Stumbling Blocks

Unless you are lucky enough to be a professional athlete, you will have to fit training around the obstacles that Real Life keeps throwing your way. I’m in the middle of a right old obstacle course at the moment, but so far training has not been interrupted.

A 2-day training course at Cork required a stay in a hotel, and if you ever find yourself stranded at Cork airport I can honestly recommend the Airport Hotel to you, but admittedly I had the added bonus of the bill being taken care of by my employer. The pastries for breakfast get 11 stars out of 10, they are to die for, and an excellent way of re-stocking depleted glycogen stores after an early morning run. The major drawback is that Cork airport is situated on top of a hill, and no matter which direction you are heading, the return journey is going to be uphill.

On Wednesday morning I headed towards Cork City centre. The run started with 3 downhill miles and an elevation drop of about 500 feet, which is very similar to my big climb on the Caragh Lake loop. My intention was to head straight into Cork, but I took a wrong turn and found myself heading eastwards towards Douglas. Since the objective of the run was to get some miles into the legs rather than a reaching a certain destination I didn’t really care and just carried on. I turned around after 6 miles, and surprisingly managed to retrace my steps without any major detours. Obviously the last 3 miles featured the same 3 miles as the start, but this time uphill. The longer the run went on the more uncomfortable I felt, not because of the fatigue in my legs but because the roads were much busier than what I’m used to in our out-of-the-way corner of the island.

Since I didn’t have much to do in the evening I seized the opportunity to sneak in a second run of the day. Hoping for a quieter and flatter road I crossed the main airport road and headed out into the countryside. I achieved my first objective, though the roads were still a lot busier than the Caragh Lake ones, but the fact that the road was called “Elm Hill Road” gives a clue on how the search for a flatter course went. Still, I managed a good pace and at the brow of the hill got a fantastic view of the surrounding area, all the way down to Cork Harbour.

Grellan was kind enough to meet me for a couple of pints and a lot of running talk in the airport bar.

I took it easier on Thursday with just 8 miles on a loop that I had scouted via Google maps, but for one mile I found myself on the Carrigaline road, which again was much busier than I had expected (I know I sound like a broken record). Still, I survived both the traffic and the major climb back towards the airport, and the breakfast pastries made me forget all the problems.

With the course finished I was back home and sleeping in my own bed last night, which was nice. A few more hours of sleep would have been even nicer, but 18 mile runs call for early rises, and by 5:20 I was on the road again, back on my old familiar Caragh Lake loop. The weather forecast hadn’t been great and I was waiting for the rain to come, but apart from a few drops at the 3-mile point it remained dry. The most noticeable difference to Monday was in my legs. Back then I had felt increasingly weary from the 12-mile point onwards, today I was much stronger and managed to speed up towards the end. After 11 miles I pretty much inadvertently increased the pace to about 7:20, and after passing our driveway at mile 15 ran the final 3 miles at an average pace of 7:01. This would have been faster if I would have been able to keep my mind on the task, an old problem of mine. After a while I start daydreaming, and as soon as my mind starts drifting so does the pace. Luckily this isn’t an issue at races, but I wish I could drop that habit during training runs as well.

There will be more Real Life obstacles over the weekend, but I think I have come up with a schedule that allows me to meet all my obligations and still keep on training. Life should start getting easier from next week again.

25 Feb

am: 12.2 miles, 1:33:14, 7:39 pace, HR 154
pm: 5.1 miles, 37:34, 7:22 pace, HR 155

26 Feb

8 miles, 1:04:47, 8:06 pace, HR 145

27 Feb

18 miles, 2:20:46, 7:49 pace, HR 151
last 3 miles @ 7:01

A New Life

The entire family were out hiking on Sunday afternoon when the long awaited news finally arrived: Niamh’s sister had given birth to a baby girl, and everyone was delighted, especially Lola. As a result Niamh is going to fly to Dublin on Friday with Cian and Maia, and I’m going to follow them on Saturday with the twins after their classes in Cork. This obviously means that I’m not going to run Sunday’s race in Adare, which is a shame. Racing myself into shape has worked very well in past training cycles, but this time pure training alone will have to do the trick, because I think Ballycotton might be the only race between now and Boston.

I re-checked the schedules, and to be fair Ron Daws is not calling the present phase anaerobic, but aerobic-anaerobic. The aerobic part is well taken care of by two long runs, and the anaerobic part consists of a fast day on the weekend and either a time trial or a hill workout in midweek. In short, this isn’t too different from the previous phase, but the hard days are getting a bit harder and the easy days a bit easier.

Monday’s 20 miler came as a shock to the system. Not only was it the longest run of the entire calendar year so far, I have only once run over 15 miles in 2009, and that was a mere 18 miles at the beginning of January. I thought about building the mileage gradually and only do 18 yesterday, but decided that since this wasn’t exactly the first time I have been training for a marathon I would jump straight into it and quit making excuses. It required a very early rise on Monday. When the hour of the alarm clock is still at 4 by the time I get up it drives home the message that, yes, this is early. Then, still very early in the run my headlamp started to fail, I think the batteries had run out. I had to negotiate the road into Ard-na-Sidhe in near darkness, I could barely make out the road, it was more sensing it rather than seeing it. It was only possible because I am so familiar with that stretch, but I managed to get through without bumping into anything, and once I got out of the wood things became a lot clearer.

Not only was Sunday’s 60/60 workout in my legs, the aforementioned hike must have left a mark as well, because by mile 12 I was getting increasingly weary. I took an emergency gel, but that seemed to vaporise in my stomach and didn’t give me the boost I was hoping for. I was tempted to call it a day when I passed our driveway at mile 15, but only stopped for a second to deposit the useless headlamp and headed off for an out-and-back stretch, again to Ard-na-Sidhe, but in brighter conditions this time. I kept telling myself that I can always run the meagre 2.5 miles to the turnaround point, no matter how tired. Any thoughts of a strong finish went out of the window, and I was glad to have enough fumes onboard to get me back home eventually. Hard work it was, but it was eminently satisfying to note down a big fat 20 into the training log.

With the easy days getting easier only 8 miles were on the program today, and they were always going to be slow. Keeping Saturday’s lesson in mind I kept checking the Garmin to ensure that I was going slow at all times, but this wasn’t really necessary. My weary legs never had the slightest inclination of speeding up, and the heart rate subsequently was the lowest since a run early September.

Things are going to be disrupted for a few days; apart from going to Dublin for the weekend, I’ll be in Cork for the next two days for a training course. However, they do have roads to run on in Cork as well, and my gear is packed. I just have to make sure to be on my guard if Grellan wants to prime me with Guinness.

23 Feb

20 miles, 2:42:15, 8:07 pace, HR 147

24 Feb

8 miles, 1:07:09, 8:24 pace, HR 133

The Longest Minute

My training had been going exceedingly well until I got sick 2 weeks ago. This cost me a few days of lost running, another few days of slowly re-building my mileage, and another week of slightly compromised running. However, since about Thursday or Friday I feel I’m finally heading somewhere again.

The legs were a bit sore yesterday, especially the hip flexors, which was definitely a reminder of the hill repeats. You really have to lift the knees during those sprints, and it showed. The other thing I had to contend with was the wind. While it wasn’t exactly storm force it was stronger than what I had been used to over the past couple of weeks, and it was a factor. So I headed out along Caragh Lake on my easy run, and since I had to fight the headwind straight on I ran a tiny little bit harder than on my usual long run, just a percent of extra effort – or so I thought. It wasn’t until the turnaround point that I realised I was doing 7:45 pace, a good bit faster than what I usually do on easy days, especially taking into account the wind and the heavy legs. Of course I now had the wind at my back and cruised home easily without having to slow down either. Some people (actually, a lot) say you should leave the watch at home for easy runs to make sure you don’t run too fast. Maybe the opposite is true for me – I should check the Garmin more often on easy runs to make sure I don’t go too hard. Having said that, I would be lying if I denied being quite chuffed about the fact that I could run faster than 7:45 pace without pushing the effort even once.

