, I was too startled to really react to the call from a spectator who had come up all the way from Killorglin with a group of 28 runners from my company who were all running for charity today. Sorry.

Miles 5 and 6 (6:44 and 6:58) went through Phoenix Park towards the 10k mark. We had climbed a bit by now, not that I really noticed it. But I was right on time (6:50 average), and I was running behind 5 runners from Athenry AC, a rather well known running club. I figured that they were all aiming for sub-3, and stayed close by. I also saw a guy in a “Runner’s World pacer” t-shirt. I was not aware of any official pacing group, and the organisers certainly had not mentioned anything on the web site, but he was certainly right on pace for 3 hours. I kept in close proximity for the next mile (6:52), and then the course dropped steeply over the next mile towards the river Liffey.

When running in a race, any race, I always run faster than everyone around me on the downhill, and slower on the uphill. I don’t push the pace on the drop, and I don’t take it easy on the climb, but it always happens. Accordingly I left the Athenry runners behind me on my 6:30 mile. There was a water station at the bottom and I took a carbohydrate gel, which I had bought the day before to be taken at that point. I felt good and was at overall 6:48 pace by now, just where I wanted to be. Not too fast, but with a little cushion for the climbing miles that were to come. First of all we climbed rather steeply out on the other side of the Liffey valley, then there were a few slightly undulating miles until we turned into Crumlin Road at mile 11. Anyway, I did better than expected on that stretch, covering those miles in 6:47, 6:52 and 6:45.

The day before my sister-in-law had asked me where the worst part or the race would be, and I had pointed to Crumlin Road, from mile 11 to the halfway-mark. I hate that stretch. It is uphill, and for some reason unknown to me it is always against a headwind. Even drafting doesn’t help, and all I could do was to get it over and done with, without losing too much time, and without exhausting myself in the process. I did more or less as expected in 7:02 and 7:04. My Garmin was back to 6:50 average pace, just as it had been before that big drop in Phoenix Park. I was pretty pleased, but when we crossed the timing mat at the halfway stage, the timer displayed 1:30:27. It had taken me only a few seconds to cross the starting line, and I had assumed up to now to be a few seconds ahead of target, not 20 seconds behind. This definitely knocked me back psychologically, but I was still optimistic. Two years ago I had aimed to break 3:30 on that course, and managed it by running the second half faster than the first one. Since I had managed that in Cork as well, I was reasonably confident that I would be able to pull it off once more.

I like to think that I had been confident rather than cocky before the race. My confidence had come from previous race results, and I always tend to finish races strongly. In Cork I had made up a whopping 47 places during the second half, catapulting me from position 118 at the halfway mark up to 71st at the finish. With this in mind, I think it was well justified to expect a good finish here as well.

Alas! Maybe it was the blow from that timer, or maybe I had worn myself out a bit too much over the last few miles, but I got overtaken by at least a dozen runners immediately after halfway. I recognised a few runners from earlier, and when four of the Athenry gaggle came by I figured that this was the 3 hours group. Then I saw a yellow vest with a black bar across, and realised that I was a step behind John McLaughlin. I caught up, and we started running together for a few miles. I admitted to feeling rather low at that point, and John warned me not to push too hard. But the idea of settling for a mere personal best wasn’t on my agenda today. “I will run at sub-3 pace for as long as I can, and if I blow up, so be it”, or words to that effect were my response. In reality I was struggling with stomach cramps at the time, and the idea of taking any more carbohydrates was rather unsettling, but with 90 minutes of running ahead of me I would have to take some on board.

I managed to keep pace with John, just behind the 3hrs group, and eventually I felt better again. Maybe the signals from my stomach were merely hunger pangs? Anyway, I had struggled through mile 14 in 6:57 and recovered to mile 15 in 6:51. There I took a gel that was provided by the course organisers. I had never tried that brand before, which meant I was committing sin number 1 in marathoning: never do anything during the race that you haven’t tried in training. To my defence, I had sinned on nearly all my previous marathons and always got away with it. My stomach seems to be rather sturdy, which is why I never took heed of that advice.

