Well, That Was Humbling!

For the last few years Michael from the club had tried me to get into cross country running. However, every time there was something else on on the weekend of the local XC race and I always made my excuses. However, this year no distractions arrived and for once I actaully ended up on the start line in Killarney.

Before that, there were still some workouts to do. After Tuesday's evaluation I did 10 easy miles on Wednesday and then more hill sprints on Thursday. Following feedback from last week I shortened the sprints to about 12 seconds each, and when I felt a litle bit queasy after 7 I left it at that. It certainly wasn't as bad as last week's wave of nausea.

Friday is quickly becoming the day where I try to run a bit faster. Last week's workout had been affected by the strong wind but there were no excuses this time round. I took it easy over the first two miles, sped up to a pace that felt sustainable and left it at that for the next 8 miles. In the end I was slightly annoyed that I had missed sub-7 pace only by a few seconds, but it reflects my present state. I never looked at the watch, and sprinting the last mile might have resulted in a sub-7 average pace but would have falsified my present condition. Since I still remember running the same workouts 30-40 seconds per mile faster only half a year ago, it showed just how far away I am from getting my pace back. A year of ultra running will do that to you, apparently.

And so it came that after a few easy miles with the club on Saturday I found myself right in the middle of Kerry's cross country runners on Sunday. The presence of George, Simon and Rob (jnr), amongst others, ensured that I never had to worry about a top finish, so at least there was no need to worry about that. The novice and under-18 races were held together, and there were loads of kids taking off like a bat out of hell. I was going off at a much faster pace than anticipated myself, but I was basically left standing by half the field.

I was sure that a few of the kids would come back to me during the next 6 laps, but no such luck. I overtook one over-optimistic runner towards the end of the first lap (or was it the second?) but was caught by one gentleman shortly before half time, and for the rest of the race I was basically running on my own, which at least saved the rest of the field from having to listen to my laboured breathing.

The only somewhat noticable event was the marshall telling me “3 laps to go” after 4, with me desperately hoping that he had miscounted rather than I, which luckily turned out to be correct. I was clinging to the hope that I would not be lapped, which thankfully came true, but I think I wasn't too far off that either and another lap might have done for me.

Just before Bangor I had done a 10K and George had finished about 2 minutes ahead of me, so he certainly should not have been so far ahead after 6k of XC. My avg. HR had been 177, close to what I would expect to see, so it definitely wasn't for lack of effort, just lack of ability of the road runner with the additional inability to move the legs somewhat fast. I suppose it would have had to go on for 100 laps rather than 6 for me to become competitive!

And so, suitably humbled, I'm heading back onto the road.

3 Oct

10 miles, 1:14:03, 7:24 pace, HR 152

4 Oct

8+ miles, 1:05:23, 7:55 pace, HR 146
   7 x hill sprints

5 Oct

10 miles, 1:10:22, 7:02 pace, HR 158

6 Oct

14+ miles, 1:49:35, 7:44 pace, HR 143

7 Oct

am: 5 miles, 38:42, 7:44 pace, HR 135
pm: 6 miles, incl. Kerry Novice XC race

Weekly Mileage: 75+

Evaluation

I know the last few blog posts have been a little bit on the technical (ok, ok, geeky) side. Niamh usually tells me how she always skips these - she just wants to read the bits where she finds out what her husband is up to, generally. She won't like this one either, I'm afraid, but it won't go on like that forever. It's just that I'm basically trying to figure out what I'm doing at the moment.

My former coach always had me do some "Evaluation Workouts" to get feedback on the training and/or my conditioning. It consisted of running 4 miles at a constant heart rate, in my case 161, about 30 bpm below my max, recording the time for each mile and then coming to a full stop and measuring how long it took for the HR to recover down to 130. I tend to look at the overall pace first but in actual fact that's the least important bit of information. How well you can keep your pace constant at that steady HR level is more important, as well as the recovery time.

So I did one on Tuesday. It wasn't ideal because of the blustery wind, but the forecast was basically the same for the entire week, which meant postponing it by a day or two would have been pointless. The windy conditions mean I can’t read too much into the figures, especially the pace numbers, but it does provide a base line. The number in brackets is adjusted pace, 7 seconds for every 2 heart beats off the 161 target, though it looks like a slight overcompensation to me.

       
        Mile 1    6:51   HR 162    (6:54)
        Mile 2    7:01   HR 162    (7:04)
        Mile 3    6:57   HR 163    (7:03)
        Mile 4    7:02   HR 161    (7:02)
        Recovery to HR 130: 50 seconds

The pace is actually very stable, especially after the initial first mile. I have certainly seen me drop off significantly more than that. But the 50 seconds recovery time is quite shocking, my highest reading ever. I definitely need to keep an eye on that. I hope it's because I have done very little running at that effort level during my year of ultra-running and my legs simply have to get used to it again, rather than a sign of overtraining.


I certainly do not feel overtrained. I have none of the typical symptoms, I sleep soundly (except when our 4-year old sleeps in our bed), am no more irritable than usual (no smart comments!!), and my appetite is sound (hell, yeah!).


This morning (Wednesday) I could finally tell for sure that the training is going ok so far. The legs felt very well, I got that elusive effortlessly-gliding-over-the-road feeling and the miles just flew by. To add to the positivity, I somehow managed to time the run right between two major downpours. It is a very nice day at the moment, if you manage to look out of the window at the right time, right between those heavy shower that keep on coming.

1 Oct

10 miles, 1:15:48, 7:35 pace, HR 146

2 Oct

12 miles, 1:27:53, 7:19 pace, HR 155
   4 mile eval: 6:54, 7:04, 7:03, 7:02 (adjusted figures)
   50 seconds recovery to 130

3 Oct

10 miles, 1:14:04, 7:24 pace, HR 152

Lydiard/Canova

Canute, a very experienced runner whose opinion I very much respect, left a very good comment on my most recent post. It's worth reading in its entirety but I'll pick a few bits and pieces.

Are your hill sessions for strength development, aerobic development or both? They probably qualify as HIIT and hence according to the evidence supporting HIIT, provide a strong stimulus to aerobic development via brief bursts at anaerobic intensity

The hill sprints are for leg strength/neuromuscular development, not for aerobic development. Because of their short length and the full recovery they are mostly alactic, which is why I think they don't interfere with aerobic training. Having said that, I have heard that Lydiard's statement that aerobic development stops as soon as anaerobic training starts is not being backed up by physiological research, though I'm definitely not in a position to comment on that.

I think that Canova would argue that a runner who has already done many years of base-building, does not need to develop capillaries any further, so neither Lydiard nor Maffetone type base-building are necessary. Perhaps you now have a long enough training history to adopt parts of Canova’s approach – though I suppose Canova is really better for HM and M than for ultras.

That possibility did cross my mind, especially with me coming off a cycle that included running 126 miles in one go and running a very hilly 50 mile ultra purely for fun. I do think that my aerobic base is fairly formidable by now; I just hope that's not just wishful thinking.

---

The base training I'm doing now is at a higher intensity compared to what I would have done the previous two years. There are no killer workouts but I'm working a little bit harder each day.

One problem with Lydiard's training is that the schedules in his books often bears very little resemblance to the training his charges used to do. One reason is that elite runners train differently to the rest of us. Another one is that Lydiard constantly monitored the effect of training and changed it accordingly, something you cannot do when printing a schedule.

Anyway, he said that in base training you should train close but under your “steady state”. There are plenty of opinions what “steady state” is, some writers seem to think it's close to your lactate threshold, others disagree; however, that's not really my point. When I was being coached by Mystery Coach I was surprised by the mellow effort for virtually all training runs in base training. He responded that he did not know where my steady state was, but from my feedback he knew that I was remaining below and that was what counted most. We only went through one training cycle. I think that had we gone through more, he would have increased the training intensity in subsequent ones. In a way that's basically what I'm trying to do now.

I don't know if that will be my last ever shot at my marathon PB, so I'm prepared to take a few risks. But I'm not flying blind. I will still do the evaluation workouts and take that feedback into account; if I am overtraining I hope I will be able to spot that in time.

