My Physio Doesn't Know I'm Here!

Photo by Alan Murphy

Going into this ultra I had one major goal, namely to come through it without injury. It was very much a test on how the body is holding up and I was perfectly aware that one more injury would take me out of the Spartathlon game for good. The hip had been feeling good all week and was barely noticeable, so I was actually fairly confident that it would work out fine.

Achill Island is a very long way away from Kerry and I had arrived there very late on Friday, at 11 o'clock, because the drive had taken much longer than anticipated. Thankfully my bed was still available (I had visions of having to sleep in the car) but I was utterly exhausted when I finally got there. Just under 6 hours later I was awake again and got ready for the day. It was unlikely to be the optimal preparation for an ultra but there you go. Next time I'll take some time off work though, to give myself an easier time.

Photo by Brian Ankers

The race was a small and intimate affair, certainly the ultra was. Just before 8 o'clock we gathered at the start line and Donna, the RD, sent us off without much fanfare (wait - did she really tell us not to take any drugs?). One guy in yellow and one girl shot off at the front and the rest started in a more sedate fashion. I settled in beside Anto, a fellow Spartathlete, and we jogged the first mile in 9 minutes, pretty much where I wanted to be, and then he had to go off for a nature break (FFS - who needs a weewee break after one mile!) and I found myself unexpectedly on my own. I must have sped up a little bit because over the next couple of miles I overtook a few runners, though I was very much running within myself. I could see Don Hannon disappear into the distance and was reasonably confident he was going to win. Had I not just spent the last 2 months out with injury I probably would have given him a mighty battle, but seeing as we are both planning to gather in Athens in four weeks' time it's probably better that we did not kill each other today in a misguided attempt to go for glory here.

Photo by Mark F Chaddock

Oh yes, the last 2 months. Some minor muscle in my right hip had given out at the end of June and I spent 6 week almost entirely on the sidelines and had only just gotten back onto the road over the last 2 weeks. My longest run had been 15 miles, a week before, and then I had gotten rather tired after 10 miles. I wasn't quite sure how I would be able to get through almost 40 miles today but hoped a mighty dose of  bloodymindedness together with a fair amount of stupidity would see me through. Oh, and my physio, Derek, who had nursed me through the last few weeks on the road back to recovery, had not been informed of my plans. I thought the better of telling him.

Photo by Susan Baughman

Anyway, after about 5 miles I fell in with another runner, Jason Kehoe, who turned out to be a running mate of my good friend James Whitty, and we spent the rest of that lap chatting away. The scenery was absolutely stunning. I have run several races that claim to be the most scenic race in Ireland but Achill can give every single one of them a run for their money (I'll keep an eye out in Dingle next week for comparisons). Obviously, with breathtaking scenery like that come even more breathtaking climbs and there were three major ones on each loop, with the second one especially tough and followed by an even steeper quad-busting descent down to sea level only to be immediately followed by an even steeper climb the other side of the valley. It was also very windy and the climbing was mostly done against a stiff breeze - as if it wasn't hard enough already!

It's on that stretch that we encountered the one organisatorial hitch of the day. There was supposed a table with our own supplies at mile 7 but when I got to the station that I thought was the one at mile 9, my stuff wasn't there. I didn't really mind, I wasn't racing this one and if you put supplies into a box there is always a chance that you won't be seeing it again, it has all happened before. It took me a mile or two to realise that there had been a water table at about mile 5. I had not seen a supply box but that must have been the one. I would get there at the next loop.

Photo by Olwyn Dunne

Oh yes, the loop. I was 13.1 miles long, with a (hilly) out-and-back section tagged on to ensure correct distance. The ultra was 3 loops, the marathon 2 and the half marathon 1, obviously. The marathon had started an hour after the ultra and we would hardly see any of it. The half started 2 hours after the ultra and since we finished our first loop in 1:52 we got a big reception from the runners gathered at the start, which was great. Jason fell behind here, picking up some supplies, and once more I was running on my own again. The fastest half marathon runners took 3 miles to catch up with me and gradually a few more runners would trickle by over the next few miles, almost all of them giving some words of encouragement, thanks very much. That setup worked the opposite way of Connemara where I would gradually catch up to the back of the full and later half field and run past the slower runners. Here, in contrast, the faster runners caught up to us and we never even saw most of the slower runners.

Photo by Mark F Chaddock

This time I managed to pick up my drinks bottle at the 5 mile table and then proceeded to run up the series of very steep climbs that had seemed to grow a bit since the first loop. Right at the top I caught up to 2 walkers that seemed rather familiar and when they turned around I saw that they were Darren and Caroline, two thirds of my crew in the Connamara 100 2 years ago. I had absolutely no idea that they would be here and hugs and cheers were to be had. We chatted for a bit, Darren told me he wanted to run the ultra one day but had to content with walking the course today with his better half before sending me off again - oh yes, I was supposed to run a race here!

I was almost at the top of the third climb when the trouble started: my left calf was starting to cramp. I walked a few steps to alleviate the cramping before starting to slowly jog again. I reached the top but the cramping continued even on the next, gentle, downhill stretch. That was not good. I was only at mile 22 and still had 17 miles to go and I really did not fancy battling with cramping legs for that amount of time and distance. Luckily, it then subsided again. Maybe the orange slice I ate at the aid station helped wit electrolyte balance, maybe it was the cup of water but most likely it was the fact that the next few miles were gradually downhill and I was able to take it easy and as the effort level dropped the leg recovered somewhat. I finished loop 2, and the full marathon, in 3:48 but I knew the third lap wasn't going to be all fun and games. Donna later told me she could see I was struggling a bit.

Photo by Fiona Byrne

Onto the third loop. I was leapfrogging another ultra runner a few times but wasn't concerned at all if I would end up before or behind him at the end. I first concentrated on reaching Grainne's Tower between miles 4 and 5 (I had no idea it was on Achill Island - you learn something new every day!) and then it was a matter of surviving that set of rather brutal climbs one more time. It speaks volumes for Achill Island that I was still very much appreciating the stunning scenery.

What I did not appreciate was the fact that the aid station was not here! I was rather taken aback, surely they would not leave the ultra runners to their own devices on the third loop, when they needed help the most! However, there was not much I could do but battle on. A mile later I caught up to another friend, Paolo, possibly the nicest person out there, run/walking the marathon with his wife, and before I could even ask for a sip of water he had already handed me bottle! Thank you Paolo, you have no idea how parched I felt at that point and just how much you helped! Another mile later I unexpectedly came upon the aid station - they had not abandoned us but moved (they had been supposed to be at that second spot all along, Donna told me afterwards). Since I had not picked up my bottle at the first loop I still had 2 in there but only took one because I did not fancy carrying two heavy bottles with me. However, I must still have been badly dehydrated because I drained the one bottle that I had taken in less than a minute. I almost turned back to pick up my second one, but didn't.

I passed the early race leader (the guy in yellow) after 33 miles and he was clearly suffering. A better pacing strategy would almost certainly have saved him a fair amount of pain!

