So Much For A Downhill Start!

And there was me, really looking forward to today's race. The website still states

Just to make it a bit different, we are starting just inside the gates opposite the Cathedral and finishing at Killarney House, so no uphill finish!

which to me meant a downhill start and the possibility of a very fast race. I wasn't the only one under that impression, as three quarters of the field gathered at Knockreer, only to be ushered towards Killarney House. I was seriously confused, and so was Seamus, because if we started there and finished there, surely that would be well over 5k?

Anyway, I started right up front with the leaders and hung in there. Two guys eventually gapped the rest but there was a sizable pack of at least 6 runners (possibly more but I never looked behind me) sticking together and we made good progress. We went over the little hill at Knockreer, where we SHOULD have started and then followed the usual 5K route that I have raced on at least a dozen times, but in the reverse. After about 1.5 miles I felt the strain of the fast pace but managed to stick with the (by now considerably thinned out) pack for another half mile, but at the prize of seriously hurting lungs and legs and eventually I just could not stay with them any longer and they started inching away from me. The leading lady passed me as well, and even though I tried to hitch a ride, I lost contact soon.

From that point on I was on my own. I thought of my Dad who is at that very moment in the intensive care unit in hospital and thought that pushing through the pain barrier might make him proud of me even though he would never say so, but that soppy romantic image faded as quickly as the rest of me. I knew I had slowed down considerably as the runners ahead disappeared into the distance and was amazed that nobody caught up with me. My breathing was totally haywire, I was wheezing loudly with every breath but could not get enough oxygen into the system. The last mile seemed to last forever, and the fact that the course was way long did not help. Eventually I saw the finish, just as I heard footsteps appear from behind. I upped the pace, trying to hold off the challenger, but natural pace is not something I am blessed with and he easily caught me. I would have been well clear of him at 5k, but the real distance today was 3.33 miles according to my Garmin, as well as three or fours other runners' toys, and the RD later admitted the error.

It didn't really matter, looking at it now I went through 5k in 18:56 which is a lousy time. The mile splits of 5:38, 6:04, 6:34, (6:10 pace for the final 0.33 miles) tell you the entire story. You could of course argue that I started too fast, but in my experience 5Ks don't work like that. All my best times at that distance have been achieved by starting fast and hanging on as best as I can. The times I tried to start in a measured way and keep the pace even have always been slower. It's a painful distance and a painful way of running it but I'd had vague hopes of breaking 18 minutes today and I was worlds away from that.

By the way, after the race I saw a map of the proposed course in the hall, and it clearly showed Knockreer as the start, just like promised at the web site, so why they made us run the extra distance from Killarney House is anyone's guess.

Oh, and apparently I came sixth, though I thought I was about eighth or ninth during the race, not that I was concentrating on counting the runners ahead of me. There were no prizes for age group runners, so I went home empty handed.

I was completely shattered afterwards, I collapsed into the grass beside the finish for a minute and when I tried to get up felt dizzy so I stayed down for a bit longer. When walking back, one woman inquired if I was ok, I must have looked really bad. I've had a cough/cold for the last 10 days or so, the entire family has it and we can't seem to shake it. It never bothered me at all in training, but things may be different at race intensity, especially at 5K race intensity. I don't want to make excuses though, I faded extremely badly today and was well off the pace at the end. The HR was as high as for my PB a few weeks ago, so it's not for lack of trying. My best guess is that as someone who sharpens quickly I cannot hold my peak shape for long and my conditioning is on the downward slide already.

18 Aug

6.1 miles, 47:12, 7:43 pace, HR 143

19 Aug

5 miles, 38:45, 7:44 pace, HR 151
   incl. 5x100 strides

20 Aug

~7 miles, including:
Run Kerry Run "5K" (3.33 miles!)
   20:16, going through 5K in 18:56, avg. HR 181, max. HR 187
   6th overall (?), no M40 prizes

Home Alone

Sometimes Niamh refuses to take responsibility. Isn't there a law that children need to be watched all the time? Instead she trundled off to Dublin for her mum's birthday, and it took several hours of tense negotiations to get her to agree to take two children with her. The other two were abandoned – with me! I even had to take 2 days off work.

It meant a very early start on Tuesday so that I could get a few miles under the belt before driving to Killarney to drop them onto the train. Getting up at 5:45 for mere 5 miles does not sound worthwhile so I spiced things up with a set of hill sprints. I can't tell if they make me a better runner but I can tell that I'm getting better at doing hill sprints. Once more I did not have a set number in mind, but I did 10 before returning home, 2 more than last week. Or so I thought, because when I counted the spikes in the graph afterwards, I got 11. Don't blame me, it's hard to keep count when you're charging up that hill at full belt.

I had accepted the fact that I would not be able to run today, but Niamh suggested taking them to Killarney National Park with their bikes and run alongside. I did not expect them to agree when I suggested it, but they were all for it and off we went. It was a gorgeous day, which helped. I let the kids decide the route and we went from Knockreer to Ross Castle. Cian especially set a ferocious pace and I was just about able to hang on at sub-7 pace at times. We had a long break there and since he was tired on the way back the pace was much more civilised. I got just over 3 miles done; while running like that won't do for marathon training, spending a couple of hours of quality time with the kids more than makes up for that.

15 Aug

6 miles, 48:58, 8:09 pace, HR 137

16 Aug

5+ miles, 46:47, 9:08 pace, HR 144
   incl. 11x15 sec max effort hill sprints

17 Aug

3.2 miles, 23:41, 7:24 pace, HR 144

Sweet

Shea: Dad, why do you sometimes run in the rain?
Dad: I run every day, even when it's raining
Shea: Oh, and if you didn't run that much, would you not be able to race as fast?
Dad: That's exactly it.