---

The last few days have gone fairly well and the training has definitely gone up by a notch or two. Thursday's 10 miles were steady, but I ran a much faster workout on Friday. The legs felt flat during the first two warm-up miles but then I was really surprised by how well I was moving with very little effort. Unfortunately, when I reached the halfway point I realised that I had been pushed along by a very nice tailwind and would now be paying the price on the homewards leg. Unsurprisingly the second half felt a lot harder. The average HR was too high for my liking; there is clearly a lot of work still to be done but then I remembered that I had run my last race only 4 weeks ago and then taken 10 days off, so I was back in training for less than 3 weeks and the figures clearly reflect this.

Saturday is our club's group run. I ran to the meeting point at a good clip (almost 7:00 pace), had 4 very relaxed miles with the group and went home faster again, but more relaxed this time (7:20-ish, which felt very easy).

I was back on the Caragh Lake loop on Sunday morning for my long run. The big climbs felt a lot harder than expected; I think I tend to lose leg strength very quickly if I don't keep running hills. But I was moving well on the rest of the loop, despite the windy and rainy conditions. The weather picked up during the second half of the run and so did my pace. I was happy enough with how the legs felt after the first 70+ miles week. Endurance has never been a problem. If I could add a little bit more speed, that would be great.

27 Sep

10 miles, 1:16:35, 7:39 pace, HR 148

28 Sep

10 miles, 1:11:24, 7:08 pace, HR 159

29 Sep

13.25 miles, 1:43:23, 7:48 pace, HR 146
   4.6 miles @ 7:03 (HR 157), 4+ miles @ 9:12 (group run, HR 130), 4.6 miles @ 7:22 (HR 153)

30 Sep

15.15 miles, 1:55:24, 7:37 pace, HR 155

Weekly Mileage: 72+

Gone In 65 Seconds

It's hard to figure out what works best for you. You can follow an online training plan, you can buy a book with training schedules or you can get a coach and follow his or her guidelines to take the thinking out of training. The problem is, you will invariably come across a multitude of opinions, and how are you supposed to find out which on works best? The whole conundrum is made even trickier by the fact that we all react differently to the same kind of training. What is a man to do?

I am lucky enough to have been coached to one marathon by Mystery Coach, and the lessons I learned ion those months still stand me very well; my running has definitely moved up a level, and stayed there even when I had to look after myself again (he still gives me the odd nudge when I do something particularly silly, though).

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I am trying to add a few sprinkles of Canova to an otherwise firmly Lydiard-base training schedule. One of the recommended things are hills sprints. Other coaches, like Brad Hudson, swear by that as well; he also includes that in his base training. That's similar to strides, which feature in a lot of training manuals as well.

In a word, that's what I did this morning. Monday and Tuesday had been standard runs of 8 and 10 miles each, neither of which was particularly noteworthy, maybe apart from the fact that the legs were feeling pretty good, despite Sunday's faster-than-planned pace.

I kept an open mind on the number of hill sprints I was going to do. The hill was about 2 miles from home, it's the same hill I have used on numerous occasions for sprints and drills and general hill repeats before. 2 miles form a nice warm./up, because you definitely do not want to start sprinting with cold muscles.

It went all very well at first. There is a gate across the road that took me about 17-or-so seconds to reach, so that was the length of each sprint. I walked down the hill, making sure not to hyperventilate (that's a lesson from last year). I was fine until the fourth one when all of a sudden I was hit by a wave of nausea and started feeling lightheaded. I even had stars in front of my eyes for a few seconds. That was the sign to stop. Next time I'd hope to stop before reaching that point, but I had felt fine right up to that point, it was amazing how quickly the hit came. It all only added to just over a minute of real work; I find it quite amazing that so little work is supposed to have a real impact.

Such a short, sharp workout is always over very quickly. I had allocated an hour but was home again after less than 50 minutes. In a way I am looking forward to the next one. It makes a change from the usual constant, steady (and yes, at times boring) effort.

Oh, and the mention in this article was nice. It's not often that my mother-in-law is impressed by what I'm doing.

24 Sep

8 miles, 1:02:04, 7:46 pace, HR 144

25 Sep

10 miles, 1:16:25, 7:32 pace, HR 149

26 Sep

6 miles, 49:04, 8:11 pace, HR 148
   incl. 4 all-out hill sprints

Tiger Stripes

A few hours after finishing Dingle I noticed a red mark on my chest; I hadn't noticed a thing during the race or immediately afterwards, and only saw it when I took off my shirt to take a shower back home. At first I thought it was from the pins that kept my number in place rubbing against my skin, as had happened in Bangor (and those marks are still visible(!)), but the new mark seemed to be in the wrong place, too close to the centre.

Anyway, I didn't think much of it until a week ago when I got a new mark, just like the one from Dingle. Eventually I figured that the marks were caused by my new HR chest strap. The old one had reached its end after over 4 years of heavy use and I got a replacement about a month ago. It may feel more comfortable, but there are obviously issues with the new design, because I am clearly not the only one with those problems. Trying to wear them in a slightly different position only resulted in several parallel marks on my chest and I started to look like I had been in a fight with a big cat. Eventually I tried a few of the recommended solutions in those articles and putting a bit of moleskin onto the HR strap seems to do the trick. You do have to wonder about Garmin, though; their testing seems to be haphazard at best, and reacting to customer feedback doesn't seem to be their strong point either - that make of strap has been on the market for over 2 years by now.

I'm slowly building up my mileage and the runs are getting longer. Friday was my first double-digits run since Dingle; since I had only been doing 5 miles the day before my legs were very fresh and I didn't have any problems. Saturday was the club's group run; I was a few minutes late and was greeted by the biggest crowd we've ever had for a run, there were at least 20 or 30 people gathered. This time Sean took the beginners out on his own and I went on a more conventional training run. The pace was mellow and the distance short enough to count as an easy day. As long as I'm not in full training, that's perfectly fine. Once I'm getting closer to the marathon, I might have to skip those group runs. The program usually has Saturdays taken up by 10 mile tempo runs and I don't think anyone in the club at the moment fancies 10 miles at 6:20-or-so pace, but that's still a good few months off.

Today's run was a bit strange. Maybe I have been reading too much about Canova and his faster long runs lately because my legs seemed to insist on doing their own thing. Time and time again I noticed the HR in the 160s and slowed down, but each time the legs sped up again as soon as my mind wandered. I felt very good and the conditions were perfect for running, so maybe that has something to do with it. I will monitor the legs in the coming days how they feel. Mystery Coach has always warned against running too fast in base training, especially early on. The pace has to come down naturally.

Dublin is 5 weeks away. At the moment I don't know yet if I'm pacing 3:15 or 3:30. My marathon PB would put me firmly in the 3:30 pacing slot, but a couple of injuries to the faster pacers mean things could get swapped round late on. I'll be ok. In Limerick I was bumped up to the 3:15 slot at very short notice and everything was fine. I would not agree to pace a group I wasn't confident about, but 3:15 is fine.

21 Sep

10 miles, 1:16:33, 7:39 pace, HR 148

22 Sep

6+ miles, 51:23, 8:06 pace, HR 139

23 Sep

12 miles, 1:27:07, 7:15 pace, HR 155

That Day Again

18th September was the day this year. I ran in the morning, as I always do, and my hands felt freezing cold. For me, that one occasion always marks the end of summer. Accordingly I wore gloves yesterday and today. I also noticed that it's still dark when I leave the house. Not dark enough for a headlamp, but enough to don the reflective gear. Now it's time to HTFU and get used to the dark and the cold and the freezing cold rain in the dark.

Actually, Niamh was amazed when I turned on the heating that evening. Usually we play that game, she turns the heating on, I turn it off, she turns it on again and so on until one of us gives up (usually me). Apparently we have different body temperature gauges. But on Tuesday it was me who turned it on. There's a first for everything. Maybe it's a sign that I'm getting old.

Darker mornings usually mean that the Dublin marathon is getting close. In years past this would have meant the training for my "A" event would be reaching its peak, but these days Dublin is just a long training run combined with a social outing, both friends and family-wise.

I have increased the mileage a little bit this week, running 8 miles both Tuesday and Wednesday, but yesterday's HR was a bit higher than I would have liked to see, so I cut today's run down to 5 miles, only to see today's HR just as high but at a slower pace. The effort level for all these runs has been pretty much the same. I don't ever check the Garmin, just turn it on at the start and press the stop button at the end. Tuesday was even more telling, I took my first step, noticed the cold temperatures and pretty much the next thing I remembered was that I had just completed 8 miles entirely on autopilot, despite the freezing hands.