Photo by Susan Baughman

Considering I had at one point feared I would have to battle cramps for 17 miles I was pretty pleased to get to mile 34 in reasonably good nick but that's where it all fell apart, on the same steep climb where the problem had started a lap earlier. Unfortunately, this time there was no relief to be had. Another orange slice did not help, a cup of water did not, and even easing up on the gentle downhill gradients did not either. There are all kinds of theories what causes cramps. Dehydration is mentioned, and I was definitely dehydrated. Electrolytes are another, and I had not brought my s-caps with me and some levels may have been out of whack. However, there is no doubt in my mind what caused the cramps on this occasion: lack of fitness. All the other factors may have played a minor role but it was the fact that I had hardly been running for 2 months and lost so much fitness in the process that was responsible.

I passed Anto on the out-and-back section. "Your name will be Muck if I catch you!" He must have been about half a mile behind, with 4 miles to go so that seemed safe enough, but the legs really stopped cooperating. It was mostly the left calf but the right one joined in occasionally as well. I experimented with changing my gait - heel striking actually worked a bit better than midfoot landing and keeping the legs as relaxed as possible may have provided some very minor improvement. I stopped at a wall and tried stretching the muscles. In the end I had to concede, nothing really worked, I could just run for a bit until the cramps came, would have to walk for a bit and then repeat the process, rinse and repeat.

Photo by Susan Baughman

With a bit over a mile to go my name turned into Muck when Anto strode by, finishing very strongly. When I told him about the cramps he quipped "that's what happens when you run your weekly mileage all in one go", which succinctly described the entire problem in one single sentence. There was no way I could keep up - he put 2 minutes onto me by the finish! I deliberately walked for a minute before turning into the campsite where the finish was so that I would be able to run the final lap of honour without cramping - at least that bit worked!

I finished in 5:55:47 (on my own watch), a personal worst for 39.3 miles, but since the main goal had been to run without re-injuring the hip (or without acquiring a new injury for that matter) this was actually a success. Going under 6 hours was a minor bonus as well, not that it really mattered. Don Hannon had indeed won but he too had battled cramps for several miles at the end and had almost been caught by the leading lady. He was very gracious to state that I would have won today had I been in form, but I had not and I did not and he was the clear and deserved winner, congratulations. The ladies' winner, Dee Grady, came seemingly out of nowhere to rack up a first win in her first ultra - very impressive and there may well be a major talent about to be uncovered.

As for myself, I had driven almost 6 hours to get there, slept for almost 6 hours, ran for almost 6 hours and drove back home for almost 6 hours, a major expedition and a rather exhausting one. However, my legs felt surprisingly good on Sunday morning and I did my usual 5-mile recovery run feeling much better than expected. I guess the slow pace means I wasn't as taxed as I might otherwise have been.

27 Aug

5 miles, 42:45, 8:33 pace, HR 138

28 Aug

5 miles, 42:32, 8:30 pace, HR 137

29 Aug

Achill Island Ultra

39.3 miles, 5:55:47, 9:03 pace, HR 147

30 Aug

5 miles, 45:45, 9:09 pace, HR 133

Don't Be Afraid To Fail

"Are you going to run Achill Island? Or would that be stupid?"

"Yes - and yes, I suppose"

I haven't run more than 15 miles since June and on Sunday I started getting tired after 10 miles, so to run almost 40 miles on Saturday may well be a BAD idea. However, I'm going to do it anyway. The Achill island ultra is still only about a quarter of the Spartathlon and the way I see it, if I can't run 40 miles (ok, 39.3) on Saturday then I won't be able to run 153 exactly a month from now. Besides, last year in Belfast I promise Donna I'd run her race this year.

Being hampered by injury actually has one advantage: if I went into that race in good shape I might well have been tempted to race it as a win might have been be a possibility (obviously, that depends on who's turning up). Since that possibility can now be ruled out, I can run as slowly as I want without any regrets.

I'm not overly keen on mantras and memes, but that one caught my eye because that is exactly attitude I have decided to adopt for the Spartathlon. I haven't done the training I wanted to do and I will still be far from peak fitness when the start date comes round far too soon but I will give it a go and if I fail, so be it. There's only one way to find out.

If I cripple myself in Achill, I guess I'll have to fall back to option B, namely going to Greece for a holiday instead.

Anyway, I took it easy after the weekend. It was a no-brainer because my quads were hurting, almost certainly because of the mountain run. I was really surprised by how much they hurt because that run had gone so well and I had not felt tired at all.  I had initially toyed with the idea of doing 2 workouts during the week, another mountain run and intervals on Tuesday and Thursday. Then I figured Thursday was a bit late considering that race on Saturday so maybe a Tuesday/Wednesday back-to-back workout pair would be an option? However, with the legs hurting as they are, that idea got dumped (I probably just about avoided doing something really stupid here).

What I did do on Tuesday was to run in some extra layers to get some heat adaptation going. However, as it turns out, even wearing 3 layers on top, including a running jacket, won't make you feel particularly hot if you're an idiot and don't wear a hat. In fact, once it started raining I started to feel distinctly cold instead! It's still a bit early for heat adaptation (it only lasts for about 2 weeks), so I guess a bit of experimenting wasn't that bad an idea; that way I might get it right by the time I actually need to.

On Wednesday morning I did that one weekly workout that was left in the schedule, a set of half mile repeats. Last week I had done 4, this week I increased the number to 6 and slightly lowered the recovery from 0.5 to 0.4 miles. Initially I resolved to run a bit slower than last week, just trying to hit the 6:30 to 6:40 window rather than surpass it but once I got into the workout I actually started to speed up, unnoticed. Once again, the 2 websites I'm using for data upload report very different numbers:

Movescount: 6:43, 6:32, 6:35, 6:40, 6:25, 6:26
Strava: 6:33, 6:26, 6:30, 6:35, 6:17, 6:21

And, like last week, the strava numbers are the ones I remember from the watch during the workout, so I guess that's what I'm going with (plus, they sure look a lot better). I'm still flabbergasted how the same data set can be reported so differently. It hurts my technical background.

The real difference, however, was how much better I felt this week compared to last week. I could not have done 6 repeats last week; in marked contrast, this morning I definitely would have felt capable of at least 2 more. This is also reflected in the HR, last week it went all the way up to 181 and today it peaked at a much more acceptable 173. I certainly have already gotten better at running at 6:30 pace. How that translates into efficiency gains at ultra pace is debatable - however, I am convinced that this is a very valuable workout and ultra runners would in general improve if they added more speed work into their training repertoire (btw, that's a note to self).

The hip is fine. Every now and then I can notice a bit of a twinge, but that's it.

24 Aug

8 miles, 1:09:17, 8:40 pace, HR 138

25 Aug

8 miles, 1:09:56, 8:45 pace, HR 143

26 Aug

9+ miles, 1:17:18, 8:30 pace, HR 144

   incl 6 x 800 @ 6:33, 6:26, 6:30, 6:35, 6:17, 6:21 pace

Support

I sure cannot complain about the help I've been getting recently. I have Derek's expert advice on how to deal with the injury, recently I got a phone call from Gerry Duffy no less, making suggestions about fitness gains from cycling (he's been there himself) and MC is still keeping an eye on my training as well.

I just checked through my running log for the year and the last time I had done an interval workout was back in March! Obviously that's not ideal but I required a very long recovery period after the championships and then I got injured - in fact, the very workouts that caused my injury, the hill drills, were supposed to get the leg muscles ready for some fast work. MC sent me an email with the suggestion of doing some longer intervals with the aim of increasing my efficiency. There is no doubt that my efficiency is in dire need of improvement, right now I am running a minute slower than before my injury, at the same effort level and HR! Still, I was a bit apprehensive of running 2 minutes faster than normal, not because the pace would have scared me but because I did not know how my hip would react.

