Racing Weight

At the start of last 2011, I weighed about 150 pounds (10 st 10, 68 kg). After years of figuring things out, I finally managed to gradually drop that to about 145 pounds (10 st 5, 66 kg) by the end of the year, without dieting or any other silly stuff. My reward was a year of fantastic progress with new PBs all over the shop; while improved training has much to do with this, carrying fewer pounds had an impact as well, I am in no doubt.

I was hoping this trend would continue, but not much luck yet. The arrival of lent came as a welcome excuse to partake in this quaint ritual again, even though I am not religious. For the third year in a row I am cutting out processed sugar from my diet, with the lack of chocolate being a particularly tough cross to bear (and the fact that I ended up creating some great desserts the other night for the rest of the family was a particularly cruel twist of fate). Anyway, cutting out sugar has worked spectacularly well the last 2 years with the weight dropping off my frame quickly and effortlessly, but so far all I have to show for it are sugar cravings, not weight loss. Maybe I am just impatient, one week is nothing in the great scheme of things, but when you’re having cravings and the end of the slog is not anywhere in sight, a little bit of progress would be nice.

By the way, I have read the book of the same name. I found it a good read but not too helpful; I guess my weight was already too low and my diet disciplined enough for generic suggestions to be of much use.

Anyway, running is much more fun than dieting. Donadea is still in the legs but last week’s easy mileage helped a lot and recovery is going well. While I never was sore, there was a certain “heavy legs” feeling. That pretty much went away on Tuesday; the first 2 miles of that run were the same, then all of a sudden I felt better with each step and was flying on the way home. Running was fun again.

I won’t kid myself and pretend to be fully recovered. 50 km take a bit longer to get out of the system, but I felt sufficiently encouraged to try some sort of workout on Tuesday. The plan was mellow enough, just 12 miles at 7:15 pace, and despite the breezy conditions it felt so easy that I inadvertently overshot the target and ran 7:10 pace instead. No problem, that’s close enough and the legs are perfectly fine. Maybe the nice mornings are helping, it’s a nice change from all the rain we seemingly had all winter.

And of course it’s Ballycotton on Sunday. Maybe it’s not the best preparation for Connemara, 4 weeks later, but I can’t miss it, it has become too much a fixture in my calendar – despite me saying I would not do it again after my first time there.

27 Feb

8 miles, 1:03:34, 7:57 pace, HR 132

28 Feb

8 miles, 1:02:42, 7:50 pace, HR 136

29 Feb

12 miles, 1:25:57, 7:10 pace, HR 147

Long Overdue Update

I'm not sure if I ever left as much between updates of this blog - apologies! The main reason for the lack of updates is a distinct lack of news. I have been taking it very, very easy this week, and there simply isn't much to tell about a 5 mile jog.

I grew suspicious of the HRM figure displayed yesterday; while I had been taking it easy, the figure of 131 just seemed too low, especially as the pace had been (inadvertently) a good bit faster than on previous days. This was confirmed today. I was already in doubts when I saw a figure of 122 while cruising along, and when the number dropped to 100 on an uphill section it left no doubt. I hope a new battery in the chest strap will solve the problem. It has always done so in the past. Let's hope the new numbers won't be magnitudes higher than the previous ones.

All this leaves a doubt over any HR number in the recent past, but if past experience with a faulty HR strap is anything to go by, they should be okay until the last day or two. This would indicate that my cardiovascular system has already gotten a boost from Saturday's 50k while the legs are still in a kind of shock and will require more time until they bounce back.

I've had that wonderful "effortlessly-floating-over-the-tarmac" feeling on many runs of the past few weeks, but Donadea put a stop to that. It will take a while to return. But you do need to shock your system from time to time. That's how adaptation occurs. Six weeks should be just enough time to reap all the benefits for Connemara.

I'm starting to get excited about that race now. If recent training is anything to go by, I will have a stormer. Of course, you can never take anything for granted in an ultra.

Actually, there is still next week's Ballycotton, of course. It's probably not the ideal thing to do as far as Connemara is concerned, but Ballycotton is just way to big a day to ignore. Until last Saturday I was very much on course for a new PB there, but now all will depend on how quickly the legs can recover.

22 Feb

5 miles, 39:19, 7:51 pace, HR 134

23 Feb

5 miles, 40:31, 8:06 pace, HR 133

24 Feb

8 miles, 1:03:09, 7:53 pace, HR 134

25 Feb

8 miles, 1:00:49, 7:36 pace, HR 131 (???)

26 Feb

10 miles, 1:16:08, 7:36 pace, HR ???

Weekly Mileage: 46

Mmm, Pancakes

for me, that is, courtesy of Niamh. For you, more photos from Donadea, courtesy of Paul Daly.














I felt surprisingly sprightly on Sunday, so I didn't take any days off running after all. Instead I've been doing a short, very slow easy run every morning since the race. There is no soreness at all, but the legs do feel a bit heavy.

19 Feb

4 miles, 33:30, 8:22 pace, HR 129

20 Feb

5 miles, 41:55, 8:23 pace, HR 122

21 Feb

5 miles, 40:50, 8:10 pace, HR 130

A Grand Day Out

My biggest problem with the Irish 50K championship race in Donadea was not the fact that I would have to run 50 kilometres. It wasn't even the fact that I would have to recover quickly because of the Connemara race, my real goal, 6 weeks later. No, my biggest problem was how to get there.

Niamh needed the car for the weekend here in Kerry, the other side of Ireland and I was literally on my own. I took Friday off work to travel to Dublin. However, public transport to Donadea on a Saturday morning isn't an option, so I am very grateful to Rob Cummins from wheelworx for the lift to the start.

This was the official Irish 50k championship, but also open to non-elite runners like myself. I met plenty of familiar faces before the start and was left looking in awe at some of the best ultra runners in Ireland. No doubt, the quality end of the field was absolutely formidable.

Mick Rice warned me against wearing my racing shoes as some parts of the course were stony, but since they were the only pair of shoes I had brought along, I didn't have much choice. Luckily, they turned out to be just fine.

The course consisted of 10 laps in Donadea forest park, and since each lap had been certified as about 4.97 km, we had to run a little bit extra at the start. No problem. The loops were all on packed dirt roads, nor tarmac in sight, which suited me just fine as there should be a lot less damage to the legs that way. There was a bit of climbing on each lap, maybe 50 feet elevation or so, but the gradient was so gradual that I hardly even noticed the downhills. You could of course argue that I always felt like running uphill, but that would be a rather unkind view.

Since this was strictly a training run for me, I had resolved to take it easy for the first half at least and maybe run a bit faster for the second half if the legs felt okay, but never push it to anywhere close to race effort. Accordingly, I started off at about 7:45 pace (minutes per mile that is). I shared much of the first lap with another runner, and when he saw me checking the Garmin, he enquired about the pace. "Exactly 4 hours pace", which seemed to shock him a bit, I think he intended to run a lot slower than that and he soon fell away.

Lap 1: 25:23 (including the 300+ meters at the start)

I don't think I have ever run so slowly while wearing my racing shoes, and it was hard to keep the effort so low. My heart rate was in the low 140s and I kept getting sucked into other runners' paces, and every time I backed off a bit and deliberately fell behind, I caught myself right at their heels again within one km. This pattern would repeat itself again and again over the first few laps.

The route was well marked and there were a lot of stewards at each junction initially, though a lot of them left once we had completed 3 or so laps. That was not a problem, by then we knew the course and with the markings and the other runners around there was never the slightest danger of going off course.