I have read a few things about Renato Canova's training recently. Of course he is training the super elites in Kenya, not some hobby runner, but there are plenty of online articles and forum discussions (some even with the man's input) that translate that kind of training for the non-elite runner. I do think, however, that I do not know nearly enough about this training to do it unsupervised, but I am tempted to incorporate a few things into my training while still staying true to the Lydiard training I am familiar with. More runs, including long ones, at close to marathon pace, regular hill sprints as well as runs where you alternate faster than MP segments with recovery segments that are only a little bit slower - interestingly, Mystery Coach had me do a few of these sessions, and he still called it Lydiard training, so I do think the training concepts are somewhat compatible.

18 Sep

8 miles, 1:01:20, 07:40 pace, HR 148

19 Sep

8 miles, 1:00:52, 07:36 pace, HR 151

20 Sep

5 miles, 38:34, 07:42 pace, HR 151

New

I had a new experience on Saturday. I drove to the meeting point of the club's group run (usually I'd run, but I'm only just back into running) and there were 2 experienced runners and 3 novices. After a bit of deliberating we decided that the experienced runners would be able to look after themselves and I went with the newbies (I promised to crack the whip).

Obviously they weren't killing themselves. We followed a program of 3 minutes walking and 2 minutes running, 4 times each. At the start they were all nervous and might have doubted their ability to go round - on their own, they might not even have attempted it. The contrast to the end could not have been greater. They were delighted, surprised by how (relatively) easy it had been and chuffed that they had just covered well over 1.5 miles under their own steam. I think they had not expected to last even a mile.

I warned them not to ruin it all by rewarding themselves with a big slice of cake or similar caloric bomb, but you could argue that is a case of do as I say, not as I do. My own diet is still one of heaps of sugar and calories - I promised myself a few weeks break from the healthy living after months of restraint. I'll be back on the ascetic bandwagon soon enough; as long as my weight is still under 11 stone and my waist under 30 inches, it can't be that bad.

Anyway, seeing these new runners enjoy themselves so much was a somewhat new experience, though of course I have been there myself, 8 long years ago. It did remind me once more how much I love running.

Of course there is no guarantee that they will stick to running. But I'm sure when they finished Saturday's run they were all full of good intentions of keeping it all going. If they can stick with it, they will receive all the benefits, from increased health and confidence, reduced weight and cholesterol and whatever else comes with it. To be honest, I'd rather have a few non-runners take up the sport on a recreational basis than to get one runner in the club into the top level. To me, the main benefits of sport are not at the elite level - they are at the back of the pack, and the biggest reward is not a winner's trophy but the joy of running itself.

As for my own running, it's getting along. It's still less than a week since I've laced up my shoes again, but the progress is already clear and rapid. If only one could improve every week like the first one! The mileage is still very modest, but that will change over time. I'll keep in mind that this is base training. It's not my most favourite part of training, but if it can get me back into the same shape I was a year earlier, the Tralee marathon is going to be a good one.

15 Sep

5 miles, 37:54, 7:34 pace, HR 145

16 Sep

8 miles, 1:01:01, 7:37 pace, HR 149

17 Sep

5 miles, 38:59, 7:48 pace, HR 145

Comeback

Time flies when you're having fun, especially my favourite kind of fun, out on the road. After taking 10 days off, there will now come at least a month of easy jogging with gradually increased mileage (that advice is from Alberto Salazar no less - but no, I didn't get it straight from him). Apparently there are a couple of cross-country races in a few weeks that I might be expected to attend because all of a sudden there are enough members in our running club to send a team, but right now that's of no concern to me. If my presence in said races will be required then I shall be at the start line more or less unprepared apart from my usual sense of optimism and idiocy (hey, it worked well enough in Bangor and Dingle!).

So, the kids are back in school, Daddy is back running, things have all of a sudden returned to normal.

I have run 4 ultras and 3 marathons so far this year, though the marathons were all as pacer. If things go to plan for the rest of the year I'll add two more paced marathons and one fun ultra, all of which will be training runs for my next marathon (I can sense Mystery Coach's exasperation). That means I'll end the year with 10 marathon-or-longer races for 2012. That's by far the most I've ever done, though when I compare that to some of the other figures in the marathon club I still seem to be one of the more sane ones.

I do believe, however, that if you run a marathon significantly slower than your racing pace it can build you up rather than tear you down, provided you are fit enough. I also believe I have achieved that level of fitness, but I know that not everyone is entirely convinced by that.

Anyway, running has come easy, I am getting into it very quickly. Thursday's HR was a bit high and I took it a tad easier on Friday, but drawing from past experience the HR will come down and the pace will improve quickly, without me pushing the effort. No need to rush things.

12 Sep

5 miles, 39:52, 7:58 pace, HR 147

13 Sep

5 miles, 39:25, 7:53 pace, HR 151

14 Sep

5 miles, 39:05, 7:49 pace, HR 147

Inspiration

The one thing that had my attention over the weekend was the combined European/World 24 hours running championship race in Katowice, Poland. It featured, amongst many others, John O'Regan And Eddie Gallen who had come first and third respectively in Bangor, just 9 weeks ago. Both had great races and finished with new PBs in 31st and 42nd places in the World championship. However, both results were overshadowed by Ruthann Sheahan of Athenry AC who placed 7th in the World, 5th in Europe with a new Irish record of 229.3 km! I know Ruthann reasonably well (I know all 4 Irish competitors - the ultra running scene really is not very big) and right now I'm really inspired to follow in her footsteps and try and run a similar distance in my next 24 hours race. That's right, I've now moved through the various stages of denial from "I'll never run another step" via "I'll never run another 24 hours" to "sure it wasn't that bad, I'll do that again". I still have to decide where and when, though. I kind of have my mind set on the Connemara 100 next year, which would rule out a return to the Irish championship in 2013, at least as long as I've got at least a couple of working brain cells left.

However, that's still a good bit off. My next target race will be a mere marathon and I still have 6 months to prepare for that. It might well be my last attempt at a fast marathon; age is not on my side, and if I concentrate on long ultras I probably won't have enough time to train for another marathon PB as well. However, before Vienna I was wondering if THAT would be my last go at the sub-3 marathon and here I am now, having another go, so let's not rule out anything just yet.

One advantage of running in Bangor was that I have completely lost the fear of 50 miles races and could regard Dingle as a fun run. On the flip side, the pace required for a 2:55 marathon now seems rather scary. I have hardly run even a single mile at that pace in what seems like a very long time.

Anyway, today marks 10 days of not running since Dingle. After Bangor I made the mistake of saying "I'll run again when I feel like it", with the result that when I got itchy feet after 5 days I was out again on the road. This time I resolved to take at least 10 days off and it was much easier to mentally adjust to that. I also enjoyed the finer things in life, i.e. cake, biscuit and chocolate in generous amounts. I still feel slightly guilty every time I shove yet another motherload of sugar into my mouth, but after a few months of restraint a few weeks of excess just feel right, even if the weighing scales are tipping ever closer to 11 stone.

I'll probably run again tomorrow. I won't set the alarm and if I sleep in then so be it. An extra hour or two of sleep was one of the most appreciated luxuries over the last few days and if my body feels like sleeping in once more, I will let it. If I wake up in time (as I tend to do), then I'll start running again.

By the way, I just came across two interesting race reports, Tom Meany's from Bangor and John Healy's from Dingle. I always enjoy reading race reports (that's why I enjoy writing them, I suppose), if you're interested as well then check them out.

The Importance Of Being Idle

Someone said to me last night, now that you have taken a break from running you have plenty of time to blog. I told him that I have nothing to write about.

I haven't run a single step since crossing the line in Dingle and I'm still only halfway through my rest period. But in contrast to the aftermath following Bangor I am perfectly content with being a couch potato, eating tons of chocolate and biscuits and just being lazy. I'll probably have gained a stone by the time I'm back on the road and subsequently curse myself for letting myself go, but right now I'd rather have another cookie, thank you very much.

Funnily enough, my right Achilles has not bothered me once ever since the climb up to Conor Pass. I know it might come back when I start running, but before Dingle there was always some discomfort when I got up in the morning, and at the moment that is completely gone. It seems impossible to get rid of something like that by running 50 miles, but I'm not complaining. Even if it worked, I'm not sure if it would really catch on as a cure.

