Aeolus, The Bastard!

I cannot remember when we last had a spell of such high winds lasting for so long; we have basically been battered for a week by now. At least the rain (and hail!) seems to have mostly stopped, though the occasional heavy shower can still catch you out if you're unlucky. And through all this I'm doing my best to keep the training going, which is now in its most crucial stage, with less than 7 weeks left until Tralee.

By the way, they rounded my time from Saturday's race up to 18:00, which did not come entirely unexpected, but which makes it feel a lot slower all of a sudden. On the plus side, I finished in ninth position; a top 10 place always sounds good.

Because the weekend had been a touch more demanding than usual with a week followed by a fairly tough run on Sunday I had to get recovery right. I did my by now customary 8 mile easy run on Monday morning, where the out section felt significantly harder than the back one, the difference being a the gale force wind being in my back rather than in my face. And it was absolutely bucketing it down, after two steps outside I was already wet throughout and the sudden appearance of an entire new set of potholes ensured that my feet got a particularly good soaking. Having said all that, since I was running easily and entirely by feel I just got on with it. There is no danger of chasing a particular pace or HR when you're not looking at the Garmin anyway.

The storm reached its apex on Monday evening, so much so that Niamh refused to have me cycle home from work (and quite rightly so, I hasten to add), but since the worst would be over by Tuesday morning my running would not really be affected. Or so I thought.

What caught me out was the fact that I use an electronic alarm clock and when the storm knocked out the power in the middle of the night, that created a problem. The most annoying aspect is that I was actually awake at the time when I was supposed to get up (I usually am), but did not realise that the time display was wrong. By the time I finally twigged it it was already past 7 o'clock and I rushed out of the door for 4 miles, which was all I had time for. It can be argued, though, that the extra hour of sleep did more good than the lost 6 miles would have done.

With that additional, if unplanned, recovery I hoped I was ready for Wednesday's workout. Canova's specific phase has a lot of long intervals at slightly faster than marathon pace. I admit I chickened out of the original schedule which basically consisted of 30 km worth of intervals for each session (including recovery), something I fear would burn me out rather than  build me up; accordingly I "only" did 5x4k repeats (actually 2.5 miles because I train in miles). The main worry was the continuing gale force wind which shows now signs of abating. Then again, it may well be windy on race day, so it would be beneficial to have run in those conditions before and I went ahead just as planned, but with the caveat that I would not get too hung up on actual pace and rely more on feel for pacing myself.

The first repeat was more a warm-up, the second was all with the wind and accordingly quite fast while feeling easy enough, and then the fun started because the last 3 repeats would all contain significant portions of running right into the gale, with the last one doing so entirely. Add to that the steadily mounting fatigue and you get a good grasp of what it was like.

I sure was glad I had chosen a shortened version of the original workout. I am worried enough about over-cooking myself as it is. The next two days will be easy again (though I am not planning on oversleeping this time), and Saturday will be fun again before a real-world-induced interruption of the training kick in.

28 Jan

8 miles, 1:01:39, 7:42 pace, HR 135

29 Jan

4 miles, 29:52, 7:28 pace, HR 137

30 Jan

17+ miles, 1:55:43, 6:46 pace, HR 158
   5 x 4k @ 6:33 (HR 152), 6:21 (156), 6:31 (164), 6:35 (161), 6:30 (164), 1k recovery @ 7:20 pace

Another Year On

If I were Grellan I would have run 43 miles today, however I'm not him and decided on a significantly reduced mileage for myself.

After taking it fairly easy on Thursday and Friday I was ready for Saturday's race. Gneeveguilla AC are organising a 5k race series again. I skipped it last year, but I'm hoping for some schwag again this year; as lang as I manage to run the minimum of 3 out of 4 races, I should get some.

After running a new 5k PB on New Year's Day, I was curious what this race would bring. The usual local speedsters took off at the front. The start was uphill, just like the 4+ miler on St.Stephen's Day, and just like then I was able to stay with the front group fairly comfortably but fell behind once we crested the hill. George came by me about 1k into the race, commenting that I had gone off like a rocket again, though I wasn't able to respond, neither vocally nor pace-wise. 5Ks in Killarney all used to follow the same route, but they changed it last year for an out-and-back course, but any course in the National Park is highly scenic, not that you have any opportunity to admire the beauty while running at 5k race pace. I caught a guy with an ipod (if he had stopped constantly fiddling with his earphones it would have helped, I'm sure) but was caught myself by two guys inside the last k as the effort was getting to me and I could not respond.

I suffered through the last few minutes but was grateful for the downhill finish (which we had earned with that uphill start, obviously) and went through the finish in 17:59 on my own watch, probably in about 10th place, though I haven't seen any official results yet. That's a few seconds slower than 3 weeks ago but still my second-fastest 5k ever. In Phoenix Park I had been highly motivated to break into the 17s for the first time ever, I think this time I lacked that little bit of extra motivation needed to turn the pain dial all the way to full and was a little less prepared to suffer all the way to the finish. The HR graph looks pretty decent, growing slowly but steadily almost all the way. The drop right at the end is due to the downhill finish but indicates that a faster finish would have been possible - oh, and the average HR of 175 could have been higher, again indicating that I could have pushed that little bit more. Mind, I was still happy enough with the result, and one guy commented that I sure had left it all out there on the course when he saw me wobbling around and leaning on a car for support immediately after finishing.

I attended a strength-and-conditioning workshop in Castleisland afterwards. The guy who held it was excellent and really knew what he was talking about, and best of all, there were no weights involved at all. Now if I could go and start doing these things on a regular basis ...

I do use short races for training, but as I've learned over the years, the most important factor is to recover fully. Racing takes more out of you than training and it is absolutely critical to understand this. In light of that, my decision to do another workout today was definitely a bit risky, but I reckoned that since I had done back-to-back workouts every weekend for quite some time, I should be okay. I don't want to do any more slow long runs before the marathon, so the plan was to run a few miles to warm up and the rest of it at marathon effort. It means that this week's mileage would be significantly reduced compared to previous ones, but that was inevitable once I decided to race the 5k on Saturday. Call it quality instead of quantity if you want.

I felt okay during the early miles but after 5 miles I had to run a couple of miles right into the fierce headwind and realised that the last 5 miles would all have to be against the wind, not something I was looking forward to. I also had to deal with two nasty spells of hail (the second one particularly long and painful) and a few rain showers; the conditions were definitely testing. The legs were pretty heavy and I was feeling the effort. Maybe I should be grateful for the hail because it sure took my mind off the hurting legs. Eventually I realised that while I was clearly working hard I was not deteriorating and could keep pushing that same effort, even if it was uncomfortable. I made it home, feeling my old age and glad to be done.