The prescribed pace was certainly nothing to write home about - 2 years ago that had been my marathon race pace! Straining to run the same pace for half mile repeats drove home the message how much I have regressed, but then again I get that same message on every single run at the moment, and I very much expect decent gains to come quickly (that's the advantage of being at the bottom!). 4 x 800 is not much of a workout, especially as I kept the recovery long as well (another half mile), but that kind of work need to be introduced gently. The plan was to run 6:30-6:40 pace. I struggled with pace judgement early on, but that improved quickly. As for the actual paces I ran, there's some confusion. The Suunto website, where the data got uploaded initially, mentions lap paces of 6:31, 6:36, 6:35, 6:32, but the same data in strava gets reported as 6:31, 6:30, 6:27, 6:23. I did not keep a close eye on the numbers when I was doing the workout but from what I saw the numbers on the watch were matching the strava figures; why Suunto's watch would report quite different numbers than their website I don't know. Obviously it doesn't matter much - it's the training effect that counts but my geeky maths OCD self is a bit thrown by those contradictory numbers.

Derek had suggested running on no more than 3 consecutive days, so I was already pushing my luck with 5 straight days as it was! However, since the hip is getting better by the day, even after sitting in the office chair for too many hours, I think I can get away with a little bit more. However, having to drive to Killarney early Friday morning provided a decent excuse to take a rest day (I still cycled).

After that rest day I did once again push my luck over the weekend. I headed up towards the Kerry way on Saturday morning, intending to get a few climbs into my legs for the first time in ages to start building some much-needed leg strength but had all the best intentions of taking it easy. Well, the effort was easy, I can still attest to that, but the longer I ran the better I felt so when I reached the trail junction towards Windy Gap I indeed started heading upwards, curious to see how long I would last. Well. I lasted until the very top and even then I wasn't particularly tired. The hip never bothered me in the slightest, which was a major plus. I took it even easier on the descent to protect my hip and ran home. I did the homewards leg mostly on autopilot, which meant I can't have been very tired.

The hip was perfectly fine initially but I started feeling it about 6 hours after that run. Not bad, but noticeable. As a result I ditched any fancy notions of running around the lake on Sunday and did 2 loops through Killorglin instead, which gave me the option of going home early if my hip was acting up. Turns out the hip was fine but the quads were a bit achy right from the start, obviously a result from yesterday's sojourn, and never got better. By mile 10 I was rather tired, by mile 12 I started feeling the hip, once again not bad but noticeable, but by then I was on my way home anyway. The last few miles dragged a bit, but that was part of the plan anyway. A little bit of suffering is good.

This was a decent enough week, but compared to what I would have done without the injury it was still minimal. My hip feels fine, it's the loss of fitness that is my biggest problem. I still have a few weeks to make some gains - not enough to catch up but I'll see what can be done.

20 Aug

7.5 miles, incl 4 x 800 @ 6:31, 6:30, 6:27, 6:23 pace

22 Aug

11+ miles, 1:45:48, 9:26 pace, HR 148

   Windy Gap

23 Aug

15+ miles, 2:11:24, 8:45 pace, HR 141

And Back Again

And so we are back home, from well over 30 degrees in the sun to 16 degrees in the rain -  oh my, am I ecstatic to be back! I was straight back in the office on Tuesday and wouldn't you know it, after a few hours at the desk my hip started hurting again after all the progress made last week. Sitting for hours really is poison to my injury, so much so that can't help but wonder how much quicker I would have recovered if I had a different kind of job (alas, window cleaning won't pay the bills).

I did one more long run in Austria, 4 time around the little lake and I was running for exactly 2 hours. It wasn't quite as hot any more, still 27C/80F though, and it was very humid so I just took it very, very easy, which was probably good for my hip anyway. On previous days it had been hot but dry and I almost did not feel like I was sweating because it evaporated immediately. Sunday was very different but due to my low pace I was just plodding along not too bothered. It also helped that I had stashed a water bottle along the way - sometimes even I can learn a lesson.

The pace had been painfully slow but what pleased me was that my hip was perfectly fine all the way and did not start hurting afterwards either. It was enough encouragement to try running on consecutive days once more, even though that had been impossible earlier that week.

It's amazing how quickly things had changed in just a few days. On Monday, our last morning before travelling back home, I did run again and since the hip did not bother me at all I kept pushing the distance as I went along, from 3 miles to 4 and then 5, and I might have done more but it was time to head home. It was probably the most encouraging run I had done all week - in fact, for 2 months. I was finally able to run on consecutive days! It felt like a major victory.

Since returning home I have kept to that daily running schedule but I also reduced the miles again, just to be sure. There is no denying that my fitness has suffered significantly - 8:30 seems to be the top end of my easy pace now, a full minute slower than 2 months ago at the same effort level and heart rate - the VDOT table does not make pleasant reading. How quickly I will be able to regain a half-decent level I don't know - I have less time until the Spartathlon than I spent out injured. Ah well. It's a challenge, I guess,

16 Aug

13.4 miles, 2:00:00, 8:57 pace, HR 139

17 Aug

5 miles, 46:17, 9:15 pace, HR 137

18 Aug

8 miles, 1:08:26, 8:33 pace, HR 143

19 Aug

5 miles, 44:12, 8:50 pace, HR 143

Life's A Beach

Things are continuing to improve but I’m still a good bit off from where I could say that I’m over that injury. After the hip had felt so good on Monday I thought I could start trying to run on consecutive days again but Tuesday was a big disappointment in that respect. From the first step I could tell that this really was not going to go well and after one mile of hobbling along I turned around and hobbled back home. Just to show how bad this had been, I had not even managed to average 10-minute-miles! I went cycling for an hour instead – we have the use of some bikes here, though they were clearly not purchased with the intention of cycling fast or long. However, for the week they’ll do.

Maia's gone native again

After that new setback I was a bit apprehensive on Wednesday but it was so much better! I could just about feel a tiny twinge in my hip at the start and even that went away completely after a mile or 2 and I was running completely unencumbered – well, apart from the fact that the temperatures were over 30 degrees, even at 8 o’clock in the morning! I managed to hold it all together for 10 miles but noticed a lot of ups and downs - in my fatigue levels that is, the road around the lake is entirely flat.

I went cycling again on Thursday but spent more time cursing at that bike than enjoying the ride. I also got a bit lost and was completely parched over that last few miles and suffering badly over one last hill, small as it may have been – exercising for over two and a half hours in that heat without bringing water was probably not my smartest idea ever.

I had recovered from that ordeal by Friday morning and once more the hip seemed in perfect condition, so I drew the run out a little to 12 miles, my longest run in what seems to be a very long time. I noticed the same highs and lows but figured they were closely coinciding with whether I was running in the shade or directly under the sun. Thursday had been incredibly hot, the temperatures had reached 38 degrees; Thursday was slightly cooler at 36.5, but that was still hotter than anything encountered in Ireland, ever! Well, I guess it will give me a fair amount of heat adaptation, which will only help. It probably also explains why my pace is only around 8:30, even when I could have sworn I was running faster than that, and the rather high HR is a bit of a concern. Obviously my lack of recent training and the subsequent loss of fitness has something to do with it as well.