As predicted, this has been the week with the nicest weather all year; just as the kids are back in school and I am not running. Somewhere up there is obviously having a laugh.

Now for something completely different. When I was running the Boston marathon a few years ago, after a few miles I passed a man in his 70s pushing a wheelchair with a grown man in it along the marathon course. I was already aware of them, as were a lot of other runners as the "Go Hoyts" calls showed. That man was Dick Hoyt and the man in the wheelchair was his son Rick. If you google their names, you will read a truly remarkable story. Anyway, a few weeks ago I was contacted by a man called Todd Civin to tell me that he had co-authored a book together with Rick. If you are looking for some inspiration you could do a lot worse than check it out.

"One Letter at a Time" by Dick and Rick Hoyt with Todd Civin.  Read the inspirational story as told by Rick Hoyt, who uses his specially designed computer along with his unique method of communicating to share his amazing story. "One Letter at a Time" also contains dozens of stories written by those who have had their lives positively impacted by Rick  

Contact us at teamhoyt@cox.net or Todd Civin at toddcivin1@aol.com to pre-order yours today. 

Afterthoughts

Doesn't time fly? Dingle was already 4 days ago. My legs were in a fairly reasonable state following the race, there certainly was no comparison to what they felt like after Bangor. I was able to walk down the staircase in the office building on Monday without wincing, even if I wasn't entirely comfortable. Today, Wednesday, is the first day I'm not feeling stiff any more.

I have to decide how many days I will take off running. It will be at least a week, and right now I'm thinking more like 10 days, but that may well change come the weekend. It is of course entirely typical that this week would be the first week of continuous sunshine, and I can safely predict that by the time I'm back running it will be raining again.

The most important event this week was of course not Daddy's long race but Maia's first day of school, something she has been looking forward to for a long time. I'm trying to stop her older siblings from telling her how awful school will be in only a couple of weeks, but to no avail so far.

As for my race, I am still perfectly happy with how I did. Two years ago, after finishing in 7:28, I knew that I would be able to run at least 20 minutes faster. Well, I chopped 27 minutes off that time and I still think I can run at least 20 minutes faster. The difference would not be the way I race (I am perfectly happy with that) but with the preparation. I'm not going to run 6:40 unless I declare this an "A" race and train for it accordingly. Therefore a 6:40 won't happen next year, but following that, you never know.

Early during the race, when we were chatting along as we approached Conor Pass, I was thinking how much I like ultras and their relaxed pace. At the same time I wasn't sure how I would managed because my left Achilles was hurting at the time. Luckily, once the quads started hurting the Achilles was not noticeable any more, and I haven't felt any problem since.

According to the Dingle marathon facebook page, Keith Whyte's time puts him at World no.2 and European no. 1 in the latest world ranking for 50 miles. I have no idea if that is true or not, but it shows what an amazing runner he is. Over such a difficult course this is just mindboggling! Overall I'm still surprised how competitive the field was this year. Apart from Keith, who was always going to win it, there was nobody "famous" running, but times were still fantastic. I knew Ray Lanigan was going to do well, but if I had not met him in Connemara I would not have known him at all, and some of the other names might be familiar from results listings but not well known as such. Ultra running in Ireland is becoming competitive, and not just at the top level!

But it doesn't show the wind - nor the incline!

Someone commented about my shoes. I usually race in Nike Lunaracers, but when I tried them out a week before the race they hurt my Achilles, so I switched to the Brooks Green Silence instead. I knew they would be fine - I had been wearing the same pair in Bangor for the entire 126 miles and they had felt comfortable all the way through. Actually, I am not picky about my shoes at all. As long as they are lightweight and feel ok, I use them. I have no particular brand loyalty, in recent years I have used Brooks, Nike, Adidas, Mizuno, Asics and Saucony. I always buy my shoes online whenever I find a bargain - a few months ago I picked up 2 pairs of Green Silence and 1 pair of Saucony Kinvara for the combined outlay of €140. I tend to get 800-1000 miles out of a pair, so that one single order basically does me for almost a year.

Oh, and as for the raised hands when crossing the finish line - I did the same when winning in Sixmilebridge last year, so there is no need to change it for all those oh-so-numerous occasions when I walk away with the trophy. No idea why I'm doing it, though.

Once I start running again, preparation for Tralee will begin. I'm planning on using the rest of the year as base training. This will include at least 2 paced marathons, and maybe a short ultra (oxymoron or what!). The marathon-specific preparation will start around New Year.

Into The Wind

Going into this race I found it impossible to predict how it would go. Ultras can be hard to predict at the best of times of course, but my unorthodox preparation made it even more difficult. My last long run had basically been 8 weeks beforehand at the 24-hours Championship in Bangor, anything since then has mostly been recovery from that effort. Usually I would not attempt a serious ultra like that basically on a whim but Dingle is more or less my local race, certainly my local ultra race, and I really did not want to miss it even if it meant running at less than peak form.

The course had been slightly changed since last time; we started on the road between Annascaul and Camp, right in the middle of nowhere. I met a few friends on the bus and the start; the ultra running community is small enough to become very familiar with plenty of faces very quickly. The second I spotted Keith Whyte on the bus I knew the name of the winner. An early, unexpected highlight of the day arrived when Keith came up to me to congratulate me on my performance in Bangor - blimey! Thankfully I had the presence of mind to reciprocate for his win at the Anglo Celtic Plate.

Anyway, we gathered at the line and straight away Ray Lanigan took off like a bat out of hell; he must have been doing well under 6:00 pace (minutes per mile, as always), he even left Keith in his wake initially. The rest of us started at a much more sedate effort. The first mile was uphill, basically going over the spine of the Dingle peninsula, and then we started descending into Camp overlooking Gleann-na-nGealt, the "Valley of the Mad", the perfect spot to start an ultra marathon, really.

There was a bit of leapfrogging going on and eventually I settled into around 10th place. I couldn't really tell how my legs were feeling, it was too early, and I just wanted to make sure not to hammer my quads on even the first downhill of the day. Just as we got into Camp I saw a flag fluttering very strongly in the wind. Uh-oh!  We were about to turn right into that exact direction - and we were going to do it for the next 30+ miles!

Even though I was determined to run my own race and not care about my place in the field, I tried to count the runners ahead and thought there were 6 ahead of us when I fell in step with Gavin Murtagh, who I had been in contact with before the race. Our pace was about 7:30, a little bit fast, especially into such a strong headwind, but I definitely preferred some company in these early miles and was ok with going a little bit faster. Having said that, we probably slowed down as we were chatting away because one by one other runners kept coming up from behind until we had formed a group of six runners that would stay together for a good while. At times we were all chatting happily, at others we went single file to battle the headwind when it picked up yet again. But mostly conversation flowed and in no time at all we were at the foot of Conor Pass. Pretty much my last words to the guys were "don't kill yourselves going up that hill" when they all went ahead. The group splintered immediately as everyone went at a different pace, quite dramatically different in fact. My own pace was the slowest of all because I was really determined not to ruin my race this early. I even got caught by one more runner coming from behind.

As it so happens, just the other day I had gotten word from Ken Zemach who had finished fourth here last time round after running the early miles with me, and he had implored me to walk at least some of the climb. Maybe it was his message, maybe it was because I wasn't in full racing mode, but when I saw that my HR was in the 160s and climbing steadily I indeed stopped running and proceeded to hike. Looking back now I think it was the right thing to do. The road was really steep and the ever stronger blowing gale force made it worse still and the runners ahead were only inching away from me very slowly as my own HR gradually recovered into the 140s (not that I advocate pacing yourself by Garmin and HR). The climb is very long, obviously, going up to Ireland's highest mountain pass (though there are higher roads), and pretty damn steep (I think I mentioned that already). My calves started hurting but there was nothing I could do about that except literally keep my head down and keep going. I tried to start running again on a couple of occasions but gave up quickly as the effort just seemed too high.

To my big surprise, Micheal Mangan from our running club appeared seemingly out of nowhere. He gave me a bottle of water as well as a gel later on, but by far the biggest benefit was simply the fact that there was a friendly face amidst all the effort. He proceeded to cheer me on every half mile or so, which really helped.

