Speedy Returns

It is one feature of my training that I don't do much speed work. I have been told quite a few times that I would be a faster runner if I did more speed workouts, maybe even all year round. Maybe so. What I do know, though, is that I get injured a lot less than your average runner (I can't even remember when I last had to take a day off due to injury. It's several years ago) and that consistency is very important. I also found it very telling that the one coach I ever had never pressed me into speed work, and in fact dialled it back quickly once I started because he noticed how quickly I responded to it.

Anyway, after a short hill phase and an easy recovery week after the 50k (still only 10 days ago!) I did my first speed workout this morning. The weather forecast almost had me reconsider, and it sounded truly scary out there when I wok at 3 am, but I decided to go ahead nevertheless, and if it was too windy I would do quarter mile repeats on the piece of road outside our house that is somewhat sheltered by trees.

However, it was much nicer at 6:30, so I programmed the Garmin for half mile repeats. I did two easy miles as my warm up, and wouldn't you know it, the wind picked up considerably and it also started raining extremely heavily. But I'm naturally lazy and couldn't be bothered to re-program the Garmin while standing out there so I stuck two proverbial fingers to the elements and went ahead.

3:02 (158), 2:57 (158), 2:56 (164), 2:51 (163), 2:54 (167), 2:48 (165) - 2 minutes recovery

I did 6 repeat, just as planned. The odd numbers are straight into a fierce headwind, the even ones obviously with the wind on my back. I ran this entirely by feel and not once checked the watch for either time or HR, just clicked off the numbers and looked at the numbers afterwards.

Wouldn't you know it, I felt so smug afterwards! The session was just perfect; the effort maintainable and always under full control, I always concentrated mostly on remaining relaxed rather than hammering out a fast repeat, I got faster the longer the session went on, I finished in the knowledge that I still had one or two more in me and to top it all off the pace was quicker than expected.

Next time I might not even dread speed work!

24 Feb

10 miles, 1:18:22, 7:50 pace, HR 142

25 Feb

8+ miles, 59:01, HR 146

   6 x half mile in 3:02, 2:57, 2:56, 2:51, 2:54, 2:48

Easy Does It

The last couple of days I've been increasing the mileage but always kept the effort very easy. It all worked very well, I am feeling good and the legs are feeling very good. From the way I feel I could swear I did not run a 50k; maybe I just imagined the entire thing.

After yet another 8 miler on Friday I did 10 on Saturday. It was very blustery, but that had been the case all week, so I can't blame the conditions for the higher HR. Problem is, I can't think of anything else, the effort was the same very easy one as for any other day. Just one of those things, I suppose.

Originally I had planned on keeping Sunday's run shorter as well, but since the legs had responded so well I decided to join the club run after all. I did the same thing I always do, I run the 5 miles into Killorglin to meet the others, do the club run with them and then run back home, which gives me a nice long workout and I still get the benefits of company. The pace today was a bit slower than what I would have run on my own but I made up for most of that by hammering home the last few miles. Thanks especially to Sean and Eddie for the company, the time and miles just flew by, and most times I hardly noticed that we were running into gale force winds.

I was particularly pleased to see the HR remain stable even toward the end of a 20 mile run, rather than drifting upwards. I clearly do have the endurance, even if my speed has completely gone (I know, I know, I never had speed in the first place). I'll do a few faster runs next week, but I've long given up on doing a decent time in Ballycotton. Last year I knocked on the door of a sub-60, in 2 weeks' time I'd be happy to go 63 minutes - any thoughts of a t-shirt will have to be shelved for at least another year. In reality I just cannot see myself ever targeting a 10 mile race - that's just not me. Ah well.

21 Feb

8 miles, 1:01:20, 7:40 pace, HR 138

22 Feb

10 miles, 1:16:06, 7:36 pace, HR 145

23 Feb

20 miles, 2:40:06, 8:00 pace, HR 136

Weekly Mileage: 64

Healing And Recovering

Andrew, me, Don and Liam after lap 1
Photo by Paul Kiely.

Jeez, I really am getting old confused. I was convinced today was Wednesday until about a minute ago when I accidentally checked my calendar and realised I was living in the past. I didn't know my senility was that advanced already - but then again, that's the nature of that beast.

By far the best news is that my legs are feeling really good. I was never sore at all after the 50k, walking down staircases didn't elicit any response at all, in fact it took me two days to even realise how well they had taken the load, simply because of the complete absence of any soreness.

I did feel a bit stiff on Sunday morning for my easy 5 mile recovery run, but by Monday I was already cruising along nicely, if still a little bit slow. The pace has increased a bit every day without any increase in effort, and yesterday I decided to increase the length of my morning runs from 5 to 8 miles simply because the legs felt so well that running so short did not seem justified.

On Wednesday the legs felt a bit heavy, very much as if I had done a workout the day before. This morning even that was gone and I felt just normal. I might have run a few minutes slower than expected on Saturday but I think from a training point of view I got it spot on. Now if I can do the same again in the Tralee marathon I'll give myself a good pat on the shoulder.

Half a second earlier I had been well airborne
doing an Eamonn across the finish line. Honestly!
Photo by Sportsmassage Ireland

There is still some discomfort coming from the right hip, but it's no worse when running than during the normal working day. In fact, the only time it could be called slightly painful is when getting up after sitting down for an hour or two. I could feel the hip at times during the 50k on Saturday but it never bothered me and it never got any worse. But I decided to take some remedial action - my usual response to a niggle is to throw out my older pair of shoes. And indeed, my Kinvaras had almost 1000 miles on them, so were due for a one-way ticket to the bin anyway. I compared the wear of the old pair to a brand new pair of the same kind (bought cheaply together in bulk a few months ago) and could see that while the wear on the heel wasn't too bad, the bumps beneath the balls of the feet had been completely worn away, a difference of several millimetres. Since changing shoes always seems to magically heal any issues I have I am highly optimistic for the same again; no need for a physio.

The HR has come down remarkably since Saturday; my VDOT values seem to have jumped from 55 to 60. I have seen it all before numerous times, it's no reason to get too excited. I'm still in recovery, after all I did run an ultra distance race 5 days ago. Any chances of doing well in Ballycotton are, well, remote, and the slower I run Tralee the better. I want to do well in Connemara, but the big goal is still 5 months away.