To cut it short, two minutes later I almost threw up. I just about managed to keep myself from bending over, but it wasn’t pretty, and I’ll spare you the details. Then I got side stitch. John, who was oblivious to what I was going through, slowly pulled away from me. I concentrated on my breathing, exhaling forcefully in synch with my footsteps, and after a minute or two it slowly subsided and I could run on without losing too much time. Even though it was a downhill stretch I am quite surprised I managed to run that miles as fast as 6:55. On the next mile (6:44) I slowly caught up with John who seemed rather surprised to find me at his side again. I was quite pleased myself. Catching up after you’ve been dropped isn’t easy especially not at mile 17. We did increase the pace a bit and drew closer to the 3hrs group again. This was a downhill mile, but 6:33 was still rather fast. Maybe we had overdone it a bit, but it had felt fine at the time.

Alas! The downhill didn’t last, and I remembered that I had nominated the following stretch as my second least favourite part of the course. There are two hills. The first is short and sharp after a viaduct at Milltown Road. I will never forget that road, because on my first marathon I had started cramping at that point, a problem that had stayed with my first the entire painful rest of the race, which as not something I like to be reminded of. Today it wasn’t nearly as bad, the hill seemed a lot less steep than it was in my memory, but I still fell behind John again. This didn’t worry me. As already mentioned, I always slow down on the climbs. But I could not draw level again on the next, short downhill (mile 19 in 6:54), and I knew that this time I really was in trouble. The next, last, long hill was yet to come and I had no cushion whatsoever. It was bad. I struggled and I decided I had a new least favourite part of the course. It took me 7:13 to pass the 20-mile marker.



Basically, at mile 19 I knew I was in trouble, but with the memory of my strong finish in Cork still fresh in memory I still reckoned I was in with a chance. By the time I crested the last hill (around the 20.5 mile point) I was not only behind in time, my calves had started cramping, I had trouble lifting my knees (a sign that the quads are gone), and I knew it was over.

This might sound defeatist. I assure you I didn’t take it lying down. I surged a few times, hoping to make up time and get through that stretch. I fought on. Niamh and the kids were waiting at mile 21. I had told her that I would be there 2:23 into the race, and if I was a few minutes late I would not break 3 hours. Niamh told me afterwards she was thrilled to see me at exactly 11:23am. At that point she was convinced her husband was on his way to achieving a lifetime goal. I, on the other hand, felt differently.

I had given Niamh a bottle of de-fizzed Coke to pass on to me. This is a very old-school runner’s remedy. It had worked brilliantly in the Cork-to-Cobh race, where it had given me an incredible boost, which is why I decided to take some today. Unfortunately, I was already dying on my feet at that stage.

My stomach cramps, which had started shortly before the halfway mark, had never stopped for long and by now they were really bad, and I felt like curling up in foetal position. This wasn’t really an option at that point, and I struggled on. When asked about the race course I had always mentioned the fact that it is downhill over the last 6 miles, and whoever still has intact legs will finish strongly. Of course, I had expected to be amongst the lucky few, because that is exactly how it had played itself out in Cork. Not so today. My quads were shot, and my calves kept cramping. I hated the downhills. I tried to shorten my stride and increase the turnover to make up for it, which worked for a while, but not for too long. The figures on the Garmin don’t lie. I managed to keep things somewhat together for a while. Mile 21 took 7:11, mile 22 7:03. While it was clear that 3 hours was out of reach I was not far behind, and at that stage I was still looking at a 3:02 finish. The other problem was that the
Garmin’s and the official mile markers were coming increasingly further apart. By mile 10 the discrepancy was only a few seconds, by mile 20 it was about a minute and it became worse the longer it went on. By now I was almost glad that I was out of the 3 hours race. Missing the target by a few seconds because the course may (or may not) have been long would have been incredibly annoying. As things stood, I didn’t particularly care. 3:02 or 3:09 were all slower than my target but faster than my previous PR, and I would just accept it.