Early morning visitors

Even though my hip had felt great all day, it was bothering me once more on Saturday morning, so another cycle was on the cards. This time I fulfilled a very long dream of mine – over 30 years ago I had learned about the Leithagebirge (“Leitha mountains”) and wondered how the flattest part of Austria could have a mountain region – well, even the hills around Caragh lake are higher and steeper than this but a 38 mile cycle through the country side was great and the mere fact that they have a network of cycle lanes going through the country here makes things so much easier and better – Ireland could really do with someone having a look how infrastructure works in other places, but I won’t be holding my breath.

I’ve actually done a ton of exercise this week, with the long cycles and the running supplemented by a fair amount of swimming and rowing as well as my exercises from Derek I must have done close to 3 hours a day – hopefully that will kick-start a last-gasp bout of training that may still get me back to a reasonable level of fitness. I have 6 weeks left.

11 Aug

2 miles, 20:05, 10:02 pace, HR 128

12 Aug

10.1 miles, 1:26:11, 8:32 pace, HR 146

14 Aug

12 miles, 1:43:00, 8:35 pace, HR 153

Change Of Scenery

This time I'm sure, things are definitely improving, and finally at a faster rate as well. My hip felt ok(-ish) on Saturday morning and I chanced it for a longer run. Up to now 6 miles had seemed long and every time I tried to push the envelope I was firmly put back into my place, but I could feel a definite and significant improvement in my hip and dared to go out for 8 miles. Whoop-dee-doo! Everything went well, in fact I felt great, I think I got my first proper dose of endorphins in weeks, which would have helped. Once that wore off a couple of hours later I could feel the hip again, but no worse than on previous days and I figure this was a really good sign.

Sunday was all about travelling, so the idea of running or any other cross training wasn't rally on the agenda. We caught a flight from Dublin to Bratislava and hired a car to drive to a lake in Austria where we are going to spend the next week. Temperatures in Dublin had been 13 degrees. Here it is 36! It would be roasting but with that lake almost literally on our doorstep that is a problem that can be solved easily. We all swam for a good while (I guess some form of cross training was had after all), and that's what we're going to do for the next week.

With the temperatures that high it seems important to get my run in before it reaches boiling point. Luckily I'm an early riser anyway, even on my hols, and I was out of the door at 7 am. I used the run to get a good look at the surrounding area (and found a bakery and a supermarket, what else do you need!), got lost (invariably!), and ended up running a good bit further than initially planned but still feeling great. It was just over 11 miles but at a slower pace than I would have done at home - the heat and the new surroundings have both impacted on my base but I think running a bit slower is better for me at this point anyway. Depending on how the hip will feel for the rest of the day and tomorrow I will adapt my mileage - it may be time to give running on consecutive days another go, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

It was already 28 degrees when I got back home, running any later would have been problematic. I guess it will get the heat acclimatisation going. It's a bit early for that for Greece, which is still almost 7 week away, but what can you do, our holidays were not planned with race preparation in mind.

Talking about THAT RACE, ever since I decided to give it a go anyway, even with my less-than-ideal preparation, I invariably started thinking what I would do if things just happened to go better than expected. I am aware that the Spartathlon is exceptionally tough and the finisher rate low, and if I stand at the start line without the right mindset I will not finish even if the body would be capable - winging it might not be the best option!

As it happens, I just got an email from MC about all that - he must have been reading my mind (he's good at that!). His advice is to take a chance and try and race - it might not be pretty but the base I have built over the last 10+ years is not going to erode away that quickly. So maybe, just maybe, I'm still in with a chance (MC tends to be right much more often than not). At the very least I will get a good feel for the race, which may come in handy in 2016.

8 Aug

8 miles, 1:03:54, 7:79 pace, HR 154

10 Aug

11.1 miles, 1:34:22, 8:29 pace, HR 151

Back And Forth

I was absolutely sure Derek told me I could try and start running every day once the daily mileage had reached 6 without issues, but now he denies saying that - must have been a misunderstanding on my part. I noticed straight away after Monday's 3-mile run that the hip wasn't feeling great and despite Tuesday going reasonably okay, it was not as good as Sunday and had to be counted as a setback, albeit a minor one. Obviously I sat out Wednesday - well, I did do a tough cycle program on the trainer with a set of 60 sec intervals on/off that had my legs shaking like jelly once I got off the bike. I've also spent between 30 and 45 minutes every evening on the trainer (my unwatched video collection is running out at an alarming rate). I'm not sure what cycling does to my fitness (running fitness is definitely reduced significantly, no matter how much cross training I'm doing), but it feels good on the hip and has to be better than sitting on the sofa.

Cycling really doesn't impact on the injury or I surely would have felt it on Thursday. Having said that, something felt off and I very nearly did not run but in the end I was glad I did because I actually felt pretty good on yet another 6-mile run, so on the whole I'm still making progress. The way to build on from where I am now is to take the body's feedback into account, and at the moment the feedback is that I need to take a rest day between runs. I will try and gradually increase the mileage of my runs, once again progressing carefully and gradually.

I know I have already run out of time. The Spartathlon is 7 weeks away and there won't be time to get fit, simple as that. As I've said I will still travel to Greece - the flights and the race entry have been paid months ago and we're going to turn this into a holiday. I will most likely start and use this as a recce for next year, which also more or less settles what races I should focus on in 2016.

Oh, and congratulations to Torill Fonn, who I was lucky enough to meet in Turin after she had gotten on really well with Maia (not entirely sure how they had become such great friends). She had told me that she would try and break the 48 hrs World record. She sure gave it a good go at the weekend - she did not get the World record but she did get the European one as well as the age group World record (not bad for a fallback option!). Congratulations, I'm in awe and feeling very inspired! I just need to get back to full health first.

4 Aug

6 miles, 50:38, 8:26 pace, HR 148

6 Aug

6 miles, 48:54, 8:09 pace, HR 152

Progress Or Not?

When I first got injured I could not have imagined that recovery would take so long. I remember thinking that the Spartathlon was 3 months away and it would not really matter all that much. Reality has been very, very different. I guess I just don't do things by half - when I got my first injury in 8 years it had to a serious one that would take a long time to heal!

I'm generally not someone to follow rules and commands (my managers over the years can testify that). However, I quickly realised that I needed help with this injury and it would be just plain daft to go (and pay) for advice and then not follow it, so I'm following Derek's instructions very closely. I did think at times his progression program is overly cautious but always knew that erring on the side of caution is by far better than doing too much too soon and getting injured again, and recent events suggest he was right all along.

I did a fairly long cycle on Saturday; not long by serious cyclists' standards but the longest bike ride I'd ever done. It took me slightly over an hour to reach the top of Ballaghasheen, partially because I cracked on the final climb and had to take a breather, but it felt good to feel some good pain in the legs from the exercise rather than the bad pain from the injury. On the way home I got rather tired and started wishing to be home sooner rather than later, something I've experienced often enough at the end of a long run, and once more a good thing to suffer through. I don't know if I still have a realistic chance of making the Spartathlon but if I do then some serious work that includes a bit of suffering will be unavoidable.

Sunday was good. Really good. I almost felt like I was over that injury. The hip was fine, just a very dull discomfort, barely worth mentioning. I increased the distance by yet another mile. 6 miles was a significant marker: Derek had said that if I could run for 6 miles/10k without issues than I can start running every day, though the intervening days would have to be short. I did start feeling the hip again in the afternoon but I have done that after every run and the fact that I had been sitting in a car for a few hours sure did not help. Was it worse than on other days? I can't tell.