17 Feb

5 miles, 40:08, 8:02 pace, HR 132

18 Feb

5 miles, 39:59, 8:00 pace, HR 136

19 Feb

8 miles, 1:02:32, 7:48 pace, HR 136

20 Feb

8 miles, 1:01:28, 7:41 pace, HR 137

The Longest Day

The alarm went off at 4:50 am. I had my breakfast and just before 5:30 left to drive across the country to drive towards county Kildare. It might have been easier to do this the day before and stay overnight in Dublin, but I didn't think leaving my wife alone with 4 kids on Valentine's Day would be a good move.

Anyway, I arrived in Donadea in good time. The short walk to the registration tent took me about half an hour because I met so many friends. Then I got ready and we started almost on time.

I did not have much of a plan apart from treating this purely as a training run. Two years ago I had run the first half of this race in 2 hours and then sped up a bit to run the second half in 1:50, and if things went well I'd maybe do something similar again, but on the whole I was playing this entirely by ear.

The course consists of 10 laps through Donadea Forest Park, which is a lovely setting, but after 2 months of rather solid storm weather the road had turned very muddy in places and there were puddles, including one across the entire road, which gave us the option of either a long jump or cold wet feet.

I started slowly and the first lap was rather slow. I had started way too far in the back a spent the first few miles slowly overtaking people. Another runner, Andrew, who had been part of the 3:10 pacing group in Dublin, joined me in the fun. We made up for the slow start by running the second lap a bit faster, catching up to a big group of about 10 runners who all seemed to have an eye on a sub-4, but had run the first lap a bit too hard. I thought about joining then but didn't because my own pace had felt perfectly comfortable and I decided to run my own race. Niall gave me a bit of grief for that, but since I had foolishly said I'd jump into the pond if he finished ahead of me, hey!

The next few laps were all pretty much the same. We settled into a very constant pace that felt pretty much effortless - at least to me, I can't speak for Andrew. I'm not much of a talker at best of times, so a lot of times we ran in silence, though Andrew did not seem to mind. We got lapped the first time right as we went through the finish area after 3 laps by Gary O'Hanlon. I did a few calculations in my head and realised that he was on sub-3 pace. Wow! I did worry that he might blow up later on, after all this was his first ever 50k, but obviously he is the top-class runner, not me, so chances were he knew exactly what he was doing.

At the end of lap 5 the timer was at 1:58, so we were clearly at just below 4 hours pace. Around that time I noticed a little grumbling coming from my stomach, but mostly ignored it, However, it came back and gradually got more and more noticeable. I became more and more aware that it was now 12 o'clock and I would have been hungry after not eating for 7 hours anyway, never mind when burning through an awful lot of calories by running an ultra-distance race. Visions of hot dogs or steaks starting flashing through my mind but that wasn't going to happen. I didn't bring anything substantial with me so I didn't have much choice but keep going with my original feeding strategy of a gel after each second lap.

The pace held up and apart from my stomach everything else was still working well, but I ditched the plan of speeding up at halfway and just kept going at the same effort. The legs were feeling surprisingly fresh and running was still easy. However, after lap 7 Andrew dropped off and sent me ahead (unfortunately he would drop out completely another lap later), so I was now entirely on my own, which was a shame. Even if we were mostly quiet, it's still nice to share the running with someone else.

Things kept going very well until I reached the marathon mark, but then things started going south quickly. I was running entirely on fumes and it started showing. I did get a quick boost after downing a bottle of powerade from the organiser's table, but that did not last. However, I still managed to keep the same pace going. One runner asked if I was about to finish when I overtook him but I told him I still had a lap to go.

Turns out I should have lied - I had just overtaken him, not lapped, and now he was chasing me! I started the final lap just ahead of him but within a mile he had caught me again, went past strongly and my spirits dropped after that. I just wanted this to be over, but at least I found a tiny ounce of energy for the finish sprint and did an "Eamonn" across the finish line - I sincerely hope someone has a photo of that!

The official time was 3:55:34 (official results are here), I finished in 27th place, 5th M40. This was my slowest 50k ever (well, it was only my third), but in actual fact I have never raced one, they were always just training runs. I guess had I actually eaten something I would have finished a bit quicker, but then again running a sub-4 50k on an empty stomach isn't all that bad either. The slippery road surface made it all a bit more difficult, every step just took that little bit more energy than normal, though considering that Gary O'Hanlon managed to run sub-3, this isn't much of an excuse.

I got cold quickly afterwards and didn't hang around for too long so made my way home - it was a long drive again. I slept well that night

Race photos by Peter Mooney.

14 Feb

6+ miles, 47:05, 7:43 pace, HR 139

15 Feb

Donadea 50k, 3:55:34, 7:31 pace, HR 149

16 Feb

5+ miles, 40:59, 8:06 pace, HR 136

Weekly Mileage: 83.4 miles

Hurricane and Tornado

As all runners know only too well, we are quite susceptible to injury. Every runner has plenty of stories to tell. I have been lucky enough to avoid any injury that would require one or more off days for several years now. But marathon or ultra training is always a fine line, you're trying to train hard enough to be at your best but stay on the right side of recovery and hopefully injury won't strike.

I might be teetering right at the brink. About 3 weeks ago I started getting some slight pain at the top of my right hip. It started out very lightly but gradually got a little bit more noticeable. It's still very much manageable, about 3 out of 10, and certainly won't stop me as long as it doesn't get any worse, but it's a bit of a worry.

I got another twinge on Monday. I had followed up Sunday's long hilly run with a set of hill drills on Monday. I came home feeling tired but fine, but as the day wore on I started to notice some twinge in my right hamstring. Two days later this is still with me. Again, it's not too bad at the moment and as long as it doesn't get any worse it's perfectly manageable but like the hip pain, it's a bit of a worry.

I did a second set of hill drills on Tuesday, though I did the thigh drive in a more measured way to protect my hamstring. It might have worked in as much as it didn't get any worse.

Wednesday was an interesting one. I had followed the weather forecast with some interest and figured I could squeeze in my run before the storm was about to strike, so I did 10 miles in heavy wind and rain, but I certainly felt the conditions were just about okay. Niamh seems to have disagreed, her only comment on my return was “are you nuts?”, and we left it at that. The most noteworthy thing from my point of view was the low HR – 10 beats lower than the same pace would have yielded only a few weeks ago. The effect of just over one week of hill work are absolutely flabbergasting!