However, things were going downhill rapidly, and I’m talking about my pace here, not the course elevation. The miles were pure agony, and I kept being overtaken. A few runners were walking at that point, and those are the ones I managed to catch, but I definitely lost a lot more places than I gained. This is very unusual, and of course I hated it. I still didn’t give up. I tried to latch on to a few runners as they went past, but with my cramping calves I was never able to keep up for long. Things went from bad to worse, mile 23 in 7:33, 24 in 7:57 and 25 in 8:03! Goodness gracious me! I was not running, I was crawling, and the projected finishing time got pushed back further and further.

At least the crowds, who had been rather sparse for most of the course, were now lining the path. I felt somewhat unworthy of the praise they heaped upon us, and was mildly embarrassed. They helped psychologically, but I was still getting slower rather than faster, with a last mile of 8:11, but, as I’ve said, that’s a Garmin mile, and the official 26 mile marker was still far ahead of me when the last beep from the device sounded. To my surprise I actually managed to speed up again for the last half mile; it’s amazing how the brain can loosen the brakes once it finally cops on to the fact that we’re almost done. A 7:10 pace for the last stretch gave me hopes of a sub-3:05 finish, but I had long missed that boat. I crossed the line in 3:05:37, which, even with all the ugliness of the last 6 miles, was still a PR by almost exactly 4 minutes.

I had expected to be distraught to miss out on a sub-3, but I was fine. I’d had the last 50 minutes to come to terms with it, and by now I could accept it, but of course I was disappointed and did mutter a few choice words. I met John McL who had crossed the line 2 minutes ahead of me, and just like me had a new PR but no sub-3. I looked up John D’s time when I got home, and at least he had succeeded, coming home in 02:58:26. Congratulations, John. I’ll target that for my next marathon.

I still have one big consolation: I have now managed to take more than 1 hour off my first marathon time, set here in Dublin only 4 years ago. Even though I missed out on my real target, this is still something I am immensely proud of.

27 Oct

Dublin City Marahon, 3:05:37, 344th/11700, 74th in M35 age group
average pace 7:04, average HR 164

Anticipation

I bet a lot of runners for Monday’s Dublin marathon introduced a rest day yesterday, planned or not. I actually had a decent workout in mind, with a few miles at marathon pace and a couple of 800s, but when I woke around 6 am the house was being battered by the storm, which persuaded me to give this one a miss. Cycling into work was completely out of question. The wind was really gusty with wind speeds of up to 60mph – running or cycling would have been suicidal. Kenmare and Killarney, neither of them far away from here, got so badly flooded that they made it into the main evening news. As long as the storm blows itself out over the weekend, that’s ok with me. The conditions on Monday are going to be fairly cold but manageable. We will be fine.

As a result of the weather running amok my mileage has dropped off a cliff this week, which made this a more radical taper than originally anticipated. I guess I’ll see how I will feel on Monday, but in all honesty I don’t think a missed 8 mile run 4 days before the big day will have any measurable effect either way.

It was surprisingly calm this morning, and I managed to squeeze in 5 miles between two very heavy rain showers. After a warm-up mile I increased the pace to MP and intended to hold it for 3 miles. It felt much too fast, and the old doubts started creeping in. Then, with half a mile to go, it all clicked again and I cruised along, confidence restored. I went easy again on the last mile home, but when I glanced at the Garmin with half a mile to go I realised that I was jogging along at 7:00 pace, and my confidence for Monday soared. I spent the last few minutes forcing myself to slow down, and with 3 days to go it is time to get plenty of rest. Any miles yet to come will be very slow and easy, just enough to keep the legs moving.

I got two emails in the last few days, one from a John who wants to run under 3 hours and suggested working together, and one from a different John who knows yet another John who wants to run under 3 hours and suggested we should be working together. It looks like I won’t have to set the pace on my own, but things might be getting confusing with all those Johns around me.