Later on it was my turn to drive the twins to Cork for their clever little people class. Maybe I’m driving faster than Niamh, but I got there half an hour early (ok, ok, I DO drive faster than Niamh), which left me time for the weekend shopping while they had their classes. I’m not very familiar with Cork, but I did recognise a few roads of the marathon course, and the start of the Cork-to-Cobh race. After picking up the twins and driving all the way home I was completely knackered – all that driving can be worse than running.

I wondered if Saturday’s faster pace and the hours in the car would have a negative effect on today’s workout. Following Matt Fitzgerald’s advice I replaced the 30/30s with 60/60s today, which is supposed to be considerably more demanding. I programmed the Garmin for 13 repeats, but had my doubts if I would be able to hit that number. I did feel more optimistic after the first mile of my warm-up, because usually I don’t run that in 7:30 when I’m not even trying. I was still slightly apprehensive when I eventually launched into the workout. The first repeat felt awkward (and it turned out to be the slowest one by quite some margin), but after that I quickly got into the groove. It was definitely hard work, the one uphill one was pure torture and the minute rest seemed to be getting shorter and shorter, but I somehow managed to run all 13 repeats at an average pace of 5:47, which was definitely faster than expected.

I forgot to mention, I checked my resting HR today and it came up with 41, the same value I’d measured before I had gotten sick. I’m definitely bouncing back by now.

Thus ends the hill phase of my training, and the anaerobic phase is starting. However, I had to check Ron Daws’ schedules about three times before I could believe that he is seriously recommending a 20 miler AND an 18 miler each week during that phase, quite a jump in the long runs, considering that there was only one "long" run of 15 miles during the hill phase! I’ll do 20 miles tomorrow morning (I think), but I’ll wait and see about the 18. I might run a 10k in Adare on Sunday, which would give me the perfect excuse to cut the second long run short, but I haven’t decided on that race yet. One race I’ll definitely do is Ballycotton, 2 weeks from now. Looking at Grellan’s recent training I might have a hard time keeping him behind me, but I’ll try anyway.

21 Feb

8 miles, 1:01:49, 7:44 pace, HR 148

22 Feb

8 miles, 59:38, 7:28 pace, HR 160
incl. 13x60/60 (5:47 avg)

Weekly mileage: 71

Acid Party

That heading should bring some interesting visitors via Google. They'll leave disappointed, though. The acid coursing through my legs this morning wasn't illegal, and probably a lot less fun.

After whining a lot about my sore legs on Wednesday I was pleasantly surprised on Thursday morning about the lack of pain. However, within 5 minutes this was replaced by a sense of impending doom, emanating from the inner depths of my digestive system. I'll spare you the details, but I bet you can imagine them anyway. This had two effects. First, I took longer than normal to get ready, and second, I was wondering if I would be able to return home "in time". I decided to check my Garmin after 4.5 miles. If I was running at or under 8-minute pace, I'd carry on to my usual 5-mile turnaround point, otherwise I'd cut the run short. When I got there, the average pace came up as 8:13, which meant an instant turnaround, and showed me that the hill sprints had obviously left a mark on my legs. However, the gut, which had never fully settled, started acting up at that time and I was left wondering how I would make it home. I experienced a few rather unpleasant stomach cramps, but the last mile was decidedly faster than the rest of the run, as I was getting a bit concerned that an otherwise unremarkable easy run would end up becoming very memorable for all the wrong reasons. Thankfully I made it home. I'll spare you the details again, but again I'm sure you get the picture anyway.

A few of you have voiced concern in the comments that I might be pushing too hard. While I can't rule out that possibility, I'm the only one who can feel the effects on my body, and I'm reasonably sure that in the longer term I'm recovering enough between the workouts, even if that wasn't true for the first half of this week. Running two hill session in one week doesn't seem excessive to me. Lydiard's schedules usually have three of them, and in the early days he had six! In comparison, my one week with two hill sessions is rather meek. Anyway, I set off today on a carbon copy of Wednesday's effort. I had hoped that the tempo part would be improved, but the 6:52 pace was only marginally better. I think it might have something to do with the early hours. Sometimes the legs just don't feel very responsive at faster paces at 6:30 in the morning, especially on a cold day like today. At least that's my excuse.

After the tempo run I did the same 8 hill sprints of 60 seconds each. After the second one I had serious doubts about my ability to finish the other 6, but somehow managed to go through the entire session. The legs were howling in pain at the top of each repeat, drenched in lactic acid as they were (or whatever physiological explanation goes these days). However, on the 2-mile run home I felt that the legs were less sore than on Wednesday. Maybe they're getting used to being abused.

19 Feb

9 miles, 1:13:04, 8:07 pace, HR 142
stomach cramps aren't fun

20 Feb

10.5 miles, 1:26:03, 8:12 pace, HR 152
2.75 miles @ 6:52 (HR 161) and 8x60 hill sprints
lactic acid isn't fun either

Feeling Old

They, whoever they are, say that the one major thing about aging runners is the recovery times from tough workouts. Older runners just take longer to recover. According to my legs, I have been an older runner since Sunday.

The first things I felt as I got up at 5:30 on Monday morning were my very sore hamstrings. This is quite unusual; if my legs ache it's normally the quads, but not always. I briefly wondered if running 15 miles over very hilly terrain was a good idea, but, as always, pushed those thoughts aside and got ready. The run wasn't as bad as I feared. The first 11 miles, the hilly part, went reasonably well. Then I started on my "strong finish" stretch, where I had managed at average pace of 6:48 only a fortnight ago – just before getting sick. I knew that pace was well out of reach, and all I could tease out of my tired and very achy legs was 7:10 pace. Still, that's better than on the same run 3 weeks earlier, so things aren't all bad. It confirmed what I already knew, that the sickness had set me back a bit, but not by too much.

However, for the rest of the day I felt twice my age, moaning every time I had to get in or out of a chair, and it wasn't pretty. I particularly cursed the fact that we lived 5 miles out of town, because cycling that distance wasn't fun at all. I hoped that a good night's sleep would do wonders, but things weren't helped by the fact that I was on call for technical support from work and promptly got a call at 4 am, which lasted for about half an hour (Niamh wasn't overly pleased either). It took me a while to get back to sleep, and the alarm at 6 o'clock sounded far too early. I was still groggy by the time I hit the road, ran 10 miles easily, was surprised that I managed sub-8 pace with my tired legs, was equally surprised at the high HR, and subsequently had a hard time staying awake at all times during office hours. Somehow I made it through.

