London Redux

Everyone agreed that it had been a very successful holiday, but everyone was glad to be home. After a stressful week full of action it was nice to sleep in our own beds again. I was so worn out that I slept for 9 hours, went for a run this morning and went back to bed for another hour or two of sleep, which was thoroughly needed.

Saturday was my last run in London. Usually I do a fairly long marathon pace run on Saturday but I really didn’t feel up to it, so I just ran for about an hour at a much easier pace. I still felt worn out. Something's not right, but after the week I’ve just had, that probably explainable.

We arrived back in Caragh Lake at 9 o’clock in the evening and nobody had troubles falling asleep. The kids have the advantage of being on their school holidays. Poor Daddy on the other hand has to be back in the office on Monday; I really could do with another few days off, just to relax. That feeling of being worn out was reflected in today’s run. I did the workout I had skipped yesterday, and at first it went well. I might have started a bit too fast, but was soon back on pace. But after 7 or 8 miles I was wiped out. I could hardly keep 7:30 pace, and even that was a struggle. The end could not come soon enough, and when I finally got back home after slightly over 11 miles I showered, ate something and collapsed back to bed.

Lola has been complaining about a pain in her stomach as well as a headache. My head is fine, but the stomach feels slightly off, and I’m utterly knackered. Of course there is more than one theory for the way I’m feeling: we could have picked up a bug in London, we’re worn out after a stressful week, I could be overtrained or just tired from the travelling.

My original plan was to go straight back to my 100 week mileage, but with the present level of fatigue that might be madness. Tomorrow’s run will be reduced from 20 miles to something more manageable, and then I’ll wing it for the rest of the week. There’s a 5k in Killarney on Friday, and I intend to run it on rested legs, which might give me some feedback in comparison to last week’s race in London. Then I’ll have to make a decision on my further training load.

In the meantime, here are some photos from London. We’ve seen the following things: Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Science Museum, Legoland, London Dungeons, Westminster with Big Ben, London Eye, Greenwich Park, Greenwich Observatory and the Greenwich Meridian, the Planetarium, the Monument for the Great Fire of London (as well as the sign on Pudding Lane where the fire had actually started), King’s Cross and Platform 9¾, Coram’s Fields, the Lion’s King Musical, the Natural History Museum, the IMAX, and probably something I’ve forgotten. And half a dozen friends from old times. The packed program was only possible because Niamh and me knew the place very well.

27 Jun

8.5 miles, 1:06:54, 7:52 pace, HR 144
incl. 9x100 strides

28 Jun

11.25 miles, 1:20:18, 7:08 pace, HR 157

Weekly Mileage: 76 miles

Homeward Bound

We're almost at the end of our London week – thank God, I'm worn out. I may have reduced the mileage, but all the time spent walking around the place meant there was a significant extra stress load to be dealt with. After Wednesday's race I went out Thursday morning to explore a few areas of South East London. I went towards Beckenham Place Park, and then followed the signs for the Green Chain Walk, which is linking dozens of London's many green places. A great idea that really should be copied elsewhere. I went all the way to Crystal Palace Park, where I rounded the athletic stadium. The place may have seen better times, but a stadium purely for the purpose of athletics still appeals to me. When I arrived back home, just over 12 miles had passed.

The day brought us to the Monument (climbing all of its 311 steps), Kings Cross Station and platform 9¾, and a spectacular children's playground, Coram's Fields. Niamh, Lola and Shea went to a musical performance of the Lion's King, which was a massive success, while Cian and me went home to watch a few fire engines passing by.

It was really hot and humid today, and I caught a few rain drops during the run, though without receiving any cooling benefit. I did a scaled-down version of the hill repeats workout, first a 2-mile tempo run (6:46 pace), and then a recovery jog towards Mountsfield Park. The gate was still closed when I got there, but I went around it and the second one was open. There is a climb right at that second gate, but it wasn't as steep as I remembered it from years gone by. I used to let go of the pram when the twins were still tiny and then charge after the quickly accelerating vehicle, much to Niamh's horror and the babies' delight. Today's purpose was a lot less fun, 8 charges up that hill at full tilt. One sprint took about 40 seconds, a bit less than it takes me on my normal hill training ground in Caragh Lake. Either I'm getting stronger, or the hill was much easier, or I didn't put enough effort in to it, but I wasn't as worn out as I usually am after hill repeats. I was back home after only 7.5 miles.

We spent most of the day in the Natural History Museum, which pretty much took the kids' breath away, despite their original reluctance. I can very much recommend that place.

Tomorrow we're on our way back home. Home Sweet Home.

25 Jun

12+ miles, 1:36:59, 8:01 pace, HR 137

26 Jun

7.5 miles, 1:00:54, 8:07 pace, HR 145
incl. 2 miles @ 6:46, 8x40 secs hill sprints

A Midsummer Nightmare

“You might go surprisingly well (as long as it's not an afternoon run after a day of walking)”, Ewen had said. Right he was too, especially about the second part. We'd been to Westminster, the London Eye, Greenwich Park, Greenwich Observatory, the Planetarium (where I very nearly fell asleep), and then at some friends' house again. It's not the ideal preparation for a race, I guess. I also had a humongous lunch, but that was 6 or 7 hours before the race, and I though I'd be ok by the time the race started.

I got the 185 to Dulwich, a bus I had taken countless times in years gone by. I signed up for the race, did a warm-up with some strides, a few minutes of strong running and stretching, and then – highly unusual for a runner from Ireland – the race started on time.

Oh yes, and I was not wearing my Garmin. When I got ready for the race I was about to put on the HR strap, and then changed my mind and decided to run “freely”. I'd had a few experiences during shorter races recently where I thought that reading the information about pace and/or heart rate was counter-productive, and today a simple stopwatch would have to do.

The race was marked in kilometers, and I reached the first marker in 3:40. I wasn't able to tell my pace in minutes/mile but I knew it was pretty fast (5:54 pace, btw). The field had more or less settled, but I was able to gain a few places every now and then. Somewhere around that marker a runner from Orpington passed me. His vest was so yellow that at first I thought it was a race steward, but he would serve as a pace bunny for the next part of the race.

The course was in Dulwich Park, and at first we did 1.5 laps around the park. I reached km 2 at 7:21, still on the same pace, which was good. At that point I managed to work out that 5 times 3:40 is 18:20. I would have been very happy with that time, but maybe the mere fact that I was able to work that out at that time was a sign that I was not pushing with all I had. I still went past a few runners, but my yellow pace bunny kept slowly pulling away from me. At that stage we left the park and did half a loop on the outside. It included running past a pub, but I managed to resist temptation to stop for a pint. I had lost contact to the Orpington runner, but the sound of footsteps and breathing told me that I was at the head of a small group, and they were obviously pacing off me. I reached km3 in 11:30. How on earth had I managed to lose 30 seconds in one km? I guessed the markers were off, but without my Garmin I could not tell with absolute certainty.

Then we went back into the park, but this time running the other way. We actually passed a few stragglers still on their initial loop in the park. It was slightly uphill and against the wind, and I had the feeling of standing still, a bit like in those nightmares you sometimes have when you're running and running without getting anywhere. I lost no less than 3 places, as all those guys that had been pacing off me went past. The Orpington runner apparently struggled even more because I managed to close the gap, but he was still a bit ahead of me. I did not check my split at the last marker, at that stage I was merely pushing with all I had, breathing heavily and hurting a lot. The course went downhill again, only slightly, but enough to make running much, much easier. I managed to regain my 3 places, and then I pushed even harder, pulled up to my yellow clad friend and went past. There was a big gap to a group ahead, and I visualized a bungy rope pulling me ever closer to those guys. Remarkably, I gained another 2 or 3 places, but as the finish came closer I heard some footsteps approaching from behind. Determined as I was to hold off that guy he went past me like I was standing still, and then I lost another place to someone following in that guy's slip stream.

I only saw the seconds on the clock, and when I passed the line in :24 I thought I had done 18:24 and was very pleased. Then I checked my watch again, and to my horror saw a 19 at the minutes field. Good God, how slow have I become? To be more than a minute slower than my PR, and almost 50 seconds slower than less than 3 months ago on a much hillier course, is almost inconceivable. Should I give up running and start collecting stamps instead?

Lydiard said you can't train hard and race well at the same time, and since I have undoubtedly trained very hard recently, racing well is not on the cards. Still, this was slow, and it is in line with the disappointing result from the 10k in Killarney last month, as race result I had hoped would be a once-off. But I am committed to my training and will see it through until the end. If the marathon will be as disappointing I will know what not to do next time. Until then I'll try to keep in mind the fact that I'm training for a marathon in September, not a 5k in June.

24 Jun

13 miles, including:
Dulwich Midsummer 5k, 19:24, 6:14 pace

Not That Easy

Running isn't the problem, it's the fact that I'm on my feet literally all day. As someone who has a desk job I'm not used to spending hours walking around, and I can clearly tell the difference.

Monday is normally my long run day, and at home 20 miles would have been on the program. Last week I did those without batting an eyelid, but yesterday I was silently groaning after even half a mile. The fact that I'd just done 100+ miles had left me tired, and add to that the traveling and the walking around then we're on a new level of stress.