24 Jan

8 miles, 59:29, 7:26 pace, HR 144

25 Jan

10 miles, 1:13:39, 7:21 pace, HR 142

26 Jan

6.5 miles, including
   Gneeveguilla 5K, 17:59, 5:48 pace, HR 175

27 Jan

15 miles, 1:40:15, 6:41 pace, HR 158
   incl. 12.5 miles @ 6:38 pace, HR 160

Being An Idiot

Winter Dawn

I've been called worse.

We awoke on Monday to a winter wonderland. I knew the kids would be absolutely delighted, grown-ups tend to be rather less so. My own mood dipped a good bit when I actually ventured outside into the darkness and realised that the stuff covering our driveway by more than an inch wasn't really snow but slush, and in no time at all my toes were frozen numb.

It may have been uncomfortable but at least footing was not an issue and I did not think twice about doing my planned easy 8 mile run.

Things changed considerably on Tuesday after the temperatures had dropped significantly below freezing overnight and the ice had frozen solid. I had already dug out a set of spikes, one year old and still unused, just in case. Our driveway was more akin to an ice-rink but the road itself was clear, making the spikes unusable, so that was not an option. As I ventured out on my run I knew full well that this may be a really bad idea, one single slip could lead to serious consequences.

What can I say? As mentioned before I'm comfortable with being an idiot, it works for me. The temperatures were -4C/25F, the road was mainly clear but there were some icy patches and running clearly had its risks. I ran at my normal, relaxed effort and slowed right down whenever I saw the ice glistening before me, something that worked surprisingly well but I'm sure it would not pass any health-and-safety standards. How the pace managed to average a nice clip despite the frequent slow downs, I'm not entirely sure, but the Garmin data doesn't lie.

Surviving an easy run was one thing but I had planned a workout for Wednesday and I knew it would not be possible to do it if conditions were to remain the same. Obviously there was no point in hoping the council might treat the roads (they are too busy encouraging drink driving at the moment [good to see where their priorities lie] ), but the weather forecast offered a glimpse of hope with slightly warmer overnight  temperatures.

As it turns out, it was just the little break I needed. Conditions on Wednesday were definitely improved, just enough to enable me to do my workout, though I still had to mind my step on a couple of occasions. The run itself went well, the pace came naturally. I had planned on running 2 x 5k at 6:20 - 6:25 pace, but for the first 2 miles of the first repeat I never even checked the Garmin and ran entirely by feel, and was very pleased when I finally confirmed that the effort was indeed spot on. The second section was a tad quicker but at the same effort, probably down to being properly warmed up at that point.

I know there's plenty of people who think I'm an idiot for running in those conditions. But I also know that the guys and gals walking away with the trophies in Tralee will be the ones who don't make excuses but get on with training regardless. And anyway, as our county councillors have shown, there are still far bigger morons out there.

21 Jan

8 miles, 58:35, 7:19 pace, HR 141

22 Jan

10 miles, 1:13:04, 7:18 pace, HR 142

23 Jan

10 miles, 1:06:36, 6:39 pace, HR 155
   2 x 5k @ 6:23, 6:18 pace

Marathon Effort

I was seriously tired following Wednesday's fartlek, probably more so because I am not used to that kind of workout than any other reason. However, the way my week is structured meant that 2 days of easy running were always in the plan anyway, though the original idea had been to be fresh for the weekend rather than recover from a particularly tough midweek workout.

Having said that, I seemed to recover very quickly. That's similar to what I encounter when doing hill drills, I can be very tired immediately after doing them but recovery is always very swift.

I felt really good on Friday, which set me up for a good run on Saturday. The plan said to run 20 km at 6:40 pace, but since I measure my runs in miles I did 12 miles, which is slightly less but I did not think it would make a difference. I went on a loop through Cromane which has a lot of little ups and downs, similar to the Tralee marathon course. I found it fairly tough going and did wonder if I was running way ahead of marathon effort, but that's always hard to tell. The heart rate would certainly indicate that I should be able to replicate the pace on marathon day; we will find out. I averaged 6:36 pace, but that's on the Garmin. History teaches us that on an officially measured course that would probably be around 6:40 pace, which would get me just under 2:55 in Tralee, something I would be happy enough with (I'd still love to run faster, of course).

My weekend always features back-to-back workouts, something I started doing under Mystery Coach's guidance, with Saturday seeing faster pace and Sunday a long run. That way you always start your long run on already slightly tired legs, which makes it more relevant for marathon training. The last few weeks I ended my long runs with a few strong miles, today I just held a steady relaxed effort all the way through. I did not pace myself off the Garmin, just ran by feel and was pleasantly surprised by how quick I was. The legs were a bit heavy, yesterday's run had clearly left its marks, but they never deteriorated, after 18 miles they still felt pretty much the same as right at the start.

It is still 8 weeks to Tralee. I wish it was less. My main worry right now is not to get sick; the kids, while being very healthy in general, can't help bringing germs home from school. Shea had just been sick for several days and had felt quite badly affected. It's when he started misbehaving again on Wednesday that we knew he was recovered.

17 Jan

8 miles, 1:01:01, 7:37 pace, HR 136

18 Jan

10 miles, 1:14:31, 7:27 pace, HR 139

19 Jan

12 miles, 1:19:01, 6:35 pace, HR 158

20 Jan

18 miles, 2:09:37, 7:12 pace, HR 141

Weekly Mileage: 75+

Relativity

To ensure recovery after the weekend’s tough back-to-back workouts I decided to take 2 easy days in a row. 8 miles on Monday left me in a reasonably good shape, but I really appreciated the 10 easy ones on Tuesday; I felt really good. What is noticeable is that I ran with a lower HR on Tuesday than Monday even though the pace was higher (effort was just as easy), I guess that’s what we are talking about when we're talking about recovery.

That left me in a fresh state for Wednesday. I re-checked the Canova docs/websites I'm using to get a handle on the system and read that you are still supposed to be doing some of the workouts from the earlier training phase, so I decided that another fartlek was in order. I haven’t done one of those in a few weeks.

I opted for the slightly longer version of 25 x 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy. Obviously, if you use only the watch to determine the workout then the effort you are prepared to put into the workout will determine how hard it is and how tired you will be at the end. I can honestly say that I must have been putting in plenty of effort because by the end I was suitably knackered. I never checked the watch but I'm reasonably confident that all the fast bits were at higher-than-5k effort, which means it all adds up to a significant amount of hard running, far more than in a 5k race.

It’s amazing how long a minute can be when you’re running hard, especially when that segments coincides with a climb, and even more so if it’s into a headwind. On the other side, I never knew a minute can pass by so quickly. Einstein was obviously right, time is not a constant.

With the legs suitably sore again, I’m once more looking at two recovery days before the weekend back-to-back runs.