Lap 2: 23:47

Just like in Sixmilebridge, I found that I love racing on loops just as much as I hate doing them in training. It's different when you share the course with plenty of other runners, and since I tend to totally concentrate on my effort during a race, the repeating scenery of a loop course makes it easier to concentrate inwards. The biggest drawback is that it makes writing a race report much more complicated. The loops start the blend into one another and it's difficult to remember if a certain occurrence happened in lap 3, 4 or 5.

Lap 3: 23:47 (consistent or what!)

I definitely started straining at my mental leash on lap 4. I started getting a bit bored by running so much within myself, but managed to keep those temptations at bay by promising myself to loosen the shackles considerably at halfway, which did not seem too far away at that point. It helped that a couple of runners started coming back to me already at that point. On the other hand, I was being lapped by some of the top runners on that loop. Their pace and intensity was frightening.


Lap 4: 23:05

I caught up to a lady runner, Charlotte Kearney, and she invited me to share a few miles. I didn't realise it at that point, but she was actually the first woman. She complained about a pain in her hip, but that did not seem to slow her down much. I noticed her running style, she landed very much on her toes and her heels hardly touched the ground, very unusual for an ultra runner. She told me that while she had run plenty of marathons, this was her first ever ultra. As a member of Donadea she had plenty of friends and support on the course.

Lap 5: 23:28

As soon as we went through the finish area at the halfway point at just under 2 hours I told Charlotte that I was going to push on from here on. We wished each other good luck and went our seperate ways. Well, the same way but at different speed. The idea had been to run the second half at about 7:15 pace, but to listen to the body at all times and never push the effort too hard. I didn't check the Garmin, at least not initially, and was a bit shocked when halfway through lap 6 I found myself running pretty much at 7:00 pace, and that was the uphill part. I backed off a bit, but next time I checked I was at that same pace again. It didn't feel anywhere near that fast, I was still running very much within myself, even at the higher effort.

Lap 6: 22:00

I passed plenty of runners now, but I was never able to tell if I lapped a runner or gained a place. Looking at the results page now I can see that I caught only 3 runners over the entire second half, moving up from 15th to 12th place. It was quite lonely at times, I ran almost an entire loop without seeing another runner. There were other people on the course as well, a few families and plenty of dog walkers. The other trail users were all very accommodating, only on one occasion did I have to run around a dog blocking my way, and the little children tended to be the most enthusiastic spectators.

I guess I ran a bit too hard on lap 7, sub-7 pace between km 30 and 35 isn't really training pace. But I can honestly say that I never really pushed the effort, I was never anywhere near race intensity. Still, I'm sure the coach would have had his misgivings had I done this last year.

Lap 7: 21:35

While I still felt good at the start of lap 8, I started paying the price for my slightly overenthusiastic pacing over the previous 10 kilometres. A certain weariness started creeping into the legs and for the first time today I started looking forward to the end; until that point I had been entirely in my Happy Place. But with less than a quarter left, the end was approaching fast.

I didn't put too much thought in my nutrition, but I was careful never to run out of energy. I had brought 5 or 6 gels to the race and between laps 3 and 8 I picked one up more or less every time I passed the finish area. I also took a water bottle on most occasions. It took me close to 4 kilometres to finish it and I kept passing the empty ones to the same steward on every occasion 4 times in a row. I think I made the mistake of not taking on enough calories in my early ultras, something I have become aware of only recently, and I am more conscious of this now. Mind, I still don't plan my intake in advance. I prefer to listen to my body rather than follow a set script.

Lap 8: 22:34

I knew I was slowing down, but this was still a tad faster than planned, so I just kept it going. I experienced the same phenomenon as in my first ultra, namely that I felt basically stuck in one gear, slowing down felt just as impossible as speeding up. Of course, back then this was at about 9 or 10 minute pace, today it was closer to 7, even if it felt the same.

Lap 9 was definitely the hardest one, but with an entire marathon behind me, feeling tired seemed perfectly reasonable. I had run far beyond any other distance I had run in training up to that point this year and taking this into consideration I was still in very good shape. I kept the effort ticking along, not worrying about the actual pace this would produce and stopped looking at the Garmin.

Just before the end I lapped Frank, the lonely 5-hours pacer, for a second time, and he three times asked me if I had one lap to go and I answered with "no, one lap to go". I guess I must have been tired at that point, I could not get the actual meaning of his question aboard. Luckily, he is an understanding sort of fellow. He knows what it's like at km 45.

Lap 9: 22:46

Now I could definitely smell the finish line. All sights were very familiar at that stage and I knew I was passing them for the final time. I lapped Medbh, the second lady. "Are you on your last lap?" "Yes, and on my last legs as well". The stewards at the midpoint were just as enthusiastic as on the first lap, and the last 2 miles were the glory stretch, the weariness lifted as if by magic and I stormed to the finish, setting my third quickest lap of the day. Unbeknownst to me I even gained one more place during that lap, moving up to my final finishing position. I soaked up the applause at the end and felt rather pleased with my effort.

Lap 10: 22:17

The organisation of the entire event was absolutely impeccable, my thanks go to race director Anthony Lee and his crew of the Donadea running club. I sure enjoyed my first ever race in county Kildare. I managed to get a massage, had a good chat with Gerry Duffy who remembered me from the Killarney marathon of his epic 32 marathon quest. Unfortunately, Mick Rice had to drop out after 7 laps, I really hope he is ok and will be recovered for Connemara. I congratulated some of the elite runners but for some felt a bit intimidated in their presence, very unlike me. John O'Regan seemed a bit annoyed about missing his 3:30 target by 2 seconds, but according to the results he had been pipped to 6th place by one second, which would have annoyed me too. But as he himself pointed out, the race was very competitive but still maintained that friendly atmosphere, a great combination. I can highly recommend it.

Results with lap splits can be found here.

Thanks to Dave Lee and Larry Boyle for the photographs.

16 Feb

8 miles, 1:05:48, 8:13 pace, HR 130

17 Feb

5 miles, 39:15, 7:50 pace, HR 136

18 Feb

Irish 50K Championship, Donadea Forest Park
   3:50:43, 7:24 pace, HR 150
   12th place overall, 4th M40

19 Feb

4 miles, 33:30, 8:22 pace, HR 129

Putting On The Brakes

Right now my main problem is that Connemara is still over 6 weeks away, and the most recent runs have clearly shown that I am nearing peak shape - a bit too early. This has taken me by surprise; the pace over the last two weekends seems to have come out of nowhere. I'm pretty sure I peaked too early last year for Vienna - I would have had a better run a couple of weeks earlier. This year, I tried to compress the schedule by a week or two, but I can see the same thing happening again.

In an attempt to slow down the peaking process, I changed my schedule this week. Initially I had planned another volume speed session on Wednesday, following the by now pretty much customary two days of easy running at the start of the week. I left the easy runs as they were, but swapped the workout for a longer run at steady pace, a bit faster than the planned pace for the Ultra.

I really had to reign myself in over the first few miles, the Garmin saw a lot of use. It took a while to tune into the effort, but once I got into the right mindset, the miles ticked off nicely one by one - until about mile 12, when fatigue started to creep in. I was a bit surprised by that, on Sunday I had run 20 miles a little bit faster and on pre-fatigued legs feeling fine and I did not expect to feel challenged this morning, but obviously I haven't quite recovered from the weekend yet.

Saturday will be Donadea day. The weather forecast is rather unkind, apparently that rain front will cross Ireland right when we're out there on the course.

When I first heard about that race, it seemed like a great idea; a long 50k training run 6 weeks before Connemara sounded just perfect. Now I'm a bit nervous, I hope I will be able to recover in time, not just for Connemara but for a bit more training beforehand (and Ballycotton).