I went towards Greenwich via Blackheath, an area that would be familiar to anyone who has done the London marathon. Several laps around Greenwich Park followed; I was very surprised how hilly it was. I used to live not far from there and had been there plenty of times in my pre-running days, but either never picked up on the hills or forgot all about them. After about 10 miles I turned towards Catford again, and after a couple of laps in Ladywell I ended the day on 15 miles. It wasn't a lot for a Monday, but it was definitely enough for me at that point.

We then spent a spectacularly successful day in Legoland; we went on nearly all of the rides, the weather was great, and I can hardly remember any arguments. Anyone with kids in London should have this as a compulsory day (no, I'm not being paid by them). The only problem was the egregiously long journey on public transport, but I can't blame that on the park. We didn't get back home until 9 o'clock, at which time everyone, including the adults, just collapsed into bed.

I felt stiff and tired today and doubted I would be able to do a decent workout. Since this is an easy week I didn't even dream of repeating last week's 3-mile repeats. One lap in Ladywell Fields is just under 0.7 miles, so 2-and-a-bit laps would be 1.5 miles, and half a mile of recovery would get me back to the start. I did 3 repeats, and despite feeling like wading through molasses at the start I managed a surprisingly fast set of pace, all of them under 6:50. It might not be great, but it's all I'm looking for.

Another busy day at the London Dungeons awaited us, which was very imaginative and well done, though I think Cian might be traumatized for life. He really was scared out of his wits. Lola had had enough as well towards the end; Shea on the other hand could have stayed for another round. We rounded off the day with meeting some old friends. Catching up after all those years is great, and there's yet more of that to come.

There's a 5k race tomorrow. It's not exactly high on my priorities list, and I'm worn out from the stress of the holidays, but I'll try and do my best anyway.

22 Jun

15 miles, 2:02:17, 8:09 pace, HR 135

23 Jun

8.5 miles, 1:04:18, 7:33 pace, HR 148
incl. 3x1.5 miles @ 6:46, 6:44, 6:49

London Calling

It's been a busy two days already here and I'm exhausted, but that's more down to the obnoxious eight-year old we've brought along with us rather than the running. But that's a different story that won't be told on this blog.

I managed to drag myself out of bed early on Friday. 5 o'clock alarm calls are awfully early, but in summer it's much easier to handle. It's already bright outside, and with the better weather we've generally had over the last few weeks it's not too bad. 18 miles are still a long way, but as long as I don't wear myself out on the climbs, I can manage pretty easily. Somehow the legs felt a lot better than for Wednesday's 15-miler; the hill repeats always seem to leave my legs in pretty decent shape, maybe because the Thursday mileage is the lowest of the week. Anyway, the run went fairly well, and left me on 75.5 miles for the week so far, which meant 24.5 miles over the weekend would give me a 100 mile week. Even with the traveling, that was definitely achievable.

I had thought about getting up early on Saturday, but with our flight leaving at 8:40 we had to be up before 6 o'clock as it was, and I decided against running beforehand. The journey went by without a hitch, we were in our apartment at 1 o'clock, met some friends from our old London days, and by 4 o'clock I got some leave to go out running. Since I had a tempo session in mind I decided against exploring the London roads and went to Ladywell Fields instead. One entire loop was 0.7 miles according to my Garmin; I did 12 of those and with the stretch from and to our house added I came to 11.5 miles. The first 7 or 8 miles went pretty well, I was doing about 6:49 pace and it felt definitely do-able. After that I started to wilt in the hotter temperatures and I felt rather dehydrated. By the time I was back home the pace had dropped to 6:54, which is still a decent enough session. I was a bit disappointed that I had not been able to stay on the first-half pace, though.

With only 13 miles left for a century week I took off early this morning. I did a tour around Southeast London, running past all the 3 houses we had been living in during our 8 years here. For the middle part I went to Dulwich Park, where the race will be held on Wednesday. The course is very flat, there will be no excuse for a slow time. On the way back home I found a trail that I hadn't been on for several years and could not resisting running on it. This left me with a detour that turned out to be much longer than anticipated, and I ended up doing over 2 miles more than planned. After 13 miles my legs were getting increasingly tired, as if they were saying “we've done 100 miles already, what else do you want from us?”. However, I made it home, having completed the biggest week of my running career so far. This week will be easier, like it or not.

19 Jun

18 miles, 2:23:02, 7:57 pace, HR 142

20 Jun

11.5 miles, 1:19:26, 6:54 pace, HR 162

21 Jun

15.25 miles, 2:02:55, 8:04 pace, HR 143
incl. several strides

Weekly Mileage: 102 ¼

Missing You Already

I don't know Niamh managed to persuade me, but in two days we'll be going to London for one week, leaving Maia behind to be looked after by her grandparents. Oh yes, that's right - she didn't ask me, merely informed me of her decision. The main problem with that bright idea - apart from separating me from my baby for an entire week - is that she's picked up whatever Cian had been suffering from the last week and is now rather poorly. Which meant I didn't sleep much last night (again!). On the plus side, at least as far as her Nana is concerned, she should be better by tomorrow. Still, leaving my baby behind for a week! How did Niamh manage to persuade me? Oh right, she didn't! She merely ... ok, I'll shut up.

It was either former world record holder Steve Jones or Brendan Foster who said that in order to become a good marathon runner you have to be prepared to wake up in the morning feeling tired and go to bed feeling very tired, for 10 years in a row. Now, I'll never reach a level that either of them would have even remotely considered as good, but the rest of the statement rings rather true at the moment. Having a sick toddler in the house doesn't exactly help, of course. But sore legs are quickly becoming a chronic feature.

Actually, I thought of yesterday's 15 miler as an easy recovery run. I guess it shows that my mental adjustment to the high mileage training is coming along nicely. Unfortunately the physical adaptation is lagging a bit because the toughness of said run caught me slightly by surprise. With the legs feeling like they had ankle weights attached I was happy enough to plod along for 10 miles when I suddenly got ambitious and decided to push the effort in order to get the average pace under 8:00. A few faster miles at 7:20-7:30 pace brought me closer, but it still needed a 6:53 (uphill) final mile. Ok, so I overshot the target by 24 seconds. At least I know I am still able to run at goal marathon pace for the last bit of a hilly 15 miler that started out on tired legs in the first place.

There was no respite today and the ankle weights seemed to have multiplied overnight, which made me an originally highly unwilling participant of today's workout - hill sprints! As always, they were preceded by a 3 mile tempo run. A few strides during the warm-up injected sufficient life into the legs to start moving. At the turnaround point I realised how strong the wind was - and now I was running straight into it. I didn't have much hope for a decent pace, but somehow inexplicably managed to pull out a 6:44 average pace for those 3 miles. That was 16 seconds per mile faster than last week. Admittedly, I was wearing my racing shoes today instead of last week's trainers. The drawback was that I arrived at the foot of the hill with already tired legs. However, my brain seemed to have switched off and I managed a few repeats pretty much on autopilot. By the time I realised how much I was hurting the workout was almost over. All in all a good, if rather painful, run.

Previous weeks have shown that I tend to be very sore for the rest of the day after hill repeats, but the soreness seem to disappear overnight, leaving me in good shape for Friday's second long run of the week. With 18 miles on the program, that would be nice.

Still, I have decided to cut back next week's mileage. Running 100 miles in an unknown location, while on holiday, was always pushing my luck and probably never going to happen anyway. As it is, an easier week should be attainable and leave the legs in better shape for the training yet to come. As an aside, after seeing the improvements I made in today's 3 mile tempo segment compared to last week I decided to bring my racers along with me to London. Which means 3 runners in my suitcase. Plus all my other running gear for a week. Which leaves no room for "normal" clothes, probably. Niamh's gonna go nuts if/when she finds out. Ah well. You gotta get your priorities right. Right?

17 Jun

15 miles, 1:59:36, 7:58 pace, HR 144

18 Jun

10.5 miles, 1:25:38, 8:09 pace, HR 147
incl. 3 miles @ 6:44, 9x45 secs hill sprints

No Sleep, Just Run

This may end up as a 100 mile week, but with the flight to London on Saturday morning I'll have to wait and see. From a training point of view, the best bit about London will be the fact that I may be able to sleep a bit longer than usual. But with 3 of our 4 children sharing the flat, this will not be assured by any means.

Sunday night turned out to be the worst night for a very, very long time. With the alarm set at 4:45 I went to bed at a reasonable hour, but ended up staring at the ceiling for many hours to come. I also felt really unwell with a few hot and cold flushes and a persistent cough; at one stage I had the sweat dripping off me like a leaky tap. Sometime around 1 am I had 3 scenarios in my head. One, get up at 4:45 and run 20 miles. Two, get up after 6 and run 10 miles. Three don't run at all, and even stay home from work. I really was feeling lousy. I did eventually manage to get some sleep, though I kept waking every few minutes throughout. I didn't need the alarm; I got up without. I really wondered if running was a good idea, especially with the rain coming down heavily at the time. But my HR was in the normal range, and since the bed was a lot less inviting than usual I headed out of the door a minute before 5am.