14 Jan

8 miles, 1:01:07, 7:38 pace, HR 141

15 Jan

10 miles, 1:15:04, 7:30 pace, HR 138

16 Jan

9.2 miles, 1:08:09, 7:24 pace, HR 155
    25 x 1 min hard, 1 min easy

Train and Recover, Recover and Train

When Tuesday's evaluation workout indicated that I am in need of some recovery, I dialled down the rest of the week's runs. I didn't do any major workouts, just short and east recovery runs on Wednesday and Friday sandwiching a set of hill drills on Thursday. I find that those drills can feel rather uncomfortable when I'm doing them but I'm perfectly fine again soon afterwards, which made them a good choice for a recovery week.

Saturday came and it was time to see if the recovery had been sufficient. The plan was 4x3k repeats at 6:20 mile pace, with half a mile of recovery. Michael joined me again, though he voiced his doubts how long he would be able to stay on pace. Last week's workout had not been great as we never managed to hit the right effort. I think I had a tendency to slow down whenever Michael slipped behind a little bit to help him catch up. This time I just tried to hit the pace myself, acting as somewhat of a pacemaker, and as it turn out Michael was perfectly capable of staying with me. We didn't make things easier for us by running the first and third on a slightly uphill road (well, you try and find a flat 3 km stretch!) but the pace was good. Michael then cut the second and third repeat short, dropping out soon after the 2k mark, but we caught up again on the recovery section. The fourth was bang on pace again. I was quite impressed with Michael who managed to run about 11k at pretty much his 10k race pace, but I was just as pleased at nailing the workout myself; feeling challenged but always keeping plenty in reserve and always managing to run controlled and relaxed.

Sunday would show how much I had really recovered by doing a long run. You can't fake those back-to-back workouts, if you're not in shape it is going to show up. The legs were a bit sluggish during the early miles but I settled into 7:30 pace quickly enough. With these kind of workouts I usually have to slow myself down considerably during the first half, but this time that was not an issue, the legs did not feel like going faster anyway, at least not at first. I must have accelerated at some point after the halfway mark because the next time I checked the Garmin I was doing close to 7-minute pace and the average had dropped to 7:23, though that was still perfectly acceptable. Initially, with the sluggish legs, I decided to just run 20 miles at an easy effort but when I started to feel better I decided to run a few faster miles at the end after all, and I pushed the effort from the 15 mile point onwards. The effort now became rather challenging but it felt sustainable enough and I averaged 6:30 pace until I got home. That's a bit faster than planned marathon pace, and indeed the effort felt tougher than marathon effort, but I got home just fine.

I take from that that a few easier days managed to get me back on a even keel. Now it's time to recover again from that weekend and then build on that once more.

Tralee is nine week away. I am feeling really positive about it.

10 Jan

10.7 miles, 1:32:48, 8:40 pace, HR 141
   Hill Drills: strides, thigh drive, downhill strides, high knees

11 Jan

8 miles, 59:46, 7:28 pace, HR 137

12 Jan

12.5 miles, 1:26:43, 6:56 pace, HR 151
   4x3k at 6:22, 6:15, 6:18, 6:21, 6:20 pace

13 Jan

20 miles, 2:23:07, 7:09 pace, HR 146
   15 miles @ 7:23 (HR 141), 5 miles @ 6:30 pace (HR 162)

Weekly Mileage: 79+

Don't Forget About Recovery

The weekend's workouts had been really tough. I felt knackered for much of Sunday, not that I got much rest. It simply does not work like that if you have four children.

There was another problem as well. My right calf muscle was very sore. Interestingly, when I checked the same muscle on the left leg, it was quite sore as well to the touch, though it did not hurt when I left it alone. The right one was pretty bad though. usually I use the stick to work on aching muscles, but it was basically causing excruciating pain, so I just did what I always do with my niggles: I ignored it. As much as that is frowned upon, I have a rather dramatic success rate with that approach, and indeed I kept feeling better every day and by this morning I was pain free. I do sometimes wonder how many more times I will get away with that, though.

Monday's run was exceptionally slow because the legs felt seriously heavy. I did not need to be told to take it easy, it was plain obvious. On Tuesday I did another evaluation workout, probably the last one of this marathon cycle. I expected the figures to be an improvement to last months because I expected to see a sharpening effect from the two races. I was wrong.

(The numbers in brackets are adjusted pace, 7 seconds for every 2 heart beats off the 161 target):

       
        Mile 1    6:30   HR 161    (6:30)
        Mile 2    6:36   HR 162    (6:39)
        Mile 3    6:40   HR 160    (6:37)
        Mile 4    6:40   HR 160    (6:37)
        Recovery to HR 130: 38 seconds

There are two surprises in that. One, I was basically 10 seconds per mile slower than last time, two, I needed much longer to recover. Neither figure is catastrophically bad, but I read from that that I am behind in my recovery.

As a result I took it easy again on Wednesday, though I felt much, much better than on Monday. I hope to be feeling fully recovered again at the weekend; if the legs are as tired again, I will cut back for a week.

7 Jan

8 miles, 1:04:22, 8:03 pace, HR 131

8 Jan

12 miles, 1:25:25, 7:07 pace, HR 145
   4 mile eval: 6:30, 6:39, 6:37, 6:37 (adjusted), 38 sec recovery

9 Jan

8 miles, 1:01:03, 7:36 pace, HR 133

Shared Pain, Half Suffering

I stopped going to the club's Saturday run. During base training I was perfectly happy running at 8:30 or 9-minute pace (though it has speeded up recently - a few of the boys have obviously increased their fitness levels), but now I need more specific workouts for the marathon. I was all set to run entirely on my own again when Michael called me and asked if he could run with me.

I think he was slightly taken aback when I told him I intended to run 1.25 mile (2k) repeats rather than a continuous tempo run at slightly slower pace but was still happy enough to join me. He still had the 10k from Tuesday in his legs and I wasn't sure how much I had recovered from my 5k at the same day, so it was a bit of "let's see how this goes". We agreed to run back- and forwards on the same stretch of road as that would enable us to run all the repeats together even if one of us fell behind. Target pace was about 6:15 per mile, and we set off together. Initially I found it tough to get into a rhythm and continuously checked the Garmin, trying to tune into the correct effort. The first one was definitely too slow, especially considering that we had the wind on our back, something we definitely noticed on the second one. Running the same pace right into the gale was never going to happen and we had to settle for about 6:35 pace, which still felt tougher than the faster first repeat. The third one went better, Michael asked a couple of times if we were running slower than during the first repeat when we were actually running faster. We would have done 6:15 had the repeat not ended right at the top of a hill. Michael pulled up just short of a mile into the fourth repeat and had enough, and I did a fifth one on my own on the way home.