Pat Quill on Conor Pass

Eventually I managed to run again, and wouldn't you believe it, I immediately and very quickly made up a lot of ground on the lads ahead of me. By the time I reached the top of Conor pass I had already caught two of them, despite all of my walking (or maybe because of?). Having said that, reaching the top of the pass was like hitting a wall, the wind was just brutal and right into our faces. It felt like running to stand still. Looking at the weather history now I can see the wind speeds between 10 and 25 mph, but that was at sea level; it was significantly stronger up here. There were a few supporters up there cheering us on enthusiastically, which helped. But there was nothing to do but keep going. Running right into what felt like a miniature hurricane meant that the pace didn't drop anywhere near as much as I had expected it on the descent; the overall pace was now well slower than 8-minute-miles and I wasn't really getting anything back. I could see a couple of lads ahead of me but we all seemed to run more or less the same pace and there was no movement in the field position until right at the bottom when I caught up with John Fitzgerald who seemed to be suffering in his quads judging by his running style.

Dingle marked the halfway point and there was also the first drop-off aid station. My plan for these aid stations was very simple, I quickly picked up two bottles of sports drink and re-filled my bum bag with gels and was off again in just a few seconds. I had started the run with two bottles which I had drained over the first 15 miles; there were two more bottles now and two more were waiting for me at mile 36. Each time I used one bottle of Lucozade (leftover from my stash for Bangor) and on bottle of Orbana. I had a few gels in my bag and initially had taken one roughly every half hour but I always had to force those down and eventually stopped using them (I had 8 or 9 during the entire race). I also had one rice krispie square coming down the pass, and that was it as far as my entire race nutrition was concerned. I picked up water bottles from the aid station if I did not have a sports drink in my hand at the time.

I checked my watch as I went up Dingle's Main Street and 3:23 had passed since our start. It meant I was 83 minutes behind the half- and full marathon runners who had started right here. I also realised that the faster half-marathon runners had finished already, not that that was of any concern to me. There was a good bit of support from the locals, which of course helps, as it always does.

Anyway, my quads let me know that they were not happy at all. All along I had been more worried about the descent from the pass rather than the climb, and I was proven right. Halfway through the race and I started suffering. With basically a marathon still to go this had the potential to turn into a very long day. I saw one runner half a minute ahead of me, I'm pretty sure it was James Slowey from out group earlier on, but he gradually started to pull away from me. I never checked behind me so I never knew if I was being chased. I would not have been surprised if someone caught up because my pace was now almost a minute per mile slower than it had been before the pass, despite the effort being at least equal and the discomfort being significantly higher. The road was very lonely; there was quite a bit of car traffic coming out of Dingle but after a couple of miles that stopped almost completely and I was literally on my own. Support was sparse, but one very enthusiastic guy a couple of miles outside Dingle, stood out.

Mentally this was definitely the most challenging party of the race. Dunquin was still a half marathon away, the headwind was still as fierce as ever, the road was lonely and the legs were trashed. It was very tempting to take it easy, maybe even walk for a while, especially since this was not a goal race of mine. But I still had a bit of pride left and resolved not walk another step for the entire rest of the race and keep on pushing, no matter what.

It took me about 7 or 8 miles to catch up with the back of the pack. I presume the people I encountered early on were half-marathon walkers; if they were doing the full it would be a very long day indeed. Some of them gave a cheer, most were indifferent or just too much inside their own little bubble. By mile 10 the crowds had swelled and the last few miles into Dunquin were by far the busiest of the entire day. To be honest, this was my favourite part of the race. A bit of human interaction goes a long way to lift your spirit.

I picked up my drinks from the second drop-off station, again only taking a couple of seconds. The support there was great, the girl had seen my number and handed me my bag as I approached. I took the bottles and was off again. A Formula 1 pit stop could not have been more efficient.

Going through Dunquin I got my biggest cheer of the day from the assembled half-marathon finishers, and then the the road immediately turned lonely again. On the plus side, after battling the headwind for a gruelling 50 kilometer stretch, we finally had it on our back.

After going through a dark patch after leaving Dingle I had finally pulled through. My legs were still hurting but I was able to pick up the pace again. Nobody had caught me since Conor Pass and I was confident nobody was going to do so for the rest of the race. Very gradually a few marathon walkers came and went, but for the next 5 miles I was still pretty much on my own, ticking off the miles one by one, getting the job done.

With about 6 miles to go Michael was there again, and once again the main benefit was not the water bottle he gave me (I refused anything else, my stomach wasn't up for it and at that point I did not really need anything else), but the friendly face. I really appreciated the fact that he had basically given up his entire day to offer support. Thank you very much!

The full marathon course has a 1.5 mile out-and-back section before hitting the last hill but the ultra runners just went straight ahead instead. It felt a bit like taking a shortcut, and from that moment on the road was busier again, sharing it with the runners who finished just after 5 hours.

The last hill was a challenge. On the ultra course profile it looks like a little bump because Conor Pass is so overwhelming, but on the marathon profile it looks much more formidable. It is a little bit higher, steeper and longer than Connemara's Hell of the West, and after 45 miles it sure feels tough. I kept to my resolve to run the entire rest of the race. I overtook a good few runners; as far as I knew at the time they were all marathon runners. After the race James Slowey said I had been flying past him but did not elaborate where that had been, and I had not noticed. Anyway, I got to the top in good enough shape and tried to push the pace for the final 3+ miles in Dingle but paid the price for pushing a little bit too hard when my left calf started cramping. I tried to hobble on; keeping the foot in a dorsiflexed position kept the cramp somewhat at bay. On several occasions I tried to run in a more relaxed manner, but the spasms returned immediately. Just as I got the thing somewhat under control the right calf joined in on the fun and we went for a repeat performance on the other side. Under different circumstances I would have stopped to stretch out the cramp but with just over a mile to go it seemed worthwhile to run through it. All those fun and games finally came to an end when I reached the bottom of the hill. Running on an even surface did not give me any troubles and I picked up the pace again, but this time in a slightly more measured way.

The last mile into Dingle was the glory stretch, I enjoyed it, just as much as I enjoyed the fact that I would be able to stop soon. I knew I had run a good race, I wasn't even disappointed when I realised that I had missed the 7 hours by a hair's breadth. My last Dingle ultra had been a bit of a death march for the last 17 miles, this time I had kept a decent enough pace for the entire stretch, even picking it up again after coming through a dark patch.

Finish line photos by Mick Hanney

I finished in 7:01:41 in 8th place. Two years ago this would have been good enough for second place, but I always knew that this year would be more competitive, though I was surprised by how much more competitive it was. Keith had won it by breaking 6 hours, a mind-boggling achievement. It puts my own performance into perspective. In Connemara he had put half an hour on me in a race of just under 40 miles; therefore I should not really be a full hour behind after 50 miles. I guess that's the difference between Connemara being a goal race and Dingle a fun run.

Conor Pass makes a huge difference. Not only does your pace suffer as you go across the hill, it also trashes your legs for the final 25 miles. The 30+ miles of headwind significantly added to the challenge, on another day the same effort would easily have yielded a sub-7 time - Keith's time was all the more impressive under these circumstances. 

Anyway, I was satisfied and happy enough. It showed that I can put in a reasonable performance in an ultra even if it's not an A race. I know the next sentence sounds stupid, but it also showed me that 50 miles is basically too short to play to my strengths. I was still moving very well at the end. Had the race been longer I am convinced I would have caught a few runners and ended up further up the field. In short, I had a decent enough race, not great but good enough to be happy.

1 Sep

Dingle 50-mile Ultra 2012
7:01:41, 8:25 pace, HR 151, 8th place

Result

7:01:41, 8th place. To put that into some sort of context, that time would have been good enough for second place last time round.

Relentless headwind from mile 5 to 36, Conor Pass felt like hitting a wall.

Suffered for a bit after coming down from the pass but recovered and started moving well again. Ran out of road towards the end; 50 miles is too short for me, apparently.

Thanks to Mick Hanney for the photos

The Final Countdown

36 hours to go. Normally I would write a post where I sum up my training at this stage, but there is little point in that. I ran 126 miles 8 weeks ago and have spent the time since then recovering. My weekly mileage has been roughly 0, 40, 40, 80, 80, 70, 50 and 20. While the 80-mile weeks may seem high, it was all done at a very leisurely pace, which still makes them easy weeks in my eyes.