I felt awful for the first mile, but things improved. I was still unsure if I should congratulate myself for being hard-core or berate myself for being by far the biggest idiot around when the rain stopped and the sun rose above the horizon just as I was passing the 2-mile mark. The rest of the run was pretty much on autopilot. That usually happens when I run in very tired state (tired from lack of sleep, that is). I can go for miles without a conscious thought, and by the time I had the last of the big hills behind me I had already covered 12 miles. I did speed up for the next mile to about 7:07 pace with the intention of running one mile fast/one mile slow for the rest of the workout, but completely forgot about it after the first one and just kept on plodding along. I had a gel in my pocket but never even contemplated taking it. Before I really knew it, I was done. I had a few minutes and considered adding one more mile, but decided to err on the side of caution for once. While this was not my fastest 20-mile run by a long shot, it must have been the easiest. I told Niamh that I felt like I could easily have run a marathon today - before breakfast! There's nothing wrong with my endurance, that's for sure.

It was around mile 16 when I finally had a brain wave: coffee! That's why I could not sleep last night. Niamh and me had both drunk 2 big cups of coffee each on Sunday, and Niamh said that they each contained the equivalent of 2 espressos. As someone who isn't used to caffeine, this was bound to have repercussions. What a relieve: I'm not sick, just plain stupid. Another lesson learned, for the third or fourth time, I think. Maybe this time it will stick for a change.

Despite feeling so good after the run I was surprised by the sore legs later during the day. Apparently I'm not quite at the stage where I can run 20 miles without thinking twice just yet. Nevertheless, I decided to add a bit to today's tempo session. Last week's 2x3 miles had gone well, but after reading Jack Daniel's masterpiece got the nagging feeling that a few more miles at a higher effort wouldn't go amiss. I therefore added 2 miles to my usual Tuesday routine, and with the warm-up and cool-down a bit shorter I could squeeze 3x3 miles into the run. The road to Killorglin is reasonably flat but a few ups and downs are always part of the course, which is why it's difficult to compare the three segments to each other. I slowed down slightly on each of them but like to think that it was more a result of the terrain rather than me not being able to keep going. Anyway, I was happy enough that they were all at sub-7 pace, even with my tired legs from the day before. I can only imagine what I would be able to run on rested legs. That will have to wait.

15 Jun

20 miles, 2:37:19. 7:52 pace, HR 143

16 Jun

12 miles, 1:27:54, HR 150
incl. 3x3 miles @ 6:54, 6:56, 6:59

Progress

Training has been a bit hot/cold the last few weeks, and I’m not talking about the outside temperatures for a change. I tend to have a very good workout every now and then and invariably end up paying for it over the following few days, resulting in a few disappointing training runs. However, I can definitely feel progress being made. On average I’m getting faster while my heart rate keeps dropping, and with three months to go before the Dingle marathon there is still plenty of scope for further improvements.

Friday is the day of my second long run and I did close to 17 miles. For a change I ran the Caragh Lake loop counter-clockwise rather that my customary clockwise direction, but it mostly served a reminder why I prefer it the other way. Some of the downhill stretches were so steep that I could not run them properly, and I definitely prefer to come the other way on those. Running a clockwise loop ensures I can always stride out on the downhills, which is much preferable. That’s not to say I had a bad run, not the least. I felt very good all the way, and put the hammer down over the last few miles because I still had plenty of fuel left in the tank.

The weather can’t make up its mind at the moment. If you don’t like it just wait 5 minutes and it will all have changed, but it works the other way as well. It’s nigh on impossible to find a sunny period long enough to ensure that you don’t end up running in the rain. Sure enough, I got wet on both days of the weekend.

It didn’t distract me from my run yesterday, though. I’m presently reading the Jack Daniels book and he recommends marathon pace runs of up to 15 miles. Because of that I increased the length of the Cromane loop back to 11+ miles again. Two weeks ago I had felt this was over-ambitious and scaled back, but apparently my fitness has increased since then, because I had absolutely no trouble finishing at a good pace yesterday. I could have gone on further – in fact, I felt like I could have gone on much further, which is always a great sign. I was really pleased with that effort. Running regularly at that effort level might have been a missing piece in my training jigsaw up to now; if that’s the case then I should be able to feel the difference in Dingle. To be able to run like that towards the end of a 95+ mile week is pretty good, though of course there’s always someone else who’s doing better.

Sunday is basically my easy day, and I ended up doing a 13.5 mile recovery run with a few strides thrown in there. As I said, the weather could have been better. The first few miles I enjoyed the blue skies above me, then I got drenched for an hour wondering where the sun had gone, and for the last 4 miles it was a beautiful sunny day again, with not a cloud to be seen. Weird. The run itself wasn’t particularly remarkable, I spooled down the miles until I was back home again, not forgetting about the strides.

Next week I’d like to reach 100 miles, but since we’re flying to London on Saturday I’m not sure how many miles I’ll be able to actually do. There’s no excuse until Friday, and from then on I’ll just have to see. To spice up the holidays I’ve signed up for a 5k in London, but since we have a busy schedule for most of that week I may end up feeling rather tired anyway. I won’t commit to anything apart from enjoying the time off work.

My mom has gone back home, the kids have prevented us from sleeping much all weekend, and things are basically back to what passes as normal in our slightly manic household.

12 Jun

16.8 miles, 2:12:01, 7:50 pace, HR 147

13 Jun

11.25 miles, 1:17:39, 6:54 pace, HR 161

14 Jun

13.5 miles, 1:45:51, 7:50 pace, HR 145
incl. 13x100 strides

Weekly Mileage: 95 ¼

Bed Time

I still haven't mastered the art of going to bed when I ought to, and if you're running as many miles as I do this is a serious problem. I have felt rather tired over the last few days. The fact that I'm still fighting off some infection (which is getting better) doesn't help, but less than 7 hours of sleep per night is just not adequate. It caught up with me last night when I could not keep my eyes open during the telly news. Eventually I relented and was off to bed just after 9:30. I managed about 8 hours of sleep, regrettably with a few interruptions, but I'm still on a deficit. It's something I have to address. Sleep is a vital part of training.

Running over the last two days was a bit of a struggle. It's a dance of one step forward, one step back at the moment. Tuesday's workout was very good but yesterday and today I paid the price. Wednesday was what is basically an easy day in my schedule, 15 miles around Caragh Lake. I kept telling myself that getting up at 5:30 was a lie-in compared to Monday's 5 o'clock start, and I almost believed it. The first few miles were very slow. I felt a twinge in my left hamstring at first, which had me a bit worried. Luckily that subsided after a while, and I just had to fight the general fatigue in the legs. The last 5 miles were a tad faster again, as is becoming customary, and went by at 7:35 pace without pushing the effort. At least that went well. But I could definitely feel the fatigue building up in my legs during the last 2 miles. I think 13 miles is a bit of a threshold at the moment, I always seem to have a low at that stage. Still, it's progress. Last month this used to happen at mile 8.

Any hopes of feeling better today were dashed immediately. The legs were even stiffer than yesterday, and I struggled through some strides at the warm-up. I already knew that the tempo part of today's workout wouldn't go particularly well, and was proven right. 7:00 pace was all I could do, and I even had to strain over the last mile to achieve this, or it would have been even slower. It's a bit of a setback compared to last week, not that I'm racing my previous times. But a nice progression would be preferable, obviously.

The second part of the workout consisted of hill repeats. I had no idea how many I would do as I started on my first one. Last week I had done 8, but I was happy to go along with however I felt. The second repeat was rather unusual because a car appeared behind me, and since there was no way to overtake me on that narrow road (and I wasn't going to stop in the middle of a hill sprint) I felt like being chased up a mountain, which apparently made me squeeze a few extra ounces of effort out of somewhere. The bad news was that I felt totally shattered after that one, rather early. I kept plugging away, but after the sixth repeat decided that I'd had enough. I somehow found some bravado on the way down the hill though, and went up again for a seventh time. And since there was only one remaining to match last week's number I did that one, too.

Theoretically those hill repeats are supposed to be run at maximum effort, but as the one with the car clearly demonstrated, in practice I don't manage to do that. I guess that's a drawback of training on my own all the time. Shared misery would help to push harder at times like that. Anyone willing to get up at 6 am and repeatedly run up the first 200-or-so meters of a mountain with me? Hmm. Not all at once, please.

To say the legs were sore for the rest of the days would be an understatement. I really struggled on my cycling commute. I keep telling myself that I'm bound to feel better once I get used to the training load. Sore legs are part of marathon training.

10 Jun

15 miles, 1:59:27, 7:58 pace, HR 146
last 5 @ 7:35

11 Jun

10.5 miles, 1:27:03, 8:17 pace, HR 146
incl. 2.75 miles @ 7:00, 8x45 secs hill sprints

Mind Over Mattress

It was a busy weekend. My mom arrived on Saturday, and on Sunday we went to see Lola’s ballet performance in Tralee. It’s her third time on stage; Niamh had originally suggested I could skip it this year, but changed her mind and we all went. 2 hours of ballet (and not of the highest quality, let’s face it) isn’t exactly my idea of great entertainment, but Lola was thrilled, we saw her twice on stage, and the show was over before I had lost the will to live (Cian just about managed that, too). Duty fulfilled.

On Sunday night my mom asked what time we would get up the next morning. She immediately dismissed my answer of 5 am and kept talking to Niamh. See how we runners are getting sidelined?