I had never done workouts like this with company - I'm already looking forward to the next one.

Sunday's run was another long run. I initially intended to run 20 miles but cut that short a little bit when I remembered that I had already run a race on Tuesday and a fairly tough workout on Saturday. Instead of running on the very hilly road around the lake I ran a couple of loops through Killorglin, which should be matching the marathon elevation profile to a certain degree. The conditions were rather rough with strong winds (very strong at times) and quite a few rain showers. I had to keep slowing down during the first 10 miles as I kept speeding up to 7-minute pace when I was not paying attention, but then intentionally accelerated for the last 5 miles. The intention was to run in the 6:30s (planned marathon pace) but the legs weren't quite up to it (the wind certainly did not help) and I ended up with 6:42, just a tad slower. Considering that I had started with already fatigued legs, I was happy enough, though.

This starting to get tough. The real marathon training has clearly started.

5 Jan

11.5 miles, 1:20:47, 7:01 pace, HR 157
   5x2k at 6:23, 6:37, 6:18, 6:36, 6:11 pace

6 Jan

18 miles, 2:09:31, 7:11 pace, HR 148
   incl. 5 @ 6:42 pace (HR 163)

Weekly Mileage: 70+

Comparisons

For some reason I remember last year's hill sessions as a period of unbridled joy where I felt better and better with each day and which built the springboard for the great 2012 I've had. That's why I added a hill phase into this year's training as well; if something works so well, it's clearly worth doing again.

However, this time round I could not by any means stretch of the imagination call those hill drills anything resembling joy, so I eventually checked my log for last year and discovered that my memory was clearly playing tricks on me (must be yet another sign of old age). I hated the drills just as much as I do right now. Actually, that's good news. Last year went very well, so if this particular phase right now feels the same, I might be on my way towards another great year, who knows.

Obviously, the race on New Year's Day shows that I am in much better shape than at the same time last year. A year ago I ran the same race and was quote pleased with my time; this time I ran a whopping 27 seconds faster! The one worry I have is that this is all too good too soon, but the exact same danger applied to last year; I even have an email from MC for proof. I had already seen plenty of signs during training that I was running about 8 or 9 seconds per mile faster than last year and funnily enough that race fell into exactly those parameters.

By the way, I checked my mile splits from that race, which turned out to be a bit tricky on Garmin connect, and I took 1.02 "Garmin miles" as one mile in reality. That gave me splits of 5:34, 5:52 and 5:52, which is actually much more even that I usually run 5ks; I usually start at more suicidal pace and hang on for dear life at the end. Even so, that first mile might still be the fastest one I've ever run on even ground (I have run faster miles downhill), but compared to previous races I was able to hold the pace much better towards the end.

I have been asked this a few times by now and yes, I do want to run under 2:55 in Tralee. In fact, I am hoping to run a little bit faster than that. Obviously, there are parameters I won't be able to control like the weather on race day, but that's beside the point. I will do my best to be at the start line in my best possible shape.

I took it exceptionally easy the day after the race and only ran 6 miles, just to be doubly sure that I wouldn't be overdoing things when I should be recovering. The journey back home to Kerry was uneventful and on Thursday morning I was back on my usual hill doing drills once more. I did notice that the high knees drill is feeling significantly easier already; the one I am still struggling with is "driving with the thighs". On the plus side, there won't be many more of these drills; I am already transitioning into the next phase. Until last week running long repeats at 6:15 pace would have sounded like torture and bordering on the impossible. After those two races over the holiday period I am looking forward to those kind of workouts with a much more relaxed attitude. At the very least my confidence levels have risen substantially and that's never a bad thing.

2 Jan

6 miles, 46:18, 7:42 pace, HR 140

3 Jan

10.2 miles, 1:32:17, 9:02 pace, HR 139
   Hill Drills: strides, high knees, ankles, thigh drive

4 Jan

8 miles, 1:01:01, 7:37 pace, HR 139

Happy New Year

Several years ago, when I had only just broken 20 minutes in th 5k, a guy called Eric Sondag predicted that I would one day break into the 17s. It was a highly flattering show of confidence by a great runner (Eric would later win the Fargo marathon), but I never quite got there, and by now time was definitely no longer on my side.

However, the race on St. Stephen's Day convinced me that I had a realistic chance to finally go under 18 minutes. It was definitely not a given and I knew I had to run damn hard to get there, but I was reasonably confident, enough to openly state my goal time of sub-18 to anyone who asked.

Sunday's long(ish) run had been a bit harder than it should have been, not helped by a very strong wind, and Monday's hill drills weren't exactly great fun but I felt pretty good at the start.

We started very much on time (highly unusual for Ireland) and from the off I felt I hit just the right effort level, pretty hard but at the same time sustainable for a while. The course is almost completely flat, 2 loops of a triangle in Phoenix Park. There was a bit of wind but nowhere near as bad as over the last few days, and we started right into the wind, which meant is was possible to try and tuck behind someone. Having said that, I was more concerned with overtaking a good few people who had started fast but could not sustain it and I did not want to be held back. The first km marker took a while to appear - today was going to be hard work, but I kept at it.

Photo courtesy of Peter Mooney

For a while I was sandwiched between 2 ladies, Annette and Leona, who both had plenty of supporters along the sidelines urging them on. Annette eventually managed to pull away during the second loop, and I lost a couple of places. I tried to go with the guys passing me but was already pretty much at the limit and had no reserves to speed up.

The saving grace of 5ks is that they are over so quickly, and the second lap drew to a close. I tried to up the pace for something resembling a finishing sprint. I'm not sure if I even got faster, but at least it was sufficient to hold off the guy behind me. The clock at the finish gantry was slightly obscured and I could see it displaying 17:5x, and a couple of anxious seconds later I knew that I would indeed break the 18 minutes, finally proofing Eric right.

Photo courtesy of Darren Spring

I managed to congratulate Olympian Maria McCambridge on her win and chatted with a few folk I know in Dublin, mostly marathon pacers.

The average pace for a 17:55 5K is 5:45; my Garmin had me in even better shape because it measured 3.18 miles, 5:37 pace, but of course it is the official distance that counts.

The final result has me in 40^th place and 3^rd M40, which sounds pretty good for such a competitive race. It was a great start to the New Year. Happy 2013!

30 Dec

17 miles, 2:07:15, 7:29 pace, HR 145

31 Dec

8.5 miles, 1:08:54, 8:06 pace, HR 145
   Hill Drills: strides, thigh drive, downhill strides

01 Jan

8 miles, including:
   Phoenix Park 5K, 17:55, 5:45 pace, 40^th place, 3^rd M40

End Of Year Report

2012 is drawing to a close, and if I had to describe it in one single word in the style of a Premier League footballer, it would probably be: "F***ing Awesome!".