Unfortunately, as soon as I woke on Monday morning I immediately noticed that the hip wasn't feeling great. I did my 3 mile run anyway and it felt like a run a week or two earlier, not great. The pace was pathetically slow, despite the effort being the same as the day before. It was the first time that I had to deal with a setback since starting on the way back and it did nothing for my mood. It really is possible to hate your own body. I followed the run with 50 minutes on the bike trainer, the longest I have ever managed to train on a stationary device, be it trainer or treadmill. Maybe I did it for self-punishment but, as always, the hip felt better after cycling - unfortunately, the Spartathlon is not a cycling race!

A few hours in the garden had me knackered, especially after the morning workouts. I figured that anything was better than sitting down.

I think I'm pretty much on the edge. Of course I don't want a significant setback but with the lack of time it feels worth taking a few risks - if I miss the Spartathlon I have several months throughout the winter to get fit again. The next few weeks will tell.

I need a new HRM - my present one keeps dropping out. It's the least of my problems, though.

2 Aug

6 miles, 47:26, 7:54 pace, HR ???

3 Aug

3 miles, 26:49, 8:57 pace, HR 143

Cautious Optimism

18 years ago Niamh dragged me all the way to the altar.

It's the same news as for the last few weeks: things are getting better, but very, very slowly. I saw Derek again on Tuesday; he reminded me that 3 weeks ago he predicted 4-6 weeks of healing time and so far it looks like he was right. He also thinks that the Spartathlon won't be happening for me. I, on the other hand, haven't completely given up hope yet. Someone who is daft enough to sign up for a 153 miles race in the first place might be stupid enough to try and run it even without the necessary training done, and I might even treat it as a recce for next year. I've signed up and paid the full price for the race and the flights already, so I'll definitely head for Greece, assuming the country is still around in September (signs for that are encouraging at least). As Anto pointed out, the worst case scenario is one extra night in a 3-star hotel on the beach. If you look at it like that ...

With Derek's permission I have slowly, very very slowly, started to increase the mileage again but I'm still only running every second day. I did 4 miles on Wednesday, which is less than I would even consider getting out of bed for under normal circumstances but still longer than all the previous runs. I felt reasonably good on the run, similar to Monday though it's hard to be sure. The hip injury is still very clearly noticeable. I was perfectly fine immediately afterwards but the hip felt rather stiff once again after lunch time.

That evening I dug out my little bike trainer that had been gathering dust for almost five years in the attic and set it up. Derek wants me to start doing hard intervals on the bike, which would be too dangerous to do on the road, and I wanted to set it up and test it out first. I also figured 30 minutes on the bike would loosen up the hip again. Things worked on both fronts; it's a very basic, simple ans sturdy trainer, which meant the previous 5 years did no harm to it and the hip did indeed feel better again afterwards. The one downside is that I noticed how quickly the tyre gets worn down on the trainer - now I'm paranoid to take the bike back out on the road in case the tyre is worn thorough and will fail me when I'm miles away from home.

I have some little tests for the hip. Balancing on one leg while putting on a sock on the other one would have been utterly impossible 2 weeks ago, still required something to lean against until last Sunday and is now perfectly doable. It might sound silly but if I can manage that then I feel I can manage to run a few miles as well. Getting up from a chair and walking around for a minute is still a very good indicator; the only problem I have is to figure out if the stiffness is better or worse than the previous day. Changes are small and therefore rather subtle.

Anyway, after that successful test on Wednesday evening I did an interval session on Thursday, a short one because you have to build up slowly - after all, building up too quickly was what got me into this situation in the first place. I do hope it will get my system going again so that I can reap some benefits once I am able to return to running properly again. Who knows, I might even come back stronger eventually - you have to live in hope!

The 5 miles I did on Friday morning were the longest run I've done for several weeks. The hip felt good first thing in the morning so I more or less knew that this would go reasonably well. Indeed. it was probably the best run I've had since getting injured. I'm not sure why the HR was so high, maybe it's because of the fitness I've lost over the last few weeks, but that's a very minor concern right now. As long as the hip behaves I can extend it to 6 miles on Sunday and if that goes well I can start running every day again. Hallelujah!

The Tralee 100k will be on tomorrow (Saturday). My heart is bleeding. Good luck to all the lucky runners; I'll be at the Brandon this evening for a short talk unfortunately but I won't be joining you on the course.

29 Jul

4 miles, 33:36, 8:24 pace, HR 149

31 Jul

5 miles, 41:25, 8:17 pace, HR 153

The Light

I probably should have stayed away from Facebook the last few weeks. Reading about all those races my friends were doing broke my heart every time. However, I was delighted to see Fozzy Forristal win the 100k in Courtmacsherry on Saturday, and in a very good time as well. The next time Marcus Howlett introduces me as Kerry's best ultra runner he may have to qualify that statement. Well done indeed, Fozzy!

I awoke on Saturday morning with the thought that there were now less than 9 weeks until the Spartathlon, which did not exactly fill me with joy. Even if I were able to return to training sooner rather than later, I have missed so much training that it may well be too late already. Last week I ran all of 8 miles, which is about 92 fewer than I would have done had things gone to plan. I did cycle a few more, though that doesn't even come close to compensating.

I'm not dissing cycling, it's actually quite fun; certainly a lot better than sitting at home feeling sorry for myself. I'm working fairly hard on the bike and hopefully my cardiovascular system will remain somewhat intact, though I'm not quite sure how much of that translates into running. Of course, nothing makes up for the fact that I need to get my legs used to the pounding on the road.

I was quite surprised to see just how much more popular cycling is on strava compared to running. There are way more segments and they are way more competitive. I own a few local KOMs in running even though every single one of them is rather soft - I will never even come close to a single one in cycling, I think we can be pretty sure of that.

Anyway, on Saturday I made my way around the lake road for an hour long trip. Initially I was planning on turning around after 30 minutes until I realised that a full loop would take me pretty close to one hour, so I decided to do just that. However, just after the halfway mark I encountered a fairly big group of cows on the road. Initially they started moving away but then a big bull stopped dead in his tracks and started eyeing me suspiciously, at which point I decided to get back to the original plan and turn around after all. Shame, I had been looking forward to the 3-mile climb I had only just started on.

On Sunday morning I immediately noticed a big change in my hip as soon as I woke up. It felt a lot better than before, though there is the distinct possibility that this was down to the ibuprofen I had taken the evening before rather than a genuine improvement in my injury. It was raining, so I decided to go for a flatter route because I did not fancy descending on narrow, twisty, pothole-strewn roads in wet conditions. The last thing I need is to acquire an additional injury from a bike crash. Cycling felt fine, an hour passed very quickly and I got home without incident. The hip continued to feel okay and for the first time in weeks I was actually looking froward to my next run, full of hope that things were finally getting better.

Well, I did my by now customary 3 mile  run on Monday morning. For the first time in a month I felt like I could actually stride out properly, though the injury was still clearly noticeable. However, the discomfort level was now down to a 3/10, better than ever before, and the level my physio told me would be acceptable to continue running. I ran a little bit fast once more because I have lost my ability to judge pace and effort, though that's a minor issue for a 3-mile run.

I think I can finally see some light at the end of that far-too-long-already tunnel. Let's hope it's not the oncoming train.