I think he's grasped the basics of training. Maybe he'll be able to coach me one day.

Luckily I did not have to deal with rain this weekend. Saturday started cloudy and I had my run in ideal conditions, and when the sun came out in the afternoon it turned into pretty much a perfect day. There's not much to say about my run, just 7 miles at what should have been easy pace, but I kept thinking about Dingle and for whatever reason that made me run faster than planned. Still, I felt good.

My family seem determined to turn me into a fat slob, now even the kids have started baking. They got a cook book and some paraphernalia, and now there's no stopping them. I knew which parent is to blame for that one! Luckily, they are great at making sure Daddy doesn't eat too many of the damn things.

With Dingle only three weeks away I thought I'd better get one long(ish) hilly run under my belt, so I set out around Caragh Lake. For some strange reason, this is my third pacing gig and the third time that I only did one 15 mile "long" run. Still, the other two pacing gig went very well and I should be ok for this one as well.

While I felt a bit tired after only 8 miles, I got over that and the rest of the run went well. The sun came out but I was back home before the heat and dehydration became an issue.

I was a bit worried about my knee as I banged it badly on Saturday. It was slightly swollen and hurt with each step, but it never got any worse during the run and I eventually forgot about it. The achilles issue I mentioned a few days ago seems to have gone away as well. Being un-injured is something you tend to take for granted until injury strikes, so it's good from time to time to remember and appreciate being able to run.

13 Aug

7 miles, 53:01, 7:34 pace, HR 149

14 Aug

15 miles, 1:58:48, 7:55 pace, HR 147

Too Fast

I never thought I'd have that particular problem, but I really wish I'd learn to run slower in my interval workouts. I should know better, the coach had explained how most runners do intervals too fast and do not get the optimal benefits out of this workout, but it's one thing to know that in theory and a different one to implement that in reality.

The idea was to run a small set of quarter mile repeats at 5K pace, 5:50, with short recoveries of 60 seconds. Daniel's running formula had them a little bit faster, but I think he's talking 400s and a quarter mile is a tad longer which may make up the odd second of difference, not that it actually matters as my lack of pacing ability won't let me run them at the exact right pace anyway.

Halfway through the first repeat I glanced at the Garmin and realised I was doing about 5:20 pace, so I relaxed for the second half. Halfway through the second repeat I realised I was doing 5:15 pace, so I relaxed even more during THAT second half. The third was better, if still a tad fast, and I thought I'd cracked it and therefore did not check the Garmin until late into the fourth repeat when I was back on 5:20 pace again. The next 2 repeats were too fast by a significant margin again and at that point I pulled the plug and called it a day (after recovering while leaning against the nearest fence post, trying not to topple over, that is). I need to safe those kind of efforts for race day.

Considering how appalling the weather has been the last few days, I have gotten away rather lightly. Thursday's 8 miles were the only ones in pouring rain and I can easily deal with gale force wind, I have experienced that often enough.

Puck Fair was affected by the weather as well, but I managed to spend Thursday's lunch time with the kids, sacrificing myself for a few rides at the fun fair, but it wasn't enough to stop the complaints about not being allowed on this ride or him getting more candy floss or her being unfair ... kids these days, eh? The Caragh Lake road was much busier than usual because it serves as Killorglin's bypass to those in the know, but I survived that as well despite some of the lorry drivers mistaking it for a destruction derby race track.

My left achilles was a bit sore last night, but feels better already. I always seem to get achilles problems right before Dingle. After I even got a mention in Dingle marathon's facebook page, I better not let that get in the way of my pacing duties. But hey, there's always Grellan to fall back on, right?

11 Aug

8 miles, 1:02:35, 7:49 pace, HR 146

12 Aug

6 miles, 44:32, 7:25 pace, HR 156
   6x400 (60 sec rec) @ 5:45, 5:43, 5:45, 5:34, 5:39, 5:38 pace

Insomnia

6 easy miles on Monday were followed by a slow shuffle for the first mile on Tuesday, but the legs came round before I reached the hill. I repeated last week’s all-out hill sprints, once again without a specific number of repeats in mind, but I did hope to go at least one better. I reckoned that last week’s near-fainting must have been caused by hyperventilating and tried to breathe normally after the sprints, at least as normally as you can if you’ve just narrowly escaped the clutches of a sabre-toothed tiger chasing you (that’s how I push myself to all-out efforts – imagination is a wonderful thing). The dizziness stayed away this time but the little wave of nausea started hitting me after the sixth repeat and the legs felt decidedly heavy during the eighth, so that’s when I called it a day.

I never used to have trouble sleeping, not since I started running anyway, but I’ve had quite a few bad nights recently. I'm not sure what the cause is, surely the reduced mileage won’t cause insomnia? Last night was particularly bad, I woke at 2:30 and that was that. Nothing worked and in the end I could just stare at the ceiling, waiting until it was bright enough to go for a run. As I was out so early I did a couple of extra miles and still had times to cut some wood and do the dishes after my return. On the plus side, I should sleep soundly tonight.

The weather turned scary, just in time for Killorglin’s annual dabble with anarchy, Puck Fair. That’s unfortunate, there is usually a great buzz in town, but with a miniature hurricane blowing, most people prefer to huddle indoors instead of participating in the festivities.

8 Aug

6+ miles, 47:56, 7:51 pace, HR 140

9 Aug

5 miles, 43:37, 8:43 pace, HR 143
    incl. 8x15 sec all-out hill sprints

10 Aug

8 miles, 1:01:16, 7:39 pace, HR 47

Worried

With no race this weekend, things are a bit quieter than usual. I even had the luxury of a lie-in both Saturday and Sunday, sleeping till well after 8 o’clock (yes, that counts as a very late morning in our house). Even Niamh commented how unusual it is for her to wake up and having her husband still there.