Anyway, 5 am it was and while I didn’t need the alarm I was highly tempted to stay in bed. As mentioned, I’m fighting off some bug at the moment. My throat was sore and I felt a slight constriction of the chest. Not only would that provide a perfectly valid excuse to sleep in, plenty of people call it a lack of common sense to go running in that state. However, running I did and it went surprisingly well. The long run has slowly been building up over the last few weeks and it’s now in bona fide long run territory with 18+ miles. I was surprised to feel better than last week. The chest opened up after a mile, the climbs up those hills seemed to pass reasonably well, and I got some stretches of good pace in-between. Just after mile 13 I could feel my strength wavering, which it could have been a sign of the coming struggle, but then I remembered the gel I carried in my pocket for emergencies. It must have been purely psychological because I felt a boost within seconds and the last 5 miles went much better than expected. I didn’t push the effort, but I managed 7:36 pace on that final stretch all the same, a decent enough result. I slightly misjudged the distance and ended up doing a bit extra, but the legs were in good shape and could have gone further.

Long runs are one thing, tempo efforts are a different kettle, and I did wonder if my slightly compromised state would allow me to finish today’s run. Last week I had done 3x2 miles, today I swapped it round for 2x3 miles, which obviously amounts to the same distance covered at effort. There’s not much to say, it went by reasonably well. After the first warm-up mile I could breathe freely, a few strides added some zip to the legs, and then I was off at roughly marathon pace, but probably with an effort that was a bit higher than what I could sustain for 26 miles, in all honesty. What pleases me this year is that I seem to be able to run the later parts of these runs at pretty much the same speed as the start. Last year I was constantly moaning about the fact that I always finished slower than I had begun. I’m not quite there yet, but the terrain over the second part was net uphill, even if the wind, for once coming the other way, did do its part to even out the effort required. A few strides during the cool down mile rounded up the run. I was quite pleased with the way it had gone. Running 3 miles fast in one go can sound a bit daunting at first, but I held on without undue stress.

I had one more small victory when I stepped on the scales afterwards. For the first time since April my weight has dipped under 150 pounds. Things in that department are moving rather slowly, mostly because I regard restricting calories while doing high mileage training as madness, but they are moving in the right direction for once. And all I had to do was to run over 90 miles a week. Who’d have thought! Let’s have some chocolate cake to celebrate!

8 Jun

18.2 miles, 2:23:54, 7:54 pace, HR 146
last 5 miles @ 7:36

9 Jun

10 miles, 1:12:33. 7:15 pace, HR 155
incl. 2x3 miles @ 6:53, 6:56; strides

Weary Miles

I have felt really achy over the last few days; not just the leg muscles, everything feels not quite alright. I also awoke today with quite a sore throat, so I’m guessing I’m fighting off some bug at the moment. Since I don’t have any symptoms that would stop me from running, this isn’t much of a problem. My guess is that it’s the same that Maia’s having at the moment; she’s not quite herself, and quite cranky most of the time.

I got up early on Friday to run around the lake for the third time this week. I intend to keep doing that for many, many weeks from now. If that doesn’t build up my leg muscles, nothing will. I felt rather weary on the climbs, but put in a few surges towards the end of the run. This not only brought down the average pace a bit, it actually made my legs feel better. It’s funny how that works.

On Friday evening I realised that I was way ahead of last week’s mileage, which had suffered because of Niamh’s absence. Because of that, this week saw a massive jump, much more than originally intended. However, I seem to be able to handle it. Theoretically I should reach 100 miles in a fortnight, but since we will be on holidays for that week this is rather unlikely to say the least.

I was really reluctant to go out yesterday. The legs didn’t feel right, and I knew that a ¾ effort would be uncomfortable. When I finally opened the door, things went much better than anticipated. Last weeks 11+ miles had been a bit over ambitious, so I cut the loop short and was back home in 10.5 miles. This went a lot better. I was slower than 2 weeks ago but faster than last week, and felt a lot better. I can feel an improvement, but there is still along way to go yet. The effort is higher than marathon pace and the pace is lower. It’s a good thing Dingle is still plenty of weeks away.

My mum arrived yesterday for a week (just as the weather turned bad). Maia has taken a real shine to her “new gaga”; she’s clearly making eyes at him. It’s funny how young kids just take in some people while blanking out others. The object of her desire seems a bit bemused by it all.

Today was as close as I get to an easy run. I ran 12.5 miles towards, and past, Killorglin. The course chosen was a bit hillier than intended, but nothing in comparison to the Caragh Lake loop. I was stiff and tired early on, but after a set of 11x100 strides towards the second half felt a lot better, and once again the average pace dropped by quite a bit when the effort didn’t. I have to remember doing those strides. It can be a real chore at first, but the legs will thank you every time.

5 Jun

15 miles, 1:59:41, 7:58 pace, HR 146

6 Jun

10.5 miles, 1:13:42, 7:01 pace, HR 160

7 Jun

12.5 miles, 1:37:17, 7:47 pace, HR 145
incl. 11x100 strides

Weekly Mileage: 90

Lydiard Base Training

Last night, as I set the alarm for today, it struck me that there really are no easy days in this program. On Monday it's "oh no, a long run". On Tuesday "Oh no, a tempo run". On Wednesday "Oh no, a long run". On Thursday "Oh no, hill repeats". You get the picture. It can be tough to get used to this kind of constant pressure, but I know from previous training cycles that eventually you get used to it, both mentally and physically.

Strictly speaking, yesterday's run of 15 miles was not a long run, but until Monday this had been my longest run of the training cycle so far, and any loop across the hills surrounding Caragh Lake is tough. I felt especially tired early on and noticed that I started about 20 seconds per mile slower. I did get more into it as the run went on, and, after I had crossed the invisible 10 mile line, decided to push for a stronger finish. I always liked to finish my long runs faster, but up to now never had the legs to actually speed up; yesterday I wasn't exactly flying, but running the last 5 miles at an average pace of 7:26 was quite satisfying nevertheless. On the one hand, I don't want to overdo it, and running faster while you're still building mileage is a dangerous game; on the other hand I feel that a bit more pushing on my normal runs could give a few improvements in my racing times. Looking at the MacMillan calculator, I'm doing most of my training at too slow a pace compared to my racing times. However, I'm pretty sure MacMillan didn't have the elevation chart of the Caragh Lake loop in mind when he came up with the pace formulas.

And so for the hill repeats today. As usual, I did a few miles at tempo effort first, though the actual pace was closer to marathon pace. The legs have felt really tired the last few days since the weekend, and running faster than that doesn't seem to be on the cards. On Tuesday I had noticed a big drop in my HR. This has continued and I did wonder if that would still be the case on the hill repeats. Today I did 8x45 seconds, and interestingly enough the HR shot up to the usual 170+ at the top of the hill. Today I concentrated more on good form, especially lifting the knees and pumping the arms, but during the last one or two repeats I wasn't able to bring them up as high as before. At that stage it was definitely time to call it a day, which I did.

So, on to tomorrow - oh no, it's another long run!

The weather has been absolutely stunning for the last week. 28C/82F constitutes a formidable heat wave on these shores, but the general consensus is that anyone who moans about the heat should be summarily executed after the last 2 years of miserable rainy summers. Unfortunately, if the meteorologists are correct, today is the last one of the nice days. Maybe it's all for the better, nobody wants a drought, but boy was it nice to be running in the sunshine every single morning. Yesterday the sun rose just as I was leaving the house, and I felt rather privileged to witness it. I could have gotten used to this.

3 Jun

15 miles, 1:58:49, 7:55 pace, HR 147
last 5 miles @ 7:26

4 Jun

10.5 miles, 1:23:52, 7:59 pace, HR 150
incl. 3 miles @ 6:53, 8x45 secs hill sprints

An Actual Irish Summer

With Niamh back home, life has returned to the state of manic chaos that that defines life with four young children. What's new are the cloudless blue skies that we've had above our heads for the last few days, something that's even supposed to last for a bit longer. Yesterday was warmer than any day in 2008, and I'm pretty sure 2007 would fall into this category as well. Everyone loved it - except the runners of the Cork City marathon. How the organisers managed to have their marathon on one of the hottest days of the year for the third time in a row is a mystery to me. Last year was hot but I found it manageable. Yesterday seems to have been on another level though, and the runners I know personally ended up with a DNF. Talks of carnage have reached me, but that's to be expected if temperatures are jumping stratospheric all of a sudden. This is Ireland - nobody in Cork would have been heat acclimatised.

From a selfish point of view I loved the fact that yesterday was a bank holiday, which enabled me to sleep in and still get a long run under the belt. First thing in the morning I managed to pull the boys apart who were about to tear lumps out of each other (again!) and was out of the house just before 8 o'clock. By some miracle Niamh managed to sleep for another hour after that, by which time I was almost halfway around the lake. It was around that time that the temperatures started to become noticeable, but thankfully I was able to get back home before it became unbearable. I did spare a thought for all the marathon runners who were well on their way at that stage. Personally, I was more than happy to leave it at 16.5 miles. Another 10 would have been a challenge.

As it turned out, this was just about the easiest part of the day, because for the next 6 hours I was busy in the garden, something that has dominated my weekend. Saturday ended dramatically when a cloud of midges descended onto me - I ran into the house, and counted no less than 50 inspect bites on my left arm alone. All in all I must have had close to 200. I took an antihistamine because I was worried about getting a reaction. Sunday and Monday were not quite as spectacular, but parts of my skin look like an inverted cratered moon surface. Add to that the fact that my hay fever is at its worst presently and you get a picture of my present state.

