Almost Always Never Nearly

Tralee might be my target race this spring, but in my heart Ballycotton was a close second. I did (still do) wonder if it really is a good idea to race 10 miles only 13 days before a marathon, but I just was not going to miss this race. Any other one, maybe, but not this one.

So I found myself once more shivering in the cold before the start, which is pretty much part of the Ballycotton experience. I lined up reasonably close to the start, which is always a bit tricky, it can be hard to gauge where you should stand, certainly not amongst the elites, though of course there is always the usual contingent of idiots who don't get that.

The start came as a bit of a surprise, according to my watch it started a minute early, unheard of in Ireland! There was a small amount of weaving around some of the slower starters who had placed themselves inappropriately (my fear is that one day one of them will be causing a serious accident with 3000 runner following closely behind on such a narrow road), but all in all I got off very well. I found myself right next to Paul Moran, who I had paced Limerick with last year, but I knew I wouldn't be able to quite stay with him so wasn't too bothered when he slowly moved away.

I'm in that bright orange t-shirt a minute into the video

Before the race I wondered if I would be able to pace myself off Angela McCann, a previous winner of the race and usually just a little bit faster than me. After half a mile I managed to spot her, just about 10 steps ahead of me. Over the next mile I managed to close the gap and a group of about half a dozen runners formed and that pretty much defined the entire rest of the race for me.

Last year I had started a little bit too hard, started suffering after only 3 miles and had to drag my sorry backside home for a very, very long time, though I still set a new PB. This year it felt distinctively easier though the pace was very similar, maybe even a touch faster. Mile 3 came and went and I felt comfortable enough; well, it's what runners call comfortably hard, at the high end of what felt just about sustainable.

The cold temperature made for excellent running conditions but there was a little breeze that was a little bit stronger than I would have liked. It helped us during the first half of the race, and we passed the 5 mile mark still in one group well under the 30 minute mark; I think they called the time as 29:26, though I could have misheard that. At that point I was still feeling okay and was wondering if I was inside the top 100 places. The top 100 finishers in Ballycotton receive a highly coveted t-shirt and it is a long-standing dream of mine to bag my own one day. Before the race I had stated that I had an outside chance of one, but probably not. But maybe, just maybe, this year would be the one?

Photo by Gearoid O Laoi

I started suffering at the 6 mile mark. I took a gel, which is what I usually do at that point. I know you won't run out of glycogen in a 10-mile race, but even if it gives me just a psychological boost, purely by placebo, that would do me just fine. I learned from last year that you do overtake the odd runner who falls off the pace, but once you start falling off the pace yourself you get swallowed by packs on 5s or more at a time and you can very quickly lose a lot of places. So I hung on grimly to the end of our group, having to work harder and harder, but being determined to keep going for as long as humanly possible. The wind was now right into our faces and I reckoned the group would provide at least a minimum amount of shelter that would be gone immediately once I dropped off, so that was to be avoided at all costs.

I was really counting down the miles now. Mile 7 came and went and I still hung on. We passed mile 8, where Rene had overtaken me last year looking relaxed and fresh, but this time I was still going. Then the hill started with about 1.5 miles to go and I just could not quite keep up with Angela. What was left of our group pretty much splintered at that point anyway, Angela doing very well but the rest of us clearly struggling and suffering.

I did not lose much ground and I did not get caught from behind and I fought hard to keep my place. When I passed the 9 mile mark they called the time as 54:06, at which point I realised that I would most likely not break the hour mark but I would be very close. I did not have the energy to think, but a new PB was already in the bag, I would have gotten that even if I had jogged to the finish, but of course I pressed on even though I was running entirely on fumes and had been doing so for a considerable amount of time.