Friday was a bit unusual due to it being our company’s day out. This year we went to Cappanalea, which seems strange as it is less than 5 miles from home and yet we usually go much further away. I picked kayaking (with an eye on potential future adventure races) and orienteering (as it was the closest thing to running) as my activities and thoroughly enjoyed the day, though the party afterwards was distinctly flat. I think most people were too knackered after a day out to party.

Saturday was yet another easy day, and by then I’d had it with easy days.

MC won’t like it, but I could not stand the never-ending sequence of 5 mile recovery runs any more and took off for a bit of fun this morning. I used to do a lot of tempo runs when training for Vienna and decided to do another one today. As I had no idea what pace I was capable of I paced myself by HR, but switched the display of the Garmin so that I would be able to see the pace, otherwise the ego would have gotten in the way. The plan was to stay between 165 and 170 bpm at all times I stuck to that. Had I seen the pace numbers, I would most likely have accelerated because there is no way I would have been happy with 6:44 pace; I used to do them 20 seconds per mile quicker only 4 months ago. However, that was then and this is now and I’m not in the same shape I was in when I had realistic hopes of running 2:55 for a marathon.

I am getting a bit nervous about pacing Dingle. Funny, I’ve been saying that before every one of my “pacing” marathons. It just seems wrong tohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif run a marathon without having done marathon training beforehand. Dingle is a bit trickier than most when it comes to pacing with the undulating course and especially the massive hill towards the end. I think the best way to achieve a certain time on that course is to bank about 3 minutes by mile 20, which mean running the first 20 miles 10 seconds per mile faster, because you will need some time for that final hill. Normally, banking time is not a very good idea, but the Dingle elevation profile is not a normal one.

Why do I even worry? I’m sure it will be fine. I ran a 15 miler in 1:35, going through the half marathon in 1:23, only 3 weeks ago. That’s not a bad shape to be in.

5 Aug

am: 5 miles, 40:09, 8:02 pace, HR 142
pm: ~3 miles orienteering

6 Aug

6+ miles, 47:35, 7:44 pace, HR 144

7 Aug

10 miles, 1:09:23, 6:56 pace. HR 162
   incl. 7 miles @ 6:44 pace, HR 167

Faint

I'm back on my familiar routes in Caragh Lake, but since I'm still in recovery mode I'm not exactly accumulating a lot of mileage. But it’s enough to keep me from going bananas, which is at least something.

After yet another short, easy run on Monday I added a bit of spice to Tuesday’s workout in the form of hill sprints. These are meant to be short sprints at maximum effort, not enough to get anaerobic but enough to activate your muscle fibres. It’s supposed to train your neuromuscular system and is apparently effective at increasing running efficiency, but I have to take their word for that.

I did not have a specific number of repeats in mind but I ran each effort from the beginning of the road to the gate, which happened to take about 15 seconds, not that I was timing the efforts, and then walked down the hill slowly for recovery. Each sprint is hard enough to raise the HR by 30-40 beats, but the max HR is reached several seconds AFTER the end of the sprint. Another few seconds later I would be hit by a wave of nausea, but by the time I had walked back down the hill I always felt fully recovered. After the fifth repeat the nausea was accompanied by feeling dizzy, which was magnified again after the sixth; I was dizzy, light headed, tunnel vision with stars in front of my eyes. I have fainted on a couple of occasions in my life and that’s exactly what it feels like immediately before the blackout so I left it at that. Running until you faint may be quite some story, but not one I was particularly keen to add to me repertoire that day.

This may sound a bit dramatic, but it only lasted for a couple of seconds. I immediately felt right as rain again and had no issues on my slow jog back home.

Niamh had a girls’ night out on Wednesday and got a taxi back home. In the morning I took the key and ran into town to collect the car and drove it back home. It’s always good to remind your better half that there are advantages to having a runner in your house from time to time.

2 Aug

6.1 miles, 47:48, 7:50 pace, HR 142

3 Aug

5 miles, 44:14, 8:51 pace, HR 144
   incl. 6x15 max. effort sec hill sprints

4 Aug

7 miles, 53:49, 7:41 pace, HR 147

The Long Weekend

I continued being annoyed with myself after Friday's race. Had I run the first 3 miles like I had in Killarney a week before, I could have run a final 6:30 mile and still averaged 6:00, but I didn't. Even with a slower start, I still slowed down with each subsequent mile and I ended up missing a new PR by a few seconds. Since there aren't any other 4 mile races around, that's my chance gone for another year. But it wasn't the missed PB that annoyed me, it was the fact that I did not run as hard as I could have.

I had hoped my legs would feel sharper after last week's race, but if the mind does not play along, a new PB is simply not on the cards.

Anyway, after one final run in Valentia, where I felt surprisingly good, less than 12 hours after the race, we returned back home to Caragh Lake where we can enjoy the trappings of civilization again, like TV, internet, telephone and, this year, drinkable water. I prefer home, but of course I understand that Niamh wanted to spend some time with her parents. The older generation likes being off-grid. I ... don't.

DOMS inevitably hit me on Sunday, as expected, but actually I felt pretty good. Thankfully this was a bank holiday weekend, with Saturday taken up by our return from Valentia I needed the extra day off, and it felt like a normal weekend to me.

It was a good weekend football-wise, for both codes. City beat Inter, Kerry won and Cork provided the comedy factor. It did put a smile on my face, even if it meant they will miss out on the annual footballing lesson at Croker this year.