Today is a normal office day, which meant getting up early just after 6 o'clock. The training program had a tempo day on the schedule, but with my aching legs (as well as shoulders and back) I was less than sure that this would be a good idea. I set out anyway, and did a set of strides during the warm-up to get the legs working. I decided to go ahead with the planned 3x2 miles; I doubted that I would be able to get under 7:00 pace, but surprised myself. What was most noticeable was the fact that I could not get my HR up to the usual rate. It seemed to be stuck in the 150s, only when the road was climbing did I reach 160 and I never went past that mark. On a normal day I would expect it to be 10 beats higher. Assuming that the HRM was working correctly, this was quite extraordinary. A low HR is not necessarily a good sign. It can be a signal that you're overtrained - there simply are not enough muscle fibres available for work. This may well have been the case today, but since the main reason for my exhaustion was the gardening work I'm pretty sure this will right itself soon enough. As it was, I was quite happy with all three 2-mile segments. The second one was a tad faster than the first (a rarity for me), and the third was just a bit slower because it was over the most challenging terrain. All in all a good workout taking the state of my legs into account.

1 Jun

16.5 miles, 2:11:13, 7:57 pace, HR 152

2 Jun

10 miles, 1:16:18, 7:38 pace, HR 145
incl. 5x100 strides, 3x2 miles@ 6:56, 6:55, 6:59

Single Parent

With Niamh gone, my weekend was dominated by fatherly duties rather than running, and went very different as a result. I managed to squeeze in 5 miles on Friday at lunch time, but because we don’t have a shower at work, this has some drawbacks (more for my colleagues rather than myself). I did my best to wipe myself down with baby wipes – hey, there is an advantage to having a baby in the house after all! My main problem with the run was that it was way too fast. When I checked the Garmin after about a mile I was doing about 7:30; by the time I had finished my loop I had lowered the average down to 7:16! Oops. That’s fine for a tempo run, but not for what should have been an easy day. Thomas you plonker.

Just before she left, Niamh had arranged for a friend to come over to our house on Saturday morning so I would be able to run that day. Am I a lucky guy or what! So, while the boys were being minded (they were glued to the telly anyway), I did a loop towards Cromane. I tried to tune into a ¾ effort again, and for the first 7 or 8 miles that worked well. Then I had to fight a headwind, and the road was climbing, and I got progressively slower. I retrospect I have to admit that I had gotten over-ambitious. Last week’s equivalent run of 8 miles had me hanging on towards the end. In light of that it is no big surprise that 11 miles were way too much. The average pace, which had been about 6:50 after mile 7 gradually slowed down to 7:05, though to be fair the last few miles are net uphill, and the wind didn’t do me any favours on that stretch either. But this will be the loop I intend to do most of my ¾ runs on, and I expect to be able to do it a bit faster in the coming weeks.

After that it was me and the boys. We did loads of things we would not be allowed to do with mummy around (staying up late, not having a bath before bed time, eating chocolate and so on). We even had a pirate party, including a treasure hunt, singing, dancing, and games. All that would have been great were it not for their tendency to start a fight every 5 minutes, and eventually it wore me down. I really don’t know how Niamh can cope. I guess it’s pretty normal behaviour for boys of their age, but it was rather weary. So we were all looking forward to the girls coming back to Kerry, and we collected them Sunday afternoon from the airport (yes, there’s an airport in Kerry). This even enabled me to get a run in for today after all, which I did in 20+ degrees. The temperatures have increased by 10 degrees Celsius this week, and finally we might be able to have something resembling a summer.

Which is great news for everyone except the runners of tomorrow’s Cork City marathon. While I did prove last year that it is possible to run a decent marathon there on one of the hottest days of the year, I’m sure every single participant would prefer a few degrees less. All the best lads! And Grellan, I’d give you my calves if that helped, but they’re a bit wonky themselves.

29 May

5.1 miles, 37:04, 7:16 pace, HR 154

30 May

11.2 miles, 1:19:22, 7:05 pace, HR 164

31 May

7.2 miles, 55:53, 7:45 pace, HR 148

Weekly mileage: 73
Monthly Mileage: 265.5

Raw

It's funny how things are developing. Monday's run was truly awful, on more than one level, and left me with the distinct impression that I had lost a serious amount of endurance in the last 5 weeks. Those fears have been slightly put to rest on Wednesday.

Because Niamh is galavanting off to Dublin, leaving me behind without a supervising adult, my training for the rest of the week will be very curtailed at best, completely impossible at worst. I therefore tried to cram more than the usual mileage towards the start of the week, something that's generally frowned upon by people who know something about training (i.e. not me). As a result I retraced Monday's run on Wednesday and ran around the lake again. The weather was truly awful with gale force winds and lashing rain. I was soaked right through within a minute of leaving the house but was very surprised about the fact that I felt much better than on Monday. The climb up to the highest point of the course felt a little bit flatter, though once I reached the top the rain came at me horizontally at such force that I had to shield my face with my hands because it actually stung my cheeks. After a truly awful mile I reached the next woodland, and the conditions became a lot more agreeable. In marked contrast to Monday I finished the run still feeling ok. The pace was slightly slower, but I put that down to the weather conditions. I take encouragement from the fact that two 15 mile runs within 3 days are very much doable, even at this early point of the training cycle.

There was a downside though, running 2 hours in the rain gave me some shocking chafing on my thighs. I was quite literally rubbed raw. I was red enough to be able to work as a traffic light. I had to grind my teeth for the rest of the day to avoid walking like a toddler. It would not have left a good impression in the office. I actually tried putting nappy cream on the affected area, on the assumption that it was a similar affliction to the original use, but it didn't help. Damn. I thought there might be at least one advantage at having a baby in the house as far as running is concerned.

This morning saw my last run while I still could, and the hill repeats were back on. First I had to go through a few miles of a tempo run, which incidentally went much faster than last week. The conditions had improved a lot in the previous 24 hours, but it was still windy; in fact it was very similar to last week's equivalent run. Why the tempo pace improved from 6:53 to 6:45 I'm not entirely sure, not that I'm complaining. It's still not exactly flying. It would be nice if that dropped down to 6:30 this year, which after all is my half-marathon race pace; but I won't whine about my inability to run fast in training again, promised. After an easy mile I reached the foot of the hill, still unsure how many repeats I would do and for how long. Well, I did 45 seconds, which is halfway between last week's duration and where it's supposed to end up eventually. I still had not decided on the number of repeats, but after what I thought was the 4th I was completely knackered and thought it best to leave it at that. It was time to get to work anyway. It was only when I checked the charts on the computer that I realised that I had in fact done 5 hill repeats. Counting and running at the same time is too much for me, apparently.

For the next 3 days this is a pure boys' house. I might not be able to run, but finally we can do all those messy fun things that mummy frowns upon.

27 May

15 miles, 1:59:05, 7:56 pace, HR 153

28 May

9.5 miles, 1:16:36, 8:02 pace, HR 152
incl. 2.5 miles @ 6:45, 5x45 secs hill sprints

Not so Fast!

One day I'll learn how to train for a marathon, I'm sure. But until then I stumble along with my trial-and-error method, reading everything about distance running I can get my hands upon, in the hope that some of the wisdom might rub onto me without me having to do the trials myself. But there's still a long way to go.

On Sunday I thought I was getting into a reasonably good shape already. By Monday morning I changed my mind. The lack of sleep didn't help, probably. Maia is getting yet another tooth, and the sleepless night keep piling up. I shouldn't complain - it's the poor baby who's in pain, not me; I'm merely the bleary eyed guy who's trying to sing her back to sleep. But when the alarm clock rang at 5:30 it felt like I hadn't slept at all.

I managed to get myself ready, but within a minute I knew I was in for a rough time. It was my first visit back to the Caragh Lake loop since March, almost exactly 2 months ago. They seem to sneakily have made the road steeper and the hills higher since the last time. At least I can't remember suffering so badly on the climbs before. I kept thinking "I can't believe I used to do this for fun", because fun it wasn't on this occasion. It was quite warm, and very humid. The sweat seemed to run off me without providing a cooling effect. When I felt some headwind up on the hills I was almost glad, because the temperatures became more agreeable. During the second half it started raining a bit - again, I actually welcomed this because of the cooling effect. By mile 10 I had left the worst of the hills behind me, and, knackered as I was, I managed to lower the average pace by a few seconds for the rest of the journey. I reached home with the newly acquired realisation that my endurance is nowhere near as good as I had thought and that there is still a lot of work to be done. Well, doing a lot of work is exactly what I have in mind anyway.