I struggled and suffered through the final mile, never giving up but not quite managing to catch the guys in front of me. When I started my finishing sprint with what little I had left they did so themselves, which put them just out of reach. I don't remember seeing the time on the gantry but my own Garmin had me at 60:14, which was basically a minute faster than last year (they correctly rounded that up to 60:15 in the results). I could see the runners in front of me collecting their t-shirts, Angela got hers, but 3 runners in front of me that stopped. I had missed out on a top-100 shirt by 3 places and 5 seconds! I want to keep this post reasonably clean so I won't repeat the next 2 dozen words I voiced; let's say I gave a good Father Jack impression. There were dozens of guys hanging around all wearing their new t-shirts. I looked at the ground in front of me and walked off.

Luckily I did calm down very quickly. Pat Quill had finished shortly behind me (unlike in the Dingle ultra) and we chatted for a bit, I met a few other guys on the way back down, including one runner who greeted me with the words "aren't you that crazy fella from Kerry", which I suppose I was, and I met Keith in the car park and we ran 2 miles together for our cool down. You can't be upset in Ballycotton on race day. There is such a fantastic buzz in town, you can almost feel the energy and it's a great place to be. The positives easily outweigh the negatives and I was left with one thought:

Two weeks ago I ran a disappointing time in a 5k and used that to pump me up for the next race and got a new PB for it. Today I just missed out on a dream in Ballycotton and will use that to push me to a better time in Tralee instead, and since I have improved both my time and my place in every single year since I started running Ballycotton 5 or 6 years ago I will collect my t-shirt next year instead.

Provisional results are here.

1 Mar

8 miles, 58:42, 7:20 pace

2 Mar

5 miles, 35:30, 7:05 pace, HR 144

3 Mar

13 miles, including:
   Ballycotton 10, 60:15, 103^rd place

Taper Week

Even if I hadn't started the taper a bit earlier than planned, by now it would be upon me. The run on Monday was easy again, easier even than Sunday. The only remarkable thing was that I pressed the "stop" button exactly 1 hour after starting, on the dot and not by design. I guess if you do enough one hour runs you'll eventually end up with one that is exactly one hour.

I awoke Tuesday with a slightly sore throat, very similar to a couple of weeks ago and because back then I had continued running without any issues I saw no reason to change this time. Good call, when I was running I could not feel any soreness in the throat and completely forgot about it. The workout I did was a set of half-mile repeats, just like last week, and since last week had gone well I wasn't too apprehensive this time round either.

With my former coach's warnings ringing in my ears to be taking it easy in training in order to be able to race well I cut the number of repeats down by one to five, but the target (2:50-3:00) and the rest (2 minutes) all remained the same. Nature provided a spectacular background as I ran my repeats back- and forwards on the Caragh Lake road with the moonset in one direction and sunrise in the other, though I could only admire that during the rest intervals, certainly not during the fast segments. It went even better than last week with slightly faster pace feeling a little bit easier at a slightly lower heart rate - just the kind of progress you want to see.

2:54 (HR 150), 2:54 (152), 2:51 (158), 2:51 (166), 2:51 (163)

Unfortunately, my werewolf genes came to the fore again that night as I was unable to get to sleep. I get that fairly regularly, and always at or close to Full Moon. It has nothing to do with light in our bedroom as we have perfectly good blackout curtains, but something is stopping me from falling asleep those nights, and staring at the ceiling until 3 am really doesn't do it for me. Thankfully the lack of sleep does not seem to affect me. After the previous day's intervals it was an easy day again, and the sore throat had cleared already. It was one of those effortlessly-floating-along-the-road kind of runs where everything comes so easily. The former coach has this axiom that he likes to throw at me at regular intervals:

"When you get toward peak shape your brain ignores fatigue, this is good for racing but bad for training".

Up to now I had always denied that I was in that state - workouts had left me tired and sore often enough to conclude that my brain was not ignoring fatigue, but now I think I might have indeed reached that state. And with Tralee less than 3 weeks away, that's exactly where I want to be.

With an eye on Sunday's race in Ballycotton I did another little workout this morning, namely a set of hill sprints in an attempt to sharpen up the legs. I did a few of those earlier in my training cycle on the same hill. The main difference this time round was that it is now much brighter in the morning and I could actually see the road I was running on, which does indeed have its advantages. I stopped once the sprints started feeling a little bit tough, which was pretty soon to be honest, but it was never meant to be an exhausting workout.