Back to running, since I have agreed to pace the 3:30 groups both in Dingle and Dublin it means I'm getting my marathon fix without putting myself through a training cycle that I could not face up to a couple of months ago. Hopefully this will then lead straight into training for 2012. I pretty much decided what I'm going to aim for. It won't be a new marathon PB, I'm afraid, but it has me excited all the same. I need to figure out how to convert the Lydiard training for longer distances, but I'll give it a go.

30 Jul

6 miles, 46:53, 7:48 pace, HR 146

31 Jul

5 miles, 39:21, 7:52 pace, HR 141

1 Aug

5 miles, 39:42, 7:56 pace, HR 139

Monthly Mileage: 264+

Unlucky Third Time

After two storming performances in a row I was hoping to complete the treble on Friday with a third personal best in a row. My preparation was pretty much the same as last week before the 5K, and as I was warming up while at the same time scouting out the finish of the course, I felt optimistic.

The Kilgobnet 4 mile race has a fairly small field but the quality on show is fierce. There were about 50 or 60 runners (plus a number of walkers), and someone pointed out “that” guy from Dublin who was going to be really fast. He wasn’t wrong.

Right at the start 2 guys took off, a group of 5 formed behind them, another group of 4 followed and then there was me. I thought I was already running hard and it seemed imprudent to accelerate further to catch up, but I ended up trailing those 4 runners by about 10 meters, running the same pace but not being able to close the gap.

Last week in Killarney I had run the first mile very hard and then clung on for dear life towards the end. I wasn’t running quite as hard this time but a first mile of 5:51 wasn’t exactly slow. However, every mile split thereon was slower than the previous, so I probably did not choose the perfect pacing strategy.

Not that I was the only guilty party. The group ahead of me contained 3 young guy, two of whom were constantly chatting to each other. I really felt like telling them to shut up and concentrate on running; the only other old guy in the group told me afterwards that he was highly tempted to do the same. Anyway, they eventually paid the price, before the halfway mark I left both of them behind and Seamus later told me that one of them started walking soon after and the other one eventually followed suit.

There was only the guy in a red top and another youngster in a blue top within reach. Both seemed a bit stronger than me, but the youngster eventually started walking as well, first towards the top of each little climb, and more later, until I finally passed him. He finished quite a few seconds behind me. I kept the other runner within striking distance but the last mile was uphill, the legs failed me and I lost contact. There was never a danger of me losing my position and I finished 9th overall, which would not have been bad but I was hoping for a personal best and missed out by a few seconds.

I was a bit disappointed with that, especially after my stormer last week. I had hoped with this race in the legs I would be sharper today but the opposite was the case. I don’t think I can blame my stomach troubles from Tuesday, that felt all fine. In the end it comes down to the fact that I did not run hard enough. Last week I collapsed at the end, gasping for air for a minute, this time I stayed up chatting with others, so obviously I did not leave everything on the course.

The winner was indeed the runner from Dublin who set a new course record of 20 minutes flat. 5-minute miles. Wow!

There won’t be another race for a few weeks, which is definitely a good thing; undoubtedly the coach would tell me that I have fallen behind of the recovery curve. There are two races in three weeks, a 5K in Killarney or the IMRA Mangerton race. I will have to make a decision.

29 Jul

7 miles, including:
   Kilgobnet 4 mile race, 24:20, 6:05 pace, HR 177
   9th overall, 2nd M40

Poison

I should have caught on when a set of only seven very short hill sprints left me in a state of near collapse on Tuesday but did not think too much of it, just reasoned that I had underestimated the severity of the workout.

When my stomach started doing somersaults a few hours later, I initially blamed it on the lousy coffee in the office (a reasonable enough thought) but it didn’t get any better, in fact it got a lot worse. The only reason why I did not leave work early was the fact that I could not face the drive home – something I had to do anyway once work was finished. Honestly, I felt seriously bad.

Since several members of Niamh’s extended family had gotten sick last week while staying in Valentia, it made sense to blame the water. The once clean water supply had been broken a couple of years ago when a cowboy builder dug through our water pipe and then “repaired” the damage, putting a slab of concrete on top of the pipe before anyone could inspect it. We’re now paying the price for that, because Niamh’s parents had the water tested 2 days ago and the result came back today with a level 2 e.coli contamination (whatever that means) and the label “not drinkable” (I know what that means, alright). Suing the bastard who caused all this is pointless, apparently, because he is a local and locals don’t get sued successfully in South Kerry.

Anyway, I didn’t know all that yesterday morning, but I woke at 6 o’clock, my usual time, feeling a lot better and decided a short 5 mile run wouldn’t do any harm and would serve as a test on my recovery. Well. Within half a mile I knew I wasn’t quite recovered yet, but the idiot that I am reasoned that since I'm out on the road anyway I might as well continue. There’s no logic in that, no need to point that out, just me being compulsive once again. At least I had enough sense to slow down. I managed to drag my sorry arse home after 5 miles, feeling not exactly on top of the world.

However, while I wasn’t entirely recovered yet, I felt much better than the day before, enough to take Niamh out in the evening, celebrating our 14th anniversary while the kids were under the grandparents’ supervision (or was it the other way round?), which at least made Niamh happy. Can you imagine anyone living with the likes of me for 14 years? Me neither. (Actually, she says it became a lot easier the day I started running, seven years ago).

Considering how serious an e.coli infection can be, I got away extremely lightly. Today’s run was perfectly fine again, even the weather was better and all of a sudden tomorrow’s race seems a real possibility again. I will only do it if I feel fully recovered as there is no point in racing if you’re still sick, as I found out once the hard way, but the way I have recovered I am actually quite optimistic.

