Guilty Pleasures

I know some people will find it hard to heat their homes and I know that some people will invariably get injured slipping on ice, but I simply cannot help it. I am just loving these conditions!

Maybe I'm completely deluded, but I feel perfectly balanced running on the road, including the icy bits. I tried to look into things like YakTrax, but found they are not suitable. The roads are not really covered, for most of it they are dry but with some icy patches that you have to take care on, and that’s not what those devices are developed for. So I just put on my shoes and head out. So far I’ve had no problems.

“Oh Dear, this is cold” was what came to my mind as I opened the door on Monday, though the actually words were slightly different, but let’s keep this blog clean for a change. -7C/20F is without a shadow of a doubt the coldest I have ever been running in, and you know what? It was just great! Maybe it’s subliminal memories from my childhood, but I could stay out in the cold all day. Give me that over the icy cold rain we normally get in November any time. Despite having to slow down on a few occasions to mind my footing, I was flying along the road, almost effortlessly. The temperatures must suit me; assuming that the HRM is correct I recorded yet another best on the HR/pace spreadsheet. In fact, on a couple of occasions I caught myself inadvertently doing sub-7 pace and put on the brakes to keep the effort nice and easy. Despite relaxing as much as I could I ended up with an average pace of 7:37.

The coach keeps reminding me that there is a lot of time left until the marathon and keeps urging me to stay on the relaxed side. Honestly, I keep doing that. An average HR of 140 is very much on the lower end of the scale and the perceived effort level was easy.

Of course, heart rate is not everything and that’s where the evaluation runs come in. Monday’s run doubled as a scouting session to find an ice-free flat half-mile stretch of road, because the road where I had done the last evaluation on was completely covered in ice. I found a good one, but rather far away from home. It meant 3.5 miles of warm-up, but it was the only stretch I could come up with. Apart from the distance from home it was perfect and I ended up going back-and forwards 4 times each way. The Garmin was set on alarm to help me keep the HR close to 161, which for some reason I needed a lot more often than last time round. I managed not to look at the pace numbers at all during the run, but I already knew that the change from last week was significant when I measured the recovery time to HR 130 – 32 seconds, compared to 38 a fortnight ago and 42 before that! Back home I finally looked up the pace figures and my jaw hit the floor. Check this out:

Here are the numbers from the last 3 evaluations:

Mile 1        6:40    6:44    6:44
Mile 2        6:55    7:07    6:57
Mile 3        7:14    7:26    6:59
Mile 4        7:16    7:36    7:02

Time to 130     42      42      38

And this is what I got today. Get your heads around this!

Mile 1        6:32 (HR 160)
Mile 2        6:38 (HR 162)
Mile 3        6:31 (HR 162)
Mile 4        6:41 (HR 161)

Time to 130     32

I’ll leave the interpretation of these figures to the coach and hope he won’t come back with “your Garmin must be faulty”. Just looking at this, I like what I see. By the way, the coach thinks my recent improvements might be down to me reaping the rewards from my ultra training this year rather than his own input. I think he is being overly modest.

I was quite surprised to see that I had run my highest monthly mileage of the year this November with 326. I had not aimed at setting a high mileage, nor has this month felt particularly tiring. Amazing!

29 Nov

10 miles, 1:16:08, 7:37 pace, HR 140

30 Nov

12 miles, 1:26:30, 7:13 pace, HR 147
incl. 4 miles evaluation:
   6:32, 6:38, 6:31, 6:41; 32 seconds to HR 130

Winter Wonderland

A few weeks ago the coach told me he wanted to see a faster Friday, a long Saturday and a medium long Sunday. The last 2 weeks there was a race that got in the way (so I raced on Saturday and ran long on Sunday instead) and this week was the first time I implemented this. I'm still building the mileage and the long runs are a bit shorter than they will be eventually, but I'm getting close.

To ensure I would enter this 3-day spell rested I took it easy on Thursday with only 8 miles on the book. It was a beautiful clear morning, but I was a bit worried about that very dark cloud I could make out in the moonlight. Luckily it seemed to move elsewhere and I did not get rained on. I still had a sore throat and during the day I did not feel 100%, but nowhere near as bad as Niamh had been. My heart rate was slightly elevated, which I mainly attribute to the body fighting off the infection.

I was looking forward to Friday and the opportunity to run a bit faster. There is no denying, running fast is more fun than running slowly. However, I did learn that there can be a drawback to running purely by feel. Since it was dark I didn't look a the Garmin at all (thanks for your comment, Rick!) and ran purely by feel, but as soon as I looked at the numbers back home I immediately knew I had goofed up. Running fast is relative and I was still to remain within certain parameters, with the heart rate not exceeding about 155 and the pace a bit slower than 7-minute pace. What I had done instead was 6:51 average pace and 161 average heart rate. While it is cool to run sub-3 marathon pace at this time of training already, this is exactly the type of effort that kept undermining my conditioning in previous training circles. The main thing about base training is not to run impressive workouts. It is to run consistently, day after day, and for that you need to recover from run to run. I was really annoyed with myself.

Most people (read everyone but me) use the weekend to catch up on sleep and have a rest. We, on the other hand, had to leave shortly after 9 o'clock to get the twins to their course in Tralee in time, so I ended up setting the alarm clock for 5:30. I was still in denial about my own madness by the time I hit the road.

I opened the door to a scene of Winter Wonderland, lit up by the moon. It was absolutely beautiful. Snow in Kerry in November? Now that is a new one! For the first time this winter I had to wear my tights, the temperatures were well under 0C. I encountered one car, right at the start, and then was entirely on my own for the next 2+ hours, not a soul to be seen or heard. The roads were fine, there was a sprinkling of snow when I hit the higher grounds and only Blackstone Bridge itself was icy, the rest was fine. Running 18 miles was easy, but I made doubly sure to run slowly, especially after Friday's cock-up.

The rest of the day was just mad busy, with the twins at their CTY course and Niamh at her own training course I first had the 2 younger ones and later all four of them to entertain on my own. Running 18 miles had been the easier part of the day by far.

We had even more snow overnight and by Sunday morning the roads were indeed icy. I ran the Cromane loop, and the two people that saw me while in their driveways did make a comment about me running in these conditions. I had to be careful on a couple of occasions when the ice covered the entire road surface, but made it home fine and without any incidents. I was not the slightest bit surprised to find that not even the main road had been treated by 10 o'clock. That's the kind of service we got used to last winter. After all, they are using our taxes to cover the billions of losses the fucking bankers have pissed away over the last few years. We can't expect them to spend any money on keeping the roads safe.

Whatever bugs had been threatening me seem to have been defeated and my resting heart rate this morning was a staggering 37. Only once have I seen a lower number, and that was shortly before a marathon. It's the lowest number I have ever seen in base training by far and another sign that the coach definitely has me on the right track.

25 Nov

8 miles, 1:00:54, 7:36 pace, HR 145

26 Nov

10 miles, 1:08:36, 6:51 pace, HR 161

27 Nov

18 miles, 2:23:15, 7:57 pace, HR 142

28 Nov

13 miles, 1:39:22, 7:38 pace, HR 144

Weekly Mileage: 81

A New Level

One problem with having a whole gang of kids at primary school level is the number of bugs they bring back home. Shea started coughing last week but was never too bad. This week it seemed to have caught all the females in the family as they were all complaining of a cold yesterday. I have been fine so far but I did wake this morning with a sore throat, so I might not escaped the general malaise. I’ll see how I feel in the coming days.