For once I managed to get an early night last night. This is something I have to work on - getting to bed early is a necessary habit if you intend to run long miles every morning. Anyway I went to bed by 10:12, and by 10:13 I was already fast asleep. The 8 hours of almost uninterrupted sleep were very much appreciated. It also helped that the temperature had dropped from yesterday's 13C/55F to 10C/50F. It clearly made a difference. I know that 13C/55F is not exactly roasting, even at 6am, but it had been enough to have me suffer yesterday. Today's run consisted of 2 miles warm/up, 2 miles tempo, one mile recovery, another 2 miles tempo, and a few strides on the way home. The initial tempo spell went reasonably well. I managed to avoid looking at the Garmin and pretty much tuned into the correct pace, but was assisted by a slight elevation drop as well as the wind. Of course I had to pay for that on the second fast section which was almost 20 seconds per mile slower, most of which can be attributed to the wind, I think. I felt a lot better than the day before, even if the pace wasn't exactly brilliant. A number of strides rounded up the run. The sun even managed to come out towards the end, which I appreciated. We're sun-starved here in Kerry. But just how today's average heart rate was so much lower than yesterdays remains a mystery to me.

One of the items I had brought home from Boston was The Stick. It's one of those things that can be hard to get on this side of the Atlantic, and when I saw it at the expo my credit card came out. I have been using it on and off to work on my calves. This used to be really painful at first, now I can roll it over the muscles with just a bit of discomfort. I hope it will make a difference as far as the cramping issues are concerned. My calves have started cramping at one point or another at nearly all of my marathons (and ultras!). Incidentally, Niamh likes the stick, too. As long as she never finds out just how much I paid for a glorified piece of plastic rolling pin, I'm ok.

25 May

15 miles, 1:58:09, 7:53 pace, HR 153

26 May

10 miles, 1:15:37, 7:34 pace, HR 151
2x2 miles @ 6:45, 7:04; 9x100 strides

Weekend Meanderings

It's now 5 weeks since the Boston marathon and I can definitely feel the effects of that race wearing off. I can back that up with numbers as well. I tested my resting HR yesterday and it came up as 40, much lower that I would have expected. To see if that was a fluke I repeated the procedure this morning and came up with the same number; I think I can start trusting it now. Immediately before Boston it was as low as 37, the lowest number I had ever measured. I'm pretty sure it will return to that level again as the training for Dingle starts showing.

I did a fast run on Saturday, certainly the fastest since Boston. I tried to tune into a level that would hopefully equate to a ¾ effort according to Lydiard. The HR was in the low 160s in the first half and the high ones towards the end. It was definitely higher than marathon effort, I certainly would not have been able to keep going at that pace for much longer. Incidentally I did a similar run about three weeks before Boston which was 5 seconds per mile faster at a lower heart rate. That's to be expected, of course, I was in pretty good shape then (pity it didn't really show in my Boston time).

Today, with slightly weary legs, was much slower but I surprised myself nonetheless. I would have expected that effort to yield about 8:00 pace, but it was significantly faster than that. Of course, paces don't mean much so far out from the race, but nevertheless I'm pretty happy with the figures. I'd rather run fast than slow, no matter how far away from the target race I am.

It's a shame that me feeling well did not reflect in last week's race. There was a 10k today in Youghal that I had initially intended to go to, but that plan was dropped when the race in Killarney appeared on the calendar all of a sudden. I'm glad I didn't drive 2 hours each way for a performance like last week. Because of the Cork City marathon there won't be a lot of races on for a while (race directors seem to have realised that you wouldn't get a lot of runners) and my next race will have to wait. I guess it's not a bad thing at this stage of my build-up. Let's build a foundation first.

I'll have to be creative with my training this week. Niamh is flying to Dublin on Thursday and I'm left with the boys to mind, which means that I might not be able to run at all. I will have to see. I'd rather she would have stayed at home, but her argument was something like “you went to Boston, and it's only fair if I get some time in Dublin”, to which I didn't have a comeback. The planned 80 miles for this week are very unlikely to happen; maybe an easy (half) week will be good for me anyway.

23 May

8 miles, 55:20, 6:55 pace, HR 163

24 May

11 miles, 1:24:59, 7:43 pace, HR 150

Weekly Mileage: 71+

Hill Sprints

Despite Tuesday's conclusion that I might not be too old for running just yet it pretty much felt like that the last few days. I could still feel the effects of Sunday's race in my legs on Thursday, especially in the hamstrings. I cannot remember being sore for so long after any short race in the past.

That's not to say that I didn't get any decent training in. I had to cut Wednesday's run from 11 miles to 10 because Maia woke just as I was getting up, and I had to change and entertain her for a while before I could get out. Lucky Niamh managed to sleep through most of it. Since my alarm time is always geared to getting me out of the door just in time for the planned mileage, any delay means a lost mile or two. But at least the 10 miles that I did eventually manage to run went by reasonably well, despite the protesting hamstrings. I find that if the legs are tired it's a good idea to push the effort down to tempo pace for a quarter mile or so. It really makes the subsequent miles at easy pace feel much better.

I got a bit of a lie-in on Thursday because the first hill repeats were on the program and I didn't want to overdo it. This meant I'd do a shorter run than I would have done otherwise, which in turn meant more time in bed. After two miles of gradually warming up I ran 2 miles at tempo effort. This was as slow as expected, 6:54 pace, which gives me a lot of room for improvement. One easy mile later I arrived at the foot of my hill and did 4 hill sprints of pretty much maximum effort, but only for 30 seconds each. At least this stopped the hamstrings from being the most sore part of my body, because the quads took over that particular mantle. Even though the total amount of time spent on those hill repeats came to only 2 minutes, they were sore for the entire rest of the day. I expected to be stiff on Friday, but against all odd I felt just fine.

The weather was quickly becoming a recurrent theme; the forecast predicts rain, I get beautifully blue skies in the morning, and by the time the rain eventually arrives hours later I am save and dry in the office. My luck finally went out today, Friday, as it was raining at the start of my run. But it wasn't too bad, more of a drizzle really, and even that stopped eventually. It was the first day since the race that my legs felt fresh, and after a couple of slow miles at the start the pace kept dropping without me even noticing. I completed 12 miles, feeling very good for once. I think the marathon is slowly loosening its grip, and I can start running properly again.

20 May

10 miles, 1:15:00, 7:30 pace, HR 157

21 May

8.25 miles, 1:04:16, 7:47 pace, HR 152
incl. 2 miles @ 6:54, 4x30 secs hill sprints

22 May

12 miles, 1:29:43, 7:29 pace, HR 155

Same Old Race Analysis

The first thing that came into my mind after Sunday's race (ok, the first printable thing) was that my sense of pacing had been way off. I usually pride myself in being able to start at a realistic pace and therefore get the benefit of always reeling in a few runners in the second half, but on that occasion I was barely hanging on. At dinner afterwards (btw, in case you're wondering [which you're not, I know, I know], I can recommend the local Milano pizza franchise as very child friendly) I felt I hardly deserved my beer after that performance, but, you know, it was my carbohydrate recovery drink. Anyway, I was wondering what would have happened if I hadn't looked at the Garmin after half a mile. In all likelihood I would have finished even slower, but who can tell for sure.

Rick said as much in his comment
"Sometimes I think looking at your Garmin can be a big mistake, in a short race your always going to think s*** that's too fast"

I'm too much of a numbers geek to run without my fancy toy, but there's a resolution you can hold me to: in my next race I'll set it to only display time, and maybe distance, but not HR or pace data. It will force me to run by feel, and I think that's good for me.



The chart shows that my memory had been slightly hazy. It was well before the half-mile mark when I slowed down, the only time I ran 5:30 was at the very beginning. But the average HR of 178 proves that I definitely didn't take it easy. The pace really suffered on those steep climbs. All of them were very short - I'd hesitate to call it a hilly course, but they definitely cost some time. Btw., I'm convinced the Garmin's elevation chart left out a few of those bumps - there seemed to be a lot more than show up on the graph.

There is one more thing, then I'll finally shut up about that race, I promise. When I set my 10k PR in July last year, I weighed about 143 pounds. On Sunday, I was 10 pounds heavier. While the exact impact of weight on running times is disputed, I refer to this article, pointed out to me by Rick a while ago. If we assume for ease of calculation (never mind correctness) that each pound costs you a second per mile, I would have been 60 seconds faster had Sunday's race been done with my 2008 weight. I would have set a new PR! There you go, I'm not old, merely fat. What a relief.

Having said that, I felt rather old on Monday. After a bad night's sleep I even reduced the mileage from 14 down to 13 in a futile attempt to get a few extra minutes of sleep, but the alarm still went off way too early. I managed to drag myself out of bed, but got a pleasant surprise that I was presented with a gap between the stormy rain showers. The wind was pretty bad throughout, but the rain held off until after my return. What was slightly less pleasant was the stiffness in my hamstrings, as well as the general fatigue. I struggled through the Cromane loop, and had to pass a test of character when I went past our driveway after 11 miles. The temptation to stop there was strong, but I plodded on until 13 miles were completed.

Today's run was very similar. Maia seems to share Dick Cheney's views on the acceptability of torture and proceeded to deprive her parents of sleep for most of the night. I don't know where she gets her stamina from, by the time she settled down it was bright outside and the alarm went off much too soon once more. The weather forecast had predicted warm temperatures and rain, but in the real world we had a cool morning with beautiful sunny skies. At least one thing was working in my favour. The hamstrings, on the other hand, were even less prepared to do the job than they had been on Monday, and the whole run was more a survival shuffle than anything else. I do hope to be better recovered from the race by tomorrow, though. I felt slightly better after a set of strides; maybe I should have done them in the first half of the run rather than towards the end. At least I'm starting to get used to them; maybe this time I'll manage to stick to them for a significant amount of my training.