Running sure would not have been possible three hours later later when the storm hit Kerry with up-to-then unheard-of ferocity. Our road was blocked by several fallen trees and worse, our neighbour's house was hit by a fallen tree with some serious amount of damage. There is debris everywhere and the power in Caragh Lake was out for almost 8 hours – it only just came back close to bedtime. We still don’t have internet or telly. And we’re one of the lucky ones - there is no damage to our house, Killorglin was still without power in the morning and some people in the country will be without power for several days!

It was almost eerily calm on Thursday morning. The trees had been moved off the road but there was an almost Christmassy smell of fresh wood in the air. I had to find a new hill for my repeats as the road in the Coillte land was completely blocked by several fallen trees (I wasn't surprised), and the road was slippery from hail/sleet/ground frost. I managed just fine but didn't go all-out as I'm supposed to have a race on Saturday.

The weather forecast for Saturday is not too bad, though the race director made same dark, cryptic comments about hoping we're able to swim. The course is in a forest park that is susceptible to mud; let's wait and see how that will go. I don't feel anywhere near race ready, but since this is only a training run I should be okay.

10 Feb

10+ miles, 1:40:53, HR 137
   Hill Drills: strides, thigh drive, high knees, ankle drive

11 Feb

10+ miles, 1:39:19, HR 137
   Hill Drills: strides, thigh drive, downhill strides, high knees

12 Feb

10 miles, 1:14:40, 7:28 pace, HR 138

13 Feb

10 miles, 1:33:40, HR 141
   Hill Drills: strides, thigh drive, high knees, downhill strides

Lucky Me

I guess I managed to carry a bit of luck from last week over to this one. I was cycling past the primary school just as at least a dozen parents dropped off their kids. It's a narrow road, there are no less than five roads converging and you've got kids running from all directions, so it's all rather chaotic at the best of times. I was passing a car and right at that moment the driver opened his door without looking. I'm not sure who got more of a fright, him or me, as he missed me by probably less than an inch. As it was I was just able to continue on, but just one split second made all the difference and I could have taken a very, very nasty spill.

Running this week was different to usual due to all those hill drills I am doing. I did drills three times this week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with 10 easy miles the other days, and I have noticed how my HR has dropped significantly  all of a sudden. I didn't think my usual fast run on Saturday would be a good idea as my legs were feeling the effects of all those hills, so I settled into a reasonably comfortable pace, roughly the effort I'm hoping to do in Connemara in 2 months. That felt very much sustainable, though in Connemara I will have to do it 4 times longer, which is a completely different ask altogether.

After quite some deliberating I decided not to join the club run on Sunday but do a much hillier circuit instead. I ran up the Devil's Elbow climb and dropped down the other side of the hill and continued to loop around it, which is an elevation gain of about 500 feet, with one mile being particularly steep. I did that 3 times and was pleasantly surprised how well the legs were able to take it. In fact, the first loop had been the worst, the legs had felt distinctly heavy and took about 6 or 7 miles to get going properly. I even met the guys from the club run, though I felt a bit guilty about not joining them. The run was a bit longer than expected, I had planned to keep it closer to 18 miles but by the time I got home I had accumulated 20 miles once more.

The mileage this week is a bit higher than expected but I'm feeling pretty good. I'll keep going as is for a few more days and will decide later on if I'll train through teh week before the 50k in Donadea or if I should take a few easy days.

6 Feb

10 miles, 1:19:23, 7:56 pace, HR 133

7 Feb

10+ miles, 1:38:51, HR 136
   Hill Drills: strides, thigh drive, ankle drive, high knees

8 Feb

10+ miles, 1:13:55, 7:19 pace, HR 150

9 Feb

20 miles, 2:37:30, 7:53 pace, HR 143

Weekly Mileage: 81+

Here Comes The Rain Again

I’m starting to think Eurhythmics songs just be banned in Ireland. Too depressing.

Nevertheless, I’ve started a new training phase. I did deliberate if I should do a hills phase (or transition, as MC used to call it) at all but eventually remembered that on at least one occasion I went into the hills phase feeling so-so and came out feeling great, so at least it was worth a shot, especially as I was generally feeling so-so during training.

I required a search through my old training logs to remember how those hill sessions are supposed to work, but eventually caught up again and on Monday morning the alarm went off bit earlier than usual and I was up and ready.

I did wonder if it was a wise move to start hills the day after a 20 mile run, but told myself that Lydiard had his runners do 6 hill workouts a week with a 22 mile run on the seventh, so in comparison I was still taking it rather easy. However, I followed MC’s protocol for hills rather than Lydiard’s, as described in that little doclet here.

On Sunday evening I had been wondering if it would be possible to run at all but luckily the storm abated by 5 am and the rain had mostly stopped by 6 and the conditions were almost pleasant. However, the roads were completely waterlogged on several points and I ran through ankle-deep sections more often that I could count, and I ended up running through several of them several times.

So, on that Monday after the compulsory initial 4 x 30 second sprints I did 3 x 2 min of high knees (tough), then 3 x 1 min thigh drive (absolutely brutal, and I didn’t manage the entire 60 seconds on the last one) and finally a minute session of ankle drive (easy), all drills separated by 15 minutes of easy running (ok, so I cheated and did about 12) before splashing my way home again. The hill had resembled a river bed more than a road and the water had been so cold that my feet, and even more so my toes, were completely numb and the pins and needles in the shower just rounded up a "fun" workout.

I had sore calves on Tuesday. Actually, I welcomed that. I haven’t had any sore muscles in this training cycle at all until now and finally I can tell myself that I really am pushing my body. However, I didn’t feel the sore legs when running 10 easy miles.

Wednesday called for hill drills once more, though I did it on a different hill as the Caragh Lake Coillte road that I had used on Monday is completely unsuitable for downhill strides. The downside of the other hill is that the steep section is very short and not as well suited for all the other drills, so it is always a trade-off. Anyway, it was a similar workout again, after the sprints and the downhill strides I did the thigh drive (ugh) and the high knees again.

It might just be in my head, but I’m starting to feel good again. Maybe it’s the sore calf muscles’ soothing call.

3 Feb

10+ miles, 1:39:22, HR 132
    Hill Drills: strides, high knees, thigh drive, ankle drive

4 Feb

10 miles, 1:18:06, HR 140

5 Feb

10+ miles, 1:34:14, HR 135
    Hill Drills: strides, downhill strides,thigh drive, high knees

On A Roll

The last few days were like a whirlwind. Every day would bring totally unexpected but very welcome good news.