This will be mainly about time on feet. I'm trying to get this into my head, Do No Race This! I started with the same intentions in Sixmilebridge and failed. Then again, I won't be anywhere near the front of the field in Donadea; no winner's trophy to tempt me. Lucky me.

Do Not Race, Thomas. Do Not Race!

13 Feb

8 miles, 1:04:56, 8:07 pace, HR 132

14 Feb

10 miles, 1:20:51, 8:05 pace, HR 131

15 Feb

15 miles, 1:48:33, 7:14 pace, HR 140

Progress

The ideal training scenario is to improve a little bit from week by week. In reality it's never a linear progression, some bad days are mixed with the good days, the conditions are never quite the same and real life might interfere, especially if you have small children.

But right now I'm in the enviable position of being able to look at my recent training log and see clear improvements week by week by week.

Wednesday's volume speed workout had felt great, but I did pay the price on Thursday with some heavy legs. Nothing too bad, but it was clearly noticeable. I responded by running very easily, both on Thursday and Friday. I did raise my eyebrows after Friday's run when I saw that the HR had been particularly low, and for once even wondered if this time I had taken it a bit too easy?

Silly me! Like Andrew said, that's definitely the right side to err on, and if you run your easy days very easy, you might just be able to run your hard days very hard.

The proof was to come over the weekend with its back-to-back workouts. I had to drive Cian to Cork again and did my workout while he was in class. The plan was to do 7 miles at half-marathon pace, maybe a bit slower, for 10 miles in total.

Like the week before, I felt very good from the start and the pace kept dropping as the run went on, without me forcing the issue. I did sneak a few peeks at the Garmin and liked what I saw, but also eased up on a couple of occasions when I seemed to run a little bit too hard. The result was much faster than I had expected, 6:16 pace, and I can honestly say that it was nowhere near a race effort, this was a controlled training run, finishing with plenty left in the tank.

The Sunday run will always show if you overdid it on Saturday, every second too fast on Saturday makes you suffer a little bit more on Sunday. The idea this time was to run entirely at 7:15 pace; I want to get efficient at that pace, and you do that by running at that same effort in training. I eased into the effort over the first few miles, let the pace come naturally and then pretty much tuned into autopilot for the next 2 hours. There was never any question of not being able to finish and I didn't take either of the two gels I carried with me just in case.

Again, the legs got a little bit faster as the run went on and I finished a few seconds ahead of target, with an average pace of 7:10.

Please excuse my language, but fuck me, I'm in awesome shape. So much for my fear of slowing down once I hit 40. If I were training for a marathon right now, 2:55 would be my minimum target, and I would even eye a more ambitious time. What could I achieve on a good day? 2:52? 2:50 even?

The biggest worry right now is not to peak too early. Connemara is still 7 weeks off and I don't want to stand on the start line feeling exhausted and worn out.

Anyway, I'm not training for a marathon, Connemara is an even better target. Next week is Donadea, which will be my one and only really long training run and I need to show plenty of resolve and discipline not to race it. The most important aspect will be to recover from it. It's a bit risky, but with big potential benefits; I'll find out, I guess.

9 Feb

10 miles, 1:19:50, 7:59 pace, HR 135

10 Feb

10 miles, 1:20:21, 8:02 pace, HR 131

11 Feb

10 miles, 1:04:33, 6:26 pace, HR 159
   incl. 7 miles @ 6:16 (HR 167)

12 Feb

20 miles, 2:23:29, 7:10 pace, HR 147

Is This What It's Supposed To Be Like?

I simply cannot believe how I am feeling right now. This is incredible.

I took it easy on Monday and Tuesday, recovering from the weekend. I was still feeling highly satisfied after Saturday's great tempo run. I cannot help but compare the workouts to the equivalent ones from a year ago. This time round I'm running them faster, at a lower heart rate and, crucially, running them much more controlled.

Mystery Coach gave me some highly challenging workouts, but he always warned me not to push too hard in training. I didn't always stick to that, on a couple of occasions I pushed as hard as I could just to reach the pace he had prescribed.

It all feels so much easier right now. I can honestly claim that I am finishing each workout still with a lot in the tank, the same (or at least very similar) workouts that had me sprawling on the floor.

Recovery is also good. I happened to run at exactly the same heart rate on Monday and Tuesday (that wasn't planned) but was 12 seconds per mile faster on Tuesday. It felt so easy, like floating over the pavement, effortlessly. If only I could bottle that feeling.

I felt so good on Tuesday that I didn't hesitate to run a workout this morning that almost knocked me out last year: Volume speed, as the coach called it. Warm-up, then 2 miles at 6:30, 2 mile "recovery" at 7:15, 2 miles at 6:20, another "recovery" at 7:15 and 2 more miles at 6:10. That last one almost killed me last year, which is why I didn't attempt a fourth fast segment at 6:10, something the coach had suggested I should try if, and only if, I still had plenty left at that point. What I had completely failed to comprehend back then was the extra challenge of the "recovery" mile being pretty damn fast. It makes a massive difference.

It was raining, it was windy, but neither bothered me too much. The 6:30 segment required a fair amount of fine-tuning with the Garmin, as did the 6:20. The first recovery was a tad fast, the second pretty much spot on. I wasn't exactly looking forward to the 6:10s, but ran it purely by feel, not really looking at the Garmin, pushing just enough to feel "comfortably hard", but always in full control. That resulted in 2 6:06 miles, slightly net downhill but also against the wind, which may or may not have cancelled each other out. My only regret was that I did not have time for another 6:10 segment - that's the problem with running in the morning, I don't think the boss would have accepted a "sorry for being half an hour late, I had to extend my run by 3 miles because I felt too good to stop" excuse. Mind, Niamh wouldn't appreciate the same excuse for being late for dinner either.

Real life has another hurdle. Maia is sick at the moment and I had to sacrifice a fair amount of sleep comforting her. I hope that won't catch up with me.

6 Feb

8 miles, 1:04:12, 8:01 pace, HR 136

7 Feb

10 miles, 1:18:13, 7:46 pace, HR 136

8 Feb

10 miles, 1:07:36, 6:46 pace, HR 155
   incl. 2 @ 6:28, 2 @ 6:19, 2 @ 6:06

Nice

Despite the not entirely universal approval of taking it easy during the week, I did manage to reap some benefits this weekend - which is the entire point of doing easy runs, of course. Run your easy runs easy so that you can run your hard runs hard. Otherwise you just end up with medium runs all the time.

Anyway, after yet another easy 10 on Friday (the fourth one in succession), I had to drive the kids to Cork on Saturday morning, because their CTY course has started again. The choice was either to get up at stupid o'clock and run in Caragh Lake before driving to Cork, or to drop them off and do my run while they're in class. I chose the latter.

I ran two loops from Blackrock castle, following the Cork marathon course from about mile 11 to 15 but heading towards Blackrock from the Marina. Each loop was just under 5 miles and I added an out-and-back section to make up the distance. I believe this is his playground. The run also doubled for breaking in my new pair of Lunaracers - the old pair was literally falling apart after 650 miles. Wearing these shoes always makes me run fast, even first warm-up mile was at 7:00 pace. The plan had been to run at about marathon effort for 10 miles, but I just got faster and faster with each mile, but still without going anywhere near race effort. The 10 mile segment ended up averaging 6:29 pace, which until 4 months ago would have been faster than my half-marathon PR pace. One fast looking lady runner gave me a "moving well" comment, and for a while I wondered if that by any chance had been Sonia O'Sullivan (I wasn't wearing my glasses and am blind as a bat, which is why I can never identify people while running), but as far as I know she's in Australia at the moment, so it wasn't her. I got another ego boost when a cyclist told me I was doing very nice pace - during my cool-down mile!