There were no emergency support requests last night and I slept reasonably well, but somehow the legs were still sore, but by now the quads had overtaken the hamstrings in that regard. I wasn't too sure how I would make it through today's hill workout, but decided to go ahead anyway. I was dreading the tempo run part all through my warm-up. Of course, if you don't expect to run well you never will, and I subsequently ran my slowest "tempo run" in a while, clocking the less-than-three-miles segment at 6:53 pace (slower than marathon pace!!) though the HR confirms that it wasn't down to me slacking off. As soon as that particular torture was over I started dreading the oncoming hill repeats in equals measure. I had done previous hill sprints in 45 seconds; this time I resolved to keep going for 60 seconds each. However, maximum effort they were not. I have no idea if it's better to run 45 seconds all out or 60 seconds at a slightly more measured effort. Interestingly, the HR at the top of the 60 seconds was the same as I had reached during previous 45 seconds efforts. In any case, I had thought the legs were heavy at the start, but it was nothing in comparison how they felt at the end of the workout. It's a different kind of sore today, though. If there is a difference between acute soreness from today's run and chronic soreness from a run several days ago then that's what I can feel right now. If that's good (cause I'm working hard) or bad (cause I'm working too hard) is anyone's guess. So far, I have another hill workout planned for Friday. I'm not exactly looking forward to it, but I just have to keep the faith that those torture sessions might enable me to run Boston in less than 3 hours.

16 Feb

15 miles, 1:58:12, 7:53 pace, HR 153
last 4 @ 7:10 pace

17 Feb

10 miles, 1:19:10, 7:55 pace, HR 148

18 Feb

10.5 miles, 1:28:20, 8:25 pace, HR 150
incl. 2.75 miles @ 6:53 (HR 163) and 8x60 secs hill sprints

Evaluation

First things first, I'm glad to report that the knees are 98% back to normal. I still don't know what exactly had been wrong and most likely never will, but won't spend any time worrying about it.

I learned quite a bit about my present state on each of the last three runs. They were all very different, but the information I gleaned from each of them was quite revealing.

On Friday I inserted a long stretch at marathon effort into my run. I had done exactly the same workout 2 weeks earlier, before I had gotten sick, and it was a helpful comparator. In short, I managed to cover the 8.5 miles at an average pace of 7:09, six seconds per mile slower than a fortnight ago, and a very similar pace to a workout three weeks prior. It shows how much fitness I have lost in the meantime; and to be honest I’m happy enough with those figures. I can and will make that up again. What wasn’t quite so good was the feeling I had halfway through the run. I had just covered a short uphill segment at pace, and all of a sudden my legs turned to jelly, my HR jumped up and I felt pretty bad. I slowed down a little bit to get my HR and breathing back under control, but it took about half a mile to get back into the groove again. I’m not sure why I felt so bad pretty much out of the blue.

Saturday was an easy run. I had toyed with the idea of running a bit longer to boost my pathetically low mileage figure for this week, but sanity prevailed and I just ran an easy short effort. Mileage totals mean diddly squat on their own, and it’s not worth compromising your real workouts by running to exhaustion on what should be an easy day. Having said that, despite all the goodwill I could muster to run easily, my HR on that run was way too high. I was left scratching my head when I saw the figures on the Garmin. Sure, I had run a bit faster than I probably should have on an easy day, but I would not have expected the average HR to be in the 150s. I presume it means that I’m still not entirely over whatever illness had struck me last week. This actually ties in with the kids’ recovery from the same infection. Even after recovering from the worst they weren’t quite right for at least a week afterwards, and I’m apparently following the same pattern. On the plus side, they seem right as rain by now, and I expect to feel a lot better a week from now. If I don’t, I’ll seriously have to think about resting for a few days, like it or not.

After Saturday’s HR reading I wasn’t sure if I would be able to survive a 30/30 workout today. I programmed the Garmin for 25 repeats, but gave myself permission to bail out at any time. During the warm-up my fears seemed the get confirmed, as soon as I tried to increase the effort above a certain base level my HR would jump by a much higher margin than normal, even though my legs and lungs felt fine. After a bit of hesitation I started into the first 30 seconds sprint after all, taking it a bit easier for the first few repeats and hanging on for dear life from the halfway point. During the repeats it seems to help to count my breaths. This passes the time and it seems to ensure that I inhale deeply rather than hyperventilating my way through the workout. But there is no denying that it is a tough workout. I hung on towards the end, the 30 seconds rest breaks seemingly getting shorter and shorter; I was still gasping for air when the watch’s merciless beeps commenced for the next time. I survived to tell the tale and managed all 25 repeats at an average pace of 5:49. That’s marginally slower than a fortnight ago, but faster than expected in my compromised state. The average HR had gone over 180 on the last few intervals, and I couldn’t have done much more.

Looking at the training schedule, this should have been the last week of my hills phase. Since I have basically lost 2 weeks to illness I decided to extend that phase by a week before moving on to the anaerobic phase. Most of all, I hope to be over the after effects of that sickness by then. Ballycotton is in 3 weeks, and Grellan will humiliate me if I’m not in shape.

13 Feb

10.5 miles, 1:17:56, 7:25 pace, HR 159
incl. 8.5 miles @ 7:09 pace (HR 163)

14 Feb

8.3 miles, 1:05:31, 7:54 pace, HR 151

15 Feb

8.2 miles, 1:02:24, 7:36 pace, HR 162
incl 25x30/30 (5:49 avg)

Weekly Mileage: 55+

Kneeling Punishment

After running four cautious miles on Monday I had a pretty normal day back in the office. I could tell I wasn’t 100% recovered yet, but I felt well enough. When it was time to go home, my knees felt strangely stiff, which I couldn’t quite explain, but it didn’t particularly bother me.

It only hit me later back home when I tried to kneel down to fold away the laundry. As soon as I put weight on my knees an excruciating pain shot through both my legs that quite literally took my breath away. I managed to get into a tolerable sitting position, but that was one of the most brutal pains I’ve ever had to endure. You might think I’d learned my lesson, but I had to go through the same thing once more. It’s not unusual for one of us to be crying when I’m changing Maia’s nappy, but normally it is her, not me.

I can’t explain where that came from. I checked both my knees for swelling, but since it happened to both to them simultaneously I could not compare them to what they usually looked line, and there was no obvious deformation. I felt rather stiff when walking, but it was only when kneeling down that it actually hurt – and then it really, really hurt!

Going out for a run on Tuesday morning seemed a bad idea, but I did it anyway, just to test the waters. I felt rather stiff and awkward for the first 10 steps, and then the legs just relaxed and I didn’t even notice anything wrong. How weird is that, not that I was complaining at the time. I thought I only had time for four miles again, but eventually realised that I had inadvertently gotten up at 6 o’clock rather than 7, because I’m so used to getting up at the earlier time. As a result I stayed out for 6 easy miles, and then had half an hour of cuddles with Maia who was awake and chirpy when I came back home to a still dark and otherwise quiet house. I might have lost some sleep, but it was a nice start to the day anyway.

On Tuesday evening I decided there was indeed some swelling just above the knee caps and did some icing. This brought on some improvement because on Wednesday morning the stiffness had more or less gone, and the running was definitely unaffected. I cautiously increased the mileage again to 8 and took it easy until the last 2 miles when I sped up a little bit. It was supposed to be a nice day, but it was raining and I felt rather cold.

Today, Thursday, after some more ice, I can actually kneel down again without screaming out loud, but there is still some discomfort. At least I manage to get in and out of a chair without groaning, which is a good thing in an office environment, really. I ran 10 miles, and felt rather hot at first with my running tights and long sleeves. But this attire proved to be a good choice after all when it started raining again at mile 4 and never stopped. The run was fine, and while it was still markedly slower than before my illness, my legs are improving by the day. If I feel adventurous, I might try some MP miles tomorrow.

My lungs aren’t entirely fine yet, which I can tell easily on any uphill. I’m a bit paranoid about that since my pneumonia last year, but as long as I’m improving from day to day I can’t see much wrong. The knee issue is just weird and I can’t explain where it came from. Both knees got equally affected at the same time, and the entire episode started without warning. Maybe the illness last week caused some fluid to gather somewhere, but if that’s true and if so why, I haven’t got a clue. But just like the lungs, as long as the situation keeps improving, I won’t be too worried.