27 Jul

5 miles, 41:47, 8:21 pace, HR 146

28 Jul

5 miles, 39:43, 7:57 pace, HR 141

Island Life

As is customary, we are spending a week on Valentia Island. Which is great for the rest of the family as they can enjoy their holidays. The three older kids are taking part in a water sports camp, leaving Niamh with the comparably easy task of having only one of the offspring to mind. It’s a right old pain for me though as I'm still at work, commuting from Valentia to Killorglin and back on a daily basis. The additional 90 minutes of driving are eating into my day.

On the other hand, Valentia is great for running, the coast road is totally flat and the hill road the polar opposite, there are a plenty of options for hill running and the low level of traffic is another plus. The wind van be a problem at times, but not so this week.

They called me Doubting Thomas when I said I’d believe the 25 degrees weather forecast when I see it. Turns out, I was right. Drizzly rain yesterday, 13 degrees and cloudy this morning, this is not what we were promised. The odd sunny hour does not make up for the misery of the rest of the day.

I'm sounding like a broken record, I know. I’ll leave it at that.

Running felt pretty easy on Sunday, despite running barely 14 hours after Saturday’s race, but there was definitely some effect because by Monday the legs were decidedly lethargic and did not feel much like running at all. I thought I’d mix things up this morning and headed for the hills, first running up to the slate quarry on the route that’s being used in the Valentia triathlon as well as the inaugural half-marathon that will be held later this year, and then a set of short, maximal effort uphill sprints on a very steep road. Because of the long breaks between the sprints I thought this would be an easy workout. It wasn’t. After seven repeats I was close to collapse, had to sit down beside the road and was decidedly grateful that my stomach was empty, otherwise I would have been re-acquainted with its contents. Having said that, there seems to have been a stomach bug doing the rounds prior to our arrival here, and I may have caught the tail-end of it; the next day or two will tell.

There is a race on Friday in Kilgobnet that I really do not want to miss as it’s organised by my own club. It would also be really cool to set a third PB on the third weekend in a row, but let’s not be greedy. I’ll settle for having some craic.

24 Jul

5 miles, 38:47, 7:45 pace, HR 145

25 Jul

6 miles, 47:09, 7:52 pace, HR 141

26 Jul

6.5 miles, 57:33, 8:51 pace, HR 141
   incl. 7x10 seconds all-out hill sprints

Imagine There Is A Race

... and nobody turns up.

Nobody from the organisation, that is.

Unbelievable as it may sounds, that's what happened to us on Saturday. Despite posting information on their web site as well as papers and radio, the organiser totally forgot about the race and eventually had to be dragged there, 90 minutes after she was supposed to open registration. About 150 - 200 bemused and increasingly irate runners could not believe what was going on, but eventually the overall organiser of the Killarney summerfest took matters into his own hands and decided there would be no registration but we were welcome to run anyway, without payment, and with 45 minutes delay a significantly reduced field set off from the usual start line. Luckily enough, since they always use the same route for the Killarney 5Ks we know the route well enough to be able to do it without much help.


Despite all the shambles, once I ran the first step all that funny business was out of my mind and I only concentrated on running as fast as I could. With some of the usual fast local runners being absent (maybe they knew something), I was in fifth position early on, but dropped a place before the half mile marker. I decided the best tactic for a fast time in a 5K is to start out fast and hang on for dear life. I knew I was going well when I left Pat O'Shea behind me, someone I have never managed to beat; I was hoping for a first. Silly me. Pat is close to being a world class master runner (I won't mention his age) and beating him is not something a washed up never-has-been should even think about. At the halfway mark I heard his footsteps closing in and he went past me to take up his customary position ahead of me, always seemingly within reach but always just that little bit too fast.

Somewhere around the first mile I started wheezing, which is something I always do when the effort gets so high. I must be louder than a steam engine towards the end, and I do get the odd idiotic comment but I prefer running fast to silently.

Pat caught up to the runner ahead of him, a guy in a white shirt, and much to my surprise I drew closer to him as well. We met plenty of other runners who were now treating this as a pure fun run in the park and had not waited for the semi-official "start", but they always heard me coming and moved out of the way. With less than a mile to go I was fewer than 10 steps behind the white t-shirt, but at that point he started accelerating, trying to hold me off and catch Pat. He succeeded in the first but not the second objective.

The uphill finish is the cruellest part of an otherwise perfect race course. I rued the fact that there was nobody within reach that would have pulled me to a faster time, but at the same time was aware that I had let the white t-shirt pull away, so this was entirely my own fault. I hit the stop button on the Garmin at what turned out to be a very exact 5K mark and collapsed in the grass for a minute, trying to regain my breath. Eventually I actually looked at the time, to get a very pleasant surprise: 18:05, a new PB by 2 seconds!

I had a very quick chat with the other guys, who voiced their amazement that I was able to run a time like that without doing any speedwork at all. I have always been a miles guy rather than an intervals one.

I could not hang around because I had been supposed to meet Niamh at the time when the race had only started. Luckily it turned out she was just as late as me, the kids' rides in the fairground had all taken longer than planned and we were all equally late. Looking at the photos I think they all had a great time.

I still can't quite believe the disgraceful shambles of the organisation. Has anyone ever heard of the organiser forgetting to turn up? Even so, why was there only one person supposed to sign up 200 runners, it would have been chaos even if she had been there in time! This used to be a very competitive race, before my time. They then decided to move more and more towards the fun run spectrum. A few years ago they did away with numbers, then the finishing line, no longer published results and a couple of years ago one organisers even voiced her amazement that some fast runners were still turning up.