Getting sick would be a real shame because right now I’m feeling in absolutely incredible shape. Since it is dark in the mornings I can’t read the display on my Garmin while I'm running, so I’m “forced” to run be feel. On Monday I did not check the Garmin until after the run – and had a real WTF! moment, looking at the average heart rate (141) and pace (7:39). I went back through my running logs if I had ever run so fast at such a low heart rate and came up with one single workout, shortly before the 2008 Dublin marathon where I set my still-standing PB, but that was very much an isolated figure. The last few days have brought an entire set of these readings, absolutely unprecedented. The VDOT spreadsheet has me at level 57-58 (I would normally see myself at level 55), and all I had to do to get into this shape was to run easily! And it’s still only November! The funny thing is, the coach hasn’t even said all that much as far as direct training advice is concerned, most emails could be condensed into “run more and run slower”. The man is a genius! Things will get more complicated once I move into the next training phase, but looking at my running log is enough to get me seriously excited already. I am slowly starting to believe MC when he says I might be selling myself short aiming for a mere 2:59:59, though I would still be ecstatic if I ran exactly that.

Monday was a clear but freezing morning, the conditions I love most. My quads had been slightly sore after Sunday’s hilly long run so I took it very easy over 9 miles and was just flabbergasted when I saw the pace afterwards. I even suspected the HR of being wrong, but since the figure is not out of line with subsequent ones I have come round to believing them to be true. Since HR 141 is right at the lower end of the suggested effort level, I upped the pace for Tuesday, but not by much. I took one lesson from Monday; from now on I’m running in long sleeves rather than t-shirts, though I’m still in shorts until the temperatures drop below 0C. The effort was still on the easy side, so I was once more genuinely surprised by the numbers, having run 7:22 pace without once pressing the pace. I have run that fast numerous times before, but always classed that as a tempo run because of the effort required. It really feels like I have moved up a level. But I did discover that a low HR does not automatically equal low effort when my legs felt a bit stiff later on. My cardio system might be improving fast but my leg muscles are lagging behind. It is a clear reminder to be careful. The lesson so far, loud and clear, is that it is far better to err on the side of caution.

Not watching the news (far too depressing!) means I have missed the weather forecast, so I was completely taken by surprise by the miserable morning today. It was raining when I left, started again after 3 miles and then really started pouring after 10, just as I was passing our driveway on my way to a short second loop, tempting me to cut the run short but not succeeding. I got drenched and running in rain in those cold temperatures (about 4C/40F) is really uncomfortable. The HR/pace combination, still better than basically ever before, wasn’t quite as sweet as on the previous 2 days, maybe due to the less than perfect conditions or maybe the longer miles. I have noticed that my VDOT levels are lower on long run days, but since my long runs tend to be over much hillier roads than the shorter ones, I don’t take too much notice.

22 Nov

9 miles, 1:08:54, 7:39 pace, HR 142

23 Nov

10 miles, 1:13:56, 7:22 pace, HR 146

24 Nov

13 miles, 1:39:01, 7:37 pace, HR 144

A Kind Of Magic

After two weeks of at times atrocious weather, Saturday was much better than the weather forecast had predicted. Nobody was complaining, least of all the over 250 runners of the third race of Killarney's 5K race series. After once more dropping the twins off in Tralee I left for Killarney in time, arrived there with plenty to spare and, in contrast to last week, had time for a proper warm-up rather than a frantic sprint to the start.

I started a line or two further back than usual and made damn sure not to start as fast as normal, which of course meant I was way behind the people I usually run with. But within half a mile I was already overtaking people who had been overly optimistic at the start. One fella said afterwards "you started slowly and accelerated after half a kilometre, didn't you", but I don't think this was accurate, I merely tried to keep as even a pace as possible, which meant to increase the effort gradually all the way through. At times I was stuck behind a line of people spread across the road, but I always got by reasonably quickly. The mile splits were 6:15, 6:01, 6:14 and 5:34 pace for the (uphill!) finishing sprint, which pretty much tells you the entire story of the race. I'm surprised the second mile was as fast as that, otherwise I have no issues. The Garmin showed 3.12 miles at the end, slightly longer than last week's 3.10 at the exactly same course, and I'm pretty sure this is now an accurately measured 5K. In a few months I hope to be able to race properly again over the distance rather than having to keep the brakes on at all times (well, apart from the finish).

The Garmin said 6:08 average pace, when I uploaded the data into SportTracks it said 6:09 pace, and if you calculate 19:08 5K pace you get 6:10, so I claim to be within the confines the coach has set me, if only just. Just to show that I am definitely holding back, the average HR was again 175 (though I pushed it all the way to 188 at the sprint finish). When I raced the same course in February it was 179 and 180.

I woke on Sunday to a beautiful blue sky, but it was freezing cold. I got ready before anyone else in the house stirred and was out of the door at 8 o'clock. The roads were just as quiet, the conditions were absolutely perfect for running and I enjoyed it very much. I thought I was plodding along at a rather slow pace, but when I checked the Garmin upon arrival at the highest point of the course, just over 6 miles in, I realised that in actual fact I was going at a fairly decent pace. I didn't push the effort, just kept gliding along on autopilot, enjoying the peace and quiet of the remote Kerry countryside. There are not a lot of places any more where you can claim to be a mile or two miles from the nearest dwelling, but there are still some left around here and I enjoyed the solitude. I also enjoyed how good I felt and how easy running at 7:45 pace was. I was back home before I got tired, the emergency gel in my pocket went back into the cupboard unopened, and I was ready for the rest of the day. This involved the weekly shopping as well as taking the kids to the new Harry Potter movie (they could not possibly wait another day), and was basically just as hectic as a day in the office. Thank God for the 2 hours of relaxing peace and quiet and had gotten on the roads in the morning.

20 Nov

11.5 miles, including:
Killarney 5k, race 3. 19:08, 6:10 pace, HR 175, 29th place

21 Nov

16.5 miles, 2:07:52, 7:43 pace, HR 146

Weekly Mileage: 80+

Punctured

The good news is that the coach thinks the latest numbers from the evaluation were very good (“Your conditioning is improving at a steady rate at this level of effort”). The bad news is that as a result I'm confined to keep running slowly (“add more but not faster”). I exaggerate, of course. Running is always fun and I'm not exactly crawling along; all runs are under 8:00 pace. But the instructions are clear enough.

Actually, there is still my one opportunity for cheating on the slow running, namely the 5k race series in Killarney, the third race being tomorrow. Just as with the previous two races I have to run with the handbrake engaged, no faster than 6:10-6:15 pace. I'll try and NOT start out at 5:30 pace this time, which probably means I should start from further back and try not to get sucked into other people's suicidal starting pace.

I'm feeling very good at the moment, running always feels easy, which is at least partly related to the fact that under MC's tutelage so far I'm running easier than I would have done otherwise. The time for workouts will come (and I may well wish myself back to the easy phase when that happens). The one thing I need to change is the amount of sleep. I get up around 6 o'clock every morning and I rarely get 7 hours of sleep. That's unlikely to be sufficient in the long term and needs to change. The waking hours are fixed and I need to go to bed earlier.

Cycling to work has been well and truly challenging this week, and not just because it has been raining every day bar today. On Tuesday the wind was almost as strong as last Thursday, but the real problem was that it came from the side and each gust of wind literally blew me into the middle of the road. This was highly dangerous and I had to stop each time a car approached in order to ensure my safe arrival home. Luckily I am cycling on very quiet roads. The wind had died down by Wednesday morning but my good mood was shattered when I punctured a tire, still 1.5 miles away from the office. I dragged the bike to work and got a lift home from Niamh. That tube had only been there for a week, and when I tried to patch it in the evening I found a big hole, probably a nail. I put in a brand new tube, my last one. Imagine my surprise when that lasted not even 3 miles on Thursday morning. I was completely stunned, standing there by the road side, staring at my fourth flat tire in one week! As a result I have now switched back to my old bike, a cheap, crappy city bike with much wider rims, which should hopefully be more puncture resistant to all the grit that's over the road at this time of year. It's much less fun to cycle, takes longer and causes my back to hurt from the different, upright posture, but at least it got me in and out of work today without problems, which is more than can be said of the other bike.