There will be more easy days, then Ballycotton, then recovery from that, followed by maybe one or two mellow workouts and next thing I'll be at the Tralee startline.

25 Feb

8 miles, 1:00:00, 7:30 pace, HR 135

26 Feb

7 miles, 50:21, 7:11 pace, HR 151
   5 x half mile in 2:54, 2:54, 2:51, 2:51, 2:51

27 Feb

8 miles, 58:33, 7:19 pace, HR 138

28 Feb

6+ miles, 47:48, 7:42 pace, HR 148
   hill sprints

Fastest Old Guy

well, apart from the real fast ones ...

Saturday was the final race of the Gneeveguilla AC race series. While I had done well in the first 2 races, setting a new PB in the process, I wasn't too happy with the third race and paired with the slow 10k time I had set in Kenmare I had started to worry that I might have peaked already and was on my way down, which would have been seriously bad news for Tralee, especially after getting into such a good shape at the start of the year.

However, there were some positive signs as well, not least the fact that my no-sugar diet is starting to show some effects. I stood on the scales on Saturday morning to see that my weight had dropped below 145 pounds (10 stone 5, 65.7 kg) for the first time in 11 months! Most of all, I drilled into myself to give a better effort than last week, come what may!

It was a freezing cold day and everyone was shivering at the start. I noticed a lot of people wearing long sleeves, but at the fast end there were still plenty of t-shirts and singlets in view.

George took off ahead of me again, but I was close behind him. When the field had settled I found myself matching stride with Donal Kelly, so I figured I must be doing well. After about a km I was unsure if the pace/effort was okay (the last 2 races had knocked the confidence in my pacing a bit) so I did what I usually never do in a race, I checked my Garmin to have a look at the figures.

In my experience, nine out of ten time it's a bad idea to pace yourself off a gadget, especially in such a short, fast race as a 5k. However, this was the one time it worked. While the average pace of 5:44 was fine, the present pace of 5:58 was too slow, just as I had suspected, and I put the hurt on. I got my nose just ahead of Donal, he responded and we both increased the effort. The turnaround disrupted my rhythm and I fell a step or two behind but recovered and we kept pushing each other hard for most of the rest of the race until he finally managed to put a little bit of daylight between us on the last half k when I struggled up that tiny little hill. I pushed hard until the end and was rewarded, and very pleasantly surprised, with a new 2-second PB at the end as I crossed the line in 17:51.

According to the Garmin my mile splits were 5:41, 5:50 and 5:42, which is remarkable because I am absolutely certain that this is the first time I ever managed to speed up in the last mile of a 5k instead of getting progressively slower. I'm also pretty sure that it was my fastest third mile in a 5k ever and obviously that's where I got my new PB. I can't help but be very happy with that result, I did exactly what I intended to do and got my reward.

There was a prize ceremony afterwards for the race series. The prize structure was very generous, going 10 deep overall and prizes for the top 2 in each age category on top of that. I would have been ninth overall but they gave me first M40 instead because that was deemed better with a higher reward, though I have to point out that George and Donal are M40s and John and Rob M45s and they all finished ahead of me, so I was the fastest old guys apart from the actually fast old guys who managed to place better in the overall standings. However, I was happy, and I think so was everyone else. Well done to Gneeveguilla for hosting yet another great race series.

Sunday was easy again, or at least I thought it was easy and never checked the Garmin, so I was a bit surprised to see that I had averaged 7:17 pace. There must have been a massive gorse fire at the lakeside during the night but it was in the process of dying out when I passed it. It's that time of the year again, I suppose.

22 Feb

5 miles, 38:37, 7:43 pace

23 Feb

7 3/4 miles, including:
   Gneeveguilla 5k 4/4, 17:51, 5:44 pace, 10th place

24 Feb

10 miles, 1:12:56, 7:17 pace, HR 142

Dodged Yet Another Bullet

I knew there was trouble brewing. I awoke several times on Tuesday night with a sore throat, something that was still with me when I finally got up at around 6:30 in the morning. It was uncomfortable but not too bad, so I went ahead with the workout.