10 Feb

6 miles, 52:12, 8:42 pace, HR 139

11 Feb

8 miles, 1:05:18, 8:10 pace, HR 144

12 Feb

10.1 miles, 1:22:03, 8:07 pace, HR 146

De-Training Update

I have felt different every day since my last post, and the progress has not been entirely straightforward.

On Saturday morning I awoke with the bedclothes drenched in sweat, but feeling a world better. I was almost ready to go running again, but not quite. The vast improvement was well timed, because it was the first day of the twins’ day in the gifted kids education program, which meant that Niamh would be in Cork for most of the day with them and I would be looking after Cian and Maia on my own. I managed reasonably well, but by 4 o’clock my energy levels were dropping fast and I was counting down the minutes until their return. I just about managed to gather enough energy to cook dinner, but that was it. After that I was out for the count.

Sunday was the other way round. I felt like crap in the morning, which disappointed me. After feeling so much better on Saturday morning I had hoped for some improvement on Sunday, maybe even enough to sneak a short run. That was completely out, and I just spent the day resting as much as I could. Somehow this seemed to do the trick, and by the evening I somehow felt completely recovered. By now I had missed 5 days of running, and I was beginning to worry about my training, but resolved to ignore those worries and only go running if I felt comfortable about it.

Another early night got me more long hours of sleep, and when I woke at 6 am on Monday I felt really good. Apart from lifting Maia out of her cot and giving her a bottle I stayed in bed for almost another hour, but then, pretty much at the spur of the moment, I put on some running clothes and headed out.

I took it very easy, but the quads felt like I was doing a hard tempo run. The HR itself was low, which had been my main worry. I started feeling fatigued after 2 miles and turned around, but recovered on the run and was fine for the rest of the way home. I can’t complain, I made it through 4+ miles without feeling I was overdoing it, but I wonder how long it will take to regain the level I’d reached a week ago just as the sickness started hitting.

I might keep on running over the next few days, depending on how I feel, but I won’t be training just yet. Anything more than a few miles at easy effort is out of the question presently.

There’s one more story I really feel I should mention. I generally keep a close eye on my weight, and weigh myself most days. For some unknown reason on Thursday I stepped on the scales twice, once in the morning and once in the evening. That day I had spent on a training course and got through it by taking the maximum recommended number of ibuprofen tablets (six) over 24 hours. Anyway, my weight in the morning was 147 pounds, and in the evening it had gone up to 153(!). After a night filled with one trip to the bathroom after another I was back down to 147 on Friday morning. It was only later on that I remembered that NSAIDs, including ibuprofen, have an effect on your kidneys, and that in fact renal failure is not unknown. I know you naturally weigh more in the evening, but 6 pounds is excessive. It scared me off those little white pills for good, I think. I know of several runners who pop them like candy at times. I think they should be a lot more careful.

7 Feb

0

8 Feb

0

9 Feb

4.1 miles, 36:16, 8:51 pace, HR 137

... and Now for the Downer

I guess it was only a matter of time. About a week ago I noticed that Maia and me were the only healthy members in the household. Over the weekend, Maia joined to other side and on Wednesday it was finally my turn. I did notice a sore throat on Tuesday evening, “uh-oh”, and the suspicions were realised during a rather bad night. Now I know why Maia was screaming hysterically, though I managed to keep my self in somewhat better control.

Niamh tried to talk me out of running in the morning which was a completely wasted effort because running was the last thing on my mind. I stayed home from work, and I fact slept almost the entire morning, and still rested some more in the afternoon. On Thursday I WOULD have stayed at home had this been a normal working day, but it was the second day of a 3 day-seminar (each day a week apart) which I really did not want to miss. I got through it by taking a couple of ibuprofen every few hours, something I usually abhor. It was the same every time, the pills would take about an hour to really kick in, then I would feel almost ok for 2 or three hours, and then the downfall came until the next dose kicked in.

Today I’m just staying home again, recuperating. So far I haven’t run for 3 days and I’m pretty sure my lay-off will be longer than that. The mere fact that I really do NOT want to go running at the moment speaks volumes about how I feel. I will see how long I’m out of commission for, and then re-evaluate the rest of my training.

On the plus side I much rather have this happen to me now than in April. A few days off now won’t have much effect, and maybe the enforced rest will be good for my legs. I’m a bit worried about the duration of this illness, because all the kids were still coughing for quite some time after the first outbreak. Out of curiosity, I measured my resting HR this morning. My lowest ever reading was 38, before the Dublin marathon. Around Christmas it was 41, and the last two weeks it was 43 (probably a sign that I was already fighting off some infection). Today it was 69 – quite some jump, don’t you think? Not that I needed the number to confirm my decision to rest, I was merely curious.

One more plus, I finally found the time to cobble together some bits of Maia videos that have been on my hard drive for a bit. Don’t expect a masterpiece, but I like it anyway.

4 Feb

0

5 Feb

0

6 Feb

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Things Are Getting Better

I really managed to surprise myself on Monday. I expected a reasonably slow run after Sunday’s tough 30/30 session, but as soon as I took my first step I felt surprisingly good. Even though I managed to avoid peeking at the Garmin I could tell that I was moving well, the big climbs felt flatter and shorter than in previous weeks, and by the time I took a first look at the Garmin (I had to, for pressing the “lap” button) at mile 11 I was already doing under 8:00 pace. That’s when I started to accelerate, like I usually do towards the end of my long runs. Last month I managed 7:24 pace for those last few miles, last week it was down to 7:11, but yesterday I blew my own times out of the water with a 6:48! That was definitely the best “strong finish” I have ever put at the end of a run, better than anything before the Dublin marathon when I felt in really good shape. I also think that it was my fastest time on the Caragh Lake loop ever, but to be honest I didn’t go back and check. Of course, with 11 weeks to go I’m still far away from the marathon and I do hope that I’m not peaking early. I will take notes from this training cycle in the hope to be better at timing my peak next time round; not that I’m complaining. Running fast beats running slowly hands down in the fun department.

The weather provided an unexpected bonus. While most of Western Europe, including the eastern half of this island, is disappearing under a blanket of snow, I got a beautiful clear sky with crisp fresh air, basically my favourite running conditions. I tried not to get too distracted by the millions of starts overhead, but at one stage I witnessed the brightest shooting star I have ever seen. It was up there for many seconds and seemed to explode into plenty of little ones at the end. I did make a wish to that spectacular celestial firework, but of course I can’t tell you.

I took it much easier today, especially after a very rough night with Maia. She was sick and miserable on Sunday and seemed to slowly perk up on Monday only to develop into the baby from hell towards the evening, with hysterical screaming and two parents slowly reaching the end of their tether. By the time she fell asleep, probably from exhaustion, I was more than ready to join her.

Anyway, the snow clouds have put out some tentative feelers towards Kerry, but we got no more than a sprinkling on the fields and driveways. The road was clear, and while I was out running the precipitation slowly turned from snow to sleet to rain, leaving behind a rather frozen runner who was only too glad to be home again. I cut it short by a mile, because the promise of a warm radiator turned out to be too tempting.

At work I probably got put into the “nutcase” category for cycling today, but I guess I was in there all along.