Yesterday, on the long drive from Kerry to Dublin, Niamh asked me my 3 greatest achievements of 2012 and I responded with "coming top 10 in Connemara, top 10 in Dingle and finishing second place in a National Championship race", to which she complained that all these are running related, so I changed it to "all of the above while still remaining married to her", which she agreed was some sort of achievement, alright.

Purely from a running point of view, 2012 certainly surpassed my expectations by quite some margin and I'm obviously hoping for more of the same in 2013 (apart from losing a race in a sprint finish, maybe. I could have done without that). I'm in excellent shape already as the St.Stephen's Day race has shown, now I have to try and carry that into the marathon in March. I pretty much have most of my season planned in my head already, but right now I'm focusing on Tralee only, so I won't go into any detail on what is in store after that.

I just ran my 3400th mile of the year this morning and obviously there are still two more days to come. It's not my highest annual mileage ever but it's close, and if things continue to go well I'm about to get into the best shape of my life (so far); the year is definitely ending on a high.

The last few days have shown that I need to be careful, though. I ran reasonably easy on Thursday, following Wednesday's race, but the heavy legs on Friday told me that it was probably still too fast. I did a hill session on Friday, despite the tired quads, because experience from previous years tells me that those hill drills train slightly different muscles than normal running, and it's possible for your "normal" running muscles to recover while those "new" muscles are taking a bit of a beating. I certainly found some of the drills rather tough. Bouncing off the ankles is easy, but high knees and driving with the thighs (the same drills as MC had me doing when I was training for Vienna 2 years ago) are really tough. It definitely shows some weakness in those areas. I took it exceptionally easy this morning, because the legs had to recover not only from the race and the hills but also the long car journey.

There is another race here in Dublin on New Year's Day, a 5k in Phoenix Park. I ran reasonably well last year in 18:22; I can't help but wonder what I can do this year with my improved form. I will be racing on tired legs because I'm not interrupting my marathon training for a 5k; still, I'm definitely looking forward to it.

27 Dec

8 miles, 1:00:43, 7:35 pace, HR 142

28 Dec

10 miles, 1:31:52, 9:11 pace, HR 143
   Hill Drills: strides, thigh drive, ankles, high knees

29 Dec

8 miles, 1:02:43, 7:50 pace, HR 141

Farranfore St.Stephen's Day Race

I had more or less taken a year absence from the local road racing scene. A low-key 10k in Tralee in June was the only local short road race I had done all year, so this was a comeback of some sort. I saw plenty of very familiar faces that I hadn't seen in a while.

The kids were all happy with their heaps of new Christmas presents and I was able to leave for a couple of hours without feeling guilty.

Yesterday my left hamstring had started hurting on the last mile and as soon as I started my warm-up I could feel it again. Running a race with a dodgy hamstring is unlikely to be a good idea; if I got hurt now it would destroy my chances of a good Tralee marathon, which would be devastating after the excellent base training I had managed in the last few months. However, I decided to go ahead anyway. What can I say, I'm the guy who thought running for 24 hours straight was a great idea; idiocy comes easy to me.

This was the 51st annual Farranfore road race, very much a credit to the local running club for keeping it going for such an amazingly long time. It's an old-school race as far as the odd distance is concerned, about 4 miles and a quarter. Back then they didn't care much for PBs over certain distances, it was all about racing each other, and that's exactly what I had in mind today.

The race course is tough, you start by going up a hill right from the off, then a slightly undulating straight road to Firies is followed by a small loop and then the same road back, which means that for the finish you have to cross that same hill again, which has seemingly doubled in size since 20 minutes ago.

The front row was pretty much packed with the usual fast guys. Two guys shot off from the start and would contest the eventual winner between themselves, but the pack right behind them contained all the familiar faces, including John, Simon, Cian, Arthur, Ed, Rob and ... me??? I was wondering what was going on, I am used to being a slow climber but reasonably fast descender, so to hang on to the back of these guys despite going uphill and not even working too hard was odd. When we reached the top of the hill I was still right there but then it felt like they all accelerated in unison and left me behind, struggling on my own against the fierce headwind. On the following downhill section I was caught by about 5 runners, including the first 2 ladies. This was the complete opposite of what I'm used to, usually I lose a few places on the climbs and gain them back afterwards. I'm not sure how that happened, but I must have become much stronger since last year but at the same time can't seem to spin my legs fast enough on the descent.

I tried to hang on to the backs of the runners who had just caught me, but with limited success. All I could do was try and keep the gap reasonably small. Just as we got into Firies George overtook me. I'm used to him disappearing into the distance right from the start, so I figured I must be running well even if I was unable to match his pace from here on.

Positions and gaps were maintained through Firies and on the way back home I noticed I was gaining on the runner ahead of me. He held me off when I drew level and together we closed the gap to the runner ahead until the three of us were running level. That's when the final climb started, gently at first but getting steeper with each step. Again, in highly unusual fashion, I was strangely strong here and not only gapped the two guys but caught the next runner in front of me as well. Then we reached the top and from here on I tried to spin the legs as fast as possible until the finish so as not to lose those places I had worked so hard for, which was successful, happy days!

I finished in 17^th position, 3^rd M40 (George overtaking me was the decisive move as far as finishing in the prize money was concerned), in 24:30, official results are here. That's 5:52 pace over a hilly course in very windy conditions, much better than I would have thought possible! Funnily enough, I had been talking to John O'Regan beforehand and somehow I had been running the race he had hoped for himself while he ran the race I had predicted for myself.

The hamstring did not hamper me at all, after a mile or two I did not even notice it any more. I knew I was in good shape, but had no idea I was in SUCH good shape. Happy Days!

24 Dec

8.5+ miles, 1:15:08, 8:46 pace, HR 138
   Hill Drills: strides, high knees, thigh drive

25 Dec

8 miles, 57:58, 7:14 pace, HR 149

26 Dec

8 miles, including:
   Farranfore 4.2 mile race, 24:33, 5:52 pace, avg. HR 178, max HR 185, 17^th place, 3^rd M40

Post Apocalyptic Training

Happy New Bak'tun everyone, I hope you had a pleasant apocalypse. Our twins took the whole thing seriously enough to pack a survival bag, though that did not include any provisions for the adults ("sceptics don't get saved, Dad!"). The Hunger Games have a lot to answer for.