27 Jul

3 miles, 23:55, 7:58 pace, HR 152

Wrong Sport

If I weren't a runner I would think I am no longer injured by now. The discomfort after sitting is virtually gone and even the chairs in the office's meeting room that were just pure poison on my hip only a week ago are now perfectly tolerable. Unfortunately there is still one activity where I can clearly feel the effects of my injury, and that just happens to be running.

After 12 miles had turned out to be too much last week (well, running 4 and 5 miles on consecutive days was too much) I have been much more careful this week, just running 2 miles on Monday and then 3 on Wednesday and Friday. I cycled on the other days and since cycling does not cause any discomfort (in fact I feel better after it, though that's probably down to endorphins) I got permission to extend the duration of the cycling, so I did a bit over 30 minutes on Tuesday and about 40 on Thursday, with the plan of cycling for an hour on the weekend. I expected the cycling HR to be lower than what I usually do when running but I averaged as much as 151 on Thursday. This may be down to a loss of fitness; I didn't think I had been working particularly hard. When running a HR of 151 would probably be a tempo run and my cycling effort was definitely not an equivalent of that.

Cycling is actually quite fun at the moment, I do enjoy it, especially after being starved of exercise over the past few weeks. How much of that exercise will be relevant to running remains to be seen. I know there is a certain amount of cross over, but the specific fitness to run at a high level can only be gained by running.

I almost certainly ran too fast on Wednesday. I was too pre-occupied monitoring my hip to pay much attention to anything else, and by the time I realised I was breathing rather hard I was almost back home. There is a silver lining in that as well - a 7:47 miles might not have been a good idea in my present state but the mere fact that I was able to run a 7:47 miles is actually a sign that thing are improving - last week I barely managed 9-minute pace! However, the one number that jumped out at me was not the pace but the cadence - a whopping 193, at least 10 steps per minute faster than normal. It's because I cannot (or at least I subconsciously feel that I cannot) stride out properly and stride length is well down, so the cadence is up in compensation. Friday was a little bit calmer, with a cadence of 190 - this time I made sure to take it a bit easier.

I keep doing my exercises, though I am wondering if they are a waste of time, especially the isometric ones, because they feel so easy. I will see Derek again on Tuesday; let's see what he says.

My weight keeps shooting up. I'm not sitting on the sofa all night pigging out, but I've already gained more than 5 pounds since the start of the month!

Shit, it's only 9 weeks to the Spartathlon. Things are not looking good.

22 Jul

3 miles, 24:22, 8:07 pace

24 Jul

3 miles, 25:03, 8:21 pace, HR 148

Insane In The Brain

I would do just about anything to keep me sane at the moment. I was already wondering if I had suddenly developed a severe case of mid-life crisis but I think it's more likely that the absence of running and even exercise in general is driving me nuts. That's probably a good thing because a mid-life crisis would suck big time: I can't afford a sports car and if I ever had an affair and Niamh found out I would not want to be in the vicinity!

Thanks for a couple of suggestions.

The possibility for heat training is severely hampered by the lack of heat in this part of the country. Less than half a continent away they might be suffering from a severe heat wave but here in Kerry we're still delighted when on the odd occasion we managed to spot a gap between the clouds. It's too early for heat adaptation for the Spartathlon anyway. In a month that will become more important but not yet.

Pool running is problematic due to the absence of a pool in my vicinity - I'd have to drive half an hour each way to get to the nearest one and that's just not going to happen. I stopped attempting triathlons mainly for that very reason and I can't see myself sacrificing an hour for something as abhorrent as pool running.

I begged Derek to let me at least go for a cycle and he partially relented but set the upper limit at a shockingly low 20 minutes. I did two easy 5 mile cycles on the weekend which took maybe 17 or 18 minutes. That felt comfortable and the hip did not bother me at all (a genuine 0/10), so I think he's erring at the side of caution but that's almost certainly a good thing of course.

As soon as I woke on Saturday I immediately noticed a big improvement in the hip but that may have been due to taking some anti-inflammatory tablets on Friday evening rather then a genuine improvement in the condition. Up to now I have avoided taking anti-inflammatory drugs because inflammation is part of the body's natural healing process and taking tablets to suppress that will increase recovery time rather than help, but Derek advised a short course so I took some over the weekend. I have now stopped that and the hip still feels better so I do live in hope.

Because I felt so much better I went for a very short run this morning, only 2 miles. That's hardly worth getting changed for but it's all I'm allowed after 4 or 5 miles turned out to be too much last week. I can feel a big improvement but the hip is still bothering me as soon as the road starts climbing even by a minuscule gradient, so I need to be careful.

I managed all of 12 miles last week and it turned out to be too much, I sure hope this is going to improve further sooner rather  than later. I need to run. Not for the Spartathlon - for my sanity. And Niamh's.

20 Jul

2 miles, 17:43, 8:51 pace, HR 143

No-Progress Report

There are no less than 3 races on this weekend that I do have an interest in.

The Ras na Riochta might be an Adventure race, which clearly isn't my main focus, but I can see some of the race course right from my house and it forms part of some of my regular and favourite running routes, most notably the Kerry Way section toward Windy Gap.

The Killarney Marathon is one of my local races. I even signed up for this race; I got the number in the post on Tuesday. Opening that envelope was a sad moment. I seem destined never to run this race - I've signed up twice now and this is my second DNS! And since the date coincides with the third race this weekend, it will always be only a backup option.

That third race is of course the 24 hours race in Belfast. This has become the most important race of all to me, after my epic run last year that qualified me for the Worlds. This year it is going to be epic. I can't wait what some of my friends are going to do in their debut on that race format, most notably Grellan, Andrew Greaney and Thomas Klimas. All should have the ability to mark a really serious distance, certainly top of the national level, but 24 hour races have their own rules and you won't know for sure until you try it - we'll find out very soon, of course.

As for me - well, I know I titled this post no progress, but that's not the entire story. During the day, I feel better, getting up from a chair no longer causes pain, it doesn't really hurt (more stiff than painful) and at times I feel almost no issue at all. However, my run on Thursday morning did not go well at all, it was worse than Monday and Tuesday and the hip never loosened up at all, so I cut it short, went home, and am now wondering when I can run again at all.

A week or two ago I said I am not worried about the Spartathlon. This has changed as I gradually realised just how long recovery is taking. The race is 70 days from now and I should be doing some serious training right now. I am missing the Killarney marathon tomorrow and I cannot see how I could possibly make it to Tralee in 2 weeks, so that's 2 of my most important training runs gone without replacement. Even if I manage to get healthy again in a reasonable time, the training I have lost is a serious problem.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting here getting fat, unfit and crippled. Just what you need before a 153 mile run!

16 Jul

3 miles, 28:33, 9:31 pace, HR 133

First Steps

The first steps are wobbly and uncertain. Thankfully I have yet to fall over and my stability is slowly increasing, though the operative word here is slowly. There is no pain but it all feels very awkward and all I can do is take tiny baby steps, high cadence, low distance. Striding out is completely out of the question.

At the outset I'm hunched over but I gradually manage to right myself up and get closer to proper running form. It takes about two miles for the hip to loosen up entirely and I can start taking on a form that vaguely resembles running. I don't know what it looks like and quite possibly an untrained eye would not spot the difference in my stride, but I can certainly feel it.