I'm glad I'm a runner, not as cyclist. Seriously!

17 Nov

10 miles, 1:18:09, 7:48 pace, HR 144

18 Nov

12+ miles, 1:35:23, 7:55 pace, HR 143

19 Nov

10 miles, 1:18:49, 7:53 pace, HR 141

Evaluation Time

Is it really 2 weeks since my last evaluation? Time flies! At that rate, my next marathon will be around the corner before I can say “lactate threshold”.

I was surprisingly sore on Monday. I thought the double stress of a race (albeit at sub-max effort) on Saturday and 15 hilly miles on Sunday were to blame, but the coach attributes it mainly to not being recovered from Dublin yet. Obviously I took it easy on Monday; having said that, I felt much better once I was moving, the run went rather well and my heart rate continues to drop for comparable paces.

There might have been a small residue of soreness noticeable on Tuesday morning but I went ahead with the evaluation anyway. After all the grief you guys gave me last time I decided to change the venue and ran back-and forwards on a reasonably flat half-mile stretch of road. The flat part turned out to be a tad less than half a mile, so the 4-mile evaluation needed 8 u-turns rather than the planned 7, but that was hardly much of an issue. The point was, all 4 miles had the same conditions. The bar numbers are much better than on the previous 2 occasions, with the last mile “only” 18 seconds slower than the first one rather than almost a minute like 12 days ago. The recovery time to 130 was also significantly reduced, though I changed my method of measuring it: rather than frantically pressing buttons on my Garmin I used a second stopwatch, brought along specifically to measure the recovery time, so maybe the there’s a second difference due to the different measurement method. Anyway, I’m much happier with these figures:

6:44 (HR 161)
6:57 (HR 161)
6:59 (HR 161)
7:02 (HR 160); 38 seconds to HR 130

After finishing the evaluation I did another 5.5 miles at what seemed like fairly leisurely pace. I didn’t check my Garmin again until I was almost back home, by which time I realised that I had run just under 7:30 pace for that section without even knowing. After 4 miles of evaluation, 7:30 felt like jogging slowly.

Those evaluation workouts are fun. It’s the only time in training that I’m allowed to stretch the legs a bit and I’m actually looking forward to them each time. As far as workouts go, they are fairly easy. I could keep that effort for much, much longer; they are not stressful, just fun.

On a completely unrelated note, I let my inner geek run riot and just finished this after one week of work. The ground and tower took one evening. The sky took 6. It’s another form of endurance workout. And once it was done, I broke it up and put it back into the box. Just like marathons, the journey is the destination. And just like marathons, you can only do so many 1000 piece jigsaws in a year.

15 Nov

8 miles, 1:03:44, 7:58 pace, HR 140

16 Nov

12 miles, 1:27:54, 7:18 pace, HR 152
incl. 4 miles evaluation:
    6:44, 6:57, 6:59, 7:02; 38 seconds to HR 130

A Remarkably Accurate Song Title

T: “Niamh, you know the song by the Beautiful South? [starts singing (badly)] It could be Rotterdam or anywhere, Liverpool or Rome?”
N: “Yes ….”
T: “Well, which one would you choose?” [she’s gonna love this]
N: “…”
T: “except for Liverpool, say Barcelona” [she’s gonna melt any second now]
N: [rolls eyes] “I can see a marathon coming on …”
T: *sigh* [I guess she knows me by now]

The reason for this scene was a talk I had with Catriona from Feet First in Killarney about the local marathon that I had been hearing about, but not for quite a while. She said she would not do it unless it can be done really well, and due to lack of support it looks like it won’t be held until 2012. It’s a view I totally agree with, and in a way I’m relieved because it really sounds like the potential marathon is in very capable hands, and once it comes round it will be well worth participating.

The non-event for 2011 had not come entirely unexpected, and I had already scouted out some suitable replacements, hence my list for Niamh. For a minute I considered just giving her a destination rather than letting her choose, because I figured given the alternative options Rotterdam might not make the cut, and that’s supposed to be the fastest course. Then the family instincts won out. Apparently she's already checked flights for Barcelona, but she’s also mentioned Rome more than once. I’ll give her a week to decide. Rome is on the same weekend Killarney would have been, 20 March, while Barcelona is a fortnight earlier, which means the next training phases would have to be pushed forward by the same amount. For the time being base training is unaffected.

The reason I had the opportunity to talk to Catriona was the second race of the Killarney 5k series. I had cut it extremely fine. After dropping off the twins in Tralee for their course, Niamh and the two younger ones went to a play centre. This would have been fine, but Niamh insisted on getting a newspaper, which for some unfathomable reason took 15 minutes, which meant I left for Killarney 15 minutes later than I should have. I parked the car at the first reasonably suitable spot, ran to the race HQ to pick up the number (I’m pretty sure I was the last person to get a number), ran back to the car to get dressed and then ran to the start, all at a rather frantic pace, to arrive there at 10:59 for a 11:00 start, but it wasn’t quite as close as it sounds because this is Kerry and the race started the obligatory 5 minutes late.

The start was a bit confusing because cars kept coming down the road where we were supposed to be running. Normally a Garda car stops these from coming, but while there was indeed a Garda car there, it was stationed behind us rather than in front, which did not make much sense to me. Never mind, we went off, even if half of us seemed to be taken by surprise by the start.

My orders from the coach are to race no faster than 6:10 – 6:15 pace (or slower), which will allow my peak to be higher during the peaking phase, when it actually counts. Therefore I took it easy right from the start, and when I thought I was still going a little bit fast I relaxed even more. So what did I see on the Garmin when I checked it after the first quarter mile? 5:30. Oops! Time to relax a lot more.

A few people did go past me, but before the first mile was up I had started overtaking people myself, and that would continue all the way to the end as I kept my pace while everyone else slowed down. I could not resist a bit of trash talk when I caught up to Seamus (“come on you lazy b*st*rd, this is supposed to be a race”), for which he would have been entitled to give me a good kick up the arse, but either he managed to resist or he missed. Three weeks ago, at the first race of the series I had slowed down far too much in the second mile, this time I managed to hold my pace very well as I ran past runner after runner. I even had the strength for a good finishing kick, which isn’t easy on that wicked uphill finish. Normally I am already toast by the time I get there, this time I managed to tune into a whole new gear as I started hearing steps coming up from behind and instead of losing a place I gained one as I seemed to be flying up the hill.

My Garmin always used to show a slightly short course, but we were always told that it had been measured plenty of times. I (and a few others) noticed that for this race series the start had been moved back a bit. John Walshe told me that Catriona had re-measured the course, and the results speak for themselves. This means that my true 5k PB is probably about 15 seconds slower than what it says on the right-hand side of my web site, but since it’s been there for 2 years already I’m not going to change it. Instead I’ll just have to try and beat it one day.

Doing 15 miles today felt really good. I was a bit apprehensive beforehand, but as soon as I was on my way I felt great. Long runs are a great form of meditation. I can literally run for hours with hardly a conscious thought. It felt good to be back in that groove again, and the loop around Caragh Lake is just as scenic as ever.

13 Nov

10 miles, including:
Killarney 5k, race 2. 19:13, 6:11 pace, HR 175, 25th place

14 Nov

15 miles, 1:58:10, 7:52 pace, HR 148

Weekly Mileage: 75+

There Was A Storm After All

Wouldn’t you believe it, while the announced storm didn’t really happen at the weekend the weather made up for it yesterday, hitting us with winds of over 100km/h and if you don’t believe me, here’s proof. Cycling in those conditions is obviously not ideal, but I didn’t quite appreciate just how bad it was until I came out of a corner and that massive tractor on that narrow road seemed to fill my entire field of vision and for a second I thought that was it. Luckily he was stationary and I survived after all. Niamh was all set to collect me from work but conditions improved sufficiently for me to make my own way home, but cycling for 5 miles straight into a 60 km/h (38 mph) wind was, well, interesting.