My very first thought on speedwork days used to be “oh no, speedwork!” but I wasn’t too bothered this time round; maybe because the workout didn’t seem too hard, especially after running 18-minute 5ks several times this year already. The plan, which originally came from my previous coach, was to run 6 half miles around 2:50-3:00 with 2 minutes of recovery. Perfectly doable.

I felt awkward and slow during the warm up but once I got going I was fine and the sore throat was completely forgotten. The workout went very well, I hit all the paces and was always in full control and reasonably relaxed.

2:56 (HR 156), 2:57 (160), 2:53 (163), 2:54 (165), 2:52 (164), 2:51 (169)

The last one was tougher than the previous ones but still nowhere near all-out. I was very happy with it and that’s not something I tend to say after intervals.

However, I did not feel great for the rest of the day with some cold coming on, and Niamh chided me for not wrapping up the day before when it was cold. I thought that kind of talking-to had stopped about 35 years ago when my mum gave up, but apparently not.

The sore throat was worse on Wednesday, and this time I seriously contemplated binning the run. What is there to gain from an easy run if you’re on the verge of being sick? Then I decided that I had no symptoms below the neck, my usual cut-off point, and that yesterday’s intervals had gone exceedingly well despite the sore throat and went out after all, but only for 6 easy miles. The HR monitor supports my decision I suppose, the HR was not elevated. If something had been properly wrong I would have expected to see a different value.

I guess I got away with it. I still felt some very minor discomfort this morning but it’s definitely a lot better, and I’m feeling perfectly fine otherwise. I did another mellow workout, 8 miles at 7-ish pace with a surge towards 6-minute-pace every mile for 0.3 - 0.4 miles before falling back to 7-minute pace, which felt like jogging after surging. Due to the strong gale force winds I did not take much notice of the actual pace and went by feel only, which was about 5:50 pace with the wind at my back and closer to 6:30 against the wind, and I cut the very last surge short with an eye on Saturday’s final 5k of the race series.

I have basically decided that I am tapering for Tralee already, so there won’t be any more real long runs. Ballycotton will be the last big workout, and I’ll do a few more faster but shorter runs, in the hope that it will make running at 6:30 – 6:40 pace feel easier.

My biggest worry for Tralee is that we will have to deal with winds like today. It would blow away any chances of a decent time, and it’s a factor I cannot control (so why worry?). I’ll need to get my head around this before race day.

19 Feb

7 miles, 50:14, 7:10 pace, HR 147
     6 half mile repeats: 2:56 (HR 156), 2:57 (160), 2:53 (163), 2:54 (165), 2:52 (164), 2:51 (169)

20 Feb

6 miles, 45:25, 7:34 pace, HR 138

21 Feb

8 miles, 54:57, 6:52 pace, HR 154

Race Weekend

When Niamh first informed me that we were going up to Dublin for that weekend, my first thought was "what about my training!", especially as I knew it would already have been disrupted by our trip to Disneyland, and with Tralee only 4 weeks away it really did not seem like the ideal time to go travelling yet again. As it happened, my previous coach has already told me to take it easy (in fact he did so twice. I more or less ignored him the first time round) and training lost from now on can be seen as recovery gained.

There was also the small matter of another race in the Gneeveguilla race series, though that one really was a small matter. My main problem was that Niamh had already left for Dublin on Thursday, leaving me without a car, but thankfully Michael gave me a lift to the race. The 5k itself ... well, I wasn't too happy. It started differently to all the other races in that George took off ahead of me instead of catching me after 1 km, but I was pretty sure that was because he started faster rather than me running slower. He told me afterwards that he did that deliberately after reading my previous race reports on the blog. After that I just kept going at the effort level that seemed appropriate, very similar to all the other races in the series. I slipped at the turnaround point, but that was a minor incident. It wasn't until right at the end when I saw the timer already in the 18s that I realised that I had run slower than at all the other races so far this year. The picture from the finish confirms this; the contrast to a fortnight ago when I laid everything out on the line for a new PB compared to this time round when I look like I just finish a nice relaxing jog and you know I could and definitely should have run faster. I could beat myself over the head about it, but instead I'll take next week's final race as an opportunity to put things right again.