I received an email on Wednesday indicating that I might be running Ballycotton after all. And I'm not talking about a number transfer or any other nefarious business (I got a few offers for that as well, thanks but no thanks), but a perfectly legit number and I'll be running in my own name. There is a slight downside to that as I'm nowhere near the same shape I was in last year around the same time, so my sequence of running a little bit faster every year is almost definitely going to end (and I'm not hunting for a top-100 t-shirt this year), but I'll enjoy running it all the same.

Another surprise came on Thursday when the kitchen lady in our office produced my Ballycotton mug that had gone missing a few weeks ago. That is nothing short of a miracle, nothing ever turns up in that place that has gone missing. I was absolutely delighted and the office coffee immediately tasted a lot better (though it's still fairly awful, to be honest).

The biggest surprise, however, came on Friday, when Niamh sent me a message if I was expecting a parcel from the AAI, to which I obviously said no because I could not think why on earth they would send me something. Well, wouldn't you know it, all of a sudden I can honestly say that I have a genuine National Championship medal at home. I knew they got medals in 2013 and I was thinking "that's strange, we didn't get any last year", but thought no more of it. Obviously someone felt differently.

Boom boom boom. The good news just keeps on coming, I'm obviously on a roll. Let's hope it lasts!

Oh yes, running. I have been doing that as well. I took it easy again for two days after Wednesday's evaluation. The HR was sky high on Thursday (almost 10 beats higher than expected), which I still attribute to fighting off some virus but had come down by Friday. Then, on Saturday, the weather turned nasty once more and I headed out into the kind of weather that makes it clear to Niamh that she's married to an idiot, though it wasn't quite as bad as it seemed. I did a few mile repeats, probably with those news from Ballycotton in mind, but they just confirmed that I'm not in shape to run fast at the moment. On Sunday I ran into town to meet up with a few guys from the club. I had meant to joint them on these runs for a while but in the last few weeks something always got in the way. I did 5 miles on my own on the way to town, 10 miles with the guys and 5 back home, giving me an easy 20 miler. I was quite amazed how easy it felt, the legs were not even tired at the end (which isn't necessarily a good sign according to MC).

The mileage is a tad lower than last week because I took a small step backwards to ensure that I remain on the right side of recovery.

30 Jan

10 miles, 1:19:26, 7:57 pace, HR 148

31 Jan

10 miles, 1:18:25, 7:50 pace, HR 141

1 Feb

8 miles, 57:08, 7:08 pace, HR 156
   incl 3 x 1 mile @ 6:17, 6:17, 6:19

2 Feb

20 miles, 2:35:16, 7:46 pace, HR 146

Weekly Mileage: 80

Older, None the Wiser

There as something strange going on with my body. On Sunday the weighing scales reported 147.6 pounds. Nice. 24 hours later, and after a perfectly normal day, the same scales had me a whopping 5 pound heavier at 152.6! I was so staggered that I had to weigh myself again, just to prove to myself that I had not just imagined that.

During Monday the issue became a little bit clearer as I must have sprung a leak somewhere and was spending more time on the toilet than I care to remember; by Tuesday morning I had dropped 3 pounds and another one had followed by Wednesday, back to baseline (I was probably a little bit dehydrated on Sunday, hence the lower measurement). I have seen water retention like that twice before: both time following the days after a long ultra race. On these occasions some other symptoms were clear as well like swollen ankles, and the cause was of course obvious. This time round I haven’t noticed any swelling whatsoever and the cause is a mystery to me.

I know it had been a fairly tough weekend but I have done significantly harder training before, and in fact on Sunday I had been marvelling how well my legs had coped with the very hilly 20 mile run when they displayed no soreness and no signs of fatigue whatsoever!

One other notable thing was the pace for the easy runs on Monday and Tuesday. I do wear my Garmin on these runs but don’t ever look at it (it’s too dark to make out the numbers anyway), just record the numbers afterwards. I did a double take on Monday as this had been the slowest run in a very long time, yet the effort had been pretty much the same as always. Tuesday wasn’t much quicker but this time I wasn’t taken by surprise.

I was therefore curious what Wednesday’s evaluation would bring. It was a little bit windy which might have had a small effect on the numbers, but certainly no more than that.

      
        Mile 1    6:54   HR 160
        Mile 2    6:50   HR 161
        Mile 3    6:59   HR 161
        Mile 4    6:52   HR 161
        Recovery to HR 130: 44 seconds

The pace is pretty much the same as last time, but Good God that recovery time is just brutal. I noticed it straight away out on the road, after waiting for 20 seconds the HR was still somewhere around 155 until finally dropping quickly.

One (hopefully reasonable) explanation is that I am presently fighting off some bug. Two of the kids are sick at the moment. Apart from that water retention I haven’t got any symptoms, no headache or stomach ache, no runny nose and I’m not feeling tired or otherwise affected, but there could still something going on that only shows up when my body is under stress.

And in the meantime I happened to become another year older. I'm not moving up yet another age group, though that isn't far off. Niamh keeps insisting that I am now in the second half of my life and should act accordingly, but so far I have managed to keep resisting.

27 Jan

10 miles, 1:23:18, 8:19 pace, HR 136

28 Jan

10 miles, 1:21:40, 8:10 pace, HR 140

29 Jan

11.8 miles, 1:28:39, 7:30 pace, HR 150
     incl. 4 mile eval: 6:54, 6:50, 6:59, 6:52, 44 sec recovery

Mileage

The legs felt distinctly heavy during the first mile of Thursday's run, a sign that the fartlek workout had left its mark. However they loosened up quickly and once I was warmed up I just ran on autopilot without issues. During these runs I never check the Garmin or worry about pace or HR, I just run at whatever effort comes naturally.

Friday was another easy run but with a couple of extra miles. I'm still trying to gauge if these additional miles are beneficial or not. Right now I'm still adapting to the slightly higher mileage and the legs do feel a bit tired. If that keeps on being the case I'll dial it down again, if they can take the extra miles then great.

The wind was quite brutal on Saturday, which is why I decided to change my usual schedule from 8 slightly faster miles on the (exposed) Killorglin road to 3 x 2 mile cruise repeats. To get a bit of shelter I ran on the Ard-na-Sidhe road, but while it may be a bit out of the wind, the road surface is just shocking with one pothole after the other, though so far I've always managed to avoid going over my ankle. The repeats themselves went surprisingly well; I lost concentration during the first one and put the boosters on during the last half mile to make up for it but the other two were fine. I was pleased that I got a little bit faster on each repeat, even if it was at a higher heart rate, though the effort was the same every time.