1:26:38 for a half-marathon distance training run. I must be in good shape!

I was back on my familiar Caragh Lake loop this morning, and when the big climb started after the initial 3 flat(-ish) miles, the quads immediately started protesting, telling me to go home. Instead I somehow managed to tune into autopilot and since I kept feeling better and better with each passing mile I decided to put the foot down over the last few miles. Last year, Mystery Coach had given me some back-to-back runs that really pushed me to my limits, this year they feel easier, because the effort is a little bit easier, owing to the slower race pace of the Ultra I'm aiming for. Still, the numbers of this weekend have been nothing but spectacular.

3 Feb

10 miles, 1:19:05, 7:54 pace, HR 147

4 Feb

13.1 miles, 1:26:38, 6:37 pace, HR 160
   incl. 10 miles @ 6:29 pace, HR 160

5 Feb

18 miles, 2:16:23, 7:34 pace, HR 143
   incl. 5.5 miles @ 6:56 pace

Weekly Mileage: 79+ miles

Easy does it

Despite feeling very good, I have been taking it easy this week.

Let me rephrase that.

Because I was feeling very good, I have been taking it easy this week.

The reason for this apparently counter-intuitive training is that my former coach’s warnings are still in my ear

When you are in peak shape your mind ignores fatigue, good for racing but not good for training.

Connemara is still 2 months away, I do not want to peak just yet, but the fact that I ran the second half of Sunday’s workout at 7:07 pace without feeling tired, even though I should have started the run with already fatigued legs after a reasonably tough run on Saturday tells me to be cautious. As strange as it sounds, not feeling fatigue can be a real problem in training, leading to overtraining and injury, and it’s a trap a lot of runner fall into. I’d rather not.

So it was a succession of easy runs, all at a HR that was below the threshold the coach had set me last year. I got a bit bored after running like that on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so I spiced things up this morning with 4 sets of 4x30 seconds sprints, 2 minutes recovery between sprints and about 5 or 6 minutes recovery between sets. That’s a fair amount of sprinting, but the legs took it in their stride, so to speak.

I received an email this morning that cheered me up no end, and which more or less finalised my racing plans for 2012. After Donadea and Connemara there will be my big goal race in July (no further details yet, even though I have told a couple of people already) and then, mostly for fun, the Dingle Ultra in September. Excellent news! I had my doubts if this race would be resurrected, but this has now been confirmed. It’s a fantastic course, taking in Conor Pass as well as Slea Head, staking a big claim for the most scenic road race ever. I also want to improve on my time from 2010, but mostly I want to have at least as much fun as last time round.

Can you tell I'm excited?

30 Jan

8 miles, 1:05:17, 8:10 pace, HR 134

31 Jan

10 miles, 1:18:49, 7:53 pace, HR 137

1 Feb

10 miles, 1:20:17, 8:02 pace, HR 137

2 Feb

10 miles, 1:18:41, 7:52 pace, HR 139
    incl. 4 x 4x30 sec sprints

Guest Post: The Role of Running in Fighting Cancer

I have another guest article today. Liz Davies wrote about a topic that means a lot to her. If you have any questions regarding anything mentioned in here, please do not hesitate to contact her.

If you think you have a topic I might publish on my blog, you can contact me about it. No commercial advertising, though. I've said no to several offers already.

The Role of Running in Fighting Cancer

Cancer affects millions of people of all ages throughout the world. While the disease is often deadly, a cancer diagnosis does not mean a patient has to surrender to the disease. Making simple lifestyle changes can help not only during treatments, but also as a patient recuperates post treatment. One beneficial lifestyle change with growing research supporting its use is regular physical exercise, such as running. When appropriate, activities like running can provide several benefits to both cancer treatment and recovery.

Muscle Strength

Running plays an important role in maintaining muscle when undergoing treatment, as well as building muscle after cancer treatments. While the time spent resting during and after treatments is important, the lack of movement can reduce muscle mass, increasing feelings of fatigue and weakness. Running places stress on the muscles, encouraging the muscle fibers to strengthen, combating negative muscle side effects.

Bone and Joint Health

Bone loss is another common concern during cancer treatments. When a person runs, they place stress on the bones. The body reacts by increasing the activity of osteoblasts, special cells which can increase bone density to better face the stress in future runs. Running also keeps the joints moving, which combats joint stiffness that can develop during recuperation periods.

Weight

Research suggests that those who exercise during and after cancer treatment have a tendency to live longer and have fewer recurrences than those who do not, according to Professor Kerry Courneya, PhD, from the University of Alberta. Part of this phenomenon is due to the effects exercise like running have on maintaining a healthy weight and combating obesity, which can sometimes develop during or after cancer treatment.

Mental Health

Not only can running affect overall physical health, it can also help prevent mental health side effects that can occur during and after treatments, such as feelings of anxiety or depression. Exercise activates the body to naturally release neurotransmitters and endorphins, which help increase feelings of wellness. Running or other physical activities also provide a healthy coping mechanism to help temporarily take the mind off of a cancer diagnosis, helping improve the mood of a cancer patient.

It's important to keep in mind that running is not appropriate for all cancers. Running is often an exercise that can be built up to. Cancers like mesothelioma and lung cancer causes patients to focus on cardio exercises for an increased lung capacity. Exercises like taking the stairs instead of the elevator or walking around the block are ways patients can start to build up their endurance. Patients should talk to their doctor or treatment team to determine whether other forms of exercise are more appropriate for each specific diagnosis before starting a running routine.

Liz Davies is a recent college graduate and aspiring writer especially interested in health and wellness.

She wants to make a difference in people’s lives because she sees how cancer has devastated so many people in this world. Liz also likes running, playing lacrosse, reading and playing with her dog, April.

An Unforgettable Birthday

I received an unexpected, and very much appreciated, bonus from the organisers of the Dublin marathon who hosted an evening to give a big Thank You to all the pacers. It was in Dublin, of course, but Niamh didn't need much of an excuse to have another drool over her new baby niece, so we found ourselves on the long road across Ireland again. This also coincided with my 42nd birthday, but unlike someone I did not feel the need to run my age in either miles or kilometers, even though the latter would have been rather appropriate.

What wasn't quite in the plan was all the warning lights in the car starting to flash, including a big red "STOP" across the dashboard, while we were on the motorway just past Port Laoise. This has always been a nightmare scenario of mine, especially with 4 kids in the car, a really dangerous situation. Luckily, despite all our financial woes, we never stopped paying our AA membership and they plucked us from the side of the motorway, literally, and organised a hire car while towing our own crippled car back to Kerry. We arrived three hours late and with only half of our luggage, but when we were standing in the rain on the hard shoulder, trying to get the children away from the cars whizzing by, arriving three hours late but all in one piece had seemed like a wonderful outcome.

I still don't know if our car can be repaired. I just spent 800 Euro last month on tax, a new battery and four new tires. Bugger. I can hardly afford a new pair of runners, never mind another car big enough for the 6 of us.

Anyway, we're all safe and sound, the dinner in Dublin was great, the baby niece got plenty of admiration and now we're back home again as life goes on.

I did my final hill workout on Friday, and yes, I'm glad to be done. I did the usual sprints, high knees and thigh drive, and a set of downhill strides for good measure.

Most weekends in the coach's plan consist of back-to-back workouts from here on. I ran to Deer Park on Saturday, doing 8 loops, 10 seconds faster than marathon pace. The hilly park made this a bit tricky and I had to rely on feel rather than the watch. What I ended up with were 8 miles at 6:39 pace, just about right even if the HR was a bit lower than expected. What was remarkable was how fresh I felt, I was so comfortable at that pace and could have gone on for much longer.