Following the coach’s orders, the last two days were a bit slower than previously.

After feeling incredibly good on Wednesday it was back to earth on Thursday, but the atrocious conditions may well have played their part. Since I did not want to run back-and forwards on the same stretch of road for 12 miles I chose to avoid the Ard-na-Sidhe road but got reminded that there was a good reason why I tend to run there when the weather is bad, because running straight into a strong wind that belts heavy rain straight into your face really is as uncomfortable as it sounds. Still, you get a kick when you finish 12 miles in those conditions, knowing that everyone else was bunkering down. At least I do.

It was a bit calmer this morning, but I wasn’t too pleased to find it still raining when I stepped out of the house. I had been feeling great for quite a while, but today the legs were rather heavy and I took it easy. The wind was still a factor, but in contrast to yesterday running along Caragh Lake was tolerable. The legs might not have felt the most comfortable, but when I put the numbers into my newest toy, the VDOT spreadsheet, the resulting number was back to over 54, thanks to the low HR. Considering how tired I had felt early on, I had expected a lower number. What that means, or if it actually means anything, I don’t really know. There’s still a lot to be learnt.

There’s another 5k tomorrow in Killarney and while I’ll be there to run it I won’t be racing it. I’m still in my base training and not allowed to run all out. I’ll just try and have fun instead.

I eventually remembered that the Javelina Jundred 100-mile race had been held in Arizona on the same weekend as the Dublin marathon. The reason why I was interested in it was Ken Zamach, the guy I had shared much of the early miles with in Dingle back in September. Well, wouldn’t you know it, he had an absolute stormer of a race, finishing in fourth place, 3rd man. It did make me wonder, briefly, what I could do over such a distance. Running sub-20 should be well within my capabilities, but that’s where I stopped thinking. 2011 will be a marathon year and if I yearn too much after an Ultra I merely have to bear in mind what Dingle did to my Achilles. But it does answer Mike’s question if I got those Ultras out of my system for good, I suppose.

11 Nov

12+ miles, 1:34:55, 7:51 pace, HR 150

12 Nov

10 miles, 1:18:50, 7:53 pace, HR 144

Early Mornings

Well, the storm turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. I got a bit wet on Monday and there was a bit of wind, but I have run through much, much worse. I did let the weather forecast psyche me out and ran on the Ard-na-Sidhe road, which is my usual fall-back whenever the wind reaches gale force (or higher), but I could have run on the Caragh Lake road without problems.

The rain did cause an unexpected problem later on, though. I know the many pot holes on the road by heart and can do the slalom around them even in the dark (literally, when cycling home from work), but the rain must have opened up a nasty new one, big and deep, and the first I knew of it was last night when I felt a big bump on the bike, followed by some crunching metallic sound and then a hiss from both directions as both of my tyres gave up the ghost simultaneously. That was a major annoyance, still 1.5 miles away from home, but I made it home in one piece, if a bit delayed and I managed to fix the damage. I'm half tempted to bill the council for 2 inner tubes, though. The road has been in absolutely desperate condition since January's Big Freeze and nobody has ever bothered to fix it.

There was one problem with Monday's run, namely the fact that it took me longer than expected to get ready in the morning and by the time I was finally out of the door I only had time for 7 miles. For some reason I seem to have gotten really slow getting ready. It used to take no more than 15 minutes, now it is closer to 20. Maybe the rain outside wasn't particularly motivating, but I'm equally slow on clear mornings.

The wind actually picked up for Tuesday, which meant I was back on the Ard-na-Sidhe road. I tend to get rather familiar with that one-mile stretch of road during the winter. Doing 11 miles meant going back and forwards 4 times each. It got rather embarrassing at one stage when I passed the same person for the third time. He must have been wondering what that idiot was doing, running in the dark on the same stretch of road again and again.

Conditions had changed dramatically by this morning. Yesterday it had been 7C/45F degrees with 20mph wind and rain. This morning was crystal clear, -1C/30F degrees and absolutely no wind. I ran 10 miles via Killorglin, marvelling how well I was feeling. I got a major shock afterwards when looking at the average heart rate. I don't remember ever running 7:30 pace at a heart rate in the 140s and I cannot rule out some technical glitch with the heart rate monitor. But I did feel very good and the crisp conditions didn't do any harm either. But I am a bit sceptical about these figures. When I put them into a Jack-Daniels inspired spreadsheet, the VDOT value was almost 55 rather than around 52 for every other run over the last 7 days. You don't just jump 3 levels overnight, do you?

Anyway, according to the coach's instructions I've got to slow down a little bit and bump up the mileage: "One or two days at the upper end (7:30 pace), the rest of the week work on longer at an easier pace." It means getting up earlier, I guess.

8 Nov

7+ miles, 53:53, 7:38 pace, HR 152

9 Nov

11+ miles, 1:25:26, 7:42 pace, HR 150

10 Nov

10 miles, 1:14:57, 7:30 pace, HR 149

The Calm Before The Storm

The met office spent most of the last 2 days warning us about the impending “first major storm” of the winter. Lying in my bed last night it sure felt like it had arrived a day early, but listening to the wind howling outside right now I guess they were right after all, last night did not sound half as bad and the storm proper is yet to arrive. At least it gave us plenty of time to bring all the outside furniture into the shed for the winter months. As far as running is concerned, I guess it's time to suck it up.

After almost a week of agony I finally did something about my back. No, not going to to the doctor as Niamh had been nagging me to do, but googling for a cure. The one about keeping the affected area warm appealed to me the most and after judicious use of the hot water bottle (much to Niamh's disapproval), I can only call this a miracle cure. All of a sudden I feel much, much better.

Last week had been really stressful at work, something I can deal with very well normally but it really started to get to me towards the end. Having mostly finished the item that had been taking most of my time, things should hopefully improve next week.

I took it reasonably easy on Friday, running 9 miles along Caragh Lake. I can't even remember it now, so it can't have been particularly interesting. Saturday was a day for sleeping in for everyone but me; I had to get up at 6:45 to be able to run because I had to leave early to get the twins to Tralee for their CTY course. At least they chose the one course that was offered in Tralee or else we'd be driving to Cork every week, four times as far. By now this has become routine: I run in the morning, drive to Tralee, do the weekly shopping while they're there and drive them back home. This works fine but it feels like sacrificing half of my weekend. And the next two weekends will be different because instead of going shopping I will drive to Killarney to run a 5K instead. I did that in February and the timing works out beautifully as long as I don't hang around at either place.

Saturday's run was quite quick without really noticing until I was back home, which I take as a good sign. I added about 6 strides towards the end of it, which also brought the average pace down by about 5 seconds (and obviously increased the HR). Today was an easier version of last week's run through Cromane. A week ago this had been too much and too soon after the Dublin marathon, today I cut it by one mile, but felt much better anyway. I had a bit of a rough patch around mile 8 but managed to recover. 7:30 pace is starting to feel fairly comfortable. But I do remember that in summer of 2009 I used to run this loop at sub-7 pace on several occasions and I'm pretty far away from that shape right now. Then again I think the coach would say that's actually a good thing, so far out from the next race.