I would have liked to join the club run on Sunday, but that did not start until 10:30 and the weather forecast made me change my mind. I preferred to run earlier to ensure I'd be back home by the time the storm front struck. Once again the legs were very heavy early on and I just cruised along at a comfortable pace. The wind was rather fierce on the hills, though I have run in worse. By the time I reached halfway I felt a lot better and subsequently ran the second half about a minute per mile faster than the first one, though the fact that the wind was now on my back clearly had some impact on that as well, of course.

That left me with 84 miles for the week. Going on past experience that is pretty much the maximum I can do in single runs; if I wanted to boost my mileage further I would have to run twice a day on occasions, otherwise I can't recover from it. However, family life usually stops me from doing so – Niamh is extremely supportive of my running but I'd rather not test her patience by disappearing most evening, leaving her alone with 4 unruly children. For the time being, and for the foreseeable future, mileage in the mid-80 is all I can do unless I get a brain wave.

23 Jan

10 miles, 1:18:47, 7:52 pace, HR 139

24 Jan

12 miles, 1:35:12, 7:56 pace, HR 136

25 Jan

10 miles, 1:11:27, 7:07 pace, HR 154
   incl. 3 x 2 miles @ 6:35 (158), 6:29 (165), 6:27 (166)

26 Jan

20 miles, 2:38:21, 7:55 pace, HR 146

Good News And Bad News

I've had troubles with my Garmin yet again, but this time I think I finally figured out what's causing the problem (hint: don't connect it to a computer that is being hammered by your son playing minecraft at the time). I lost the data for Sunday's long run as well as Monday's easy one, but managed to resurrect the thing once more for Tuesday. It did raise the question if it's really worth using that toy, but I also played with the idea of getting a newer one, so I guess re-animating the existing one is some sort of compromise. I'm far too much of a maths nerd to go without numbers.

I was actually quite amazed by the way I felt on Monday. I expected heavy legs at the least after a tough weekend, both running as well as real life-wise. Instead I was running along completely relaxed and without much effort.

I did lengthen the run on Tuesday by a couple of miles to see how that would feel. It also added an extra hill to the route, which at first had me try and think of an alternative route until I came to my senses and figured that extra hills can only be a good thing.

Wednesday is the day of my special workout and this time it was fartlek, done Kenyan style, as in 1 minute hard / 1 minute easy. I never check the pace or HR during these efforts, just had the watch beep every 60 seconds, which can take a long time, especially uphill. As much as I tried to keep the effort as even as possible, uphill always felt significantly harder.

As for the news from the title, the good news is that I've already dropped over 3 pounds. That was the easy part of course, the next 3 pounds will take an awful lot longer and the 3 after that might never drop at all, but I'm getting closer to my race weight already. There might be a slight setback on the horizon in the form of my upcoming birthday, but other than that I should be okay.

The bad news, however, is that I'm definitely not running Ballycotton this year. I don't know what exactly happened, my cheque must have gotten lost in the post; it never got cashed and my name is not on the list of entrants. The cheque for the Tralee marathon that I sent off at exactly the same time got cashed very quickly and my entry confirmed, so that's a bit weird. However, there's nothing I can do about that. What's more, my Ballycotton mug at work has mysteriously gone awol a few weeks ago and I won't even have a replacement ready.

20 Jan

10 miles, 1:18:55, 7:53 pace

21 Jan

12 miles, 1:33:32, 7:48 pace, HR 141

22 Jan

10 miles, 1:15:29, 7:32 pace, HR 150
   incl. 7.5 miles of 1 min hard / 1 min easy

Weighty Matters

There were two birthday parties, two swimming lessons, one stage school and one Tae-Kwon-Do workshop; obviously that is on top of the usual workload. It was a tough weekend, is it any wonder that the parents are exhausted! I managed to combine real life demands with running by doing Sunday's long run in Killarney National Park while CIan was doing his workshop, otherwise I would have had to get up before 6 am, and on Sunday I do prefer to catch up on sleep.

I had felt surprisingly good on Thursday after the previous day's hill repeats, but actually I felt fine. For some reason the HR really dropped for that run; assuming the HRM is working correctly, my heart beat about 5 bpm slower than expected. I don't know enough about physiology to explain such a big drop, especially as my training had been unspectacular, but the effect did not quite last, the HR was higher again on Friday. Then again, that could be explained by the mostly sleepless night (Full Moon once again!). It just goes to show just how many different variables there are, you never manage to get all of them under control.

I did my usual faster run on Saturday and was quite delighted with the outcome. Once more I might have worked just a tad too hard, but there is definitely some progress to be seen. If this keeps going I'll be more than happy.

Saturday's weather was much better than forecast; unfortunately the Weather Gods made up for it on Sunday by going completely the other way. Instead of a few showers we had relentless rain, and very heavy at times too. I guess you can argue that the forecasters had gotten it right on average. It meant a wet run in the National Park, which added to the blocked paths due to fallen trees and flooded roads but I got it done all the same. Ideally I would have run a little bit further and with significantly higher hills, but I was happy to get any sort of a long run done at all with all the other things that went on this weekend.

There is progress happening on another front; I started getting my diet in order again about a week ago, once I had managed to eat my way through the Christmas chocolates. It's not a diet as such, I'm just cutting out simple sugars as much as I can. For the first time in several months the weighing scales have dipped below 150 lbs. Good stuff but there is still a lot to be done.

16 Jan

10 miles, 1:18:25, 7:50 pace, HR 136

17 Jan

10 miles, 1:17:57, 7:48 pace, HR 140

18 Jan

10 miles, 1:11:14, 7:07 pace, HR 154
   incl 8 miles @ 6:54 pace (HR 158)

19 Jan

18.1 miles, 2:14:00, 7:24 pace

Weekly Mileage: 75+

Up And Down

I've definitely got a case of the ouchies this week (see picture from Sunday's post), though funnily enough it's at its best when running (and at its worst in the shower). It really was a painful lesson, though if I've learned from it has yet to be seen.

After half a year of surprisingly good weather, it really has been tough over the last 4 weeks. The storms may have abated but the wind and rain are still here and more than once I got reminded that freezing cold rain is just about my least favourite weather for running. Then again, I still remember one (very good) runner once remarking to another "who would train in such weather" and quietly thinking "I do, and that's why I coped with it better than anyone else today".