This set me up nicely for Sunday. The original marathon plan called for about 2 hours with the last 40 minutes at marathon pace. However, since I'm not training for a marathon I reasoned that I should train a bit slower, closer to Connemara pace, but since I would not get as much out of the training run by running slower, the faster part should be longer. Does that make sense? I split the runs into two equal halves, an hour easy and an hour steady.

I took the scenic route to Cabinteely Park (well, if you describe Ballybrack as scenic) and arrived there just in time for the second part. Cabinteely is even more hilly than Deer park and I once more had to go by effort. I averaged 7:20 for the first mile and steadily got a little bit faster with each successive loop. With about 25 minutes left I turned homewards, the average pace now at 7:10, but that was down to 7:07 by the time I was done.

Despite the fact that I had gone into this run with pre-fatigued legs I was always running well within myself, and I definitely felt that I could have gone on like this for just about forever. But here lies the problem. The coach has always warned me that the brain does not register fatigue properly when you're reaching peak state. That's great for racing but not so great when you need to judge the effect of training without burning out your legs. Connemara is still 10 weeks away. I really need to be careful to rest and recover, even if I don't feel like it. A couple of easy days are in store, even on seemingly fresh legs.

Incidentally, the plan for Donadea in 3 weeks' time is pretty much an extended version of today with an easy first and a steady second half. It will take a lot of patience and a lot of swallowed pride when I see runners steaming away from me when I know I could easily keep up. I'm not entirely sure if I'll be able to slow down. I didn't manage it in Sixmilebridge, but at least there won't be the prospect of a win tempting me in Donadea.

26 Jan

8 miles, 1:03:44, 7:58 pace, HR 131

27 Jan

10.5 miles, 1:32:31, 8:48 pace, HR 138
   Hill drills: 4x30 sec sprints; thigh drive (4 mins); downhill strides (3x200 m); high knees (4 mins)

28 Jan

10.5 miles, 1:12:27, 6:54 pace, HR 158
   incl. 8 miles @ 6:39 pace

29 Jan

16.5 miles, 2:02:48, 7:26 pace, HR 142
   incl. 1 hour @ 7:07 pace

Weekly Mileage: 75

Stormy Evaluation

My legs felt quite sore all day after Sunday’s long run, something I haven’t really experienced in a while. Of course, I haven’t run 20 miles in a while (since the 30 miles in Sixmilebridge, in fact). I took it especially easy on Monday as a result, probably even more so than usual, which explains the lowest heart rate in a long time, but actually the pace wasn’t bad at all for such an easy effort.

Because the weather forecast had predicted high winds for Wednesday, I played with the idea of swapping round Tuesday’s hill drills and Wednesday’s evaluation run, because windy conditions really can play havoc with the evaluation’s figures. But when my legs were still sore on Monday afternoon I thought an evaluation the next morning might not be the best idea.

So it was back to the hill instead, doing the by now very familiar drills, 4 minutes each. This is the last week of the hills phase, and with good reason. The drills feel a lot easier than three weeks ago, which almost certainly means I don’t get as much bang for the buck any more.

Wednesday morning actually started with a nice surprise; I braced myself for the predicted wind and the heavy rain when I opened the door, but it wasn’t actually raining (that came later). But the gale force wind was there, and I therefore used a different stretch of road for my evaluation. It isn’t as flat as the one I usually use, but the trees provide a decent amount of shelter and I got on ok. The wind did have some influence, but not nearly as much as it would have out in the open.

When I checked the data later on, I saw that the paces had been a tad faster than 2 weeks ago, just the gradual improvement I like to see, but the HR was more uneven. With the windy conditions, that means you can’t read too much into the figures, but I still like what I see. The number in brackets is adjusted pace, 7 seconds for every 2 heart beats off the 161 target, though it looks like overcompensation to me.

       
        Mile 1    6:35   HR 160    (6:32)
        Mile 2    6:45   HR 159    (6:38)
        Mile 3    6:42   HR 162    (6:45)
        Mile 4    6:44   HR 163    (6:51)
        Recovery to HR: 35 seconds

The recovery afterwards was a bit strange, the HR remained at 160 for a long time, long enough for me to wonder if the Garmin was acting up, but then dropped like a stone. The shortened recovery time is something I take as a definite plus out of this session.

The last few weeks I have felt better virtually every day. The legs feel great, every single step is a joy and I can feel myself improving almost on a daily basis. The one thing worrying me is that Connemara is still over 10 weeks away. I don’t want to peak early and then go into the race on a downward slope. How Donadea will affect my legs is a completely different question of course. I’m clinging to the fact that I felt incredible in Sixmilebridge, just 3 weeks after the Dublin marathon, and I have 6 weeks of recovery between Donadea and Connemara.

23 Jan

8 miles, 1:05:02, 8:08 pace, HR 132

24 Jan

10.5 miles, 1:37:46, 9:19 pace, HR 140
    Hill drills: 4x30 sec sprints; high knees (4 mins); ankles (4 mins); thigh drive (4 mins)

25 Jan

11 miles, 1:20:05, 7:17 pace, HR 148
    4 miles eval

Heating Up

The training, that is, not the temperatures per se. Having said that, this is the mildest winter we’ve had in years. Nobody can use the weather as an excuse for not training (not that I would).

Anyway, back to the training. I have now made it through 3 out of 4 weeks of hill training. After one week I thought this would become a real challenge and I started hating the drills, but actually came round to it. I can see some clear improvements; the hope now is that improvements in hill drills will lead to improvements in running.

Thursday was easy. So easy in fact that the HR was below the lowest number in the spreadsheet that I use to calculate my VDOT numbers. But considering what the next 3 days had in store, I was definitely in need of all the recovery I could get.

Friday was the third hill drills day of the week and the fifth in 8 days, something I’m sure I had never managed before. The level of consistency is probably the main reason why I can see such a clear improvement, though I am aware of the fact that doing a lot of drill primarily makes you good at doing drills. Nevertheless, I like the fact that I now can do all drills for 4 minutes without a break and without feeling like I’m about to collapse. There is still one week of drills left; I won’t extend the time but will try and keep an eye on my form instead.

Last Saturday I had changed the program, replacing a marathon paced effort because I thought that since I’m not going to run a marathon I don’t need as many marathon paced runs. It is still important to run a certain, reasonably small, percentage of your training faster than race pace, so they won’t drop out of my training completely and yesterday was one of these days. Sandwiched between the warm up and the cool down were 7 miles of marathon effort. The blustery wind made this a bit tricky; I ran most of the first half close to 6:30 pace with the wind at my back and the second half between 6:50 and 7:00, fighting against the wind as well as the mounting fatigue. The result was slightly conflicting; while the perceived effort seemed a bit higher than marathon effort, the HR of 160 was lower; in all likelihood I wasn’t too far off. Of course this makes me think about my present marathon PB, which was at an average pace of 6:51 – as much as I had to fight tooth and nail for it at the time, it feels a little bit soft now.

Anyway, Sunday’s long run marked the end of the week, and for once I didn’t have to put mental quotes around the word long, 20 miles always qualify. It’s the first 20 mile training run in quite some time. That feels a bit strange, I used to run 20 miles or more week after week after week, but with the marathons and ultra I ran towards the end of 2011, the need for long training runs was diminished (in fact, it would almost certainly have been counter-productive). Going into a long run with pre-fatigued legs is always a bit of a challenge and I started dragging around mile 12. For once I actually took the emergency gel that I usually carry in my pockets but normally bring back home. It may have helped me to get all the way around the lake still in decent shape. That’s good, because Donadea is only 4 weeks from now and while I won’t start that one with already tired legs, 50K is definitely a distance that demands respect.