I ran 4 miles on Monday and 5 on Tuesday, as directed by my physio (or so I thought - he wasn't sure about Tuesday). The good news is, and this is actually proper good news, there is no pain. Not during the run, not immediately afterwards and not hours later either, so I'm not doing any damage. Looking at the strava file for both runs is revealing - on both days every mile is faster than the previous one, coming down from almost 10-minute miles to about 8:30 pace at the end. The perceived effort did not really change, this is all down to the muscles warming up and loosening up - and I guess endorphins are playing a role as well.

So, after a long hiatus, at least I'm back running again, though there is still a very long way yet to go. Not only does my hip have to improve, after not running for 10 days my fitness has taken a hit as well, though that will be rectified in just a couple of days, assuming there are no further setbacks. The Killarney marathon on Saturday is obviously not an option. I jokingly mentioned it to Derek just to see his reaction but I guess he knew I wasn't serious.

We'll just have to see how this goes. The improvement since last week has been encouraging but there is still a very long way to go before I'm back to full fitness.

13 Jul

4 miles, 36:15, 9:04 pace, HR 139

14 Jul

5 miles, 45:25, 9:05 pace, HR 141

Next Injury Update

Things are getting better, but they're not good enough just yet.

I have been doing my prescribed exercises religiously 3 times a day, and I have been doing a 3-mile walk every morning (I'm not counting those towards my mileage). There is no pain during the exercises but there is some discomfort when walking, though that has been improving every day.

The most significant improvement is noticeable when I get up from a chair. On Tuesday I was grimacing every time and it took a minute of walking around every time for things to loosen up. Today I can get up and feel some tightness in the hip but no real pain, and after half a dozen steps it feels more or less okay. I can walk down the office without attracting some comments, which is a bonus.

There is still no running, not today and not over the weekend. A short run might happen on Monday, provided things keep improving at a steady rate. I'm not worried about losing fitness, there is still plenty of time until the end of September. I do miss running a lot, though. I saw a couple of runners during my morning walk and really, really, really wished I could join them. At least I'm not in danger of overtraining at the moment and it's certainly better to get injured 3 months before the race rather than a week.

This is by far the longest rest I've had to take from running for many years, for any reason other than recovery from a target race. I have been lucky over the years and on more than one occasion got away with things that are generally frowned upon. I guess inevitably I pushed my luck once too often. Ah well - sh*t happens.

Injury Update

4 days of no running. Counting by the hour, actually - 59 at the time of writing.

I went to see a physio in Tralee today. Derek is a very good runner himself (one of the top dogs in the local scene), which did give me a lot of confidence in him and he was recommended by a friend.

He isolated the hip flexor as the root of the problem, not the adductor. He thinks the hill drills were the main reason for my injury; the parkrun might just have been the last straw that broke the camel's back.

After not running for more than 4 day the pain has actually gotten a lot worse. Rest is overrated, I'm telling you. I was hoping he would tell me to run at least 10 miles a day to use the magic powers of running to heal my injury but that hope, always rather small, was dashed. There is to be no running for at least another few days. He gave me a few exercises to try out and I am to do a brisk walk of 3-4 miles to see how that feels.

I really hope I can get back to running sooner rather than later. Not because I would be worried about the Spartathlon; that's still 3 months away. It's because I'm quickly becoming impossible to live and work with when I can't go running.

On The Scrapheap

I remembered that one thing I usually do whenever I get a niggle is to throw out my old pair of runners. This time, this was a memorable occasion. A few years ago I heard that the manufacturing of my favourite running shoes, Brooks Green Silence, had been discontinued and I proceed to buy a big stash of them, not particularly caring about the hideous colour scheme of the last 2 pairs (though I still wonder who thought such an ugly shoe would sell well). Anyway, yesterday I kissed my very last pair of that stash goodbye; as ever, the rewards for over 1000 miles of faithful service was a 1-way ticket into the bin. And before you get smart and say that of course I'll get injured if I wear shoes for more than 1000 miles, I have been doing that for years and my injury rate is still exceptionally good compared to every other runner I know.

As for the adductor/groin/hip problem, on Wednesday I was about to concede defeat, admit that I was genuinely injured and take a few rest days. I was in real pain on 1 or 2 occasions, enough for my colleague to notice as I gingerly made my way down the office corridor. However, it was definitely better on Thursday, so I decided to keep training regardless. I'm not sure if it was pure bone-headedness that kept me going or if running is such a strong addiction that it's better to work through the discomfort. The affected area feels really tight rather than painful, which makes it hard to gauge if there is progress being made or not.

Despite some reservations I did another set of hill drills on Friday morning. The HR graph of that session is quite telling and describes the entire workout in one neat graph:

Obviously pace means nothing on a workout like that. I work my way up the hill and recovery is a walk.very slow jog down. The one thing bothering me the most are the flies. It's very humid at the moment and I'm completely drenched in sweat when working hard and when walking back down the hill the flies are just swarming around me.

Anyway, on Saturday morning I did not feel great and finally decided to take a few rest days. I'm actually not sure if that is the right action to take because it always feels the worst right after getting up from sitting. After walking around for a minute I feel mostly fine. Same with getting up in the morning, as soon as I get moving I start to feel better. Running itself does not cause any extra discomfort.

However, this was certainly caused by running, so it is a running injury. I'm sure it happened when I ran an unaccustomed pace in the parkrun last Saturday, though it did take several hours for the first sign of discomfort to appear. I did not run yesterday but did some work in the garden, which felt fine. I'll probably go to a physio early next week, for the first time since 2008!

2 Jul

am: 8 miles, 1:04:34, 8:05 pace, HR 141

pm: 5 miles, 38:01, 7:36 pace, HR 146

3 jul

9 miles, 1:29:36, 9:56 pace, HR 136

   5x30 sec sprints; high knees; thigh drive; hill sprints

Weekly Mileage: 59

Misery

According to the weather website it was 26 degrees in Dublin today and all over the east coast, there are high temperatures predicted for the North in a few days and basically for the rest of the country as well, except for one corner, tugged away to the south-west. I know I would not want to have the 40 degrees they are experiencing in some parts of Europe right now, but come on. A little bit of sunshine would have been nice! All afternoon it was raining steadily. What the fuck ever convinced me to settle in this miserable wet spot of all the places I could have gone to!

Anyway, as promised, I kept ignoring the discomfort emerging from my right hip/groin area and kept training all week. I found an old entry in my blog that seemed to describe something very similar happening almost 3 years ago and was pleased to read that the problem had gone away after 5 days. Obviously I was hoping for the same outcome again but by now it's been 5 days already and if anything this has gotten worse (it's hard to tell). At some stage I may have to conclude that I have finally succumbed to a running injury, for the first time in what, eight years? I'm not ready for that yet and will keep running and hoping that it clears up. Stupid? Maybe. But it has worked for every niggle I've had for the last 8 years.

A bit of research brought me to the pectineus muscle, though I am not really sure. The area of concern tends to get painful every time I get up from a sitting position; the pain more or less goes away after half a minute of walking around. Running feels very awkward for the first quarter of a mile before it all settles down. I try not to change my running form as that would only invite a secondary issue springing up elsewhere. Because running as such doesn't really hurt I'm still living in hope that at least I'm not aggravating things further by running.

I ran very, very slowly on Monday morning, much slower than expected. It was more due to the humidity than the problem with my hip (which tends to become more or less unnoticeable after a couple of miles anyway) but still. I missed the evening run that day due to real world issues, which also cost me a few hours of sleep as I found it very hard to fall asleep. These things happen from time to time, nothing you can do about it.