2 Feb

15 miles, 1:53:12, 7:32 pace, HR 152
incl. 4 miles @ 6:48

3 Feb

9 miles, 1:11:51, 7:59 pace, HR 142

Don't Panic

Twice in the last week I got a jolt of fear. The first time was when I heard that the Boston Marathon registration had closed a few days ago. For a split second I panicked about having messed up royally until I realised that I had signed up months ago, and everything was fine. I just hope all of you who planned on running it have done the same – otherwise it’s too late and your plans will have to change.

The second time was this morning at 11 o’clock when I realised that Maia was still asleep. She had woken at 5:30, and I brought her into our bed where she fell back asleep again. She woke a second time at 8 o’clock, and I gave her a bottle and put her back down into her own cot. Three hours later she was still asleep, having already slept for 15 hours, which she has never done before. I had to check if she was still breathing, which thankfully she was. She is presently fighting off an infection, which makes her sleep so much. The entire rest of the family except myself are coughing and spluttering, though the worst seems to be behind us. I’m the only one who is unaffected. For all the talk about running suppressing your immune system, I don’t believe it. Having said that, I managed a lot of sleep over the weekend myself, over 8.5 hours both nights. That’s definitely more than usual.

Yesterday’s run was another uneventful easy one. I was a bit cold in my t-shirt, and maybe long sleeves would have been the better option, but it turned into a beautiful day later on, with plenty of sunshine and warmer temperatures. We have been starved of sunlight around here, and everyone really enjoyed the break.

Today’s workout was a different matter, Sunday is definitely developing into the most exhausting day of the week; the 30/30 workouts are somewhat strange. On one hand, 30 seconds of effort is short enough so that you always feel you can do at least one more. On the other hand, 30 seconds of rest are so short that you’re still gasping for air at the end of it. Anyway, I started struggling after barely half of the repeats but kept at it. The toughest part was at the same spot where I gave up last week, after 3 or 4 uphill repeats against a headwind. However, this time I managed to keep going and was surprised how much easier they became once I had left the gradient behind me. I managed all 25 repeats, albeit a tad slower than last week. There was always the little voice in my head that I could run them just a bit harder, the same one that had admonished me during Wednesday’s hill workout. As I said, in training you always find you can push a little bit harder, no matter how much you’re pushing it already. Then again, pushing as hard as you can isn’t the best way either. All in all I'm happy with my training, and I’m reasonably certain I’m still improving and Boston will see me in better shape than ever before.

31 Jan

10 miles, 1:21:02, 8:06 pace, HR 139

1 Feb

8 miles, 59:00, 7:23 pace, HR 157
incl. 25x30/30 (5:46 avg)

Weekly Mileage: 74
January Mileage: 359+

This Better Be Worth It

Maybe I should not call this the hill phase, as I’m only doing one hill workout a week. I might do 2 next week, but haven’t decided yet. That’s not to say that I’m taking it easy. Far from it. I’m far more tired than I was during my 85+ mile weeks. Running fast is exhausting, who would have thought!

Wednesday I headed for the hills again, in what was basically a repeat of last week’s workout. The first things I noted as soon as I left the house were the tired legs. I wondered if there was any point in even attempting that workout. I could have run easily again and done the hills on Thursday. However, if I get up in time for a longer workout but only end up running, say, 8 miles, I would have sacrificed half an hour of sleep for nothing. It’s probably not a very good reason for persevering with the original plan, but it was good enough for me.

The tempo part of the run wasn’t very good, there’s no denying. I ran 2.65 miles at an average pace of 6:47, 6 seconds per mile slower than last week, and if I had not kicked in for the last quarter mile the figures would have been even worse. The legs just were not cooperating. I tried to convince myself that the effort is more important than the pace, and that I might still get the same benefits out of the hill sprints. Well, I did the same all-out efforts up the same segment of hill. Of course, we humans only ever do true all-out efforts if a sabre toothed tiger or one of its relatives is chasing us, and when doing a simple training run then you always find you can push some more, no matter how hard you’re already trying. I did notice that the max HR at the top was 2-3 beats lower than last week, but I cannot say for sure if I ran less hard or if it was the result of my body already adapting to that sort of training. The positive thing was that I managed 9 repeats compared to 7 last week, but next time I will definitely try to extend the hill sprints to 60 seconds, even though I generally feel like collapsing after 45 seconds. As I said, I’ll try.

Thursday was an easy day, slightly hampered by the awful conditions. The wind and rain was enough to make me do 2 out-and-back runs to Ard-na-Sidhe rather than run alongside Caragh Lake. The legs, especially the quads, felt very stiff and heavy. Once again I was glad to be back home 81 minutes after leaving. I wonder how I managed to go out for a second loop, because the temptation to call it quits halfway through was definitely there. Maybe it was the urge not to have sacrificed sleep needlessly again.

Last Friday I had done a marathon effort workout and I decided to repeat that today, but to extend the fast section. I warmed up for the first 1.5 miles, then ran 8.5 miles at marathon effort, with half a mile to cool down at the end. I felt very good initially, but that was when the wind was at my back. To nobody’s surprise the second half was a lot tougher, and my average pace didn’t hold up. I was a bit annoyed with myself because I kept losing focus and slowed down to 7:30 on more than one occasion. The HR was supposed to be in the low 160s, but the average ended up just below 160. Still, it was 5 seconds per mile faster than last week, which is not a bad improvement at all. I take that, and I know there is more where that came from.

28 Jan

10.5 milesm 1:27:11, 8:18 pace, HR 147
incl. 2.65 miles @ 6:47, 9x45sec hill sprints

29 Jan

10 miles, 1:21:01, 8:06 pace, HR 142

30 Jan

10.5 miles, 1:16:20, 7:16 pace, HR 155
incl. 8.5 miles @ 7:03 (159 HR)

Another Return

Running your long run on Monday morning has the disadvantage that your weeks starts awfully early. This week it started even earlier in the middle of the might with the not particularly task of changing a nappy of the truly fearful kind. Having accomplished that, I left a content baby in the care of her mother and set out on another customary loop around Caragh Lake.

There’s not much to say about that run, apart from the fact that I felt pretty good. After crossing over most of the hills I did speed up for the last 4 miles and managed an average pace of 7:11 on those. The idea is to get that down to 6:50 at the same effort level once the marathon approaches. The night sky was absolutely beautiful and I enjoyed looking at the stars, but unfortunately that didn’t hold for the day and I got completely and utterly soaked when cycling home from work in the evening.

Today was an easy day, and I managed to sleep for over 8 hours. Despite that I was still half asleep when I hit the road, and I was at least 2 miles down the road when I suddenly realised that today was my birthday. So, here I am, starting my last year in the general age group. Niamh asked me if I was dreading the approaching Big Four Zero, but I said I couldn’t wait moving into a new age group category, which caused plenty of eye rolling on her part.

The run wasn’t quite as funny, I was stiff and sore, especially in the quads, but during all the uphill segments the calves were just as unwilling. I guess Sunday's workout has left some belated marks. I didn’t check my pace and ended up doing almost exactly 8:00. But I was seriously glad to be home again after 10 miles; sometimes you feel better after a mile or two, but today I was just tired. Maybe it’s old age? Anyway, word in the family is that a surprise party is on the agenda - the kids aren’t very good at keeping secrets. But I assure you, I’ll be very surprised all the same.

26 Jan

15 miles, 1:57:48, 7:51 pace, HR 148
last 4 @7:11 pace

27 Jan

10 miles, 1:20:08. 8:01 pace, HR 140
39 today

Speed Matters

With 12 weeks to Boston, the time to start the fun and games has well and truly arrived, as Michael pointed out. Since I started my hill training this week, I’m right on schedule for the hard work. The thing that’s not quite going as planned is the speed I’m running all of a sudden.