After the race it was time to hop on a train and go to Dublin. I only did 2 easy runs while in the smoke, though I was quite pleased to see that the HR reading has returned to better levels. The main challenge was to resist temptation at Grandad's 80 birthday party, but I managed to say no to trifle, cake, jelly and biscuits, which was no mean feat, believe you me. Definitely a better performance than at Saturday's race.

16 Feb

~6 miles, including:
   Killarney 5k, 18:10, 5:50 pace, HR 180

17 Feb

6+ miles, 45:23, 7:22 pace, HR 140

18 Feb

6 miles, 43:13, 7:12 pace, HR 142

My Favourite Workout

I'm not religious, but the last two years I have always used lent as an excuse to give up sugar. This has nothing to do with faith, just a convenient opportunity to shed a few pounds. The Tralee  marathon is earlier in the year than any other spring marathon I have ever done, so I was planning on starting the sugar-free period earlier, but it just never happened. My will power obviously has its limits. I wasn't even sure if I would do any sugar-free time this year at all but when Niamh asked me on Sunday if I would give up sugar for lent again I said yes - so here I am, jonesing chocolate already, but hopeful that the cravings will stop eventually. I know going off sugar has plenty of benefits, and I am not even talking about running; apart from a couple of shed pounds I always notice that my skin improves and I feel better. I still can't see myself going off chocolate completely. It's my one dirty little secret. But my main motivation is still that I will have a couple of pounds less on my frame than the present 148 ones when we gather on the Tralee start line.

After the series of easy runs following last week's race I did one workout this week. After getting up at dark-thirty once more I ran 15 miles yesterday morning, alternating half-miles at slightly faster-than-marathon pace (6:20-6:30) with miles at slightly slower than MP (6:40-6:50) eight times, and the numbers came out as follows (pace in minutes per mile, as always):
     6:20 6:43
     6:28 6:43
     6:28 6:39
     6:24 6:41
     6:27 6:45
     6:18 6:45
     6:27 6:48
     6:28 6:47
The effort oscillated between comfortable and bloody damn hard, depending on wind direction and elevation change, but I am very happy with the numbers; I could have done more at the end. After some feedback I decided that this was probably my last big workout for Tralee, from here on I need recovery more than additional work, but I will do a few faster runs, like half-mile repeats, to get the legs used to faster paces. Hopefully this will make marathon pace feel easier come race day.

Oh, and there are still a couple of races at the weekends.

14 Feb

15 miles, 1:42:00, 6:48 pace, HR 159
   8 x (0.5 miles MP+, 1 mile MP-)

15 Feb

8 miles, 1:00:18, 7:32 pace, HR 139

The Dip

It was last Friday that I first noticed a strange HR value after my run; I had expected it to be much lower. However, Garmin’s HR solution isn’t exactly the best, owing to their sub-standard chest straps and I have seen isolated funny readings before, so I did not take much notice.

Then I ran the race on Saturday and again noticed a sky-high HR. In fact I had recorded a higher average HR for that 10K then for any of the three 5K races I had done this year, which seemed a bit weird. At that point I still thought a faulty HR reading was most likely to blame and considered swapping the battery in the HR strap, but then I didn’t have a battery handy and kept going, again recording strangely high readings on Sunday, but when the values started improving on Monday I started suspecting that the readings might actually have been real.

I always keep a very simple spreadsheet where I calculate a number from the HR/pace combination, which gives some surprisingly effective feedback on the state of my fitness. Looking at the graph for February you can clearly see a massive dip, starting on Friday, bottoming out for Saturday’s race and gradually recovering over the following days until returning more or less back to normal today, Wednesday.