My last real training run was on Tuesday and I did a scaled down version of the taper workout that Mystery Coach gave me before Vienna. The idea was to run a few miles at race pace and then 3x800 to round it off. I made the mistake of never once checking my pace on the Garmin and ran at least half a minute per mile too fast. 50 mile race pace this was not. The pacing for the 3x800 was out as well, but since the first one was slightly net uphill and the first 2 against the wind, it's hard to make comparisons.

Ah well. Anyway, in 2 days I'll know exactly how stupid it is to run a serious ultra race under these circumstances. I did the same race 2 years ago, under very different circumstances. Back then it had been my A race and I had spent a full year looking forward to and preparing for it. This time, not only has my training been very different, my mindset is as well. At that point two years ago I was already basically unable to sleep (I ran the race after 3 nights of very little sleep), today I'm perfectly relaxed. If that is a good thing or not will be seen.

There is no way to fake your way through 50 miles. If I'm not in shape, it will be mercilessly revealed. Right now I'm still perfectly optimistic. I think I will beat my previous time and I also think I will have an easier race. I think of it as a 10-mile extension to Connemara, and when I ran Connemara 5 months ago it went very well and running 10 extra miles would not have scared me. Maybe the long, slow, drawn-out death-march towards the finish will be avoided if I don't even think about it.

So here I am, ready to run with a mixture of optimism and stupidity. I'm hoping to break 7 hours, but that requires a good day; on a bad day this will be out by a massive amount. I have no idea where all that would leave me place-wise; if all the fast runners who have said they might run it at one stage or another turn up then I won't have to worry about my place in the field under any circumstances, I will be well down. That would suit me just fine because then I can run my own race and won't get sucked into a silly private battle.

Can I really run 50 miles as a fun run? I'm definitely looking forward to it.

28 Aug

10 miles, 1:12:06, 7:13 pace, HR 149
   7 miles @ 7:15, 3x800 (3:02, 2:57, 2:46)

29 Aug

4 miles, 31:15, 7:49 pace, HR 139

30 Aug

0 miles

31 Aug

0 miles

Into The Unknown

The week of Dingle has arrived, much too soon for my liking. But I always knew that 8 weeks would not be enough between Bangor and Dingle, and I signed up for the Ultra anyway. I have absolutely no idea how this will go. I have read plenty of race reports where people ran immense races in similar circumstances and at least as many reports where the race was a complete disaster with a 20+ mile death march at the end. There's only one way to find out, and that's exactly what I'm going to do on Saturday.

Actually, I got a bit of a shock when reading the race web site and realising that this year there would only be one drop-off instead of two like last time. How we are supposed to race an ultra with only one drop off, after 24 miles, is a bit of a mystery to me. Sure, there will be the usual marathon aid stations, but they do not stock gels or sports drink. The sweets and bananas they offered 2 years ago only gave me stomach cramps.

I can carry a certain amount of gels with me and I will do a test run tomorrow to see how much I can put into my shorts without them falling down. An alternative is to use a bum bag, but I'd definitely prefer not to. Let's just say that I'm not too pleased. I'm even considering driving the route on Friday evening dropping off some stuff, but even if I do that there is no guarantee my supplies will still be there when I try to pick them up. That's not a problem I had to deal with in Bangor.

Saturday's group run was of the short and speedy variety. Normally I run the 5 miles to the meeting point but since I am tapering I used the car instead and since we only did just over 4 miles, it was a rather short outing. Anne is training for Valentia and pushed the pace; I think she has a good chance of winning her age group, but obviously that depends on who will be turning up.

I was back on the Kerry Way on Sunday for one last outing. The trail is still as muddy as ever, all the rain during the summer has clearly left its mark. The legs are taking the climb up to Windy Gap very well by now. I firmly believe that that road was fundamental for my great result in Bangor and am obviously hoping for a  similar result this time round.

The weather forecast for the weekend is encouraging, though 5 days out that's still with a great amount of uncertainty. The Dingle marathon has always been blessed with great weather; great for the spectators that is, not necessarily for the runners, but if you're running in such a magnificent environment a sunny day is definitely a plus.

Late Update: there will be a second drop-off at mile 36 after all. That makes things a lot easier.

25 Aug

4.6 miles, 34:27, 7:28 pace

26 Aug

12.25 miles, 1:46:31, 8:41 pace, HR 150
   Kerry Way, Windy Gap x 2

27 Aug

5 miles, 39:17, 7:51 pace, HR 138

Number Crunching

Robert Osfield left a comment: (I hope you don't mind, Robert)

I'm curious, how does your pace/HR/Calories per mile match to what it was like before Connemara?
... I do wonder if you might have enough data to do a similar analysis, do you log your HR, Calories consume, mileage, elevation/descents for each run? It might be interesting to plot the trends and any correlations to race performance that might spring up.

I do have my data of the last few months available on Garmin Connect, so I guess the data would be there, at least for a few months. I have data going back years in a different format, but that's harder to access. To be honest, I wouldn't know where to start with a detailed analysis. I do keep a very simple spreadsheet where I track my pace/HR correlation. I deliberately kept it very simple, ignoring even things like elevation or distance. What I can see are some general trends and the fact that my numbers have never been as good as right now except for February/March this year when I was nearing peak fitness for Connemara. I have never seen figures like that in base training and that's why I think my numbers are very good at the moment, assuming my HRM was working ok (which may or may not be the case).

Talking about the HRM, I do believe most numbers are ok but the numbers of the last 3 days were definitely wrong. It might be just another dead battery, but since the thing is definitely reaching the end of its useful life (it has a crack in it), I have ordered a replacement. I'll see what the figures will be like when that turns up.

I went back on the Kerry Way on Wednesday. One thing I noticed is that I automatically run faster on the rough terrain when I am wearing my glasses, especially on the steep downhills. That's another lesson learned (maybe I'll eventually turn into a real trail runner [no, I don't think so either]). I can feel definitely feel the leg strength coming back. It stood me well in Bangor, hopefully it will go as well in Dingle.

I did my last real workout before Dingle this morning, a repeat of Sunday's 10 miles with 7 at tempo effort. During the week I thought I had gotten the better of the Achilles problem in my left leg by doing eccentric calf raises, but the discomfort returned when running in my Lunaracers. That obviously puts the use of those shoes for Dingle in severe doubt. I will give them one more go and if the result is the same then I'll wear the same pair of Green Silence that got me through Bangor instead. They are nice, comfortable and light as well and would do just fine.

The tempo run itself went a lot better than on Sunday. I was already doing a decent enough pace when I spotted two girls ahead of me in the distance and spent the next mile catching up, which gave me a significantly faster average pace. Funny that. Just don't tell Niamh.

22 Aug

12.25 miles, 1:51:30, 9:06 pace
   Kerry Way, Windy Gap x 2

23 Aug

5 miles, ~40:00, ~8:00 pace
   no Garmin (!)

24 Aug

10 miles, 1:08:53, 6:53 pace
   incl. 7 miles @ 6:38 pace

Male PMT

I know Dingle is not my goal race by any means, but I still want to do as well as I can on my limited training since Bangor. That means I will prepare for it as best as I can from now on. With less than two weeks remaining, it means going cold turkey on coffee. Again. And it's not easy. I've already started two pointless arguments with Niamh on Monday and there's still a lot of crankiness left where those had come from.

Maybe this time I should avoid getting back on that stuff after Dingle. That shit's not worth it.

Training, on the other hand, is going swimmingly. Or maybe I should say tapering rather than training because the reduced mileage might well have something to do with the legs feeling so good. Last week was still reasonably high with over 70 miles, but that's already a 12% reduction compared to the previous 2 weeks. This week I will get to maybe 50, and next week I will be just ticking over until the race.

I dusted off my racers on Sunday to test them. I haven't worn them in a while and need a few runs in them to adapt the legs. While I was wearing them I did a few faster miles, but got reminded that I have become old, fat and slow. I am about 7 pound above my usual race weight and was at least 30 seconds per mile slower than on tempo runs back in February or March. My next goal race is not until March and there is plenty of time to rectify two out of three issues.

I felt it on Monday, the combination of a few faster miles and several hours of gardening left me with a pair of concrete pillars where my legs used to be. Because of that, and because I am tapering anyway, I only ran short and easy 5 miles both yesterday and this morning and I can already feel the benefits of those easy days.