That's their own decision, of course, and if they want to do it that way it's up to them. But this has now gone way beyond any reasonable point. This time they hurt the fun runners much more than the fast ones. There was a race last week, there are two more next weekend, and I will shrug that off and move on. But some runners at the back of the pack had been training especially for this, and to be treated with such contempt ... I fear we lost some people to the sport yesterday.

23 Jul

Killarney Summerfest 5K, 18:05, 5:50 pace, avg. HR 180
   Mile splits: 5:39, 5:48, 6:05, (0:31 rest)

Mr. Sun

Why am I even writing this? I have nothing to report, it must be down to habit. The most exciting thing to happen was my Garmin’s HR values going haywire; a new battery seems to have solved the problem. Hey, I told you I have nothing to write about.

There are still no photos from Saturday’s race. My face is just too ugly for pictures.

Actually, come to think of it, the most exciting thing to happen this week was the arrival of summer in Kerry, on the 21st the sun came out and the temperature went up all the way to 17C, woohoo, and will allegedly reach the 20s next week. That’s a heat wave compared to what we’ve had since ... well, ever. Yes I already know about the 38 degrees in Toronto, go away!

After being told off by MC about training too hard during the racing season, I have been very careful to keep the effort low on each and every run this week, but after 5 days of easy running I could feel the legs getting impatient. As there are a couple of short races around the corner, they will get their wish soon enough. I'm running these without the benefit of speedwork, which seems to be my way of doing things. On the plus side, I’m starting to look forward to real training again in the autumn. After feeling a bit burned out after Vienna, my mojo for the longer distances is coming back. I haven’t entirely made up my mind on next year’s ‘A’ races but I have a pretty good idea. Niamh has already been warned.

Tomorrow is a family fun day in Killorglin, followed by a 5k fun run in Killarney. The last time I tried racing in the evening after being on my feet all day was a disaster. Just saying.

20 Jul

5 miles, 38:31, 7:42 pace, HR ???

21 Jul

6+ miles, 46:09, 7:38 pace, HR 149

22 Jul

6+ miles, 46:39, 7:39 pace, HR 146

Recovery

Running 15 miles downhill might be fast, it plays havoc with your quads and in the days immediately following the race I was as sore as I expected to be. Interestingly, the calves are perfectly fine, which may well be the result of the, err, “robust” massage I received after the race (or maybe the calf muscles simply gave up and died during that torture).

The “training” since has consisted of nothing but slow 5 mile runs to Ard-na-Sidhe. The first mile was generally sore and awkward but once the endorphins started kicking in I enjoyed the rest in peace and quiet. The short runs also mean I get plenty of sleep which is good because we had no less than 20 people in our house on Saturday afternoon and again on Sunday, Niamh’s family are all gathered here for Nana’s birthday and the clan now consists of 12 adults and 8 children. The accompanying dinners meant that my weight has shot up again, but it always does that immediately after a race. Since I am of the opinion that a) refuelling is important and b) rewarding yourself after a race is even more important, this is not going to change in future either.

My agreement for free coaching with Mystery Coach came to an end in April, but he has kept an eye on me since, acting as a Guardian Angel. For the second time in a few weeks I got my knuckles rapped for training too hard, this time with a view of the approaching race season. Expect my mileage to take a nosedive for a while, and if you see it creeping up you have my permission to send a sternly worded reminder.

I used to use John D. as my yard stick for a good race, I always knew that I had a good race if I was ahead of him, since I always argued that I had no real business beating a sub-3 marathon runner. This particular line of reasoning is no longer valid since 17 April, but on Saturday it would not have counted anyway because instead of racing he ran with a camera in hand and the pictures give you a glimpse of the stunning scenery.

I took one more look at Saturday’s results, they had a timing mat at the half-marathon mark and my “official” time for that is 1:23:14, 2 minutes ahead of my previous best. I won’t count that as a personal best because just about everyone who ran this with a Garmin agreed that it had been placed too early, never mind the 650 feet elevation drop that had come beforehand. I decided to keep the 15 mile PB, probably more as a reminder of my placing than anything else. Inconsistent? Sure, but it’s my blog and I do what I want. Strangely enough, the official results have added about 20 seconds to everyone’s time, and I know those posted time are wrong. This really is getting weird, but I think I’ll leave it at that.

17 Jul

5 miles, 40:01, 8:00 pace, HR ???

18 Jul

5 miles, 40:04, 8:00 pace, HR 138

19 Jul

5 miles, 39:43, 7:55 pace, HR 132

Nothing Short Of Spectacular!

Even though my runner’s heart belongs to the marathon (and beyond), I have been aware for a few years that I consistently get my best results in shorter races, 10 miles or half marathons, which is why I had high hopes for today’s 15 mile race. As an added bonus, the scenery is absolutely stunning. The race t-shirt talks about the world’s most beautiful road race and while this is of course entirely subjective, I am inclined to agree. This almost makes up for the stupid name of the race and the unreasonably high entrance fee, though I did have a plan for the latter problem.

I have read somewhere that 1000 people had signed up, but that can’t be right, my estimate would be about half that, but that’s still a fairly big race. Nevertheless, looking at last year’s result I could not fail but notice that the M40 category had been won in 1:41, a time I would beat easily, but I was fully aware that I would not be the only one to spot this. It was bound to be more competitive this year.

The time was basically guaranteed to be fast because the course features a net elevation drop of 650 feet, we had tailwind practically all the way and the temperatures were ideal 10-12C, with the showers mostly staying away. No excuses whatsoever.