5 Nov

9 miles, 1:10:21, 7:49 pace, HR 146

6 Nov

10 miles, 1:14:30, 7:27 pace, HR 156
incl. 6 strides

7 Nov

12 miles, 1:30:19, 7:31 pace, HR 154

Weekly Mileage: 67.5

Evaluating Recovery

With the Dublin marathon out of the way I finally feel free to start “proper” base training, with no goal race for several months. I think recovery from Dublin has been going quite well. I felt better virtually every day and the figures do back me up on that: on Monday and Wednesday I ran the same course but was significantly faster (8:00 / 7:45 pace) 48 hours later even with a lower heart rate.

Of course, one single such data point is rather useless, and this morning I followed the coach’s orders and did another 4-mile evaluation. If you remember back, I first did this a fortnight ago a few days before the Dublin marathon. After listening to the wind howling outside for much of the night I was a bit apprehensive, but as always the actual conditions were much better than they seemed.

I did the evaluation on almost the same course as last time, but with a slightly different start point in an attempt to iron out some of the elevation figures. Of course, running being an outdoor sport, conditions will never be the same for two runs. While the wind was not as bad as it had seemed, I still had it on my back for the first 2 miles and as a head wind for the final 2. I again used the Garmin to beep whenever the heart rate would deviate, which worked quite well but I did notice a tendency to run at a higher effort when running against the wind and had to ease up on several occasions. In the end, each mile was run at exactly the same average heart rate, but all of them one single beat higher than what I aimed for . The bare figures come up as follows:

6:44 (HR 162, -30 ft, with wind)
7:04 (HR 162, -1 ft, with wind)
7:26 (HR 162, +1 ft, against wind)
7:36 (HR 162, +30 ft, against wind); 42 seconds to HR 130

The pace is about 10 seconds per mile slower than last time and the recovery time to 130 identical. I sure wished the pace would not slow so much over the 4 miles, but it's hard to say how much of that is down to fatigue (I certainly don't feel fatigued after those 4 miles) and how much to the road elevation and wind.

On more important matters, Maia celebrated her third birthday on Tuesday. She broke into floods of tears in the morning, did not want to be there, wanted to refuse all presents and told us in no uncertain terms to cancel the party, but eventually agreed to a compromise. She would accept presents and party but still be 2. Thankfully she eventually managed to overcome her reluctance to accept her new age, with all the burden of responsibility that come with it.

2 Nov

10 miles, 1:18:00, 7:48 pace, HR 154

3 Nov

8 miles, 1:02:01, 7:45 pace, HR 147

4 Nov

10.5 miles, 1:18:32, 7:29 pace, HR 155
incl. 4 miles evaluation:
    6:44, 7:04, 7:26, 7:36; 42 seconds to HR 130

Trick Or Treat

First the kids turned our house into a spooky mansion, then they set off to relieve the neighbours off their sweets. Even though this was made slightly awkward by the fact that little Maia was utterly terrified of Shea's mask, even though she knew it was him ("when he takes off his mask he will be my Shea again"), they succeeded on both counts and came home laden with treasure. Cian announced that Halloween is his second most favourite holiday, after Christmas but ahead of Summer and Easter. Naturally the evening turned into a "eat as many sweets as you can" party and they all refused dinner. Later that night Maia woke up crying and demanded another sweet party. Apart from the fact that it was pitch dark outside, she'd already had a pre-birthday party in Nana's house on Thursday and will have a birthday party on Tuesday, so we found this demand slightly unreasonable and eventually managed to get her back to bed. Oh the joys!

Turning back the clocks gives me one extra hour of light in the morning which means I don't need a headlamp but I pretty much forgot to take the opposite effect in the evenings into account and left for work without reflective clothing and a light source, which made the commute home far more dangerous than it should have been. Since this is my fourth winter of cycling to work you might have thought I would have caught on by now, but obviously not. I made it home in one piece and my first trip was to dig out the required gear. That should make things a lot better from now on, but the fact that a lot of drivers don't bother dipping their headlights for a mere cyclist remains an unsolved problem. They obviously have no clue just how much they are blinding me. I have a decent health insurance package but don't actually want to test it out.

The post-marathon soreness in the quads had disappeared by Friday but on Sunday I made a mistake and ran much too hard and probably too long as well. I set off feeling pretty good and did not check my Garmin until well after 3 miles when I saw a pace figure of 7:20 and immediately eased the effort, but probably not enough. By mile 11 I was pretty knackered and had enough but was still 2 miles away from home. I've just run a marathon, there really is no need to overdo it right now. Consequently I took it much easier this morning, running only 8 miles and at a much more sedate pace. It felt a lot easier, despite the windy conditions.

Talking about the marathon, apparently there are 30 seconds of footage of me in the extended highlights package. One of our pace team ran with a head camera and from what I've heard my attempts at whipping up crowd support on Nassau Street made it into the coverage. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to see it for myself. It will be repeated on Wednesday, but Niamh might not be too impressed if I subscribed to Setanta Ireland for an entire month just for an ego trip.

Running a marathon seems to miraculously have healed my achilles, I have not felt a beep from it since Tuesday. Unfortunately my back is more than making up for it, sitting in the office chair for several hours is pure agony. At least it's not a running injury!

31 Oct

13.1 miles, 1:39:10, 7:34 pace, HR 163

1 Nov

8 miles, 1:04:01, 8:00 pace, HR 147

Weekly Mileage: 70+

Child Prodigy #4

It was supposed to be bed time last night, but Maia has her own ideas and her parents have long learned that she is better at negotiating than them. When she instead demanded a marker for drawing, she got one. 5 minutes later she had produced this masterpiece (and no, Ewen, Rick and Grellan, the writing at the top is not hers). Keep in mind that she is still a few days shy of her third birthday. Her big sister used to produce a string of outstanding drawings for her age (well ... I think they were outstanding) but has since taken to reading and writing instead. It looks like her mother's artistic talent has made it into yet another offspring. And by the looks of it we're a very happy family. Not entirely sure about the head count though.

This week is all about recovering from the marathon. The legs still felt a bit sore on Thursday, which is why running from Stillorgan to Belfield probably wasn't the best route choice due to the downhills on the way there. Mea culpa; I still don't know South Dublin that well but I get reminded of how hilly it is on every visit there. The pace would have been a bit slower and the HR a bit lower had I not given in over the last mile and let the legs turn over a bit faster. I can't help it, running faster is more fun that running slowly, even 3 days after a marathon.

I had to get up reasonably early on Friday to run because we would be driving back home later that day. The clouds looked rather dark, but they had been doing that on the previous days as well. I had just reached the turnaround point when the heavens opened and I got thoroughly soaked. It was the first time in ages since I had to run in such heavy rain - probably since the Cork marathon in June. It was fun.

Unfortunately I hurt my back when loading the car. I should probably say I re-hurt it, because this is the third time in a year that this area is hurting. Sitting in the car for several hours didn't exactly help either and I'm still in pain today. Running doesn't seem to have any influence on the pain level; it doesn't aggravate it and it doesn't make it better either.

I did grumble having to get up at 6:30 this morning for my run. Niamh pointed out that strictly speaking I did not have to get up, but ask any runner and you will get a different opinion. It was very windy and I had to fight a nasty headwind all the way to the turnaround point, but got paid back handsomely on the way back home, which is why the pace was a good bit quicker than on previous days. It still felt reasonably easy. The rest of the day was spent in Tralee where the older 3 kids spent the entire day in various Halloween-related workshops, which went down very well indeed. On the way home I managed to track down seemingly the last pumpkin in Kerry for carving. Now if only the kids could agree on a design without fighting ...

28 Oct

7 miles, 57:57, 8:18 pace, HR 150

29 Oct

9.2 miles, 1:14:06, 8:03 pace, HR 153

30 Oct

10 miles, 1:18:03, 7:48 pace, HR 154

Pacer Times

To answer your question, Grellan and Rick, yes, I did carry that sign over the entire marathon distance. Since the handle was rather short, the sign itself was usually at head height, which was probably not the most visible place. I did hold it up high at times, but obviously not for long. My one feedback to the organisers was to get a bigger stick next year. It did come in handy for whipping up some support from the spectators over the last few miles though.