After Saturday's hangover had passed (I exaggerate - I only had 3 drinks at Friday's party), I realised that the world was still standing and I better get on with my training. I tried to repeat last week's tempo run under the same guidelines, namely as soon as the pace started dropping or the effort got too hard I'd pull the plug, no matter how far (or not) I had gotten. The legs didn't exactly feel the love during the warm up, but that's not a good indicator for the following workout as I have learned over the years. When I hit the tempo segment I felt decent enough for the first few miles but as soon as I reached the far point of my loop I realised that I had to face the gale force wind on the way back home, and predictably the pace started suffering immediately. Despite all the good intentions I did struggle on for a bit but pulled the plug after only just over 3 miles, significantly less than last week. Of course runners always have a good excuse when it comes to sub-par workouts, and I am no exception. The gale force winds interfered badly, the previous day's run might have been a tad too fast and surely yesterday's drinks didn't help. Actually, later that day I noticed an even better excuse, namely a sore throat that I hadn't felt during the morning but the germs responsible for that may already have made their present felt in my system at the time of my run.

In reality I won't lose any sleep over it, I had expected a better workout but that did not happen, ah well. It still was a decent enough session, especially as I added another two miles of tempo pace at the end, though that was slightly downhill and might have overcompensated for the headwind.

The sore throat was still there on Sunday morning but did not stop me from going out on my long run, once more around Caragh Lake. I kept the effort easy enough but the legs kept moving well over the long climbs. I picked up the effort a little towards the end. 7-minute pace is starting to feel pretty easy. For some reason I was bothered with a side stitch that took ages to work out after about 7 miles, but I think that may have something to do with eating a couple of cookies right before heading out.

And so I have arrived at the end of the base training phase. Tomorrow I'm doing my first hill drills session.

21 Dec

10 miles, 1:13:25, 7:20 pace, HR 145

22 Dec

10 miles, 1:07:37, 6:45 pace, HR 160
   3.25 miles @ 6:16 pace (HR 165), 2 miles @ 6:14 pace (HR 170)

23 Dec

18 miles, 2:11:23, 7:18 pace, HR 146

Weekly Mileage: 77+

The End Of the World Training Cycle

Assuming the world will go on, Tralee marathon will be in 12 weeks' time. For me, that means that base building is finished and the marathon specific preparation is about to begin.

I thought about this long and hard and eventually decided that I will do a hill drills phase, similar to the one I had been doing under Mystery Coach's guidance. There is no hills phase in Canova's training, but I vividly remember how great I felt last year; every single day of the hills phase was better than the previous one and I carried the momentum all the way to my top-10 finish in Connemara and beyond. Of course there is no guarantee this will work again, especially as I am in quite different shape compared to last year, but I will give it a go nevertheless.

This base training phase has gone extraordinarily well, and if things go right for the next few months a string of PBs is basically guaranteed. I'm really looking forward to racing already.

The week has been very good so far, even the easy efforts are now at a pace that a few years ago would have been the goal pace of a tempo run. That's great. There is a voice in my head that keeps reminding me that I'm almost 43 already and the time when my performances will decline can't be too far away, but do far so good and I'll enjoy the ride for as long as I can.

Because last week's fartlek had started to feel decidedly easier I decided to extend it this week, from 20 to 25 repeats. That went well enough, but I could not fail to notice that the pace had been slower this week, even though I could have sworn the effort had been the same.

Wednesday's easy run was probably the most satisfying run of them all, and that's not something I usually say about easy runs. It just felt great, the pace was nice enough and yet I felt like I could go on like that forever, there seemed to be absolutely no effort involved.

That's not to say that today's run was bad. It was a good bit faster, but still very much controlled, less than marathon effort I'd say. It's great to be in sub-3 shape already. Two years ago, when I broke 3 hours for the first and so far only time, I had to give blood sweat and tears to achieve 2:59. This time it will be easier.

17 Dec

10 miles, 1:15:40, 7:34 pace, HR 138

18 Dec

9.25 miles, 1:08:00, 7:21 pace, HR 151
   25 x 1 min hard, 1 min easy

19 Dec

10 miles, 1:13:04, 7:19 pace, HR 146

20 Dec

10 miles, 1:07:15, 6:43 pace, HR 154

A Different Outlook

One thing that differentiates Canova'a approach to the standard one is that pace is more important than distance. I read one interview with the man where he states that a westerner would run 20 miles, no matter what, but a Kenyan would target a certain pace (effort, actually), and once he can't hold it any longer the workout is over, no matter how far he had gone. He also states that one approach isn't necessarily superior to the other, it's just how they act differently (cultural differences, maybe)?

I can't say I have followed that particular Canova principle so far, despite my attempts to base my training on the things I have read about and from the man, but I gave it a go on Saturday. The idea was to hit tempo pace, 6:15 - 6:20, which should more or less coincide with my present half-marathon pace (I haven't run a half in well over a year, which makes this a bit tricky), and not worry about the distance. As soon as I wasn't able to hit the pace any longer, or once it started feeling too hard, I would ease up. At the same time I did not want to give myself a license to pull out prematurely just because it felt tough; it was a fine line to be tread.

Last week's attempt at hitting that sort of pace was a bit of a disaster and I was ever so slightly apprehensive, but this new way of looking at things made it easier. The pace felt comfortable enough initially, but after 2 miles I started breathing harder. A few ups and downs in effort followed, at times I lost concentration for a bit, and once I was past 4 miles it definitely became harder. The pace had already started suffering when I finally pulled the plug on the effort after about 4.7 miles. After about 10 minutes of easy running I felt sufficiently recovered to give it another go and did a bit over a mile, albeit at a slightly slower pace. I think I got that workout right. I hung in there for as long as it seemed sensible but pulled the plug when I got into anaerobic territory. The hope is that next time it will feel that little bit easier and I can keep the same pace for longer, rather than try to hit a faster pace.

There's no rest for the wicked, and out I went again on Sunday morning. I waited out one rain shower, but that was of limited use on a day like today. I had sun, rain, hail, rain, sun, rain, sun, and a few other bits thrown in as well, the only constant being the wind, with a few very bright rainbows as a nice bonus. After about 15 miles I ran into Mark and we shared a mile or two, which was nice and those miles flew by particularly quickly. I did not even have to slow down for these, instead Mark increased his own pace to match mine, which makes me suspect that he is able to run faster than he presently knows himself. I didn't run any heroic sub-7 miles this time, just held a very steady effort over very hilly territory. These long runs are fine, but I am looking forward to some faster long ones as well (I might regret those words).

It rounded off another good week, with plenty of decent pace, and good mileage as well.