Monday was exceptionally slow and easy, with Tuesday almost the same. I did  notice that my easy pace has slowed over the last few weeks, though that went hand-in-hand with a lower heart rate. Rather than being alarmed I think it's more a sign that I'm starting to get it right again. Few runners run their easy runs too slowly but a lot are running them too fast.

Wednesday's workout was a set of hill repeats. The last time I did them was 3 weeks ago, and I did feel the Achilles for 2 weeks after, so I am a bit wary but I do recognise the value of that workout. I did more than last time (14 vs 9) and still felt perfectly fine, but I was running out of time and had to head back home. I would have had time for more had I not pressed the snooze button once when the alarm went off at 6:10 in the morning, but hearing the wind and rain outside just did not feel particularly inviting.

13 Jan

10 miles, 1:20:51, 8:05 pace, HR 136

14 Jan

10 miles, 1:19:39, 7:57 pace, HR 130

15 Jan

7+ miles, 1:10:46, 9:15 pace, HR 142
  14 x 60 sec hill repeats

Indecent Picture Ahead

Friday was obviously an easy run, that was never in question after Thursday's evaluation. It was Saturday's run that had me wondering what I should do. In the past few weeks I have always had 2 easy days between workouts, with the weekend's back-to-back runs counting as one workout, which makes the recovery during the week all the more important. I'm not a spring chicken any more and old bodies are healing slower than young ones. But eventually I decided to do my usual faster Saturday run because the early part of the weeks had seen 2 easy and one off day, so I figured I'd probably get away with it.

I was pretty pleased with that run. The last time I had run that loop was 2 weeks ago. Back then I had been a tad faster but had pushed too hard. This time I was much more relaxed and always in full control of the effort, so I call this the better workout even if the pace was a couple of seconds slower.

Stop complaining, I did warn you!  That's what it looked
like after I washed off the blood.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast for Sunday turned out to be correct and the gale force wind threw the rain against our window in a rather unwelcome fashion. I did wait a little bit until 9:30 in the hope of catching a quieter window and the rain subsiding, but that did not happen and it was pretty brutal up there in the hills. I call this a character-building run. The rain was relentless, the wind pretty bad, the roads were completely waterlogged with one particular area near Blackstones Bridge several inches submerged and of course I was utterly drenched. It did not help that I noticed some chafing happening as early as 5 miles in and obviously that only got worse, though I was still shocked to see the damage afterwards, there was actually blood running down my thigh! And boy, did that start to sting once the endorphins started to wear off.

The run itself was definitely on the slow side, but in these conditions I don't need an excuse. I finished the week on 70 miles despite missing a run on Monday, so I'm happy enough. That chafed area will cause troubles for a good while; ah well. Time to HTFU I suppose.

10 Jan

10 miles, 1:20:40, 8:40 pace, HR 139

12 Jan

10 miles, 1:11:55, 7:11 pace, HR 155
   incl 8 miles @ 6:58 (HR 157)

10 Jan

18+ miles, 2:26:04, 8:01 pace, HR 145

Weekly Mileage: 70

Delayed Evaluation

I was pretty please with myself that I had managed a daily run despite the rather challenging weather conditions over the last 3 weeks. Sadly, the sequence ended on Monday morning. I got up at my usual time, got ready, and just as I was about to head out I was stopped in my tracks by a flash of lightning followed almost immediately by some massive thunder, so it was right on top of me. A bit of wind and rain won’t stop me, but lightning does – I might be stupid but not f***ing stupid; at least not that f***ing stupid.

You can’t make up for a lost run (well you can, but that’s stupid once more) so I continued with my training on Tuesday as if nothing had happened, telling myself that an extra day’s rest might work in my favour anyway.  There was a minor reason to celebrate as my new HRM chest strap had finally arrived and this was its maiden run. Apart from that, it was a completely unremarkable easy 10 mile run.

With the winter storms finally abated I had planned to do an evaluation run on Wednesday. However, technology conspired against me in the form of a Garmin that resolutely refused to awaken from its deep sleep. It wasn’t the battery and not even a hard reset would wake it from its coma. For a normal run I would not have minded quite as much (well, I might), but the Garmin is absolutely essential for an evaluation, I need a working GPS, HRM and timer for these. I did not have time for a lengthy fix and eventually headed out sans gadget for yet another 10 mile run. The effort was identical to Tuesday, so I call it the same time. On the plus side the legs felt very good, which I suppose more than makes up for the technological mishap.

I did manage to resurrect the damn toy in the evening and managed to evaluate with a day’s delay on Thursday. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but after all that’s exactly what the evaluation is for. The weather was good, just a tiny bit of breeze that would not have any real impact on the numbers.

        Mile 1    6:48   HR 160
        Mile 2    6:54   HR 161
        Mile 3    6:55   HR 160
        Mile 4    6:55   HR 160
        Recovery to HR 130: 34seconds

Now, the fact that the pace is so stable and the short recovery time are good news. The slow pace is not. That’s a good bit slower than the evaluation last month, though in retrospect that had been falsified by some sharpening effect from the cross country race and had tricked me into running the Clonakilty marathon too fast (at least it was a factor in that). Today’s figures are more reflective of my true aerobic conditioning and to be honest, I’m not happy about it. I was in much better shape same time last year. I could blame the marathons I have run in the autumn (Dublin, Sixmilebridge and Clonakilty) but could point to the fact that the previous year had been even tougher (Dingle Ultra, Dublin, Sixmilebridge), so that’s not the whole picture.

Something to ponder, I suppose.

Update: MC sent me a note that the eval is very good. At this point, stable pace and quick recovery are much more important than fast paces. I can't even begin to tell you how much better that makes me feel.

6 Jan

0

7 Jan

10 miles, 1:18:52. 7:52 pace, HR 142

8 Jan

10 miles, ~1:19:00

9 Jan

11.9 miles, 1:27:52, 7:26 pace, HR 151
   incl. 4 mile eval: 6:48, 6:54, 6:55, 6:55, 34 sec recovery

Home And Away

I could have gotten used to it. All I had to do was to sleep until I woke naturally (which was still hours before anyone else in the house), get ready at my own leisure and then run for as long as I wanted. Once my run was done I could laze around for the rest of the day and mostly do f*** all. Unfortunately, the holidays are over and tomorrow I have to get back to work. Frankly, that sucks.

Running away from home is always a little bit tricky, mostly because you have to run on unknown roads, but it does not help if you leave your gloves at home at the coldest time of the year. On the plus side, Thursday night's storm wasn't particularly noticeable in Dublin while it must have been absolutely brutal in Kerry - I'm still shocked at the pictures of a destroyed Rossbeigh beach.