I even resurrected one of Mystery Coach’s favourite torture instruments, the ice bath. As soon as I got in I remembered just exactly why I had been putting this off. It literally takes your breath away when you lower yourself into a tub of cold water. The muscles all tense up, you’re hyperventilating, and between my high-pitched screams I could hear Lola asking Niamh if Dad was alright. But once you survive the first minute, the rest is actually easy.

I definitely deserved the scones afterwards. Thank you, darling. Very much appreciated.

19 Jan

8 miles, 1:05:13, 8:09 pace, HR 134

20 Jan

10.75 miles, 1:38:06, 9:07 pace, HR 144
   Hill drills: 4x30 sec sprints; thigh drive (4 mins); ankles (4 mins); high knees (4 mins)

21 Jan

10 miles, 1:10:04, 7:00 pace, HR 153
   incl. 7 miles @ 6:44 pace, HR 160

22 Jan

20 miles, 2:38:09, 7:54 pace, HR 144

Weekly Mileage: 76.75

Blog Post #1001

Oh my, doesn’t time fly! Mentally, I still haven’t quite made the transition from base training, yet I'm more than halfway through the hills phase already. What I know is that I really enjoyed putting in a bit more effort into Sunday’s long run and that, so far, I am very much looking forward to the tempo runs yet to come. I know I may come to regret those words, of course.

Actually, maybe I have adapted to the hills after all. I remember stating at some point early on that I hated those drills, but that’s not really correct. While I’m not exactly looking forward to any of them, I do love the fact that I can clearly tell that I’m getting stronger and that real progress has been made. Of course, there’s always that little devil on my shoulder who keeps pointing out that getting good at doing drill is not the same as getting good at running, but I trust Mystery Coach enough to take his word for it.

Monday was of course an easy day; however, I did raise an eyebrow when I saw just how easy I had been taking it. I did the same thing I always do for these runs, I wear my Garmin but never look at it while running, so it caught me completely by surprise by how slow I had been running. It had felt absolutely right at the time.

I was back on the usual hill on Tuesday, the dirt road leading up to the Coillte site in Caragh Lake. I started with the toughest drill, high knees. It was at that point that I could definitely tell that my legs are getting better at this. 2x2 minutes had me breathing hard but not as close to the point of collapse as last week. In fact, I wondered if I should have gone longer. The second drill was ankles, always the easiest, so much so that I regard it as a bit of a breather between the harder workouts. That hard one was “driving with the thighs”, again I managed 2x2 minutes and again I wondered if I could have done more. In some ways, that’s a good place to be. The coach always told me to leave something in the tank.

In order to get all those drills done in time I had shortened the recovery period from 15 minutes to about 12 or 13. I’m pretty sure the coach would not have approved. The alternative would have been to either get up earlier or cut one drill, and neither option appealed to me, to be honest.

Mind, I was back on the very same hill this morning, Wednesday. I could feel during the initial sprints that the legs felt less than fresh, so this time I decided to indeed cut one drill from the program, which of course it meant I had time for the longer recovery. I started the hill drills with the thigh drive, and this time managed to keep it going for 4 full minutes. That felt tough. I won’t go any longer than that, any further improvements would be to concentrate more on form.

That alone was deemed sufficient as far as the hard work was concerned. I did ankles for my next drill and then went home. I think I got that one right at least.

16 Jan

8 miles, 1:05:53, 8:14 pace, HR 137

17 Jan

10.5 miles, 1:37:14, 9:16 pace, HR 138
   Hill drills: 4x30 sec sprints; high knees (2x2 mins); ankles (4 mins); thigh drive (2x2 mins)

18 Jan

9.5 miles, 1:25:38, 9:01 pace, HR 139
   Hill drills: 4x30 sec sprints; thigh drive (4 mins); ankles (4 mins)

Revving Up

All through winter I have noticed an elevated heart rate. Most of my runs produced a HR that was several beats higher than what I would have expected. My resting heart rate has shown the same effect, every time I measured it it was between 43 and 45 when I would usually expect it to to be around 40. I attribute this to the low-level cold that has been doggedly been affecting me for at least two months now. Were I not a runner I might not even have noticed it, but I am and I can tell the difference.
However, I did notice an improvement recently and indeed, when I measured my resting HR this morning, it was at 42. That's still a touch high, but it's the lowest value I have seen in months. Together with the improved numbers of Tuesday's evaluation, this is clearly moving the right way.

I had slightly heavy legs on Thursday, but running for an hour at about 8:00 pace did me a lot of good. I was back on the hill for more punishment on Friday. Not the one I usually go to, but a little back road in Ballintleave, because I needed a gradual downhill stretch for half a mile of downhill strides and the best place I can think of is the Ring of Kerry road between the Red Fox Inn and Caragh Bridge. At 6:30 in the morning that road is still quiet enough to feel safe; I wouldn't like to run on it during the day.

It wasn't entirely ideal; I need a steep road for the high knees drill and the one I found was very short and only gave me about 80 seconds. I tried to make up for it by doing it 3 times. The thigh drive worked better, on a more gradual piece of road, and I can tell a definite improvement in that drill.

The main worry was some discomfort in my left calf muscle during my cool down. It wasn't bad, maybe 3 out of 10 on the pain scale, but it was worrying. Lower leg injuries can easily happen during the hill phase.

Having said that, I did not feel any further discomfort for the rest of the day, so I did another hill workout on Saturday. Last year's program had a tempo run on the program but I changed it, reasoning that for an ultra I need any piece of leg strength I can get. In an attempt to be cautious I only did 2 hill drills, and of course no downhill strides, but I felt the calf again after the initial set of 30-second-sprints. Now I was definitely worried, but the rest of the workout went well, without any further pains.

I spiced up Sunday's long run with a fast finish. I made sure to take it very easy for the first miles, especially on the the big hills. I had a gel in my pocket, intending to take it at mile 12, to give me some fuel for the faster miles, but completely forgot to take it; not entirely surprising as I never take a gel during training. Anyway, I didn't need it. After 12.5 miles I accelerated from 8:00 pace to 7:00 pace and held it for the final 4.5 miles. I won't call it comfortable, that would be a lie. Maybe comfortably hard, whatever that oxymoron is supposed to mean? It felt great to be moving at a higher effort for once and I enjoyed every single step of these miles. In a way, I can't wait for some actual hard work next month.

12 Jan

8 miles, 1:03:33, 7:56 pace, HR 137

13 Jan

10.25 miles, 1:26:14, 8:24 pace, HR 145
   Hill drills: 4x30 sec sprints; high knees (3x80 sec); downhill strides; thigh drive (2x90 sec)

14 Jan

9.25 miles, 1:23:31, 9:01 pace, HR 143
   Hill drills: 4x30 sec sprints; ankles (4 mins); thigh drive (2x90 sec, 1x70 sec)

15 Jan

17 miles, 2:10:59, 7:42 pace, HR 146
   12.5 miles @ 7:58 (HR 143), 4.5 miles @ 5:57 (HR 158)

Weekly Mileage: 74

The Opposite Of Lonely

That’s what I am, according to Maia, now that the family has returned. Of course, there are times when, amidst all the fighting and screaming and shouting that comes with 4 children, loneliness seems to be an appealing alternative, but most of the time I’m not complaining.

Sunday’s run hadn’t been great and I was definitely worried about getting ahead of the recovery curve, as the coach used to call it. An easy run on Monday was always on the cards, but I was really surprised just how better I felt on Tuesday, the next hill drills day.