3 days to go. We’re driving up to Dublin tomorrow (the weather forecast is atrocious), and I will hopefully manage to relax on Sunday. And then …

23 Oct

0

24 Oct

5 miles, 35:16, 7:03 pace, HR 160
incl. 3 miles at @ 6:49

Summary

I always give a short training summary a few days before a marathon, and here is the one for this build:

Training (excluding this week):

18 weeks

Miles:

1227

Average mpw:

68

# runs of 20 miles or more:

5

Highest weekly mileage:

86

# of PRs:

6 (5k, 4 miles, 8k, 10k, half, 15 miles)

Injuries/ailments:

1. PF in left foot (leftover from Connemara in April)
2. pain in left hamstring (almost certainly connected to 1)
3. dermatitis in right foot

It was an unusual training cycle for me. I followed the Brain Training program, which meant fewer miles but more speedwork than usual. I found this a very tough program, and the massive amount of speedwork paid off spectacularly initially with a slew of new PRs over the shorter distances. However, I eventually decided that there was too much speedwork for a marathon build and started to back off. I had felt really tired and stale at the end of August, but I’ve come around and I am now in hopefully my best shape ever. In any case, it’s too late to do anything about it now.

The week started in total alien fashion, namely without a run on Monday morning. The weather was awful, I could not possible have cycled into work, so I got a lift off Niamh in the morning and ran home in the evening. Evening runs are always faster than morning runs, and it was an easy one, despite being faster than my usual easy runs. The weather almost cooperated, for 3.5 miles it was windy but fine, and then the heavens opened and I was soaked through within 10 seconds. As a result, the last miles and a bit were faster than planned – I just wanted to get out of the deluge as soon as possible.

My right foot started itching about 5 weeks ago, just after the Blarney half-marathon in fact. I assumed it was Athlete’s Foot, picked up from the shower room there. Apart from making sure to wash it very carefully each day I treated it with cream, but that didn’t help; eventually I tried some powder, which was no use either. I purchased some spray, and that didn’t get rid of it either. Eventually the foot started swelling, and it got rather painful. Niamh kept nagging me to go to the Doctor, and eventually I gave in, and had an appointment today. He said it was dermatitis, and after I refused to go on antibiotics he prescribed another cream. It should get rid of the problem within a few days, which would be just in time for the marathon. Funnily enough, even with all the unpleasant symptoms I have experienced over the last few weeks (blisters, crusty skin, irritation, itching, rash, redness, swelling) I was never worried about the marathon.

Because of the foot swelling, and because Niamh kept pestering me to be careful, I took Tuesday off, my first rest day of the entire training. I originally planned the same for today, but I woke at 4am, and when I was still awake at 6:30 I finally got up and ran 5 very easy miles. It felt good.

The one thing I am nervous about is the weather forecast. They keep changing their minds every day. A few days ago they predicted gale force winds with gusts of over 50mph on the day. Thankfully they have changed that by now. It keeps changing every day, though. I still don’t like metcheck’s forecast of 15 mph winds, while wunderground is slightly more benevolent with 11 mph. With 5 days to go, there is still plenty of error in those.

20 Oct

5 miles, 37:26, 7:29 pace, HR 145

21 Oct

0

22 Oct

5+ miles, 41:23, 8:15 pace, HR 140

The Clock is Ticking

I’m just glad I’m not running right this moment. There’s a nasty storm blowing outside, and nobody in their right minds would face that deliberately. I was lucky enough to have somewhat better conditions in the morning; it just started to get really bad when I came home. I can only hope it won’t be like this come race day, or any thoughts of a fast time will go right out of the window.

Since this is the last weekend before the marathon I’m trying to relax as much as I can, as far as that’s possible with my young brood around me. Cian got a special treat yesterday for being such a good boy. I took him to town, just the two of us, for a bit of one-to-one time. He loved the undivided attention, and he definitely loved the smoothie and the biscuit in the café. I just about managed to resist the temptation of all those lovely chocolate cakes and limited myself to a croissant, but if that was any sounder from a nutritional point of view I don’t know. But I’m looking forward to carbo-loading, and I usually start a sweet binge the week after a marathon as a reward for all the hard work during training. I’m looking forward to that as much as I am to the marathon.