14 Dec

10 miles, 1:18:13, 7:49 pace, HR 139

15 Dec

10 miles, 1:07:22, 6:44 pace, HR 158
   4.7 miles @ 6:15, 1.3 miles @ 6:20

16 Dec

20 miles, 2:30:35, 7:31 pace, HR 145

Weekly Mileage: 85+

Healthy Training

Last week, Maia was fighting off a cold all week. It was just one of the many bugs that a 5-year old brings home from school all the time. On Sunday, both Niamh and me felt a touch of the cold ourselves, but that's where our respective paths diverged. While a good night's sleep did wonders for me and I felt right as rain again, Niamh got it full on. She felt rotten for a couple of days and was only getting better by Wednesday, though she is still coughing quite severely today. This kind of thing isn't exactly unusual. Four school kids in the house mean they bring a lot of germs back home and usually some other family members catch it too, except me. My immune system must be exceptionally strong, and I sure attribute this to my running. It's because of these repeated occurrences that I do not pay any heed to the repeated scare stories about running that get printed in the press on a regular basis, one of them quite recently. While I know that a strong immune system is not an indicator that you won't get a heart attack, I simply cannot believe that an activity that demonstrably keeps me so healthy would be - well, unhealthy.

The training keeps going exceptionally well. After an exceptionally easy 10-miler on Monday it was time again for an evaluation. The last one had produced an excellent set of figures and I was quite curious what this week would bring. The conditions were not quite as ideal as 2 weeks ago, it was a little bit windy and I wondered if that would have an effect. I found it quite hard to get the heart rate up to 160 initially, I felt I had to work unusually hard for it. But as it turns out, once I got going I was flying.

(The numbers in brackets are adjusted pace, 7 seconds for every 2 heart beats off the 161 target):

       
        Mile 1    6:21   HR 160    (6:18)
        Mile 2    6:26   HR 160    (6:23)
        Mile 3    6:23   HR 161    (6:23)
        Mile 4    6:30   HR 162    (6:33)
        Recovery to HR 130: 30 seconds

I think I was still in the process of stabilising the heart rate during the first mile, which is why is was so fast - the HR basically took a bit to catch up. After that it felt smoother and it's another step up from 2 weeks ago. The short recovery time especially is a great sign; never mind that the average pace for these is just getting faster and faster.

Since the evaluation is such a mellow workout that does not require a recovery day I felt it safe to follow it up with a fartlek, which followed the usual formula of 1 minute hard / 1 minute easy. This used to feel quite hard a couple of weeks ago, but after 20 repeats I still felt quite good this time. Time to add more repeats, I guess.

Another fast run would definitely have been a bad idea after that, but I did a medium long run on Thursday, getting up very early like in the Good Old Times to run around the lake. It really was pitch dark, without the head lamp I would have run off the road on a couple of occasions. It was also fairly cold, at least judging by Kerry standards (which is not really cold, I know, I know).

I'm definitely in far better shape at this point in time than any previous year. My main worry at the moment is not to peak too early. Tralee is still 13 weeks away. The specific marathon training has not even started yet.

10 Dec

10 miles, 1:15:59, 7:35 pace, HR 135

11 Dec

12 miles, 1:23:32, 6:57 pace, HR 148
   4 mile eval: 6:18, 6:23, 6:23, 6:33 (adjusted), 30 sec recovery

12 Dec

8 miles, 56:43, 7:05 pace, HR 153
   20 x 1 min hard / 1 min easy

13 Dec

15+ miles, 1:45:14, 7:33 pace, HR 142

The Next Step

The training has definitely gone up a notch this week. I am still following my vague outline of a Canova build, and the advice for the last month of the base phase is to add a hilly fartlek run as well as a tempo run once per week.

This meant that the average training pace made a bit of a jump this week. The other by-product is that I was running a lot of miles at race pace or faster. I know that most elites, as well as a lot of not-so-elites, tend to run about 26 miles per week at marathon pace, which makes a lot of sense because the way to get good at running at a certain pace is to run at that certain pace, and now I'm basically trying to do just that myself (minus the elite bit, obviously).

The mileage dropped a bit, which helped keeping the legs reasonably fresh despite the increase in intensity. It is the standard thing to do when you start running faster, though I didn't plan a reduced mileage, just tried to adapt to the way my legs were feeling.

They definitely needed a bit of encouragement after Thursday. I tried to run that tempo run, with 6 miles at roughly half-marathon effort. I haven't raced a half-marathon in well over a year, but figured 6:20 pace should be pretty much it. Unfortunately, on the day itself I never managed to get going properly. Right from the start the pace was not there. The heart rate was quite low and I never managed to push it up to a higher level and I could not even hold 6:30 pace. I figured I was still fatigued from Tuesday's fartlek; I haven't really got any other explanation.

I took it especially easy on Friday to give the legs a break; I also happened to fast all day that day. I was a bit nervous how that would impact on my training, especially on Saturday. Although I had eaten again by the time I hit the road, I wasn't sure if running at a reasonably hard effort with definitely still reduced glycogen levels was really such a great idea, but got a pleasant surprise. I easily managed to run faster for 10 miles than I had managed for 6 on Thursday, and the expected sugar crash never came, so all was good.

My sugar levels definitely hit a high again at Cian's birthday party, but I wasn't the only one who loved Niamh's cake. It wasn't as sugary sweet as the photo suggested (see previous post) as the icing coating was quite thin, but the cake itself was just fabulous. It's a good thing I am a high mileage runner, imagine what I'd look like if all those extra calories weren't burned off day after day!

I decided to take it easy again on Sunday and just go for a fairly leisurely stroll around the lake. Halfway through the run I hit a rough patch that I initially attributed to empty glycogen stores, still a hangover from Friday's fast; when I felt better again a few miles later I dismissed that theory. With about 5 miles to go all of a sudden I decided to inject a bit of pace into the proceedings and dropped the pace from 7:45 to 6:45. It was a spur of the moment thing and initially I thought I'd do it just for one single mile but ended up running that pace for the rest of the run; I guess my glycogen stores were definitely not empty, then.

6 Dec

10 miles, 1:09:14, 6:55 pace, HR 152
   6 miles @ 6:32 pace, HR 159

7 Dec

10 miles, 1:14:46, 7:29 pace, HR 144

8 Dec

10 miles, 1:04:43, 6:28 pace, HR 159

9 Dec

18 miles, 2:14:18, 7:28 pace, HR 144
   13 miles @ 7:45, 5 miles @ 6:45

Weekly Mileage: 76

Intermittent Fasting Report

I have been mildly curious about intermittent fasting for a while, reading a bit about it e.g form this guy. I have always been rather sceptical about the claimed health benefits and no real intentions of ever doing that myself. However, when I came across an ad for the Concern Fast something spoke to me, though not the fasting itself (which still smacks a bit of a "let's play suffering for a day" stunt to me) but the opportunity to raise some money and maybe make a tiny bit of difference for some. Before I had the opportunity to think things through I had already signed up.

Friday 7 December was not exactly the best date for fasting - it was also the day of my department's Christmas do, and I very much enjoy that every year. I might no look like it but I absolutely love food, and Jack's Seafood Restaurant in Cromane is one of the best eateries I have ever visited. I wasn't going to subject myself watching everyone else eating some of the most delicious food on the planet and then get drunk in unison, so the party had to go ahead without me.