Anyway, I did manage a run every morning, even with frosty appendages.Thursday was alway going to be a very easy run after Wednesday's speed workout. I was still amazed how I had managed to run 22 repeats basically on autopilot and still went home before I was knackered, but there was still a price to pay the next day and I didn't even break 8-minute miles. The legs were definitely improved on Friday, but I still took it easy. It was a bit windy, but compared to what had happened at the other side of the island this was not even worth mentioning.

After 2 easy days I felt confident enough on Saturday to run a few faster miles. Problem was, I did not have my usual Killorglin loop, so comparing the run to previous ones isn't really on. I ran loops in Deer Park, which is pretty hilly. The first mile was as slow as 7:12, but things gradually improved. In fact, I pretty much felt better the longer the run went on and by the end the average had come down to 7:02. A bit slower than last week, yes.

Sunday's long run was in doubt after a rather ominous forecast, but it turned out to be much more benign than feared. Yes, it was cold, wet and windy but nothing like the stormy weather I had been expecting. The legs weren't exactly fresh and for a few miles I kept wondering if I was digging myself into a hole once more, but both the legs and the pace improved as the run went on (that seems to be a developing pattern) and I finished the run basically on autopilot.

It brought the weekly mileage just above 74, still a bit less that I would ideally like at this stage, but I'm getting there.

2 Jan

10 miles, 1:20:06, 8:01 pace, HR 144

3 Jan

10+ miles, 1:19:13, 7:48 pace, HR 145

4 Jan

10 miles, 1:12:25, 7:14 pace, HR 156
   incl. 8 miles @ 7:02 pace (HR 160)

5 Jan

17+ miles, 2:13:56, 7:50 pace, HR 146

Thunderbolt And Lightning

When I started my run on Sunday, I immediately noticed that the legs were rather sluggish. This did not come as a great surprise, having run a tempo run on Saturday as well as a too-fast run on Friday. I did wonder if it was wise to be heading out on the loop around Caragh Lake, but of course carried on regardless. Memories of that awful long run a few months ago were playing in my head, but luckily a repeat was not on the cards. In fact, after about 10 miles I started feeling much better and ended the run with a few faster miles. The fact that the weather deteriorated with every minute did play its part in urging me back home.

Monday did have heavy legs again, which came as even less of a surprise, but this time I made sure to take it very easy indeed. It was a lovely sunny morning, very unusual for the last few weeks, and I could see that the Caragh River and Lake were both exceptionally high and the road was waterlogged in a couple of places, leaving me with wet and very cold feet.

Very Very Frightening indeed it was on Tuesday when the weather changed once more. I was undeterred at first, but after about 6 easy miles I saw some lightning with the thunder coming a second later, so this was very close. I was less than a mile away from home so I turned around and hightailed it home at 6-minute pace, which wasn’t exactly easy effort any more. Ironically, by the time I got home it started brightening up but another roll of thunder convinced me that heading back out was not a good idea, instead I accepted the loss of a few miles and called it a day. I still ended the year on 3276 miles, a very similar figure to all the previous 5 years.

New Year’s Day brought some more wind and rain. By now arrived in Dublin, I headed for the Stillorgan Heath and did some laps there. Normally I would not choose to run in circles in training, but I did a workout of 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy fartlek, which broke the monotony. I ran by feel but on the 2 or 3 occasions when I glanced at my Garmin I saw about 5:40 pace, so this was roughly 5k effort. After a while I checked the time, did some calculations and realised that I had already done 22 repeats, which was about twice as many as I had initially planned so I called it a day, did a cool down and headed for home. I had not noticed it while running, but I was completely frozen when I got home; the shower did its bit to thaw me up but I had pins and needles more or less all over my body and I spent a good while hugging the radiator afterwards. The legs, on the other hand, felt just wonderful and apart from being turned into an icicle I had loved the run.

I like to think it was a great start to 2014. Happy New Year.

29 Dec

15+ miles, 1:58:37, 7:51 pace, HR 150

30 Dec

10 miles, 1:18:39, 7:51 pace, HR 145

31 Dec

6.8 miles, 52:09, 7:40 pace, HR 144

1 Jan

10 miles, 1:15:43, 7:34 pace, HR 148
   incl 22x 60 sec hard

This Was My Year

2013 had started in rather spectacular fashion on New Year's Day by breaking 18 minutes for the 5k for the first time ever. While I don't particularly care about my 5k time, I was rather chuffed to be breaking into 17 territory and subsequently managed to lower that time twice more over the next few weeks, picking up a nice prize from the Gneeveguilla  race series in the process. Another big PB followed in the Ballycotton 10 miler, incidentally also lowering my 5 miles and 10k PBs, though that was overshadowed by missing out on a top-100 finisher t-shirts by 5 seconds/3 places. However, the big prize for Spring 2013 had always been the Tralee marathon where I more than made up for the missing t-shirt by not only setting a new marathon PB but also winning the M40 trophy, which has taken pride of place on the shelf ever since.

Focus shifted immediately to the Connemara 100, but I managed to place 3rd in Killarney and Portumna, run 10 marathons in 10 days and a new 4-mile PB during that training, the latter one especially coming as a complete surprise because I thought my legs would be sluggish as hell after all those marathons and no speed work. Connemara went very well, reaching my dream time of sub-17, but coming second once more. With that the running year was basically done, it took a few months to recover from running 100 miles on the road and a couple of marathons in Dublin (running as a pacer) and Clonakilty (running as an idiot) sandwiched yet another second place in Sixmilebridge.

I ran new PBs over 5k, 4 miles, 10 miles, marathon, 50k and 100 miles (plus unofficial PB split times over 5 miles and 10k), which at the age of 43 and after 9 years of running is a rather spectacular return. Things could only have been topped if one or two of those second or third places had turned into victories, but you can't have everything I suppose.

One particular highlight was running my 50th marathon, with the chairman of the Marathon Club handing me my medal. I was chuffed to bits by that one.

--

Since Christmas I have run 10 easy miles on St. Stephens Day, giving the Farranfore race a miss as I did not think a sudden load of anaerobic miles would do much for my only just emerging conditioning. Then the weather turned very nasty indeed. We've had an unprecedented series of storms hitting us, but all others hit land further up North. For this one Kerry took the brunt. Apart from a very interrupted night of sleep we actually got away lightly in Caragh Lake, there was no real damage when half the county was without power, but running in the morning was still out, it was too dangerous. I did manage to catch up at lunchtime and do another 10 miles, but the pace and HR were a bit too high without me noticing. I think running later in the day had something to do with it, it always throws out my gauge.