There isn’t much to tell about my running. I managed to limit myself to 5 miles on Saturday, and I ran them as slowly as I possibly could. The HR was a bit higher than I would have expected. Generally my HR on those easy runs is a good indicator of my fitness, and I’m a teeny bit concerned about the higher readings I’ve had this week. Let’s hope it won’t mean anything on marathon day.

I had originally planned a loop around Cromane for today but the wind was already blowing at close to gale force and I opted for the only sheltered piece of road and decided to run up and down the Ard-na-Sidhe mile. Since running back- and forwards four times didn’t sound too appealing I though I could run three of the miles at marathon pace and use the three return miles as recovery. However, the legs just took off, even on the warm-up section, and I was already doing MP before I had even started the real workout. I did slow myself down a bit, then ran two miles in 6:52 and 6:45 respectively, but then decided to go home. Not because I was feeling bad, but because I was feeling too good! I did not want to wear myself out by running needlessly fast, and decided to cut the run short before I was tempted to speed up even further. Running MP was entirely effortless today. If I can repeat that sensation 8 days from now, I will be a very happy man. But I didn’t want to use up all of that goodness today, and since the real part of the storm had found its way towards Caragh Lake at the time, it was better to head inside anyway.

If only I could bottle that feeling from today! I could use it on race day and practically guarantee a great race. Or if I could bottle and sell it, I’d be rich in no time at all.

18 Oct

5 miles, 42:23, 8:28 pace, HR 137

19 Oct

9.1 miles, 1:07:35, 7:25 pace, HR 153
incl. 2 uneven miles at 6:52, 6:45

Weekly Mileage: 50+

Holding Back

After Tuesday’s tempo run I definitely went into taper mode. I had two easy days on Wednesday and Thursday, and the mileage has definitely dropped now. As always, the most important thing during the taper is not to do anything too stupid. With 10 days to go until the marathon I’m reasonably confident that I will manage to keep myself in check.

I ran easily along Caragh Lake on Wednesday, but added 2 or 3 short pickups into the run. Maybe they were responsible for the average heart rate being a bit higher than expected. I certainly did raise an eyebrow when I checked the numbers, but I don’t think it’s a sign of impending doom.

I went even easier on Thursday with 5 miles on the Ard-na-Sidhe road. I remember doing a lot of 5 mile runs along that road when I was following the Pfitzinger marathon plan. It seems like ages ago now. These days the Ard-na-Sidhe road is part of my long runs around the lake, but I very rarely go there just to turn around at the 2.5-mile mark.

Much more painful then that run was a visit to the dentist. At the age of 38 I still had two baby teeth in my mouth, and for some unknown reason one of them split up all of a sudden last week. The dentist confirmed that it literally broke into pieces in my mouth. He managed to get most of it out, but one part had become fused to the bone due to being there for so long. He could not remove it, but had to file it down. I felt fine during the procedure itself, but when the anaesthetic wore off later on I felt distinctly uncomfortable, and it still hurt on Thursday. I’m fine now, but I still have to get used to that gap in my teeth. At least it’s far enough towards the back not to be visible.

I have mentioned a few times how I keep massaging my left foot to keep the PF in check. I could always feel quite a bump in that heel, and yesterday, while pressing at a sore spot a sharp pain shot through my foot, and when that had subsided the big knot was almost gone. There’s still a bit of a bump compared to the other foot, but it’s much smaller than it used to be. I think I just happened to hit a trigger point, which would be good news, I guess. Having said that, the foot didn’t feel any different this morning. But I will be fine during the marathon.