Fasting was supposed to last from midnight to midnight, but I ate my last snack at 10 pm on Thursday; any later and I reckoned I would have trouble sleeping. Morning started as usual, I still went for my 10 mile run in the morning, except I only had water for "breakfast".

I started to get hunger pangs at about 9 o'clock when I arrived at the office and suspected I would be in for a long day. Turns out a cup of coffee is a surprisingly effective hunger depressant, though it's probably not the best thing for your stomach. As the day wore on, more and more people started asking how the fast was going, though I could not tell any difference. It did occur to me that today I could behave as grumpy as I liked and still have a good excuse, though I'm not sure anyone would have noticed a difference. The hunger pangs did not get any worse during the day; I even worked through breakfast and most of my lunch break. Keeping busy was a good thing.

Towards the evening I noticed I started getting slightly dizzy if I got up from my chair a bit too quickly, though that was as bad as it got. Cycling home was no problem, and skipping dinner was easy enough as I knew this would be over soon. Niamh tried to get me to eat at 10 o'clock, pointing out that I had been fasting for 24 hours already, but I insisted it would have to be midnight to midnight and went to bed instead. I woke a few times, and at 2 o'clock went to the kitchen and raided the fridge after 28 hours of fasting. Unfortunately I slept very badly that night, which included another feed at 5 o'clock in the morning.

I went running again at 7:30 in the morning, which went surprisingly well.

Would I do it again? Well, unless it was another charity gig that was supposed to last from midnight to midnight, I would do it from evening time to the following day's evening time, simply to avoid the sleeping problems. Otherwise it was actually pretty easy. I kept comparing it to running for 24 hours straight, and not eating for a day did not even register on the scale compared to that.

I also was 2 pounds lighter this morning, despite my 2 night feeds, but that may be temporary only.

I raised €157 so far, with a few more being pledged. Thanks everyone who chipped in, this is very much appreciated.

And while 7 December might not have been the ideal date for me, 8 December would have been a lot worse. Happy Birthday, Cian. I don't think my blood sugar levels will remain low for long today.

Not A Kenyan

I was reading this book recently and I have to admit I am deeply envious of the author. Living in Kenya for a few months, concentrating on nothing but running (well, and writing a book, I suppose), would be just great. Unfortunately, I don't think Niamh's reaction would be the same as the author's wife if I suggested dropping everything and moving to Africa (admittedly, I never asked), so my chances of doing the same are probably rather slim.

So, instead of getting some high-altitude training with the world's best distance runners, I am stuck at sea-level, running on my own in the dark in temperatures only just above freezing (mind, that's still almost 20 degrees warmer than this time 2 years ago). The one Kenyan-like thing I'm doing is a fartlek workout that is also mentioned in that book, consisting of 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy, in my case repeated 20 times.

This was sandwiched between 2 easy runs. The legs felt distinctly heavy on Monday, which was probably caused not only by Sunday's 20-miler but also the increased pace of last week in general. Luckily, 10 easy miles seemed exactly what was required to get them back by Tuesday. The fartlek workout was challenging again, just like last week, but this kind of speedwork is mentally easier than, say, quarter-mile repeats where you are trying to hit a certain pace, which is why I find it much more agreeable. I was concerned when I saw the high heart rate reading afterwards, but a look at the graph later indicated that it was more a glitch of the HRM, which was not picking up the signal properly over the first mile and recorded readings around the 200 mark, than an actually  raised HR. That's something that tends to happen with Garmin HRMs, especially in cold conditions.

By the way, there is still time for you to click on this link and give a vital donation to a very worthwhile charity. Thank you so much to the ones amongst you who have already donated (or pledged to do so).

3 Dec

10 miles, 1:16:21, 7:38 pace, HR 137

4 Dec

8 miles, 57:52, 7:12 pace, HR 160 (not!)
   20 x 1 min hard / 1 min easy

5 Dec

10 miles, 1:16:19, 7:37 pace, HR 140

Help!

I did a silly thing. I heard about the Concern Fast on the radio, and before I had a chance to think things through, I had signed up myself. To be honest, I do feel a bit uneasy about the whole idea. It smacks of a stunt, and comfortable Westerners playing hungry for a day, in the full knowledge that they can tuck in heartily the next day has absolutely nothing in common with people who are genuinely starving and suffering. Having said that, the underlying cause is a worthwhile one, and if you could find it in your heart to give a few quid to a deserving charity (and ignore what I just said), I would very much appreciate if you would follow this link and support me with a few quid.

The running has gone pretty well this week. My adductor felt a little bit better every day until I could feel no more discomfort yesterday. Things like that may be a sign of getting old, as I have been told by an authoritative source, but there isn't much I can do about that particular problem. The most important thing to me is that it did not hamper my training and went away again.

After a reasonably easy 10 miler on Thursday I followed the next step up on my Canova spreadsheet and introduced a tempo run. There are countless options, I settled on 2x2 miles and the pace I targeted was 6:20, giving myself the option to speed up a little if it felt too comfortable or to slow down if it felt too tough. In the end, 6:20 was just fine, my biggest problem was that I kept losing concentration and kept cruising at autopilot, but then again, being able to cruise at 6:20 pace isn't that bad a situation to be in. This isn't particularly fast. I am still in base training, and that is not the place for heroic workouts. But it is another stepping stone; I haven't been doing a lot of running at faster than planned marathon pace up to now. What I found remarkable was that I was taking it easy between the tempo segments, and when I checked my pace on my watch I was seemingly jogging at 7:00 pace; again, not a bad place to be in. All this bodes very well for Tralee.

Saturday's "group" run consisted only of Mark and me; I let him set the pace and it was a good bit faster than the usual group run. I probably won't be able to make a lot more group runs. As I am nearing the end of base training my runs will become much more specific and most Saturdays will probably see much faster pace; unfortunately right now there aren't any training partners for tempo pace runs at the club, though this may well change over time, you never know.

Sunday's long run was a little bit of a struggle. From the very first step it all felt a bit laboured, though the fact that I didn't feel any worse 20 miles later isn't such a bad sign either. The weather conditions were downright miserable, rainy and windy and cold. But I got the run done, and it always provides some satisfaction to jot down a run that starts with a "2" in your training log.

29 Nov

10 miles, 1:14:05, 7:24 pace, HR 152

30 Nov

10 miles, 1:08:45, 6:52 pace, HR 157
   2x2 miles @ 6:20 (HR 157), 6:21 (167)

1 Dec

13+ miles, 1:34:13, 7:07 pace, HR 148

2 Dec

20 miles, 2:29:17, 7:27 pace, HR 150