While I still can’t be 100% sure that the HR data was correct, I am now inclined to believe the readings. An interesting observation is that Cian was off school on Monday after not feeling well and Niamh told me yesterday that she had felt a bit off as well. Usually I would expect to be able to tell straight away if anything was out of whack when I’m running, certainly when running a race, but I never felt anything unusual, just noticed the strange HR readings on the Garmin. My best guess is that I was fighting some infection which was just about enough to affect the HR rate but still low-level enough to not be felt. It might even explain my slower-than-expected time for Saturday’s race, though I’ll never know for sure (there was still that hill and the fact that I was running on my own most of the time).

On a different note, I was not surprised by some rather sore legs on Monday but what did come as a surprise was that it was the hamstrings that were mostly affected while the quads were ok. I was still sore on Tuesday and there was still some residue left on Wednesday which prompted a change in plan and I ran easily all days instead of a planned workout this morning. But I’m just about back to normal and with the HR seemingly recovered I am going to get some more proper training under the belt. There is not much time left before the taper for Tralee starts.

11 Feb

8 miles, 1:01:38, 7:42 pace, HR 139

12 Feb

8 miles, 1:02:09, 7:46 pace, HR 137

13Feb

8 miles, 1:00:15, 7:32 pace, HR 138

Only One Hill

South Kerry isn't exactly blessed with a lot of road races, so a 10k in Kenmare came as a nice change of scenery. After running 3 times under 18 minutes for a 5k (even if one of them was rounded up to 18), I expected a pretty good time for Saturday's 10k run. I regard my present 10k PB as rather soft at this stage and was quite confident yet another PB was winging its way to me. I had been doing nothing but short and easy runs all week, a combination of Disneyland and recovery from last week's mega sessions, so in theory I should have been well rested and raring to go. In reality I felt as sluggish on Saturday as I had on Friday, something I could not quite explain, but I was still highly confident. Some of my best races had come after feeling sluggish during the warm up.

Four guys went off at the front and I was right behind. I was unsure how to pace myself for a 10k, so I guessed I'd better back off a little because following right behind Ed and Arthur isn't generally a good idea for me. The downside of it all was that I had a group disappearing up front and another group well behind me, and I was left running entirely on my own in fifth place for much of the race; this had become a glorified tempo run all of a sudden.

After two miles it became something else entirely because now we were climbing the hill. I had run a 10k with a monster hill in Kenmare two years ago and was wondering if the course was the same. Turns out - it was, at least for the first 7k, and yes, that included the entire hill. With nobody around me I found it very tricky to find the right effort, so I just kept going at a level that felt tough but just about sustainable. Twice I heard something/somebody behind me and it sure felt like somebody was closing in, but I resisted temptation of turning back and just sped up instead. After finally reaching the top, well over 200 feet higher, the downhill run was very, very steep with plenty of loose gravel around, so you had to mind your step if you wanted to avoid a face plant, though that's all relative when running at sub-5 pace (not something I can say very often!).

At 7k I saw another runner ahead of me, a rather surprising development. I closed in very quickly and saw that it was Ed. There was something not quite right, Ed is one of the top road racers in the county and should have been about 4 minutes ahead of me at that time. "Ed, what's wrong?" "I don't know!" "You're not overtrained, are you?" "Don't think so". I had caught up very quickly but he must have matched my pace once I had drawn level because we were running side by side for the rest of the race. Right at the end I sped up for the finish. I am sure he could have beaten me easily if he had wanted to but he clearly was no longer in race mode and so I crossed the the line in fourth place. That was mightily pleasing, but then I got a shock when I looked at my watch and saw a time of 38:54 (rounded up already, to safe them from doing so. Hmpf!)  That was a whole minute slower than what I would have expected! So much for a new PB. I blame the hill, though I did run the other 10k on almost the same course faster, two years ago. Maybe the difference is that back then I was fighting tooth and nail with another guy for much of the race, quite in contrast to today's lonely run. An average HR of 179 indicates that I had run very hard indeed - it was higher than for my 5ks the previous weeks!