And I’m talking about running faster than I normally do, not slower. I already noticed that on Thursday, when my easy run inadvertently was much faster than anticipated, without me realising it until afterwards. Pretty much the same happened on Saturday, but to an even greater extend. I came back from the 8 mile run with an average pace of 7:48, and when I checked the mile splits afterwards I could see that I had gotten faster with each mile until I ran 7:30 on the last, uphill mile. The thing is, I genuinely ran easily and I never pressed the pace, and the fairly low heart rate supports that point. But normally I would definitely not expect to run that kind of pace on an easy run so far ahead of the marathon. I did similar easy workouts before Dublin, but only in the final weeks before the race. I have three different theories. One, I might be reaching my peak far too early. That would be bad. Two, I might be on my way to a new level of fitness. That would be good. Or three, and maybe the most likely, the lower mileage this week left my legs in a much more rested state than in previous weeks and therefore able to run faster with a lower effort. Whatever it is, for the time being I’ll continue as planned; not that I have any alternative ideas anyway.

Today I was out again for another 30/30 workout, and I noticed a huge improvement to last week. It wasn’t easy. I had planned up to 25, and I started labouring hard after about the ninth one; the chart does indeed show a marked increase in the heart rate from that point onward. I kept going on, and by the 18th I pretty much had enough. I kept going on for 4 more, but after the 22nd I was so exhausted that I felt like collapsing at the road side and called it a day. The fact that the last 3 had been slightly uphill and against a headwind didn’t make it any easier, I guess. Even though I felt utterly wiped out immediately after the repeats I recovered very quickly on the way home, enough to put in a bit of an effort over the last mile or two.

When Niamh asked how the run had been I said it might have been my best workout ever, because I had pushed myself harder than possibly ever before in training and yet recovered very quickly. The pace showed a marked improvement to last week’s 6:10, with an average pace of 5:44 for the fast segments. If I had stopped after 18 the average pace would have been 5:37. Maybe I should have left it then, but from a psychological viewpoint those last repeats were important. The coming week will pretty much mirror this one. But it will be yet another week closer to Boston!

24 Jan

8 miles, 1:02:33, 7:48 pace, HR 143

25 Jan

8 miles, 58:37, 7:20 pace, HR 161
incl. 21x30/30 (5:44 avg)

Weekly mileage: 71

Tick Tock

Is it just me or is time flying at the moment? Recently I noticed that my Boston countdown timer had gone beneath 100, and now we’re down to 86 already. Blimey! At that rate I’ll be at that starting line before long. Let’s get some training in beforehand, shall we?

My prediction that Thursday’s run would be very slow turned out to be wrong. My quads were sore from the hill sprints but much less than anticipated. I ran my 10 easy miles without looking at the Garmin, and was almost stunned when I saw the number at the end. I did not expect to have run under 8:00 pace, and the heart rate was higher than it should have been for a recovery run. Ideally I would have run slower, but honestly, I had no idea I was doing that pace. Maybe I should have checked the numbers of the Garmin while out on the road, but I tend to accelerate when I do that, not slow down.

My quads still felt ok this morning. When I wrote the schedule originally I had this as a time trial day, which do feature heavily in Lydiard’s training. But with hill sprints on Wednesday and a 30/30 workout on Sunday it felt unwise to run too fast today, so I decided to run a few miles at marathon effort. I deliberately said effort, not pace, because my pace at that effort level will hopefully come down over the next few weeks. The plan was to warm up for 3 miles, run 3-4 miles at marathon effort and cool down for the rest. I hit a small problem when my mind switched to autopilot and I cruised easily for 3.5 miles until I finally remembered what I had planned for today. When I belatedly accelerated, I felt pretty comfortable with a heart rate around 160. I still felt good after 3 miles at that and decided to keep it up for a bit longer. Because of the lopsided way I ran the workout I had to run against a headwind for the majority of the marathon effort, not that it was exceedingly windy today. When I finally switched to the cool down I had covered the previous 5.5 miles at an average pace of 7:08 and a heart rate of 160. The idea is to get this down to 6:50 pace by the time the marathon comes around. I felt pretty comfortable and could have gone on at that pace for much longer. I’ll repeat the same workout next week and see where that leaves me.

Life is rather more stressful at the moment than I would like it to be. The work situation isn’t exactly ideal, but I have learned to cope with that. At home things aren’t much easier, Cian has been quite sick the last few days, but so far nobody else has gotten it. Lola and Mummy are coughing, Maia seems to be ok, and Shea and me are definitely fine. This is the time of the year when the kids pick up lots of germs at school, but we tend to be healthier than most people around us. Let’s hope this will continue.

P.S. some guys were asking about the grade of my hill on Wednesday. The SportTracks chart says 8% which sounds about right, and I haven't got any other source for that info.

22 Jan

10 miles. 1:19:00, 7:54 pace, HR 145

23 Jan

10 miles, 1:14:25, 7:26 pace, HR 152
incl. 5.5 miles @ 7:08 pace with avg. HR 160

135 To 170 And Back

On Monday, the second phase of my Boston training cycle started with a long run. The first thing I noticed about this cycle is that the long run is no longer than 15 miles. Normally I would not class this as a long run (that starts at 18 miles), but I’m not going to argue with Ron Daws, he’s the expert and I’m following the prescribed workouts. 15 miles is still close to 2 hours of running for me, which may well be enough, especially at this stage.

Since 15 miles happens to be the length of the Caragh Lake loop this is my normal route. However, it was very windy on Monday, and when it started hail stoning during the second mile I decided not to head up into the hills but stay closer to home. I ran three different routes, and in the end they all added up to the required distance. I also got caught by the hail for a second time in one run, something that had never happened before (and hopefully will never again). The mixture of hail, snow and sleet created a thick layer of ice on the road which made for slippery conditions and put a stop to my plan of ending with a few strong miles. I simply did not have the footing to do so. I also let Niamh drive me to work; cycling would have been suicidal under those conditions. I even managed to get a lift home from work in the evening, which meant I didn’t have to add a second run that day.

Tuesday was an easy day. When setting the alarm I decided to cut the mileage from 10 to 8 and sleep a bit longer. However, Maia woke at 5:30 and since that got me out of bed anyway I decided to run 10 miles after all. I kept the effort easy, but was once again caught out by the hail, for the fourth time in 3 runs! At that time I was thoroughly pissed off with the weather conditions, but not in a position to do anything about it.

It got warmer today, which was proven by the fact that the precipitation came in the form of rain rather than hail. More importantly it was the day of my first hill workout. Last year I did them in the way Lydiard had described them, with high knees running and bounding. In no time at all I grew to loath that type of workout, and ended up skipping a few towards the end. With that still in memory I decided to try something different. I have just finished reading Running with the Legends, and the chapter about Rob the Castella describes his hill workouts. After a warm-up he would do 2-3 miles at tempo pace, followed by a jog to the next hill. There he would run the hill 8 times at a very strong effort. I quote from the book: “It is more important to run strongly and aggressively for a short hill than to go longer and lose form. … The greatest benefit comes from sprinting all-out at the start of a short, fairly steep hill, rather than running steadily and trying to sprint at the end”.