I'm not sure how I managed to misread the time on my watch at the halfway point, but I did. The official timer has me at 1:44:31, just like the two balloon-carrying pacing team mates had said. From a pacing point of view, that's bang on time.

For the record, my mile splits (originally from my Garmin but adjusted for the difference between 26.2 official and 26.49 Garmin miles), together with the average HR over 5 miles are:

8:26, 7:57, 7:53, 7:48, 7:59 (155)
8:07, 7:55, 7:51, 7:53, 7:48 (155)
7:49, 8:03, 7:48, 7:54, 7:51 (154)
8:06, 7:47, 7:48, 8:03, 8:08 (156)
8:05, 7:57, 8:04, 8:05, 7:56 (161)
8:05, change (168)

I thinks that's very consistent, but I definitely can't claim for it all to be my work, it was very much a team effort between the three of us. I found the rise in HR over the last 6 miles interesting. I think that's what triathlon coach Joe Friel calls decoupling.

The quads were surprisingly sore on Tuesday, at least I was surprised, Niamh was not. It was enough to convince me not to go running, which is the one thing that DID surprise Niamh. I'm better today, though. I did 4.5 very easy miles in the morning, and while the quads were still sore over the first mile, they loosened up quickly. Later in the day I managed to climb the 96 steps up (and down!) the tower from the Dublinia exhibition without wincing, which I felt was quite an achievement, albeit an unheralded one.

We were really lucky with the weather, the conditions on Monday were absolutely perfect for marathon running, cool and no wind. Tuesday would have been a lot worse with wind and rain and we had some of that today as well, but on Monday we were seriously spoiled.


I managed to find myself in the “official” videos (same site as the timing results), but only because I managed to spot the 3:30 sign. Good luck to anyone else! Another video was kindly posted on youtube, taken at the same spot as the photos in my race pace report (and by the same guy no less). The one thing that surprised me was the sheer size of our group; especially at the finish there are 10 times more runners than I remember. It shows just how many people were depending on us to get them home in time. Maybe it's a good thing that I was not aware of the real number – the pressure I felt to remain on pace at all times was big enough as it was. But having succeeded in our task, I think I can speak for every pacer out there on Monday, it was a great and very worthwhile experience and one I can highly recommend to other experienced runners. Running gets a bad rap from some people as a selfish form of entertainment (something I do not agree with at all – solitary does not mean selfish), and helping a sizable number of runners achieve their target is a good way to share.

26 Oct

0

27 Oct

4.5 miles, 38:55, 8:39 pace, HR 143

Almost Like A Pro

The ideal scenario would of course be to be a professional marathon runner, get put up in a swanky hotel for free, expenses paid, and get bussed right to the start. The next best thing is not to be a professional runner but still get put up in a swanky hotel with the same expenses and the same bus. The latter scenario has the added bonus of being able to bring your wife into the same swanky hotel along with you, which makes for a very happy wife. That second scenario came through for me today.

It also included 2 hours of work at the pace group stand on Sunday at the marathon Expo, which was just mad busy but great fun. As others have pointed out, there were maybe 1 or 2 people at the other stands, while at ours they were queuing three deep and more at times.

I was slightly worried if all that time on my feet would have a negative effect on Monday, added to the fact that I had not run over 15 miles since Dingle and run a 5k on Saturday. However, I was confident I would be ok. 4 years ago I had to pull out all the stops and dig deep to get me my first sub 3:30 marathon at this very course. Today I was looking forward to a relaxing run at the same pace.

The hotel was fine, though I struggle to understand what you get for 500 Euro a night; the room looked just like any other hotel room I have ever been in. I wasn't too impressed when 4 of us turned up at 7 o'clock for breakfast only to be told to wait 30 minutes for a table to be free. The only woman amongst us got rather annoyed and pointed out the many empty tables and that we'd rather share a table with someone else rather than having to wait for a pre-marathon breakfast, and within a minute we were all seated. I shared the table with one of the 4:00 pacers and had a great chat – much better than sitting on your own anyway.

Niamh was still asleep when I left. We gathered at the reception and got whisked away in a bus together with the elites, right into the elite pen. I saw one runner warming up, I'm pretty sure it was Aleksey Sokolov, the man who put Dublin on the map with the first sub 2:10 performance here 4 years ago. There were 3 of us for the 3:30 pace group, and 2 balloons and one sign. To the relief of the others I volunteered for the sign. I'm a sucker for punishment, obviously.

It was freezing cold, but I had brought some girly arm warmers (Ewen will love this) and a pair of fingerless gloves. Neither of which will ever make the height of fashion and neither will the compression socks and the compression shorts, but function comes before fashion over 26 miles and each item worked to perfection just as planned. I'd wear the same outfit again, even though I might have looked like I had just escaped from the gimp room.



We had a good group around us at the start, wished each other good luck and were off. The first mile was as congested as expected and we were about 20 seconds behind target, but there was no way around that. With the other 2 guys carrying massive balloons I felt like the fifth wheel with my much less obvious little sign as far as pacing was concerned, but there was a good vibe going on. One of us took over as cheer leader and each cry of “Come on the 3:30s!!!” got a great response.

By mile 4 we were back on time and I got told to watch my pace, so I dropped slightly behind the leading balloon. One woman runner attached herself to me and stuck very closely. She seemed determined to hang on for the rest of the 22 miles. When I asked her how she felt she said it still felt very easy, which was good, of course. A work colleague started chatting to me as well; I was surprised to find him at our pace, but he was doing perfectly fine.

The two balloon guys were running just a tad faster than I would have on my own and at one stage I started falling behind slightly, not much but maybe 10 seconds or so. Our orders were to run even pace throughout, so when the first real climb came after 9 miles it meant an increase in effort to keep the pace the same, and I caught up again with the others but seemed to have lost my shadow. I did not see her again after that; I hope she made it through without too many troubles. The balloons were reasonably close together most of the time but at one stage the front one seemed to pull away; I took it upon myself to catch up and shout a warning to watch the pace, which explains the spike in the pace graph at mile 10.

Normally when running a marathon you focus entirely on running and not much else. Today was completely different, I was constantly look around, scanning for the other guys, always checking the watch to keep on pace, at times encouraging the ones around me; the running itself was almost incidental, which is why they give you a pace band that is much easier than your normal race pace, I guess.

Apart from carrying my Garmin I used a cheap stopwatch as a backup, but that supposedly more reliable instrument died on me after about 10 miles. I think it must have pushed against the Garmin and the stop button got pressed inadvertently. From that moment on I was reliant on the Garmin alone – and my own feeling, of course.

I was pretty sure the time was about 1:44:10 when we passed the halfway mark which would be a little bit quick, but the two balloonists said it was closer to 1:44:25 (and they were slightly ahead of me at the time), which would be pretty much on time, but there was not much difference, to be honest. The next few miles ticked along nicely. The course is a bit undulating here but the people around us seemed to remain very constant, nobody was struggling. We added another task to our list of duties, namely to share around drinks of water; with the group being rather big there were always a few people who missed out at the drinks station and were very happy to share a bottle rather than go thirsty.

I started to notice my legs, especially the quads were getting uncomfortable, but as we were heading home I knew I would be able to stay on pace reasonably comfortable. Going under the viaduct at Milltown always reminds me of my first marathon, now already 6 years ago, when I blew up here and had to run/walk the final 8 miles under ever increasing pain. This time that climb was more a molehill than mountain. The last climb, up to Fosters Avenue, has seen many a runner falter, including myself. It was here where my sub-3 dream went off the rails 2 years ago, as I told my pacing colleague, only to remember that I had felt like sh*t last year as well. This time I was cruising along, still seemingly in second gear with loads to spare.