Despite not following the Pfitzinger plan any more I’m still doing that 3x1 miles workout 10 days before a marathon each time. I felt a bit apprehensive today, especially since I had not done any intervals for a while – I has eased off before the last race, and been recovering/tapering ever since. It took a bit to get used to the 6:00 pace during the first interval, and I concentrated mainly on keeping good from and remaining in full control rather than going all out. At the start of the second interval I got the same thought that I always have at the start of a second interval, namely to chuck it all in and go home, but I managed to do what I always do, which is to carry on. Funnily enough, the second interval would be the fastest of the three, despite being slightly uphill (the other ones being slightly downhill going to other way). The last one was done to the thought of just getting it over with. The end result was a set of intervals that were a bit slower than the same workout before the Cork marathon, but unlike then I always felt in full control this time round, and I think that’s what you’re supposed to do rather than an all-out-until-you-drop effort. There was also that little voice in my head telling me not to wear myself out too much before the marathon. In any case, it’s done now, and I’m reasonably content with the workout. Of course I’d like to have run faster. Don’t we all?

Good luck to all you guys running a marathon on Sunday of which there seem to be quite a few, i.e. PEI, MDI and Amsterdam. I’ll be thinking of you, and eagerly await the race reports.

15 Oct

8 miles, 1:03:36, 7:57 pace, HR 145

16 Oct

5 miles, 39:52, 7:58 pace, HR 140

17 Oct

6 miles, 44:05, 7:21 pace, HR 155
3x1 mile @ 6:10 (165/171), 6:07 (171/178), 6:13 (176/180)

Countdown

One of my first thoughts each day is “how many days are there left until the marathon”, which is quite normal behaviour for me during the taper. As of today, we are down to 13. Sometimes it feels like time is crawling, but in all honesty I have to admit that the magic number is going down pretty rapidly.

From a household point of view, this was a bad month. We’ve had the car, the hoover and the washing machine all fail within a few days of each other, and since they are all rather important items for a family of six, we have been struggling to cover at times. At least by now they are all repaired, the bills didn’t entirely cripple us financially, and we have our fingers crossed that we’ve reached the end of that series.

My biggest worry, as far as the marathon is concerned, is getting sick. Two weeks ago the entire family apart from me had some cold; not too bad but it took Maia especially several days to get better. I’m taking heart from the fact that I didn’t get any symptoms whatsoever. If my immune system can ward off that particular bug then I guess it should be in decent shape. Just don’t let me catch a cold too close to race day, please please please!

If you read a few Irish running blogs you probably get the impression that we’re all obsessed with the weather. Maybe we are, but if you pursue an outdoor hobby in this country it tends to get challenging around this time of the year (not that we had a good summer). Yesterday’s 8 easy miles saw plenty of wind but no rain, today it was pretty much reversed, no wind but heavy rain. Niamh happened to be up at 6:40, the time I left for my run, and just took one look at the weather, one look at me, and went to bed shaking her head in disbelief. You’d think she’s used to it by now.

I had planned an easy tempo run, 2x2.5 miles, at roughly half-marathon pace. For some reason I had set my mind on 6:40 rather than 6:30, but maybe I’ve just learned my lesson from all the frustrating summer workouts. Mind, that’s still 25 seconds per mile faster than the pace I used for tempo runs before the Cork marathon. I had originally planned to use the racing shoes but for some reason didn’t want them to get soaked in all that rain and wore normal trainers instead. The first interval went pretty well, I felt good and the pace came without pushing much. The second interval started the same, but for some reasons not entirely clear to me I completely fell apart over the last mile. While it was slightly uphill, that should not have been sufficient reason to slow down all the way to 7:20. I got incredibly tense and never managed to relax at all. I can’t quite figure out why, but I won’t dwell on it. One botched mile is not worth worrying over.

Just have a look at this instead:

13 Oct

8 miles, 1:03:01, 7:53 pace, HR 142

14 Oct

9.15 miles, 1:07:55, 7:25 pace, HR 154
incl. 2x2.5 miles @ 6:41, 6:58