I followed this format; after 2 miles of warm-up I ran 2.5 miles at 6:41 pace, followed by a jog to a hill. I got slower and slower on that jog, not only to get more recovery but also out of apprehension of what was to come. Since this was my first try I decided to run as far as I felt I could and as often as I felt like and not worry too much about the numbers. Balls out effort on the hills it was. As it turned out, I ran 45 seconds on each repeat which was enough to get the HR from 135 to over 170, and in the anaerobic haze I promptly lost track of the count, but afterwards on the chart I counted 7 repeats. My legs were shot at the end, and the run home was a struggle, but I made it back in one piece. Cycling to work wasn’t easy either, but not as bad as cycling back home in the evening; the quads seemed to have turned into jelly during the day. I predict tomorrow to be a slow day.

19 Jan

15 miles, 1:56:53, 7:47 pace, HR 139

20 Jan

10 miles, 1:20:15, 8:02 pace, HR 140

21 Jan

10 miles, 1:20:16, 8:02 pace, HR 148
incl. 2.5 miles @ 6:41 and 7x45 secs hill sprints

Stormy Nights

We are just experiencing the worst storm of the winter so far, and the most important factor in running was to time your run in-between lulls, to ensure a safe return. Yesterday, Saturday, I was quite keen to get out early because the weather forecast had left us in no doubt that a serious storm front was on its way and expected to hit us by lunch time.

I set off on the Caragh Lake road initially, but the heavy wind changed my mind very quickly and I turned around towards the Ard-na-Sidhe road. I just about managed to resist temptation as I was passing our driveway, it would have been so easy to get back inside rather than battling the elements. Anyone seeing me out there would have thought I’m completely mad; but actually it wasn’t the worst weather I have ever run in by any means. 8 easy miles passed by fairly quickly. Considering that I had covered 19 miles on Friday, albeit in two runs, I felt surprisingly fresh. The most pleasing aspect of the run was the realisation that my dead-easy pace is zoning in on 8:00. There’s progress.

The storm did indeed come, and boy was I glad to be inside. Further north they apparently measured wind speed of over 100mph. Here it wasn’t as bad, but we did go past the 60mph point, and today there were a number of fallen trees on some remote roads. Luckily we got away without damage around here, but the storm outside was nothing in comparison to Hurricane Maia inside our walls. She woke at 1 am, just as I was drifting off to sleep, and kept us awake until 4:30! She just kept going and going, and didn’t take too well to us trying to get some sleep. Eventually I managed to rock her to sleep on my chest, but somehow she woke again less than 3 hours later, and that was the end of my night! At some stage during the night I made the final decision not to have any more children (Niamh has come to that conclusion 14 months ago. I’m just slow in catching up). Niamh managed to add a couple of hours sleep in the morning, but I didn’t. I predict an early night for myself.

Bleary eyed as I was, I did manage to get out for a run. For my speed work during this training cycle I’m trying something new, as described here and here. I ran one 30/30 workout last year and decided to give this a proper go. Once a week I’ll do one of those runs. I’m starting out with 30/30 (30 seconds fast, 30 seconds slow, that is), in a few weeks I’ll switch to 60/60, and closer to the marathon I’ll attempt 3min/5min. I believe this is compatible with Ron Daws’ training program. He gives plenty of options for speed training, including steady runs, 400s, or 200s. I only cover about 150m in 30 seconds, but I don’t think that’s a sticking point.

After a false start (it started hailstoning literally as I was leaving the house), I was on my way. (I still got a beaning later on). Today’s intervals were rather slow, about 6:10 pace on average, definitely slower that they’re supposed to be. Since this was my first attempt at that kind of workout, I’m not too worried. I expect to improve as the legs get used to that workout. In fact, this improvement is the entire point.

As Private once pointed out, I like to experiment a lot, and he’s absolutely right about that. This has backfired quite a few times (remember the Red Bull before the Dublin marathon? I do!), and this is yet another experiment. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I’ll see how it goes.

17 Jan

8.1 miles, 1:06:07, 8:09 pace, HR 135

18 Jan

8 miles, 1:01:12, 7:39 pace, HR 155
including 21x30/30

Weekly mileage: 87+

Odd

I sometimes forget that I ran a rather strenuous race on Sunday, but my legs tend to remind me very quickly. They say it takes about a day per mile raced to fully recover, and even though I usually feel recovered quicker than that, this week was definitely all about getting my strength back.

Wednesday’s fartlek was a case in point. I found this a much better way to get some faster miles under the belt than a prescribed set of mile repeats. I could increase the speed when I wanted to and take as much recovery in-between as I felt like. That way I managed to run fast at times and still feel ok at the end of the workout. In fact, even though the overall pace was nothing to be proud of, I was surprised to find that the pace had been the same as last Wednesday’s fartlek session (where I hadn’t felt particularly good). Overall, I was reasonably pleased with that run.

And since the weather was absolutely foul that day I got a lift from Niamh into work and ran home in the evening, as I always do when I get a lift. This meant over 17 miles for the day, which left me a bit tired for Thursday. The first mile was very slow but I felt better with each mile, and by the end running was fun again. Maybe the fact that it was a nice day helped in that regard.

Sadly, that was only a break between two storm systems, and the next one arrived over Kerry this morning just in time for my run. Somehow I managed to oversleep by a few minutes, which left me short of time and I decided to give the lap around Caragh Lake a miss. The fact that my stomach felt dodgy was another argument, because I didn’t want to stray too far away from home in that case. Add to that the strong wind and I had all the reasons to remain in the vicinity of the Ard-na-Sidhe road to get some shelter from the elements. Running back and forwards three times on the same stretch of road is not the most exciting way to accumulate miles, but on a day like that it would have to do. For the first time since Sunday's race I thought I felt some zip in the legs, but somehow the pace didn't quite reflect that. And of course I did the same “get-a-lift-to-work-and-run-home” spiel again, as dictated by the elements. The strange thing was that on the evening run I didn't even try to run fast, yet ended up with the fastest pace of the week. With the way I have organised things I run more miles during bad weather spells than during nice weeks. Something's odd here. Maybe it’s me.

14 Jan

am: 12.1 miles fartlek, 1:32:59, 7:41 pace, HR 145
pm: 5 miles, 39:15, 7:51 pace, HR 145

15 Jan

10 miles, 1:20:20, 8:02 pace, HR 141

16 Jan

am: 14 miles, 1:48:29, 7:45 pace, HR 142
pm: 5 miles

Mallow Photos

I found a few photos from Sunday’s race. The overhead shot (about 1 mile into the race) is as cool as it is unusual, and they didn’t even have to hire a helicopter for it. Brendan (22) and me (415) are running side-by-side, and Grellan (523) is not far behind. That’s when I still felt good of course. On the other photo, just before the finish, the strain of the last hour is clearly showing. I wasn’t even aware that it had started raining again at that point.

We were actually lucky with the weather. Sure, it was windy and we had some intermittent rain, but it really turned seriously nasty about an hour later, with torrential downpours and high winds. In light of that I did not expect to be able to cycle into work on Monday morning. When that happens I get a lift from Niamh into work and run the 5 miles home. Accordingly I cut my normal Monday long run from 18 miles to 15, otherwise I might end up with 23 combined miles the day after a race. Even I agree that that would be excessive.

I was caught by surprise when Monday morning turned out to sport a beautiful moonlight scenery with hardly a cloud in sight. By that time it was too late to change, because I had obviously set my alarm for just enough time for 15 miles, no more. Since the legs had been very stiff and tired on Sunday evening I expected to be very slow, but it went pretty well, actually. I regretted not having gone for the 18 miles, but changed my mind on the last mile when fatigue crept in all of a sudden, and was rather glad to be done. I also had John Walshe’s warning in mind; he advised me not to overdo the training when I chatted to him briefly after Sunday’s race.