After cresting that hill, close to the 21 mile mark, is the road where I usually have my family waiting for me. Niamh was still in town but Nana had said she might be there, but as much as I scanned the sides, I could not spot them. Eventually I figured that Nana had decided not to drag them down here.

We were now on the way home. One fella, slightly struggling, asked me how far we had run yet and my Garmin said 22 miles which is what I told him. However, 2 minutes later we passed the actual 22 mile marker and I felt really bad for having misled him, however inadvertently. But it served as a very good reminder to keep the difference between the Garmin's miles and the official mile markers in mind.

For the first 22 or 23 miles, the people around us hardly changed. I was able to recognise the majority of runners in our group and there was little movement. But at that point it really changed. I realised that we had put in a rather slow mile, about 8:20 pace. Thing is, even as a pacer you still pace yourself off the people around you, and as they were slowing down, so were we. It was clear that we had to increase the effort just to keep the pace even from here, and as a result all of a sudden we were streaming past people, even though we were doing the same pace as before. I pretty much took over the pacing effort from here on. The balloon man told me afterwards that he really started to struggle here, to the point that he thought about pulling out completely, but he certainly betrayed no sign of that at the time. Instead he followed me about 10 seconds behind, with the other balloon a few seconds behind that. The kind of work required from us also changed and we turned more into cheer leaders, encouraging and cajouling everyone around us to increase the effort for the final push home in order to beat the 3:30 mark.

One guy later told me that he had been a good bit ahead of us and then could not believe how quickly we were catching up. It's in that stretch that the pacing job is at its most important, I guess. I don't know how many runners achieved a sub-3:30 because of us, but I'm sure it's a number in the dozens. We also got a few filthy looks and muttered curses from runners as we passed them. That's understandable, of course. They had been trying to stay ahead of us all the time and did not wish to be fall behind target.

My pacer sign came in handy here with the spectators who at that stage were standing several people deep. I waved it around to get people shouting, which worked a treat every time and I'm sure it was a massive boost to our charges. With half a mile to go it was time to urge everyone who still could to sprint ahead to the finish to get the best time they could. One guy in particular was struggling badly, hobbling almost on one leg as the other one was giving out and there he was having two pacers shouting at him from both sides to keep going. All credit to him! And then we passed the finish line, my Garmin displaying 3:29:11, the two balloons approximately 10 and 20 seconds behind me. Our brief was to run just under 3:30, so I declare this a success.

The best part was yet to come in the form of at least 30 runners coming up to us, thanking us for our efforts, sounding really grateful and emotional at times. Most of them had set a new PB, many had achieved a dream by running under 3:30 and it felt really good to have played a part in so many people's special day.

Eventually I got out, met up with Niamh and went to the hotel to have a shower and a chat with the other pacers. Then it was time to head back home. My achilles, which had been perfectly fine throughout the race, started hurting as we were walking to the bus, but calmed down as soon as I got off my feet again. I'll see how the recovery is going, but at this stage I think I did get away with it. I don't even feel sore – from one point of view it was just an extended training run, but from another it was a great day. I don't think it was my last day as a pacer.

Photos by Dave Bradshaw.

25 Oct

Dublin City Marathon, 3:29:11, 7:59 pace, HR 157

My Kind Of Taper

There was an interesting discussion in the comments section following the last entry. Keep it up, but remember: as MC said, this phase is all about recovery (just ignore the fact that I'm about to run another marathon).

While the vast majority of Monday's runners are hopefully taking it very easy, things weren't working out quite that way in our slightly manic household. Since Friday was the last day of school before break, there were no less than four separate Halloween school parties to attend, with the last 3 all overlapping, which required careful planning and precise execution for our one-car family, but we pulled it off. Maia went as a ballerina, Cian and Lola were both vampires and Shea, with his fable for unusual things, went as Skullduggery Pleasant (very cool!).

On Saturday we went to Dublin – with a few diversions. If you remember back to last year, there was a race series in Killarney National Park, which is being repeated this year. The first date was rather unfortunate, 2 days before the Dublin marathon, which would normally have ruled me out, but since I'm not racing in Dublin I got permission from both the wife and the coach to go ahead, as long as I took it easy. I was not to run faster than 6:10 – 6:15 pace, which I pretty much adhered to, apart from the very start where I had to put the breaks on rather sharpish. Unfortunately the Garmin went bonkers, showing paces from 2:30 to 11:00, neither of which sounded too convincing, so I was rather left to my own. I think I got it pretty much right on the first and last mile but the middle one was too slow as the runners around me slowed down and I inadvertently slowed down with them. In the end I crossed the line in a rather pedestrian 19:48 (results here), at least a minute slower than I would normally but hopefully with enough left in the tank to run a 3:30 marathon 48 hours later and not having jeopardised my base training.

We didn't exactly take the direct road to Dublin from there either because they just happened to have a Harry Potter workshop in Blackrock Castle in Cork and the kids were rather excited about the prospect, so we took a detour. They all graduated receiving their OWL certificates (no explanation needed for Harry Potter fans), and then we were finally on our way, arriving at about half past seven. Niamh's family found it hilarious that I had just run another race and that a marathon is apparently not enough for one weekend.

I have to spend two hours at the “Meet the Pacers” stand at the Expo today, then it's off to our hotel. There's a treat for everyone this weekend. The kids had Harry Potter, I'll have the marathon, Niamh will have a 5-star hotel. I don't expect any complaints.

22 Oct

5+ miles, 39:57, 7:58 pace, HR 145

23 Oct

5 miles, incl:
Killarney 5k, race 1, 19:48, 6:20 pace, HR 174

Evaluation

Since I do not have access to a running track, I had been racking my brain where I should run my 4 mile evaluation. 2 miles along the road to Killorglin seemed suitable; while there are a few very gentle ups and downs, it’s just about the flattest piece of road I could think of, apart from the main road where running is definitely not recommended. The strong wind on Tuesday made me reconsider because I figured it would invalidate the results if one half was with the wind and the other against it. The only alternative I could think of was the Ard-na-Sidhe road, but that’s quite twisty and features a hill in the middle, plus I would have to turn around ever mile. However, when it was almost perfectly wind still this morning I reverted back to my original route. After a warm-up of 2 miles I ran a further 2 miles towards town, then turned around and did the same in reverse. The target HR was 161 all the way through and I set the Garmin to beep whenever the number went below 159 or over 163. This worked reasonably well, it did not beep as often as I thought it would and I mostly managed to avoid looking at the pace reading (I did not want that to influence my effort).

The miles went off in 6:40 (HR 161, -51 ft), 6:55 (HR 162, -21 ft), 7:14 (HR 162, +21 ft), 7:16 (HR 162, +51 ft)

That's a lot more elevation change than I expected. I thought the first/last mile would have a difference of maybe 10 feet and the other one was very even. But this might not do, it makes it difficult to compare the individual miles and, you know, use them for fitness evaluation.

Then I came to a standstill to check how long it would take for my heart rate to return to 130. This would have been easier had I not mistaken the elevation figure for my heart rate, wondering why it did not come down. Thomas, you idiot! But the answer is 42 seconds. Anyway, after 15 minutes of easy running I launched into a set of 3 half-mile repeats, to be run between 3:10 and 3:20 but under strict instructions not to strain, and to start a new repeat every 5 minutes, which meant recovery between 1:40 and 1:50, accordingly. This went ok, 3:16, 3:12, 3:11, feeling reasonably comfortable all the way.

For some reason I had been really slow to get out of the house in the morning, taking almost half an hour compared to the usual 15-20 minutes, which left me short on time and I had to cut the cool-down rather short, less than a mile. Until I win the lottery or successfully rob a bank, I have to get to work on time, unfortunately.