A group of 5 stormed off right at the start, never to be seen again. I was in the second “group”, though it was more a line of runners that stretched more and more as the first mile went on and soon splintered apart for good. Pat, Grellan’s neighbour and a runner with very similar times to mine, was a bit ahead and I followed the first lady, Angela McCann, for a while until I pulled past. I also caught Pat as well as a few other runners and I knew I was in the top 10, almost too good to be true. I know I was playing a dangerous game, running fairly fast at the start of what is still a long distance, but I was prepared to gamble for a prize.

Mile 1, 6:36, +136 feet, avg. HR ???

For an uphill first mile of a 15-mile race, this was blazing fast.

Mile 2, 6:27, -29 feet, avg. HR 169
Mile 3, 5:51, -233 feet, avg. HR 171

We passed Moll’s Gap after mile 2 and then it was fairly steep downhill. I kept trading places with Angela, but the steep downhill played to my strengths and I flew past her. I totally avoided looking at the Garmin, though. I thought seeing the pace numbers would just scare me.

Mile 4, 6:21, -21 feet, avg. HR 172
Mile 5, 6:28, +38 feet, avg. HR 173

Angela’s high cadence footsteps drew closer very quickly when we reached the flatter bits and I started suffering on the short uphill in mile 5, but I knew I was going well. The quads still felt fine, despite the hammering they were getting from running the slopes so hard.

Mile 6, 5:44, -194 feet, avg. HR 169
Mile 7, 5:47, -261 feet, avg. HR 168

Pat later told me how cool it felt to be rattling off a couple of sub-6 miles at that stage, but I wasn’t quite aware of the pace because I still avoided looking at the Garmin. One thing I noticed was that I was aggressively running the race line, looking ahead and cutting all the tangents as much as I could while the other 3 runners in my view were basically running in the middle of the road. Despite this, I lost touch once we reached the flat parts, Angela and two male runners drew slowly but steadily away from me.

Mile 8, 6:14, -71 feet, avg. HR 170
Mile 9, 6:35, -31 feet, avg. HR 170

Somewhere here a runner in a black top shot past me at absolutely awesome pace. I’m sure he had not been going like that for long and had only put on the afterburners to leave me in the dust, but it worked. I could not respond. This was all the more worrying because I suspected he was older than 40 and therefore a direct rival – but looks can be deceiving of course.

I really starter suffering and wondered how long I would be able to keep going at that rate. Slowing down seemed a real possibility. All of a sudden Angela took a break, enabling me to re-gain a place, but I would have preferred to catch up with the runner in black instead. Angela was not going to be a rival for the M40 prize.

All the downhill miles of the first half made these miles feel much worse than they were. The road was undulating and every uphill part seemed to suck the strength from my legs. I really wondered for how much longer I would be able to keep up the intensity and worried about blowing up after the fast start. But I tried hard to keep a positive mental attitude, which eventually got me out of the low.

Mile 10, 6:45, +46 feet, avg. HR 170
Mile 11, 6:41, -7 feet, avg. HR 170

Deep down I was aware that I was slowing down, but I still avoided the Garmin’s screen like the plague.

At 10.5 miles we turned off the main Killarney road and into the walkways of the National Park. I had been aware of that, but had not realised what it meant. For the last 4.5 miles, the course constantly went up and down like a roller coaster, with a lot of short, sharp hills followed by drops of the same kind. It was also very twisty and the road surface wasn’t great. While the first 7.5 miles make this a very fast course, no doubt about it, the second half makes it a tough one. Every runner I spoke to afterwards said the same.

Mile 12 6:46 –12 feet, avg. HR 172
Mile 13 6:51, +34 feet, avg. HR 172

Very much on the plus side, I caught up to one runner and eventually went past. He tried to hang on for a bit but half a mile later his footsteps had faded. Therefore I was very surprised to hear steps approaching from behind again, but they turned out to belong to Angela, who chicked me in style. She then stopped to tie her laces, enabling me to catch her once more, but somehow she caught me again! Worse, more footsteps soon followed, and when the runner caught up with me I realised it was Pat. That was bad news: I knew Pat was another M40 runner.

Mile 14 6:36, -26 feet, avg. HR 172

As much I was suffering, I quickly decided I would not give up my age group spot without a good fight and stuck to his shoulder. Over the next mile or two he repeatedly tried to drop me, but for every step I fell behind on the uphills I made one good on the downhill and we were pretty much inseparable, so much so that us two old geezers caught up with Angela. The three of us ran towards the finish in one group.

I have never been in a position where I would have to fight for a podium place, so this was new territory. I am painfully aware that I do not have much natural speed and am consistently outpaced in a finishing sprint, so sitting on Pat’s shoulder was no good. On the other hand, just hanging on to him took all my strength; I was hanging on for dear life as it was. “Pat is the stronger runner today”. “Pat will beat me”. “Pat’s still looking good”. “I am totally f****ed as it is, no way can I increase the pace”. “I can’t go, I am toast already”. “SHUT UP AND GO!!!”

With half a mile to go, I went for it. As I went past, Pat muttered something like “hat off to you”, which was great from a mate’s point of view but a serious error on his part as far as race rivalry is concerned. It may have been just the boost my fragile mindset needed. Within 10 seconds I was deep in the red, the anaerobic mist engulfing me, the legs screaming in agony but I would not yield. I could not hear them behind me, so I guessed I must have created a decent gap. I’m not looking forward to seeing photos of me finishing. They will be able to use them to scare young children, my face contorted by the effort and the agony, but on a sharp right turn just before the finish I caught a glimpse of my pursuers and knew they would not be able to catch up. The final 100 meters were the glory stretch and I finished 15 miles in 1:35:28, according to my Garmin as well as the gantry clock.