My heart rate/pace numbers are actually very good at the moment. I am still recovering from Bangor and overall I'm still feeling a little bit better every day. I think my aerobic system has gotten a bit of a shock from running 126 miles in one go and responded accordingly; I am now reaping the benefits from that. If that will translate into a faster marathon time next year or if my pace has permanently gone, will eventually be revealed. Let's get Dingle out of the way first.

19 Aug

10 miles, 1:10:18, 7:02 pace, HR 151
   incl 7 miles @ 6:50

20 Aug

5 miles, 40:08, 8:02 pace, HR 134

21 Aug

5 miles, 38:47, 7:45 pace, HR 136

Memories Of Connemara

The first thing Ray O'Connor, the Connemara RD, said to me when he saw me at the briefing was "next year you'll be running.". After the race I had a coffee with Mick Rice; he asked if I'm running next year, I said maybe, and he immediately went "great, I'll crew for you and I'll get Jo to crew as well". (As if I let him crew for me. He has to keep his sequence of so far 4 wins in a row going!). Shane James Whitty told me he was already looking forward to my race report next year. Pat O'Keefe said something similar. At least half a dozen other said something along the same lines as well. I have no idea if there was a grand conspiracy to get me to sign up or if I just appear daft enough to do so anyway, but apparently I am going to run 100 miles next year, I just don't know it yet.

We shall see. It would certainly shape my 2013 running schedule. Pretty much everything I'd do would have to be geared towards Connemara.

Let's focus on the short term instead. Someone must have done a number on the calendar because all of a sudden Dingle is only 2 weeks away. I guess it's too late to cram in the training now. Instead I have been taken it pretty easy all week because my right calf kept being a little bit sore following Tuesday mountain run. It was not bad, but with a 50 miler so close I need to be careful. The other area of concern is my left Achilles, which keeps nagging me, especially early in the morning. Usually I would not be too concerned about a little discomfort like that but I'd prefer to go into a 50 miler without being crocked at the start line already.

This morning was the usual Saturday morning group run. The pace was a lot faster than usual, Anne kept pushing the pace; we ended up doing 7:40 pace for the hilly 10k instead of the usual 8:30-9:00, but it felt easy enough; at least that aspect is very encouraging for Dingle.

16 Aug

8 miles, 1:02:51, 7:51 pace, HR 138

17 Aug

7 miles, 54:45, 7:49 pace, HR 138

18 Aug

15.6 miles, 1:59:18, 7:38 pace, HR 141
   incl. 10k group run

Muddy Puddles

After unexpectedly managing two runs in Clifden last week's mileage again touched the 80 mark, a lot more than I thought, but the easy pace of those runs made it a fairly easy week despite the mileage.

I felt pretty good on Monday but with less than 3 weeks to go before Dingle it's slowly time to cut back a little bit. I guess I am supposed to start tapering now, but I'm not entirely sure what I am tapering from as I haven't done any real training since Bangor, everything I did was just recovery from that race.

Monday was a beautiful morning and the legs felt very fresh. As I stated already, as of last week I am feeling really good again and my HR/pace numbers have improved on an almost daily basis, backing up that subjective feeling with some real, objective, numbers.

My key workouts before Bangor had been a few mountainous runs, especially one where I crossed the Windy Gap 4 times, which added up to an elevation gain of ~3000 feet. In an attempt to get my leg strength back to the same level, I repeated the same workout on Tuesday morning.

The weeks of rain have turned much of the dirt road into a mud bath and the rest is quite stony, so I wore my off-road shoes but started suffering after a while because they provide virtually no cushioning and the stones really started hurting my feet. However, I was more concerned about the slow pace; I ran 10 minutes slower than the last time and if I had returned home any later Niamh would have called a search party. I know that time on feet is more important than pace when it comes to ultra training, but it definitely bothered me.

Anyway, my experience from the Bangor training cycle was that I recover very quickly from these mountain runs but not only did I feel rather stiff this morning, I also felt some discomfort in my right calf muscle. Strangely enough, the only time of the day when it did not hurt was when I was running, but that may be purely down to the endorphins. I took it very easy today and expect to bounce back quickly. The Stick will also see some use.

Normally I would be counting down the days to Dingle at this stage, willing time to pass faster, but actually I am feeling the complete opposite right now. I know that every day will make me a bit stronger after Bangor and that race day will come a bit too soon for me, so I am actually hoping time will pass more slowly (I know, it doesn't really make sense). I have no idea how Dingle will go. I will play it by ear. It has the potential to turn into a very long day indeed, but I'm hoping for better.

13 Aug

8 miles, 1:02:27, 7:48 pace, HR 137

14 Aug

14.75 miles, 2:30:23, 10:12 pace, HR 138
   Kerry Way: Windy Gap x 4

15 Aug

8 miles, 1:04:36, 8:04 pace, HR 139

The View From The Other Side

As you probably know, I had a great crew for my 24 hours race in Bangor 5 weeks ago. I still don't quite know why Jo offered to sacrifice a weekend to crew for me all day and night, apart from the fact that she is obviously a very good person, but I have felt a little bit of guilt ever since. So when Frank McDermott asked last week if someone would crew him for the Connemara 100-mile race, I offered my services to repay the favour (or, really, to pass it on).

After a very long drive I arrived in Clifden just a few minutes after the race briefing had started. The race is growing, there were 25 runners at the start this year. I wonder where this will lead. I had a good chat with plenty of old friends (that's what it's all about, isn't it?), and eventually Frank had the chance to talk me through his requirements.

Crewing for the Connemara Race is very different to the job that was required in Bangor. We basically had to drive behind our runners and whenever they needed anything park the car at  the side of the road and hand it over.

Everyone gathered very early on Saturday morning. It was a very low-key start. We watched the lunatic fringe of the Irish running community run one loop through the town before heading off towards Letterfrack, which was the signal for us crews to jump into our cars for the start of a very long day.

I don't want to go into too much detail, because Frank should tell his story himself if he wants. He looked very good early on and took in plenty of fluid. All that changed about 20 miles into the race when his stomach shut down. From that moment on he was unable to take anything in, not even water. He manfully battled on for many more hours, running first then walking and eventually wobbling. There was not much anyone could do, if you cannot take in even water, you cannot complete 100 miles. I am very grateful to the others crews who all offered their assistance, but to no avail. I could tell a few stories, but one pretty much summed it all up. When he was halfway down the Hell of the West, I tried to cheer him up by telling him that at least he had conquered the Hell, at which point he looked at me and told me that he had no idea where he was and that he had not even realised that the last mile had been steep downhill. To his credit he dragged on for 10 more miles after that episode before finally pulling the plug between miles 52 and 53. It still took several hours afterwards to take some fluid onboard, but eventually he came round and spared himself a trip to the local hospital.

That's not how he had imagined his day, and of course that's not what I had come to Connemara for, but what can you do. I found crewing very tough. I never had a moment to relax, I either had to drive the car or assist Frank, and seeing him suffer like that really made for a tough day.

We took advantage of the little positives that came out of it; we were able to see Mick Rice finish in an amazing time of 15:22 or 15:23 to win the race for the 4th time in a row. We also got a good night's sleep instead of the expected long night out on the road.

I unexpectedly managed to get my weekend runs in after all, 10 miles on Saturday evening and a few more on Sunday morning to see the Alcock and Brown monument and landing site. As I got back on the road I spotted a runner on the road, who turned out to be Oliver Clare, the last man standing. I had seen him plenty of times early in the race and he had looked tired even then. By now he looked shattered, no wonder after 27 hours on the road. I spoke a few words to his crew, and as I was about to turn back to Clifden he asked me to run with him. I could not possibly say no to that and we made our way into Clifden. The race rather cruelly requires the runners to complete 3 more laps through town after they reach it, and I asked Oliver if he wanted me to run them with him as well, "yes please". Actually he moved remarkably well for someone who had been through the wringer like that and he finished to a highly deserved round of applause, comfortably over an hour under the cut-off. I have gained tons of respect for him and was glad to have played at least a tiny part in one runner's successful outcome.

Oliver ran the entire race with a Garmin. His remarkable file is available here.

11 Aug

10 miles, 1:19:52, 7:59 pace, HR 142

12 Aug

7.75 miles, 1:02:45, 8:08 pace, HR 138
~6.5 miles, ~1:30:00 with Oliver Clare

Connemara Again

I only have a couple of minutes before I'm heading off for Connemara, so this will be short (hurrah says Ewen). The 100 mile race is on tomorrow, and I will be crewing for a friend of mine.