I was back doing hill drills on Tuesday morning. I started with high knees as I was unsure if thigh drive was a good idea with my dodgy leg but did those as my second set anyway. I find them really hard. I usually do them 3 times in a row with a slow walk down the hill as recovery. The idea was to do 3 x 90 seconds but it was more like 90/75/60 seconds, and then I was panting, hands on knees, trying to suck some air into hurting lungs, which at least made the pain in the leg muscles go unnoticed.

I more or less repeated the effort on Wednesday, except that I reversed the order of the drills. The thigh drive was still as hard as ever but the high knees are starting to feel doable. I managed 4 minutes in one go, which is more or less the goal. At least I can see some progress being made, though the goal is to become good at running, not good at doing hill drills.

29 Jun

8 miles, 1:08:03, 8:30 pace, HR 135

30 Jun

am:9+ miles, 1:31:04, 10:04 pace, HR 140

   Hill drills: 4x30 sec sprints; high knees; thigh drive; hill sprints

pm:5 miles, 38:11, 7:38 pace, HR 145

1 Jul

am:9.5 miles, 1:34:45, 9:58 pace, HR 141

   Hill drills: 5x30 sec sprints; thigh drive; high knees; hill sprints

pm:5 miles, 39:40, 7:56 pace, HR 138

Adaptations

Starting a new training phase can often be tiring while the body is adapting to the new stressors. I find it quite hard to gauge the correct level of work required. Right now I'm tired and my right hip is hurting a bit. Have I done too much too soon? Possibly. Monday will be an easy day, after that I'll see.

I was quite tired on Friday and the legs were sore. However, it was a different kind of sore to the usual one. I think it was a direct result of the hill drills working different muscle groups than the usual running. If that's the case I guess the soreness is a sign that the drills are working. Let's hope that's not just wishful thinking. However, a very easy Friday left the legs feeling a lot better on Saturday morning.

On Saturday I fulfilled a longstanding promise and ran my first parkrun. The Killarney parkrun had opened at the start of June and I tried to persuade my daughter, who already does a little bit of running without my prompting, to run this. She agreed and we headed for Killarney on Saturday morning. Getting a teenager out of bed before 8 o'clock on a Saturday morning can be hard work and I was surprised how willingly she got up - she really must have been looking forward to this! Since there was a 10k race on that day only a few miles away (we even passed it on the way!), all the fast local runners were absent, every single one of them. I had told Lola that I would run with her and she initially agreed but after a quarter mile she told me to go away - I got the message the third time and at that time headed off on my own. I chased after the leaders, caught the last guy with about 1k to go and actually won this one, though it really was a case of not a single competitive runner being there. I never went into the pain cave, which tells its own story because a well run 5k would be a sufferfest of the highest order. Anyway, Lola finished as well, was nowhere near last and there was one proud father, I can tell you!

Once we got home I was very surprised to see that the HR during the parkrun had climbed all the way to 181, even though it was nowhere near full effort, but the race day adrenaline must have been flowing nevertheless. I did add a few more miles at home and noticed a rather high HR, which I attribute to the parkrun.

Tired legs were obviously still an issue on Sunday morning and I was a bit apprehensive before heading out. I took it very easy but the long climbs on the road around the lake are never that easy, no matter what. Looking at the splits I seemed to have fallen apart a bit after 14 miles when the pace dropped from about 8-minute miles to 8:30ish, though I wasn't really aware of that while running. The legs had been tired, alright, but they had been tired all along and there didn't seem any real change. The worst thing about the run, however, was that little insect that flew into my right eye and which kept being uncomfortable for the last couple of miles and afterwards. It took me a couple of hours to get the thing out! Ouch!

I did acquire a new niggle on Saturday, almost certainly during the parkrun. My right hip started hurting on Saturday afternoon and kept bothering me for the rest of the evening. I could still feel it this morning when I set off, though the discomfort mostly went away within the first mile. It did start hurting again once I had finished, though now it's more the right groin rather than the hip. Sitting down for too long seems to aggravate it, so I make sure to get up and walk around a bit every now and then. I don't think it's more than one of those usual niggles you invariably pick up on occasions and I'll do what I always do: I ignore it and keep running.

26 Jun

am: 8 miles, 1:05:58, 8:14 pace, HR 138

pm: 5 miles, 38:11, 7:38 pace, HR 144

27 Jun

1 mile, 8:00 w/u and c/d for parkrun

Killarney parkrun, 20:20, 6:34 pace, HR 167

6 miles, 47:21, 7:53 pace, HR 149

28 Jun

18 miles, 2:31:45, 8:25 pace, HR 146

Weekly Mileage: 90+

Change Of Plan

The original plan for this week, at least for the first few days, was to take it very easy and make sure I recover from a rather tough extended weekend. I did follow that plan initially and ran eight very slow, easy miles on Monday but then decided to do something else entirely.

For the last few years, ever since training for the Vienna marathon 4 years ago, I always did a hill phase with plenty of drills and such. I usually started hating the drills after a week but I was able to see their benefits. I'm not quite sure why I didn't do that phase for Turin, I think I basically just never made it out of base training.

I decided to bring that phase back, and straight away. I am worried that I have done too many slow and nowhere near enough fast miles for about a year and a hills phase would be the tried and tested approach to phase that in. I also reckon that hill drills are by definition there to stimulate different muscles to the "normal" running once, hence the usual running muscles are getting an easy ride for a bit, almost acting like a recovery - that theory may be up to debate, though.

I have experimented with different lengths, 4 weeks seemed a bit long and I wasn't sure if the last week brought any real benefits. I've usually done 2 weeks, which suited me better, but since I haven't done that phase for a while I think 3 weeks would probably be more appropriate.

On Tuesday I did high knees, which I found okay, and thigh drive, which I found very, very tough, so on Thursday I swapped them around to be able to do the thigh drive on fresh legs. It still was tough and I basically can't do them for more than one minute at a time while I can last twice as long with the high knees. I also did a few hill sprints on both days, though in Thursday I did them on the road on the way home and found that this particular hill wasn't really steep enough.

Oh, and I started running twice a day now. I usually find that running more than 80 weekly miles on single runs leaves me rather tired most of the time, and if I want to add more miles it's better to do so by adding a second run of the day while slightly shortening the morning run (which has the additional benefit of getting slightly more sleep). Those evening runs are meant to be easy recovery runs and I have to be careful not to run fast - something I find can happen very easily if I'm not paying attention; evening runs just feel differently to mornings.

It's 92 days to the Spartathlon. Even though I hadn't been planning things in advance in detail, 3 months to go before the goal race seems a good time to start "real" training.

22 Jun

8 miles, 1:05:29, 8:11 pace, HR 137

23 Jun

am:9.6 miles, 1:28:12, 9:11 pace, HR 141

   Hill drills: 4x30 sec sprints; high knees; thigh drive; hill sprints

pm:5 miles, 39:28, 7:54 pace, HR 142

24 Jun

am:8 miles, 1:03:46, 7:58 pace, HR 143

pm:5 miles, 38:10, 7:38 pace, HR 144

25 Jun

am:8.7 miles, 1:26:36, 9:57 pace, HR 141

   Hill drills: 4x30 sec sprints; thigh drive; high knees; hill sprints

pm:5 miles, 39:36, 7:55 pace, HR 144