18 May

13 miles, 1:42:04, 7:51 pace, HR 154

19 May

9 miles, 1:10:51, 7:52 pace, HR 152
incl. 9x100 strides

Killarney at the Races

The weekend's weather forecast had been rather frightening, with loads of wind and rain. In reality it turned out a lot better than it had sounded initially, not that we were spared either. The run on Saturday was a case in point. I went out for 8 miles, and from mile two on I was running in rain, which got me rather cold. Maybe that's why I ran a bit faster than planned, or maybe that's just an excuse. I did add a few strides to the second half and was happy enough to be back home after just over an hour.

No matter you much planning you put into things, they tend to work out differently. A few weeks ago I stated that I wanted to race often this summer to race myself into shape. The first race on my calendar was a 10k in Youghal, East Cork, next week, over two hours drive from here. Niamh stated that I was completely bonkers to even consider driving so far for a race, but that's the sacrifice I thought I had to make because local races seem to be rather thin on the ground. Imagine my surprise when I checked out my usual running websites on Saturday afternoon and found out that there would be a 10k in Killarney the very next day.

It wasn't exactly an ideal scenario. If I had known I would be racing on Sunday I would have run a lot shorter and slower on Saturday. Plus, my legs definitely had not fully recovered from Boston, at least that's what they felt like. And with the complete absence of speed work I wasn't going to set any records.

Race preparations didn't exactly go without a hitch. I had to re-pack the bag twice, first after Maia had emptied it (she thought it was a great game), and again after Cian had done the same (he resented the fact that I used his personal travelling bag). However, against all odds I managed to get to Killarney with a full set of gear.

One lady recognised me from my blog, which I found funny. That's as close to being a celebrity as I'll ever get (not that I would want to be one). The weather held up much better than predicted, and a few drops before the race didn't put off anyone. In fact, when the sun came out around mile 2 I felt uncomfortably hot. But I'm getting ahead of myself here, but in a way that's what I did in the race as well.

There was the usual set of fast guys, and even Niamh started to recognise a few of them. I managed to chat to my “Star of the Laune” club mate, Anthony, for the first time, and the we assembled at the start line just a couple of minutes late. The cheetahs quickly disappeared into the distance from the start, and I settled into a pace that seemed comfortably hard but sustainable. However, when I checked the Garmin half a mile later I saw that I was doing 5:30 pace. Crikey! As much as I'd love to be able to run that fast, I can't, and I slowed down to a more realistic pace. Two guys passed me and when I scanned ahead I saw 10 runners, which obviously put me into 11th place. I lost two more places over the next few minutes, but then managed to pass two different runners who apparently had started in an even more suicidal way then me, including the leading lady.

The course goes through Killarney National Park and is absolutely beautiful. I recognised the first (and last) mile or two, because the annual 5k follows the same route. The middle part saw us pass Ross Castle twice but I was so engrossed in the race that I didn't even register. I think it was around the 4k mark when I lost another place to a guy in a white t-shirt with blue sleeves. That didn't sit very well with me, but he steamed past me at such a pace that I couldn't respond.

As early as 2 km into the run I was wishing this to be over, which was a seriously bad sign. While that feeling tends to come in every race, 20% into it is way too early. I kind of managed to get into “the zone” for a while after that, but the pace suffered a bit and the average pace, which had been close to 6:00 after the first mile, was steadily moving backwards.

The middle section also had a few very short but steep climbs, followed by dips of the same kind. It didn't allow me to stay in any sort of rhythm, and paired with my ever increasing fatigue it meant that I kept slowing down. I passed the halfway mark in 19:36, but I was knackered and knew the second half would be slower. In fact, I slowed down so much over the next mile that I feared I might miss out on a sub-40 finish.

Eventually, somewhere between km 6 and 7, I realised that the white t-shirt guy came back to me, and with me in 12th position and struggling for pace, I decided to up the ante. I closed the gap, and twice he pulled away again when I drew level. The third time I drew level I passed him, but he sat on my shoulder for a bit, and my strength was faltering. We then passed each other several times; he was faster on the uphills and I had the better pace on the downhills, and neither of us was prepared to give up without a fight. At one stage we were running side by side when the blustery became very noticeable. I was tempted to fall behind my adversary and use him as a wind shield, but then thought that tactical running wasn't a good idea if you're aiming for time, and I pushed on.

I seemed to gain a few feet advantage around the 8km mark (or maybe a bit before that - the memory is failing me), but he pulled back and passed me once again. With the finish getting closer he put in a surge, and running on fumes as I was, wheezing for air, I had nothing left to respond with. With about one km left I tried to dig deep and pushed on some more. I managed to get closer once more, from about 10 steps behind to maybe half that, but on the final, torturous climb to the finish my legs gave out and all I could do was barely hang on, and I don't think I had ever been so glad at crossing the line as I was at that moment.

The final time was 39:51, 12th place I think, and I was not happy. Barely creeping under 40 minutes was not much of a consolation. I clearly was not ready to run a 10k today, but I'm glad I had not driven all the way to Youghal for such a rubbish performance. I can only hope there will be some improvement over the summer. Surely old age hasn't started to catch up with me already!

16 May

8 miles, 1:00:56, 7:37 pace, HR 158
incl. 7X100 strides

17 May

11 miles, incl:
Killarney Lions Club 10k, 39:51, 6:24 pace, 12th place, HR 178

Weekly Mileage: 62

I’m On My Way

Training is going well so far, but of course I’m still only at the very start of my journey to Dingle. Nevertheless, progress is being made as I keep recovering from Boston (including my mental scars), and training is definitely fun again. I’m very much enjoying myself out there on the roads.

Since Sunday is generally going to be my fast day (especially when there is a race on), I decided that Monday should be my long run day. This week is an exception as my schedule starts taking shape; the 12 miles on Wednesday are going to be the longest run of the week, but from next week onwards I should be set. I also want to start doing the hill repeats. I’m curious how that will work out. I have only ever done those in short “hill phases” of my training, and at least 2 guys are promising great returns from doing them on a weekly basis instead. I’ll give it a try and see.

As mentioned, I did 12 miles on Wednesday. I felt pretty good for most of the run, but suffered from a bit of a low around the 7.5 mile mark. However, I had just finished running up a fairly long incline, so maybe I was merely recovering from that, because I got back into the groove within a mile. The distance didn’t cause a problem, I was still fairly fresh when I got home.

By Thursday we had reached the end of the lovely sunny weather and the usual grey clouds hung low over Ireland again. At least the wind had died down, and I got lucky on my run as it happened to fall in between two rain showers. I almost forgot, but I did eventually remember to include a few strides, which raised the average pace of the run even though I made sure to jog slowly in-between. The legs just feel lighter after a set of strides.

I did notice, however, that I had run basically the same pace (~7:45) for the last 3 days, and for the majority of days before that as well, so for today I decided to change that. I could have slowed down, of course, but decided to go for a stronger effort. In the end it wasn’t a tempo run, but I tried to keep the legs turning over at a good rate while keeping as relaxed as possible. The undulating terrain added a few extra challenges, but I was happy with the way the run went. The HR was a bit high (in fact I’ve had tempo runs with lower heart rates), but that will come down as the recovery from Boston continues and my fitness gets rebuilt. I felt good, I finished the run knowing that I could have run further and faster, and I’m already looking forward to the next workout. As I’ve said, training is fun.

13 May

12 miles, 1:33:24, 7:47 pace, HR 157

14 May

7 miles, 54:09, 7:44 pace, HR 155
incl. 6x100 strides

15 May

10 miles, 1:14:28, 7:27 pace, HR 162

Achoo

Have I mentioned how much I hate hayfever? It’s the bane of my life, and I get it twice every year. I’m currently in the middle of my first annual stint, and I’m sneezing my way through the day. Last year I only felt it when I was outside, not in the office building itself. Either the airconditioning has changed or the pollen situation is worse this year, because the symptoms are clear for everyone in the vicinity to see and hear. Even Niamh is affected, and she let me know that “every time my nose tickles, I think of you” (how romantic). For reasons unbeknown to me I am ok when I’m running. I don’t understand the physiological background for this but I am grateful; otherwise my training would be severely hampered.

I managed 46 miles last week. This week I’m aiming for about 60, and then, if everything is ok, I’ll try and add about 10 miles per week until I’m at 100 towards the middle of June. If I feel too tried, I’ll scale back. I know I’m not following the 10% rule, but since this is not the first time I’ve been building up to this mileage level (and not the second time either) I think I can be a bit more aggressive. In fact, I’ve followed a similar protocol before, and haven’t got into troubles.

Right now things are still pretty easy going. I ran 6 miles yesterday, and I’m pretty sure the stiffness in my legs was from the hours of gardening work and not from the comparatively tame weekend mileage. I added a few strides, something that I think is very useful, but also something I simply tend to forget. I hope I’ll be able to keep those up. The one thing I noticed was that the heart rate was very low, but since today’s HR was markedly higher, it may have been a false reading from the HRM. I’ll see. Today’s run was a joy. Not a cloud in sight and Caragh Lake was stunning in the early morning hours. Not even the blustery wind could dampen my spirits. Sadly, the nice weather is not supposed to last.