In an attempt not to overdo things I cut the number of drills by one; after the obligatory 4x30 seconds sprints I did a set of “driving with the thigh”. This usually feels rather tough, on previous attempts I usually managed 2x1 minute. This time I had 3 goes at it, lasting 80, 70 and 60 seconds respectively. I don’t set a target time for these – I stop whenever it starts to feel really tough. Actually, I noticed that the HR was a lot lower than last week for the same drill.

The second drill was ankles, which always feels much easier (and makes me wonder if I’m doing them correctly). I left it at that. It’s better to do too little than too much. Still, I did raise an eyebrow when I saw the average HR number back home. 139 for a workout that contained some sets of hill drills? I must have taken it seriously easy between sets (which, of course, is what I'm supposed to be doing).

Since last week’s evaluation workout had fallen victim to an idiot and his dog, I did another one this morning. Luckily the wind had died down just in time; I know from experience that the numbers get useless if it’s too windy. I set off towards my usual spot and for once I could actually see where I was going – Full Moon, I love you. Initially I had some troubles getting the HR up to the required level and then I had troubles keeping it there – it kept oscillating between 155 and 165 when it should have been stable at 161. Things finally started to improve halfway through the third mile. Remarkably, the Garmin recorded exactly the same HR for all four miles.

        Mile 1    6:36   HR 160
        Mile 2    6:46   HR 160
        Mile 3    6:51   HR 160
        Mile 4    6:51   HR 160
        Recovery to HR: 39 seconds

The significantly faster pace compared to earlier evaluations is probably down to some sharpening effect from last week’s race, which wouldn’t please the coach because it’s too early for that, but I had chosen to race knowing full well what might happen. Sometimes you need to have a bit of fun. As you can see, the pace dropped after the first 2 miles before stabilising. More important, to me at least, was the quicker recovery time afterwards. It’s not the best number I have ever seen, but it’s the best since October.

I think I have been fighting a cold all through November and December. It never bothered me much, but the blocked sinuses kept giving me the occasional headache and I'm sure it was at least partially responsible for some of the elevated HRs I’ve seen during that time. I think I’m finally getting over it; not only has the HR/pace correlation has improved significantly over the last few days, the constant, irritating pressure from inside my head seems to have gone as well. Things are definitely looking up.

9 Jan

8 miles, 1:04:49, 8:06 pace, HR 136

10 Jan

9.5 miles, 1:25:54, 9:00 pace, HR 139
   Hill drills: 4x30 sec sprints, thigh drive (80, 70, 60 sec), ankles (4 mins)

11 Jan

12 miles, 1:27:02, 7:15 pace, HR 149
   4 miles eval

Hills

At some stage soon I need to decide how to proceed with my training. So far I have mostly been following Mystery Coach's blueprint from last year's marathon training, and I can continue doing so for the rest of the hill phase. But the peak training phase was aimed to get me used to running at marathon pace. I won't be running 6:50 miles in Connemara; but running the same workouts slower won't get me as fit as I can be. I don't think simply extending the length of the workouts would be ideal either. And what about the workouts that oscillated between running faster and slower than race pace? A bit more thought will have to go into all that.



Friday saw me back on the hills. After the customary first set, 4x30 seconds sprints, I added three more drills. First high knees, which I found really tough. I managed to keep going for 2 minutes. The next drill were ankles, like last time round; they felt much easier and I did them for 4 minutes. I left "driving with the thighs" for last, probably the toughest drill or maybe it's just the fact that I did them last, on already tired legs. I managed only one minute, so I walked back down the hill for another minute. My heart rate shot up to 177 and was still over 170 after walking halfway down the hill.

When I checked the training program, I wasn't overly pleased to see yet another hill workout for Saturday. Isn't there supposed to be some time for recovery? Anyway, this time, after the initial sprints, I did thighs, followed by high knees and finally a set of downhill strides. Unfortunately, the downhill stretch I picked wasn't very downhill at all, so it ended up being half a mile at fast pace, not a hill workout. I'll choose a different road next time, the one I used last year. Unfortunately it's not near the hill I like to use for the "uphill" drills, requiring a compromise.

Adding up the miles for this week already gave me more than 60 miles up to Saturday, so I ran a shorter long run, just one lap around the lake. I started dragging halfway through the loop; the legs were becoming increasingly weary, which can undoubtedly be attributed to the successive hill workouts. Not that I had much choice - on a loop course, all you can do is continue on until you're home. I'm pretty sure I ran too fast, the last few miles were all faster than 7:30. I guess I just wanted this to be over. When I checked my logs I found that I had done exactly the same last year on the identical workout.

This better be worth it - it's pretty damn hard work.

Niamh and the kids are back in Kerry - my monkish existence has come to an abrupt end. Now I have to get used again to all the screaming, fighting, and shouting (that's the kids I'm talking about, not me. Honestly.)

6 Jan

10.5 miles, 1:37:14, 9:15 pace, HR 141
   Hill drills: 4x30 sec sprints, high knees (2 mins), ankles (4 mins), thighs (2x1 min)

7 Jan

10 miles, 1:21:24, 8:08 pace, HR 151
   Hill drills: 4x30 sec sprints, high knees (2 mins), thigh drive (2x1 min), downhill strides

8 Jan

15 miles, 1:55:25, 7:42 pace, HR 152

Weekly Mileage: 76.5

Hills and Drills

I'm unashamedly copying Mystery Coach's training plan that brought me a sub-3 marathon last year, even though I am training for an Ultra. At least I'm trying to - I can't help but notice that last year my pace/HR progression was significantly better than this time round. I'm not sure if I can blame it all on the marathons and ultras I did towards the end of 2011, or my lack of understanding.

Anyway, I'm now in the next phase, which is primarily filled with hill drills. That's not the same "bounding" drills Lydiard originally prescribed to his runners, but a set of things that are supposed to strengthen particular areas, like the ankles or thighs.

Every hill workout start with a 15 minutes warm up, then 4x30 second sprint efforts, which are then followed by the actual hill drills; 15 minutes of easy running between each set, and the same again for your cool down.

My first drill consisted of slowly springing up the hill primarily using the ankles. That felt surprisingly easy, and I got to 4 minutes without trying too hard.

The second set was "driving from the thighs", which turned out to be significantly harder. I did 90 seconds on the first try, walked back down and added 60 seconds for the second go. Neither time was pre-determined; I simply stopped when it started to feel rather hard. It's always better to do too little than too much, especially at the beginning.

I checked my training logs (and emails) from last year, and found that back then the ankle drills had felt easy enough and the others much harder - at least that particular aspect seems to work the same way as last year.

In an attempt to take it easy, I was only planning on 8 miles this morning. However, by 6 o'clock in the morning my good lady wife, who is still in Dublin, could obviously stand it no longer and texted me to give me an update on the status of her sister's progress in labour. Thanks, darling. Going back to sleep didn't work so I got up early and did 10 miles instead of 8, just to pass the time. Stupid? Maybe. But that's me, you should know by now.

I got another update at the more reasonable time of 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and I have a new baby niece called Maria, everyone is healthy and happy and congratulations to her parents and (now) big sister.

4 Jan

9+ miles, 1:19:30, 8:46 pace, HR 145
Hill workout: 1: 4x30sec sprints, 2: ankles (4 mins), 3: thighs (1x90 sec, 1x60 sec)

5 Jan

10 miles, 1:19:31, 7:57 pace, HR 145

Dog Days

Following Sunday's race, Monday was of course an easy day. I ran towards UCD/Belfield because I had read somewhere that they have created a few nice running trails within the university grounds and I spent the best part of 6 miles trying to find them. What I found were a few disjointed pieces of trail, all of whom very nice on their own but never more than half a mile in length, most of them significantly shorter. Ah well.