Some scumbag (and for once I’m not using that term to describe a Man Un*ted supporter) seems to have gotten his hands on my (brand new!) credit card number. I just got a phone call, it had been used half a dozen times yesterday and only one of those transactions was genuine. They will send me a replacement card and I don’t think I will suffer financially, but it means I won’t have a credit card next week in Dublin, which really sucks. I hope they catch that swine, but I doubt it.

20 Oct

8 miles, 1:01:24, 7:41 pace, HR 148

21 Oct

10.2 miles, 1:16:22, 7:29 pace, HR 153
  w/u
  4 miles evaluation:
    6:40 (HR 161, -51 ft)
    6:55 (HR 162, -21 ft)
    7:14 (HR 162, +21 ft)
    7:16 (HR 162, +51 ft); 42 seconds to HR 130
  15 mins easy
  3x800
  c/d

Flexibility

I was just about to turn off the computer last night when I got an email from MC, telling me to postpone the evaluation until Thursday and turn it into a preparation run for Dublin. In the meantime I should just try and get more consistent from day to day.

There are many things about Lydiard’s training, one of them was his rating of ¼, ½ and ¾ efforts. In MC’s terms, a ¼ workout could be repeated the same day, a ½ workout could be done again the next day and a ¾ workout 2 days later. Lydiard also prescribed only one ¾ workout per week, and I think that’s what the coach was telling me to take into account. My faster runs (~7:15 pace) were at least ¾ effort, maybe more, considering how I felt on Friday, or maybe just right as per Sunday, but definitely too often. So I dialled the effort back to 7:45 this morning, which felt very easy and very enjoyable, even in today’s rather windy conditions. When training for Dingle my easy pace kept slowing from week to week, which may have been a sign of overtraining, but I still did not dare to deviate from the plan and cut the mileage of the long runs. Now I can feel this coming back to where I was before. Today felt easy and the HR confirmed that.

On Sunday I started feeling a weird pain on the outside of my left shin. It didn’t bother me while running but it did for the rest of the day. I felt the same on Monday and today. Normally I would put this down as a taper-induced phantom pain, but I’m not even tapering for Dublin. I still think this will go away again.

Probably my least favourite part of parenting is toilet training. After initially making good progress, Maia is steadfastly refusing to do her number twos into the potty. We tried a few things, but she seems to be most interested in the offer of a Peppa Pig toy once she’s done the business. However, there’s still no progress. Lately she managed to get Niamh to agree to 2 toys. And when she tried to bargain for 3 toys with me the other day, I started to suspect that she is not having a problem but merely driving a very hard bargain. She’s definitely better at haggling than either of her hapless parents, that much is clear already.

On the bright side, my gear for Dublin arrived today. I feel almost like a professional runner with the sponsored outfit.

18 Oct

6.2 miles, 50:21, 8:07 pace, HR 140
incl 4x100 strides

19 Oct

10 miles, 1:17:10, 7:43 pace, HR 149

Steady Progress

One thing that occurred to me yesterday is that following the coach's advice will require more brain power than simply following a printed training schedule. His program does not say things like Monday 10 miles, Tuesday 6 miles, and so on. Instead I have to fill in quite a few blanks myself, under guidance of course. Make no mistake, that is a good thing, enabling us to adapt the training depending on how it is going. But this is still very new to me and will require some time until I get used to it.

Friday's run did not go quite as well as expected. The two previous steady runs on Monday and Wednesday had seemingly been going very well, but it seemed to catch up with me on Friday and at the halfway point I realised that the same pace that had been fine on the previous two runs was too fast this time and I had to ease the effort on the way home. Even so I still ended up with a higher average HR.

That very evening I just happened to receive an email from MC, stating amongst other things, that “the base phase is more about recovery than hammering yourself into shape“, which hit home because there was definitely a lack of recovery (even at that comparatively low mileage I'm doing). Another factor might have been that this run was on the undulating road alongside Caragh Lake. I had been avoiding that road because the hills (especially the downhills) tended to aggravate my achilles. While I did not feel any twinges during the run or immediately afterwards, the area did become sore later that day.

In view of all that, a very relaxed 5-mile run was the most that seemed advisable on Saturday. Luckily, there was no further reaction from my achilles and my legs seemed to thank me for it, because on Sunday things felt much, much better. I was aiming for the same pace as on Monday or Wednesday again (around 7:13), but when I checked the Garmin after the first miles I was already doing 7:11, so I dialled back the effort a bit. Or so I thought – when I looked again after 3 miles the average pace was down to 7:04 and I was doing 6:30 right there and then. Time to really scale back the effort! What followed was a rather relaxed run through Killorglin, feeling very good in absolutely perfect running conditions (autumn can be fantastic that way), and eventually coming back home, the average pace having eased back to 7:12. One week ago I would have had to strain to run that pace, today it felt positively easy and the HR confirmed that, though I think that the main reason for the progress I'm seeing is the continuing recovery from the Dingle Ultra rather than anything I'm doing in training - which brings me back to MC's point about the base phase being more about recovery.

15 Oct

9 miles, 1:06:42, 7:24 pace, HR 159

16 Oct

5 miles, 39:24, 7:52 pace, HR 147

17 Oct

10 miles, 1:12:01, 7:12 pace, HR 155

Imagine Appropriate Headline Here

It looks like replacing the battery in my HR strap has sent the gremlins on their way again, at least the recent HR data looks believable. That’s good because I’ve got my first training plan from MC and it includes quite a few evaluation runs where I’m supposed to run at a specific heart rate for 4 miles and measure my pace at each mile. An accurate HR monitor is rather vital in that respect. The coach’s training program starts next week, with the first evaluation planned for Tuesday.

Maia is much better, thanks everyone for your sympathies. She informed me on Monday evening that she found her smile at the bottom of an ice cream tub, and several more bowls of ice cream have followed since. Any more and she’ll bite her tongue deliberately next time. She was absolutely ravenous on Monday, but has returned to her usual state by now. Little kids are amazingly resilient.

On a completely different note, the Chilean miners seem to have caught the world’s attention big time now that they have gone mainstream after being underground for so long [groan]. Niamh seems to pay particular attention to the one guy who had both his wife and his mistress waiting for him. She reckons he would have been better off staying where he was. There is an implied threat in that, of course. She’s clearly telling me that if I should ever be found having a mistress, I better pray for 2000 feet of solid rock between her and myself. But since I have no plans for taking up mining or a mistress, this has no practical application at the moment. (Actually, the cheating bastard seemed rather happy not to see his wife swinging a meat cleaver as he stepped out of the rescue capsule.)

Anyway, with my achilles improving on a daily basis I got a bit more daring on Tuesday and added a (very short) set of strides at the end of my run. That’s a much gentler introduction of fast paces than on my last attempt which ended so badly. I thought I could feel my achilles afterwards, but I’m not entirely sure if that was real or psychological.

Another steady run followed on Wednesday, which felt easier than a similar run on Monday, despite running virtually the same pace. I returned back to the Caragh Lake road for that one. Up to now I stayed away from that undulating road in order to protect my achilles, but I felt no twinge yesterday and thus will be back there again.

Today was easy again, still following the pattern of alternating easy and steady runs. Not much to say about that, but I picked up the pace on the last half mile; finally running 6:30 pace again put a massive smile on my face. I think I’m on my way back.

12 Oct

5 miles, 41:53, 8:23 pace, HR 134
incl. 4x100 strides

13 Oct

8 miles, 57:46, 7:13 pace, HR 158

14 Oct

6.1 miles, 48:09, 7:54 pace, HR 146
incl. 4x100 strides and a faster final half mile