Maia kept torturing us last night. She is a pretty good sleeper for a baby, but there are nights when she prefers to keep herself and us awake, and last night was definitely one of those. Judging form the whoops and giggles she seemed to have a lot of fun and didn’t seem to register that her bleary-eyed parents weren’t quite as enthusiastic.

Oh, and this race was brought to my attention. I have ranted and raved about the lack of ultras in Ireland before. Things are clearly changing. For a while I was really tempted to forget about Dingle and head further northwards, but in the end the head won out over the heart. I don’t think I’m ready for that kind of race, there isn’t enough time to prepare properly, and they might not accept me for lack of experience anyway. But next year, or the year after … let’s put that thought aside for now.

11 May

6 miles, 47:51, 7:58 pace, HR 145
incl. 7x100 strides

12 May

8 miles, 1:01:59, 7:45 pace, HR 153

Dingle

If you're driving towards Dingle you'll find that some vandals keep deleting the English version of that town from road sign, leaving only the Gaelic “An Daingean” and some helpful souls keep re-adding it in bright big letters. What might surprise you is that it's the Government that keeps deleting the sign, but only if you don't know much about politics on our strange little island. In any case, if you know that Dingle and An Daingean are the same place, you're ok.

Twice last year I drove from Dingle to Ballydavid. To get there, you can either take the scenic route via Slea Head, or cross a fairly big mountain. I thought that running that mountain would be six tough miles, but fun. Incidentally, if you do the entire loop via Slea Head and then cross the mountain on the way back, you'll be doing about 26 miles. No points for guessing where the marathon will be held.


One look at the elevation profile will tell you that I won't be breaking 3 hours. I guess that's one reason why I'm drawn to it. I won't feel under pressure to perform. That, and the fact that it's basically my home marathon. I think the organisers tried to out-do Connemara. In one way they have certainly achieved that. Their “big final hill” is higher, meaner and steeper.

I had the most exhausting weekend in a long time. Apart from doing 6 loads of laundry, I put up a set of swings for the kids (a late birthday present for the twins), picked them off the swings about a dozen times following various fights, and mowed enough grass to feed a herd of cows. Oh, and I ran.

Yesterday I finally felt great again. It was only a six-mile run, and I probably would have been better off slowing down a bit, but it was great to let the legs work and feel the miles melt away.

Today, in contrast, I was rather sore; more from the gardening work than from yesterday's run, I'm sure, but sore nevertheless. I kept the pace close to 8-minute miles for most of it, but with 1.5 miles to go I ran out of patience, so to speak, and raced it home. I've got too much energy left at the end of my runs. It's time to increase the mileage again.

8 May

8.2 miles, 1:03:00, 7:40 pace, HR 158

9 May

6 miles, 45:06, 7:31 pace, HR 160

10 May

10 miles, 1:17:12, 7:43 pace, HR 155

Weekly Mileage: 46+

The Way to Dingle

As my legs slowly regain their running ability, I’m already looking forward to training properly again. Recovery from a marathon is very much a mental thing. Eventually I reach the point where I really want to run again, and can’t wait to get out. This is exactly where I am now.

The last 3 runs have all been short but too fast. I have to learn to run slowly and relaxed again. I remember the same happening after Dublin. I set out easily, and within half a mile the legs are at 7:30 pace. I reign them in, but as soon as my mind starts drifting, they’re accelerating again. And all the while they still feel heavy and awkward, and after 5 miles the quads are tired as if I’d just done a long one. I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it again soon enough.

The weather has been abysmal. On Tuesday, it was very windy. On Wednesday, it was even windier and raining. Today, the wind and the rain were heavier still, and at the moment it is hail stoning and I am so glad I'm not out there. It can only get better.

I have another experiment planned for this marathon training. 2 years ago, when training for Loch Ness, I managed the highest mileage I have done to date, especially in a three weeks spell of 100 miles each. Ever since I have wondered what would happen if I did this for much longer, 10 weeks or even more. The idea now is to check this out for real.

I might not reach 100 miles per week because I don’t want to slow down too much just to reach a mileage target. I want to incorporate a tempo run and a hill workout each week as well, and might have to sacrifice a few miles for that. As for faster training, I won’t be doing any 30/30 or 60/60 workouts this time round. They were fun, and they gave me a decent finishing kick, as witnessed in Ballycotton, but I don’t think they did much for me as a marathon runner. My plan for now is to race often, ideally every 14 days or so, and get my speed workouts that way. Since I can only manage to run fast enough with a number on my chest, this should be at least as effective as struggling to attempt some repeats on the roads around here. At least that’s the idea.

At work, my team has gained 2 more members, and wouldn’t you believe it, both have run the Dublin marathon last year, and both have caught the bug. One just ran Belfast as his second marathon, and the other one has targeted Dingle as her second. She managed a very decent time in Dublin, 4:07 on not a lot of training (which, incidentally, is almost exactly the same time I did on my first marathon, on little training as well). I think she could become really good and I have given her some suggestions, but I don’t want to give the impression that I'm telling her how to run. I certainly don't want to give too many details about my own training - it might scare her off.

5 May

5 miles, 38:50, 7:46 pace, HR 158

6 May

7 miles, 53:02, 7:34 pace, HR 161

7 May

5 miles, 39:03, 7:48 pace, HR 157

Too Much, Too Soon

Taking it easy is harder than it sounds, especially when you get ripped out of your usual environment and have to make do with unfamiliar roads.

After driving up to Dublin on Friday evening, not running at all on Saturday was probably a good idea. We (well, actually the parents, really) were lucky with the weather for the christening, and there were plenty of people in Nana and Gaga’s garden, including plenty of cousins at the right age for each of our children, and they all had a great time. The cakes and snacks were delicious, I don’t know how much weight I put on that day; I don’t really want to know. Sure, it’ll all come off when I start training again in earnest, won’t it? Won’t it?

I’ve had my eye on that mountain for a long time, every time we had been visiting Dublin. And because I’m not really training yet, I thought it would be a good idea to scout out the route. I told Niamh that I would be gone for about an hour, and that I was headed towards Three Rock. Afterwards she told me she knew that this would not be enough time, but for reasons best known to herself she didn’t mention that in time.

I thought the only problem would be crossing the M50 motorway, but that was easy. The problem was finding my way to the foot of the mountain, even though it seemed so close. In Kerry, when they build residential estates, they make sure to leave an opening in the wall to enable walkers and cyclists to pass through. Not so in Dublin, where they seal off the area. Maybe they are worried about poor people on the other side. Anyway, after wasting a lot of time trying to find my way I ended up climbing over one of those damn fences. I found a road up the mountain, but after climbing to an elevation of about 850 feet (starting from about 200) I realised that 40 minutes had already passed and I turned back. In all honesty, I was rather exhausted by then. The heart rate on the climb had gone over 180 at times, which really surprised me. At the last 5k race 4 weeks ago I had just about managed to reach that level, and I had to run extremely hard for that. On Sunday I got there just by running uphill, and certainly not at race effort.

I was really surprised how sore my quads were today. I guess doing a major hill wasn’t the best option, less than 2 weeks after Boston. I did 4 miles on a reasonably flat route to Deer park, which is a nice area with a great kids’ playground. Then it was time to drive back home. We stopped for a break at the Rock of Cashel, a rather spectacular feature. I’m surprised it isn’t better known, but if you ever find yourself near that area (e.g. on the new motorway, like ourselves today) I can highly recommend it.

I haven’t made any concrete plans for my next training cycle, but I know which way I want to go. I’ll talk about it in one of my next posts.

Oh, and thanks to Grellan for pointing out this video from last year’s Cork City marathon. I like the shot 6:57 into it. Don’t I look pleased?

3 May

9 miles, 1:10:18, 7:48 pace, HR 163

4 May

4 miles, 32:57, 8:14 pace, HR 154

No Rest to be had

I spent one weekend in Boston, the following one in Trabolgan, and this one in Dublin. At that rate, I'll never get any sleep. The next weekend is scheduled to be at home, but if the weather is somewhat nice I'll have to cut the grass in the garden, which is slowly turning into a jungle. I'm half tempted to pray for rain.

The soreness in my quads has finally disappeared, but I won't get carried away just yet and try to run a race. I'll also try not to think about the fact that I'm missing the Bay Run on Sunday, for the first time since its inception. Boston has a lot to answer for. As it is, my training runs are much too fast and with too high a heart rate at the moment. I have yet to really get back into it. My movements feel awkward and uncoordinated, as if I have to learn to run again. That's pretty normal after a marathon, and will go away soon enough.

I'm more or less following the post-marathon recovery program I mentioned in my last entry, which is why I didn't run at all on Wednesday. Thursday saw me doing 5 miles, and the same again on Friday. Despite being tempted, I didn't run this morning, and instead went for an hour long walk at 7 am with Maia, mainly to give Niamh some extra undisturbed time in bed. She did thank me for it.

The reason why we're here in Dublin is our new niece's christening. It's Nana's first grandchild that's not ours, but hopefully there will be a few more in the next few years. The weather is beautiful, as if on order for a grand day. And at the rate the day is going I will be completely knackered at the end from playing ball games with Cian.

30 Apr

5 miles, 39:59, 8:00 pace, HR 152

1 May

5 miless, 39:47, 7:56 pace, HR 157