This morning I thought I'd use my last day in Dublin to do an evaluation workout the way it was originally intended, namely on a track. There is a dirt track in Kilbogget Park, 4 miles from Stillorgan, perfect for a good warm/up and cool/down.

The blustery wind meant this was never going to be ideal, but the idea of doing 4 even miles without all those sharp 180 degree turns every half mile was too good to miss. Once I started it was immediately clear that the wind would have some major influence and the numbers might be meaningless as a result, but I persevered. All went ok for 11 laps. Than I heard some effing and blinding, obviously coming from the owner of that dog heading my way at full speed. I wasn't concerned - dog encounters are frequent enough when you're a runner. I can tell if a dog is aggressive or wants to play and I have no problems with it jumping up on my side; it's been happening countless times before. What doesn't usually happen is that the dog crosses right in front of me, tripping me up. He even had the perfect size to be a real hazard like that, and he came back for a repeat again and again. After very nearly faceplanting three times in less than 50 meters, I shoved the dog to the side with my leg, which gave me some space. When I saw the dog's owner running towards me, I fully expected him to apologize, which just shows how naive I am in the daily battle between jogger and dog owner in Ireland's capital.

He was handicapped by the fact that he was several stone overweight, which meant he was completely out of breath when he caught up to me. It took him 2 tries to say something, and I was rather taken aback when instead of an apology he screamed at me for kicking his dog. I could of course have explained to him that I had merely shoved the dog aside in a reasonable gentle way, an explanation that was supported by the fact that the dog hadn't yelped or made any other noise, but I was still trying to run my evaluation at sub-7 pace and the other guy didn't give the impression that he was overly interested in a calm, collected conversation, so I just mumbled something about trying not to get bitten, which was really lame, I admit, as I fully knew the dog was only playing. By then the guy had already reached the end of his anaerobic capabilities and the conversation ended fairly promptly.

Unfortunately, the encounter had been sufficient to drive my HR up by 10 beats, and when you happen to be in the middle of a workout that's based on running at an even heart rate, that's it for said workout. I kept going for the last mile, trying to keep the effort at the same level it had been for the first 3 miles, but the HR never came back, and it also meant my recovery to 130 after the workout was totally out as well as it took over 50 seconds. I was seriously pissed off. Pumped up as I was with adrenaline I was highly tempted to chase after the fat wanker and give him a piece of mind, but as he had gone the opposite way I instead turned back towards Stillorgan, eventually calming down after a few more miles, which saved the world from yet another, entirely useless and unproductive encounter.

I can't even be bothered to look at the individual mile splits from the evaluation. To be honest, the blustery wind might have made them useless anyway. Isn't it ironic that of all the places I had been running in, the one where I had been hampered the most was an actual running track!

2 Jan

10 miles, 1:20:03, 8:00 pace, HR 141

3 Jan

12 miles, 1:27:17, 7:16 pace, HR 153
   botched eval, 4 miles @ 6:59, 50 sec recovery

Blowing Off The Cobwebs

There is no doubt about it, 2011 has been a terrific year for me, running-wise. I put all my eggs into one basket at the start, deciding that the sub-3 marathon would be the only goal worth pursuing, and Thank Goodness that came through when I crossed the finish line in Vienna.

I faced two immediate problems, one that now I had 8 months left of the year without a stated goal, and two that I felt rather burned out after preparing for 6 months for one single race. I therefore decided to take it easy over the summer, race just for fun, and wait for the mojo to return.

I could not have predicted what followed. I set new PBs in the 5k, 10K, half marathon and 15 miles, following the earlier marathon and 10 miles PBs. In addition to that, I picked up age-group prize money in the Killarney 15 mile race, won my age group in the Valentia half marathon, and as if all of that had not been enough yet I ended my season with an outright win at the 30-mile race in Sixmilebridge.

As I said, terrific. It will be hard to match that in 2012. I still haven't got much of an appetite for another fast marathon, despite the conviction that I should have run 2:55 in Vienna and that my best time is still ahead of me. However, until I feel that I really want to put myself through that mill again I will once again concentrate on the Ultra distances, and I do have a few ambitious targets in mind, the first of which will be to go sub-5 in Connemara.

And just to start the new year with a bit of fun, I raced a 5k this morning. I'm sure Mystery Coach would not have approved, but I did it anyway.

The most stressful part was the car journey through Dublin city centre, but once I had made it to Phoenix Park I was very much looking forward to 15 minutes of suffering (because the first 3 minutes don't hurt yet). There are always some top elite runners at this race and I immediately recognised Fionnuala Britton, back in Dublin after her astonishing run to secure the Gold medal in the European XC a few weeks ago.

The course consists of almost two laps of a virtually flat triangular course and is very fast, but the wind wasn't ideal. Still, no excuses today. I set off at about 5:35 pace, which is what I always tend to do in 5ks, but then managed not to look at the Garmin for the rest of the race, definitely a good thing. Even though I was running faster than what I would be able to hold myself, I found myself surrounded by a few runners who looked distinctly out of place with a few stone extra on the hips. Unsurprisingly they fell back soon enough and if that sounds a bit harsh then I apologize but it was perfectly predictable; I have yet to see a heavy guy running a sub-6 mile.

They weren't the only ones starting at Kamikaze pace. Despite my own fast start, I soon started to slowly make my way through the field, something that would go on for the rest of the race.

A lady called out the splits at the 1K mark, which I passed in 3:36. "Great, almost a third done" I thought, until I realised that this was 1 k, not 1 mile (wouldn't it be great to be able to run a mile in 3:36?). Never mind, just keep going. Somewhere near the 2K marker I started wheezing/moaning/breathing heavily, whatever you want to call it (actually, it has been likened to giving birth by at least 2 somewhat unkind fellow runners). It's what I sound like when I run a 5K, and if I don't sound like that then I'm not nearly working hard enough. 5Ks are for suffering.

Going through the finish banner for the first time felt a bit cruel as we're still not even at halfway at that point. It did not help that we were facing the wind pretty much head on at that point. I heard a few shouts of encouragement, including a few for "Tom", and decided that they were meant for me, no matter the actual realities. At one point "Tom" got the advice to stretch the legs properly, which I followed up by promptly overtaking a group of three.

Periods of feeling good and bad kept following each other in quick succession. I always tried to make up yet another place when I felt second wind and then to hang on for dear life to the back of the runner in front during the next low. I did not count how many runners I caught from 1K onwards, but it was well over a dozen. I, in turn, got passed exactly once, and by trying to hang on to that runner I gained another few places.

Turning into Chesterfield Avenue for the second time, with maybe 1K left to go, I passed another 2 or 3 runners, one of whom wondered out loud how anyone breathing so hard would be able to run fast enough to overtake him. Next time save your breath, mate, and it might help.

I kept chasing runners right to the end, one of which passed me back on the final sprint, but I managed to hold off the rest of them. I felt a twinge of disappointment when I saw the 18:2x on the clock, but eventually came round to the fact that since I hadn't done any speedwork and ran up a mountain the day before, this was the best I could have hoped for, realistically. I sure had no regrets about not working hard enough, I can't think of a single stretch of the race where I didn't push with all I had, and that's all I could have asked for.

As I said, I'm sure the coach would have his misgivings, but it was definitely a great way to start the new year. Happy 2012, everyone.

Race Photo courtesy of Peter Mooney.

1 Jan

9 miles, including:
Tom Brennan 5K, 18:22, 5:54 pace, HR 176

Weekly Mileage: 61.5