That might have had some impact on Saturday's run where I tried to do 8 miles at a higher effort, my one faster run of the week. The legs were a little bit sluggish at first but I thought I had the effort very much under control. When I checked the Garmin afterwards I found that once again I had run a little bit too hard, something I tend to do when not paying attention (or, in that case, only running by feel without paying attention to the watch). I'll get it right one day.

26 Dec

10 miles, 1:17:10, 7:43 pace, HR 144

27 Dec

10 miles, 1:13:21, 7:20 pace, HR 151

28 Dec

10 miles, 1:11:09, 7:06 pace, HR 157
   incl. 8 miles @ 6:56 pace (HR 160)

Stormy Christmas

It's been a stormy few days, but so far I have managed to get a run in every day.

Sunday was reasonably okay, but I preferred the somewhat sheltered road past Ard-na-Sidhe to the totally exposed Caragh Lake one. Then I had the brain wave that I could a full loop on the Devil's Elbow, which might be as exposed as it gets up in the hills but the wind would be mainly at my back. I managed the steep climb well enough but then I heard a loud thunder coming from somewhere behind me and got a bit scared as I was far away from any shelter and being caught in a thunderstorm out in the hills isn't a good position to be in. Luckily, this one single thunder turned out to be the only one of its kind and all I had to deal with was a hail storm, which was painful but not dangerous. I was very pleased by how well the legs felt and how easily they had managed the long steep climb.

Monday morning was very dark but the wind was manageable once more, at least in Ard-na-Sidhe. I ran the out-and-back route twice, which added up to 10 miles. Conditions changed every five minutes, from calm, to very gusty, with rain, hail and even sleet all making a few appearances. Once again, the feeling in the legs was by far the best part of the run.

When I put out my running gear on Monday evening I somewhat doubted that I would be able to run the following morning as the weather forecast was quite frightening with the weather already rather wild and a bad storm on its way. However, things were much brighter in the morning - well, it was pitch dark, but the wind was definitely a lot calmer than what I had feared and running was never in doubt. I did the same route as the day before, and once more, even though I'm sounding like a broken record (wait, do people still know what a broken record actually is/was??),  the best part was the feeling in the legs as the entire run was completely effortless. The HR was a bit high (I eventually remembered my ancient hard plastic Garmin HR strap and dug it out, it seems to work), though that was not really reflected in subjective effort which was entirely comfortable and, you know, just ... right.

I guess I have reached that point in training when it doesn't feel like training any more because running is becoming so easy.

The contrast to Wednesday, Christmas, could not have been greater, with a lovely crisp blue sky greeting us all. I ran later than usual because obviously Santa took precedence, and I was astonished by the amount of presents on display; the kids must have been much better behaved throughout the year than I had realised! Anyway, around 12 o'clock I managed to get an hour for myself that I used for some hill repeats. It was my first workout of that kind for a long time and I decided to err on the side of caution. You should always leave it be with at least 1 or 2 more repeats in you, and I followed that advice. Besides, I am still concerned about my Achilles, while it has been fine for a good while now I really do not want to aggravate it again, so the rather modest number of 9 repeats, 1 minute each, was all that was on the menu. Obviously, this is going to increase in the coming weeks.

Happy Christmas everyone. I hope Santa has been good for you.

22 Dec

13+ miles, 1:38:12, 7:30 pace, HR 152 (est)

23 Dec

10 miles, 1:15:33, 7:33 pace, HR 147

24 Dec

10 miles, 1:14:16, 7:26 pace, HR 148

25 Dec

6.59ish miles, 54:51, 8:22 pace, HR 150
   incl. 9 x 60 sec hill repeats

Happy Solstice

Make no mistake, I am not complaining about the weather. We had a great summer followed by a nice autumn and we have had nothing to moan about (not that that would stop some people, of course). The last few days, however, have been rather wild and it's almost as if nature had decided to throw all the usual autumn/winter storms at us at once.

Right now it really seems to pay off that I always run in the morning. Two out of the last three days were mostly fine in the morning but running would have been too dangerous in the evenings. I know from experience that when the weather chart says "gale", I can handle it. "Strong gale" is rather uncomfortable but still doable, but "storm" means it's better to stay at home. Thankfully the latter is usually rare but has been seen all too often the last few days. One saving grace is that Kerry is in the South of Ireland - the North got hit a lot worse.

Thursday night did not sound promising but the storm abated just in time for my run and I got away lightly, apart from a hail shower over the last half mile, which inadvertently made a good training opportunity for a sprint finish; you never know when the need for that should arise again. As I laid out my clothes for Friday I doubted if I would be able to use them but once again the conditions in the morning were better than forecast and I made full use of it. For the first time in a few weeks I added a few faster miles to the mix. The windy conditions and the lack of an HRM made pacing a tricky affair. I did end up running just a little bit harder than would have been optimal, but the legs felt very good.

It was pretty much the same on Saturday with the conditions once more windy but definitely manageable, something that would not have been the case a couple of hours later. I half expected the legs to be sluggish after Friday's faster miles but instead they felt fantastic and I got that "effortlessly gliding over the tarmac" feeling.

It was really dark this morning; of course, it was the shortest day of the year. It will get brighter soon enough, and with the Christmas holidays just ahead, things will get easier again.

I'm not feeling 100 percent at the moment, I had a sore throat on a few occasions and am lacking just a little bit of energy during the day, but it does not seem to have any noticeable effect on my running. With half the office coughing all day and the kids bringing home all kinds of germs from school, the situation is not entirely surprising. As long as it doesn't get any worse I'll be able to handle it (just like the weather, then).

The HRM is worse than ever before, it really seems to be beyond help and the HR graphs are all over the place. I have ordered a new unit and am awaiting its arrival with bated breath, though I don't think I'll get my hands on it before Christmas.

I haven't decided yet if I'll do any races over the Christmas/New Year period. Even if I do, I have no expectations after not doing any speed work, so that would all be mostly for fun.

19 Dec

8 miles, 1:01:16, 7:39 pace, HR 142 (est)

20 Dec

10 miles, 1:10:55, 7:05 pace, HR 158 (est)
   incl. 8 miles @ 6:59 pace

21 Dec

10 miles, 1:15:53, 7:35 pace, HR 146 (est)