I felt tired but ok for most of Monday, but towards the evening my appetite took off big time. After dinner I helped myself to a second helping, plus some chocolate. That didn’t satisfy me, and I ate some bread with cheese. Still being hungry, I devoured a bowl of cereal, and the hunger only abated after some more chocolate. Luckily I don’t believe in restricted calories when you’re training, or even racing.

With the legs still carrying the load of the race I expected to be very slow on today’s easy morning run. Again, I cut down the mileage, from 12 to 10, because of the weariness I had felt on Monday. I felt a lot better though, despite the worsening conditions. It started raining just as I left the house and shortly after the turnaround point I got caught in a hailstorm and had to endure a fairly painful few minutes. With the rain and wind it was rather freezing; long sleeves would have been the better option today. But what was remarkable was the vastly reduced heart rate. This is quite normal after a race, but the sheer amount of the drop surprised me. I checked through my logs, but unless I missed something I have never run even close to that pace at such a low HR. I’ll see how the training goes this week, but I think I’m already in good shape, aerobically. That’s good because on Monday the next phase of the training commences and the hills are calling.

12 Jan

15 miles, 2:02:18, 8:09 pace, HR 143

13 Jan

10 miles, 1:21:58, 8:12 pace, HR 134

Turbo Charged

When you’re new to racing you are pretty much going to PR in almost any race. Eventually this settles a bit, but for a while you are still in with a good shot at a PR at each race. This is exciting, and it’s easy to stay motivated. I’ve now been running for 4.5 years, and PRs are definitely no longer guaranteed. But from time to time you still manage to surprise yourself.

I slept really badly last night, and this time I blame the Full Moon. I often have troubles sleeping at that time of the month. Eventually I managed to doze off, but 6 hours later, at 7 o’clock, the kids woke and that was the end of the rest for me. I made the best of it, and after they had been fed and settled in front of the telly, I sneaked out for an easy 3 mile run, which has become my preferred way of starting race day.

I left for Mallow shortly before 10 and got there in good time. They were expecting over 500 runners, but the weather had turned nasty just in time for today’s race and I doubted they would be able to get that sort of number (I was wrong). The wind was at gale force strength and the rain came and went; but, as I said to Grellan and Brendan when I met them at the race HQ, I have run in worse conditions. My goal was to go under 65 minutes, 6:30 pace.

After a good warm-up we assembled at the start line. Grellan insisted he would be slow today, and wanted me to play rabbit for him rather then the other way round. I still thought he was kidding when the gun went, and we set off. After the customary weaving around the idiots who start way too far ahead we settled into about 6:20 pace, and I remarked to Brendan how it never ceases to amaze me how that pace can feel like jogging in a race when I am unable to hit it at training. Grellan was right at my shoulder at the first mile marker at 6:31, very much on pace. The course had been slightly uphill and got a bit steeper as we continued on, right into the headwind. The conditions were blustery, but so early in the race it didn’t bother me yet. We got our rewards from the elements after about 1.5 miles when we turned sharply left onto the main Cork road and had the wind at our back on a nice downhill stretch. I like downhills, and I always make up plenty of places, and accordingly I increased the pace noticeably. I passed Brendan, and a few other runners, and I kept trading places with an older gentleman, who Brendan later identified as Denis Carroll, whom I knew from looking at race results. Anyway, the pace dropped dramatically on that stretch. While the second mile had taken 6:32, the third was a blazingly fast 5:52, but with a 100 feet elevation drop as well as wind assisted. I felt great, and somehow managed to carry the momentum onwards even as we turned into the Killarney road, and left the downhill behind. The rest of the race would be fairly flat.

I kept passing plenty of runners with a 6:13 mile, and by now I was pretty sure I was going to get a substantial new PR. The wind started to become an annoyance again, and running on the shoulder of another runner didn’t seem to help, but I felt too good for that to really bother me. I never looked back and had no idea where Brendan and Grellan would be, but expected them to be a good bit behind. Imagine my surprise when Brendan suddenly appeared at my shoulder. I could only remark “I didn’t expect to see you here”, and then he was gone, leaving me in the dust. We continued westwards past the race course and a 6:25 mile brought me to the halfway mark at around 31:40, way ahead of schedule. Shortly afterwards we turned off the Killarney road, and the rest of the race would be on small country roads, something I’m rather familiar with. By now I was behind a trio of master runners, one of them Denis Carroll, and another one looking familiar from previous races. I kept as close to them as I could, and together we made up a couple of places. I felt good, but my left hamstring started tightening at that point. It has never really recovered from the Connemara Ultra last year, and tends to tighten up towards the end of races. Having said that, I don’t think it’s slowing me down.

Mile 6 at 6:24 was still reasonably quick, and I passed to 10k mark in about 39:15, which was faster than my 10k race on New Year’s Day! Of course I knew already that I was having a really good race, but that really drove home the message. At that point I decided to start the drive home. Despite the pace I was feeling reasonably comfortable, and it was time to go into the uncomfortable zone. I drew level with the trio ahead of me and started pulling away. Two of them responded, and we battled for another mile, which included a hill that explains the 6:30 pace, despite the increased effort. Eventually one of them fell back and the other one pulled ahead, and I tried in vain to keep up.

I could see Brendan quite some distance ahead of me, probably too far to catch. But I remembered the race in Ballycotton last year when he visibly started suffering towards the end. He had pace to burn but not the stamina to keep it up until the end, and with that in mind I started giving chase. The rest of the course was very level, and the increased effort started being reflected in the pace; it took me just 6:10 to reach the 8 mile point. It was clear that Brendan was having a much better day than in last year’s Ballycotton because he was picking up runner after runner, who shortly later got passed by me as well. I drew level with a guy in a red singlet who obviously didn’t like being passed because he responded with an impressive surge that took him away from me again. I drew closer again, and again he surged away. And once more. By now we had reached mile 9, again in 6:10. I’m rather persistent, and when I drew level for a fourth time he had nothing left to respond and finally I managed to get away from him. By now we are just half a mile from the finish, and I was maybe 10 steps behind Brendan. But now he started kicking for home himself, and with my legs aching badly from the last 2 miles’ effort I soon realised that I would not be able to catch him. On the opposite, he drew away from me as he started chasing a runner in front of him. I managed to gain one more place, and on the last hill towards the line I could hear steps approaching from behind, which made me squeeze the last ounce of strength out of my legs. I could see the clock approaching 1:03 and tried hard to stay under it, but crossed the line exactly at 1:03:00, which probably means they will round my final time up to 1:03:01 (update: correct). The last mile took 6:01.

Still, this was a PR by 3 minutes, and even though my old PR had been soft I would have been happy with a time 2 minutes slower, and certainly did not mind being beaten by Brendan by 8 seconds. Grellan, who arrived 3 minutes after us, remarked that McMillan’s calculator would probably have this as my best race ever, which I confirmed after returning home. Brendan was always the one with the natural pace, and now that he started building his endurance he is going to have a fantastic year ahead of him. My own prospects don’t look too shabby either, and if I can manage to build on today’s effort a sub-3 marathon might indeed be on the cards for 2009. Grellan is behind in his training, but I know that by the time Ballycotton comes along he will be tough to beat. Roll on the year!

10 Jan

6 miles, 47:44, 7:57 pace, HR 141

11 Jan

am: 3 miles, 25:08, 8:23 pace, HR 137
pm: 13.5 miles, including:
     Mallow 10 mile race, 1:03:01, 6:18 pace, HR 176

Weekly mileage: 87.6

Race Results: Brendan 63rd in 1:02:54, Thomas 66th in 1:03:01, Grellan 114th in 1:05:51