At the prize giving ceremony they gave out prizes to the top 3 men and women, and then gave the first F40 prize to the second F40 because the fastest F40 had already received a prize, but gave the first M40 prize to the runner who had already received a prize for 3rd overall. I was rather miffed to be honest, and at first did not say anything, but eventually decided that I am not Irish enough yet for grumbling in silence and made an inquiry. Turns out that they seemed to have missed me from the results sheet altogether (I was wearing a bright orange top. Nobody could have missed me on the road!), and she apologised and gave me a prize after all. Much happier, I made my way back home.

I expected my quads to be very sore on Sunday after that monster hill, but in actual fact it was my hamstrings that were a bit sore, the quads were fine. The run was more like hard work than fun, and after the first loop through Killorglin I was tempted to turn right for home rather than left for a second loop but went left after all. There were no sub-7 miles today, just the pace that came naturally, which was 7:30 at the beginning and close to 7:00 for much of the rest. The HR was very high, as it had already been on Friday, as well as for the race, but right now I'm not sure if it's my HR monitor acting up or something "real". I'll probably replace the battery in the HR strap and if tomorrow's reading is as high it's time to re-assess the situation.

8 Feb

8 miles, 59:57, 7:29 pace, HR 149

9 Feb

~10 miles, including:
   Kenmare 3-Bridges-Run 10k, 38:54, 4th place, 2nd M40

10 Feb

15 miles, 1:47:37, 7:10 pace. HR 152

Weekly Mileage: 59-

Disneyland!

Honestly, I did not even think about the lost training and if those few days would impact on my marathon. I knew we would be away for a few days right at the time when I should be doing the heaviest training load, and I contemplated what to do. In the end I overloaded my training for a few days before we left and I regarded those last 4 days as much needed recovery. I ran nothing on Sunday and 6 miles each on the next few days in the flat French countryside around Chessy and Magny-le-Hongre. Of course I also spent much of these days on my legs walking around the place.

When Princess Maia met Princess Ariel. Probably the highlight of the entire trip.

Disneyland had everyone giddy with excitement and we all enjoyed the spectacle. Of course everything there is fake - it is Disneyland after all. The food is eye-wateringly expensive and the merchandise so ridiculously overpriced I was lost for words at times, but the smiling eyes for four days were worth it.

Oh, and remeber my race on Saturday? My watch read 17:51 when I crossed the line, so I rounded the time up to 17:52. When I came back from France I found that they had rounded it even further to 17:53. It's still a PB, though.

4 Feb

6+ miles, 47:01, 7:42 pace, HR 139

5 Feb

6 miles, 45:54, 7:38 pace, HR 141

6 Feb

6 miles, 45:52, 7:38 pace, HR 139

7 Feb

8 miles, 59:48, 7:28 pace, HR 142

AGM And AOB

I laughed at Niamh when she predicted that I would end up on the committee as I left for the running club's AGM on Thursday evening. I really should have know so much better. Of course she was right, and I ended up the new PRO. Ah well.

I took it very, very easy the two days following Wednesday's tough workout, even easier than usual. I did no more than 5 miles on Thursday and 8 on Friday, all at a very easy effort. What I liked best about it was the improving weather; it has mostly stopped raining but more importantly the wind that has battered us for over a week has finally died down, thank God for that. We must have had a dozen power cuts this week, which does not speak much for the strength of the power supply in rural Ireland, something that will not come as a shock to anyone.

Saturday was a completely different story altogether. If you have read a few things about Canova's training you will have heard about his special sessions where you cover the full marathon distance in two runs over one day, the second half of each run being at marathon pace (there are a couple of variations to that). I initially intended doing just that, maybe a mile or two shorter, but then another idea really started appealing to me.

The second race of the 5k series in Killarney was on today, and instead of missing that race I decided to do it and then run a long-ish marathon effort run immediately afterwards, as a replacement of the special session, the idea being that running marathon effort on already tired legs should be excellent preparation for the marathon. Quite possibly MC will be complete exasperated when he finds out, but I liked the idea.