Anyway. It took 4 weeks and I was just about to really start whinging and whining about my lack of legs when all of a sudden the weariness lifted, almost from one day to the next, and since then I have felt better with each day.

I was back on the Kerry Way on Wednesday, but had learned two important lessons from last week's excursion: I left earlier to have enough time to climb up to Windy Gap twice rather than only once, and I wore my off-road running shoes, which performed so much better on the muddy track it was just no comparison. Niamh wasn't all too pleased to see me come home covered in mud, but hey, I've had my fun.

I find I always recover very quickly from these mountain runs. The legs might be rather sore for the rest of the day from all the climbing, but bounce back rapidly. I still took it easy on Thursday with only 8 miles at a very relaxed effort. It was on that run that it struck me how easy running had become again. That feeling of effortlessly gliding over the pavement isn't quite there yet, but it is definitely getting close.

Because I might not be able to run anything at all over the weekend because of my crewing duties, I decided to sneak in a longer run on Friday. It was a gorgeous morning; it looks like we might have some nice weather for Puck Fair for a change, the last couple of years have been rather desperate. I did my usual loop around the lake, with that little detour around the Devil's Elbow to add a couple of extra miles. Last week the 600 foot climb was a bit of a struggle. Today I went up entirely on autopilot and hardly noticed anything (I was probably still half asleep. It was only past 6 o'clock at the time).

My heart rate for the same effort keeps dropping steadily, the figures are a little bit better every day, but the consistent rise indicates that the HRM is working fine. It's sudden jumps in the data that keep me questioning the thing.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to a rather busy weekend in Connemara; the weather should be very nice for the crews, if a little but warm for the runners.

8 Aug

12.3 miles, 1:56:38, 9:29 pace, HR 146
   off-road on the Kerry Way

9 Aug

8 miles, 1:03:23, 7:55 pace, HR 139

10 Aug

16.7 miles, 2:10:44, 7:50 pace, HR 138

Up And Down

Training never progresses in a straight line, at least not for me, but the ups and downs I have experienced since Bangor are definitely unusual. One day I feel like falling apart, the knees and the Achilles hurt and I'm as slow as a snail on tranquilizers, then all of a sudden things are looking up and everything is rosy again.

After hitting a definite low point last week, the weekend saw a rather dramatic turnaround. I'm not sure why. Maybe the body is responding to the higher mileage, maybe the slower pace has allowed recovery to catch up, or maybe it's just another false dawn, but right now things are looking rather good, all of a sudden. My form curve is climbing at a rather astounding pace, so much so that I'm starting to doubt the HRM again.

My resting heart rate as finally dropped as well. It hung around the 50 mark ever since Bangor and finally dropped to 44, pretty much where it used to be before that race. My resting HR is not a good predictor for the shape I'm in (it was measured as low as 36, but my best performances tended to come when it was slightly over 40), but I think it does indicate that recovery is indeed progressing. Again, all this assumes that the HRM is working properly, but my gut feeling is that at least that particular reading is correct.

Still, I can't help but look at John O'Regan's latest post and feel a tad envious. His recovery is clearly going very well. Not only has he just run a 5k at an easy effort that matches my PB, he is also getting ready for another 24 hours race (an "important one", this time [Thanks, John]). In comparison my plans of running a mere 50 miles in Dingle are rather tame, and I'm not even dreaming of running an 18 minutes 5k for the foreseeable future.

Anyway, the long weekend went very well indeed. I felt better with each day, there is a spring in the legs again and the knees are improving as well. With less than 4 weeks to go before Dingle, that's just in time. I managed to time Saturday's and Sunday's run very well by avoiding the rain showers, but there was no such luck this morning. Torrential rain and partially flooded roads made for some interesting conditions, but I've run in worse, and training in weather like that dis pay massive dividends in Bangor, after all.

I got a bit of a surprise when I added up last week's miles. It came to almost 80, definitely more than expected. Then again, if you run them slow enough, miles do not hurt you (I know, not everyone agrees on that point). I have always felt comfortable at higher mileage, I don't think that will change any time soon.

5 Aug

8 miles, 1:02:56, 7:42 pace, HR 145

6 Aug

10 miles, 1:17:29, 7:45 pace, HR 143

7 Aug

10 miles, 1:17:46, 7:47 pace, HR 141

Fool In The Rain

According to the bible it was raining for 40 days and 40 nights. I'm pretty sure nobody in Ireland would be too impressed by that story. In fact, if it stopped raining every 40 days it would bring a marked improvement compared to what we continue to endure here. According to that guy on the radio we've just had the wettest July in recorded history (hang on, didn't they say that about June already?)

Worse, I'm getting fed up with the fact that four weeks after Bangor I'm still merely hobbling along. Sure, I was perfectly aware that recovery would take a long time. However, that does not mean that I'm happy about it. Just like the fact that I was perfectly aware that it would be raining a lot this summer, again. I don't like that, either.

When Mystery Coach took over my training 2 years ago his advice to recover from the previous marathon basically boiled down to "run more and run slower". I'm trying exactly that right now, though I'm not 100% sure if the same strategy applies to recovery from a long ultra. After taking it relatively easy on Thursday because the legs were rather beaten up following Wednesday's trip up to Windy Gap, I ran around Caragh lake on Friday morning. When I'm in good shape I can breeze up the long climbs without a bother. On Friday I was struggling a bit, but keeping the effort low meant I got round in decent shape, if slower than anticipated. There was some discomfort in both knees on the downhills. The left one is still recovering from Bangor, but since it now feels fine on flat roads I'm not worried. The right one hurts since my silly accident on the assault course last week, and since that's not a running injury I'm not too worried about that one, either. So I just keep running.

Saturday was the group run; even though the miles were longer than on Friday, the relaxed pace with the group (about 9:20) made this a much easier effort, even though I could feel yesterday's effort in the legs (or is it the week's accumulated miles?).

Athletics has finally started at the Olympics. I wasn't particularly excited before the games but found myself really enjoying the swimming events and now I'm really looking forward to the track. Yesterday's women's 10k was already amazing, at least Dibaba's final push was. I'd be more than happy if it continues like that.

2 Aug

8 miles, 1:02:19, 7:47 pace, HR 149

3 Aug

15.15 miles, 2:05:25, 8:16 pace, HR 143

4 Aug

15.75 miles, 2:14:14, 8:31 pace, HR 137

Hiding Away

Could you imagine having to spend you entire life with a sociopath with OCD tendencies? No, me neither. Niamh, on the other hand, has of now 15 years of practise. Wow. She more than deserved a long weekend away in a treehouse, and before you get the wrong impression, that's a treehouse that did not only featured things like hot shower or kitchen, but also a hot tub. She liked it. Happy Anniversary!

Of course she still let me get out for my daily run. She's great like that. I got to explore a whole new set of roads, which I did 3 times in 2 days, with 2 runs on my own and one run/walk with my new secret running buddy.

Unfortunately, these things never last long enough and much too soon it was time to head back home and face reality again.

This morning, I went back on the Kerry Way for the first time in ages. What I had not anticipated was the fact that several weeks of almost relentless rain would have turned the dirt road into a mud bath. I really should have managed to figure that out myself and taken the off-road runners instead of sliding all over the place in my road runners. As a result the run was much slower than anticipated because I spent much of my time trying to stay vertical rather than making progress. I therefore bagged Windy Gap only once instead of the planned two times; it truly lived up to its name, though.

There was some discomfort in both knees, especially on the downhills, the right one being a bit worse than the right one.

The HR reading seems too low today, though it's hard to tell as I was unable to run properly for much of it. It's the second time in a few days that I don't really believe the HR. I think my chest strap is on its way out. It would not be much of a surprise, the thing is well over 4 years old and has seen a lot of use. There is a crack appearing at one point; I guess it's time to look for a replacement.

The legs are feeling a bit beat up by now, which is most likely due to the increased mileage as well as today's mountain run. I'll take it east tomorrow.

30 Jul

am:10 miles, 1:15:45, 7:34 pace, HR 149
pm:4 miles run/walk

31 Jul

8 miles, 1:00:52, 7:36 pace, HR 150

1 Aug

10.8 miles, 1:39:02, 9:10 pace, HR 133(?)
   on the Kerry Way