The weather was much improved compared to last week, which promised better times. I was quite determined to push that little bit harder than last week when I felt I didn't quite leave it all out there. The start was a bit tricky as the front rows had been pretty much taken over by an entire contingent of teenagers which required a bit of weaving in and out over the first hill, but after that the field was settled. George passed me shortly before the 1k marker, which has by now become a consistent pattern. I played leapfrog with three other runners, we kept passing each other several times. By the halfway mark there was only me and one other youngster left, and on the way home I had to pass him three times. The first two times he sprinted all out as soon as I had gone past to regain his spot but by the third time he finally remained behind. I kept chasing another runner to the line, which at least ensured a strong finish, even if the pursuit itself was futile. Most pleasingly of all, I passed the finish line with the clock displaying 17:51, which I rounded up to 17:52 in my head after last week's happenings, but that's still a PB and very, very welcome.

That done and dusted it was time to relax and refuel for a bit and then I changed out of my racing shoes and set off again, criss-crossing the various trails in the demesne of the National Park. It was a lovely day and there were plenty of other people out and about as well, including a few runners. I started at an easy effort to give the legs a chance to recover but gradually increased the pace over the next couple of miles until I was doing 6:30 pace. The idea was to keep that going for as long as I could and stop when I was no longer able to hit the pace. It was a tough workout, but eventually I noticed that while the legs were clearly hurting I had no real problems staying on pace, and after 12 miles of marathon effort I decided to call it a day. At that point I had almost covered 20 miles for the day, including an all-out 5k race, and that really seemed more than enough. Whether or not doing such a workout is a good idea, it sure is great for the confidence (and highly satisfying!) which has to count for something,

You might be wondering why I'm doing these massive workouts all of a sudden, and doing them fairly close together. Well, as of now I'm on an extended and scheduled R&R for a few days, and I might not be able to do any running, so I thought I might as well do some running that will require a few days of recovery anyway. It might not be ideal for a training point-of-view, but I will be back on the Caragh Lake road before I had the chance of losing any fitness.

31 Jan

5 miles, 38:12, 7:38 pace, HR 136

1 Feb

8 miles, 59:53, 7:28 pace, HR 141

2 Feb

19+ miles, including:
   Killarney 5k, 17:52, 5:43 pace, HR 178
   and 12 miles @ 6:33 pace, HR 163

Aeolus, The Bastard!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

28 Jan

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

29 Jan

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

30 Jan

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

Another Year On

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

24 Jan

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

25 Jan

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

26 Jan

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

27 Jan

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

Being An Idiot

Winter Dawn

I've been called worse.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

21 Jan

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

22 Jan

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

23 Jan

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

Marathon Effort

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

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

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

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

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

17 Jan

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

18 Jan

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

19 Jan

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

20 Jan

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

Weekly Mileage: 75+

Relativity

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

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

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

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

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

14 Jan

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

15 Jan

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

16 Jan

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

Train and Recover, Recover and Train

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

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

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

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

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

10 Jan

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

11 Jan

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

12 Jan

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

13 Jan

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

Weekly Mileage: 79+

Don't Forget About Recovery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

7 Jan

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

8 Jan

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

9 Jan

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

Shared Pain, Half Suffering

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

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

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

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

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

5 Jan

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

6 Jan

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

Weekly Mileage: 70+

Comparisons

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 Jan

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

3 Jan

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

4 Jan

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

Happy New Year

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

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

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

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

Photo courtesy of Peter Mooney

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

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

Photo courtesy of Darren Spring

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

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

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

30 Dec

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

31 Dec

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

01 Jan

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

End Of Year Report

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

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

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

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

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

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

27 Dec

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

28 Dec

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

29 Dec

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

Farranfore St.Stephen's Day Race

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

24 Dec

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

25 Dec

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

26 Dec

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

Post Apocalyptic Training

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

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

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

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

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

21 Dec

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

22 Dec

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

23 Dec

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

Weekly Mileage: 77+