Mile 15 6:11 pace, -5 feet, avg. HR 176

There was some confusion about the M40 podium, but eventually it turned out that the age group winner was the runner in black who had caught me at mile 8 or 9, just like I had feared. I had indeed outsprinted Pat for second place, which put me into the money. Pat lost out, because even though the web site clearly states cash prizes for the top 3, they only went 2 deep, and I am sure he was disappointed. I know I would have been.

After a very painful massage (I think my screams as she dug her thumbs mercilessly into my calves caused plenty of entertainment in the tent) I found Grellan and Seamus and had a good chat. The course might have been a shade short of 15 miles; my Garmin showed 14.93 miles, Grellan’s 14.91, and while this is within the Garmin’s accuracy, it would be rather unusual for a correctly measured course (it WAS measured with a Jones counter though, and it was AAI approved). Everyone agreed that the last 4 miles were very tough, but I was extremely pleased with the result, the prize money and the way I had run the last half mile in exactly 3 minutes, even though my legs had been in agony to start with.

Coming 8th in such a big field was by far and away the best result I have ever been able to produce, by quite some margin. I will be able to feed off that haze of glory engulfing me right now for some time to come.

16 Jul

Killarney 15 mile race, 1:35:28, 6:23 pace, HR 172
   8th overall, 2nd M40, in the money!

Setback

Ah well, constant improvement was fun while it lasted. I’d have preferred for it to keep going until AFTER the race though; I mean, who wants to have his confidence knocked 3 days before a race?

I knew I needed a bit of recovery after the weekend so I only ran 8 miles on Monday, as has become the norm, and I made absolutely sure I kept the effort down. What I did not expect was to end up with a heart rate of well below 140 and yet a pace of faster than 8:00. At that point I thought I’d finally cracked this endurance training thingamajig.
As I’ve been doing an evaluation workout every second Tuesday, this would have been the time again. But for some reason I thought it would be better to add one more recovery day, do the evaluation on Wednesday and then take it easy for 2 days before the race. It seemed to make sense at one point.

I was being good for 9.75 miles of Tuesday’s run and then I decided to be naughty and sprinted home just for the fun of it. A quarter mile of sprinting can’t do any harm. Can it?

I’m inclined not to blame that quarter mile for today’s figures, but don’t know what to blame instead. Working too hard over the weekend? Maybe, but then why did I not feel tired at any point? Anyway, it’s fair to say that I expected a certain set of numbers from today’s evaluation and ended up with an entirely different one. I suppose that’s why I run these evaluations; they take away the guessing and replace it with cold, hard numbers. Compare them with last time:

Date         28 Jun   13 Jul
Mile 1         6:55     7:11
Mile 2         7:03     7:11
Mile 3         7:06     7:17
Mile 4         6:57     7:20
Time to 130      32       50

The 50 seconds recovery time is especially shocking. Maybe it’s all down to the fact that it was a very humid morning? I noticed my soaking wet top sticking to me on the way home, clearly displaying the contours of my upper body for all my excited female fans out there to see (of which there are zero, sadly).

Whatever. I’ll do what I would have done anyway and take it easy for 2 days and on Saturday I’ll race 15 miles, totally cheating because the course drops by over 200 meters over the first half. Grellan will be there to provide some friendly competition, but if I can’t beat a guy who is still recovering from a 100k I’ll stop running and start collecting stamps instead.

11 Jul

8 miles, 1:03:11, 7:54 pace, HR 135

12 Jul

10 miles, 1:16:49, 7:41 pace, HR 144

13 Jul

11.8 miles, 1:26:47, 7:21 pace, HR 156
    incl. 4 miles evaluation (rec. 00:50)

Roots

I was a bit worried after Too-Fast Friday's run, knowing that I had a long weekend ahead of me. It was one of MC's favourite tricks, if you overdid it one day you would suffer the next or the day after, and hopefully learn the lesson for the future. I feared I was in for another such tough lesson.

I didn't feel the love in the early Saturday miles, but long runs are always a matter of tuning out the rest of the world, including your own legs, and just get on with it. In some way it helps that the route is so tough - it makes you concentrate on just the next step and never think too far ahead. Well, I managed to run on autopilot again, the legs have gotten used to the hills already and I found it easy enough to decide halfway through to extend the run to 20 miles. Time flew by, before I knew it I had passed our driveway after the first loop, and after an out-and-back section I was back home, still feeling surprisingly good.

I prepared myself an ice bath, much to Niamh's disbelief; she thinks I am punishing myself for some unknown reason. But it did help the legs, I could feel the difference.

Lola is in Valentia at the moment, getting spoiled rotten by her aunties and grandparents, and for some reason looking after only three children is so much easier than four, we both felt like we're finally getting a handle on that parenting thingy. As a result I wasn't as stressed out as I tend to be.

Whether it was for the ice bath, the reduced stress level or simply my fitness, I still felt okay on Sunday. I had expected the pace from Friday to catch up with me by now, and even though the legs were a bit heavy early on again they came round and I was happy enough doing 13 miles through Cromane, including a sojourn along the Spit which brings you almost within touching distance of the Dingle peninsula.

I was particularly pleased with the low heart rate. Even though I made plenty of goofs during this training cycle, I am getting into shape. This training works, I can tell you.

Now, there is a race on Saturday, 15 miles from Moll's Gap to Killarney. I didn't run it last year because it really did not fit into my training for the Dingle Ultra, and I was put off by the high price as well as the stupid name. But there is no denying that the route is absolutely spectacular, and this time I signed up.

Lydiard said that racing during base phase is like ripping out a young plant to see if the roots had been growing. Racing on Saturday may well be a silly thing to do, but since I'm not training for a specific race and just want to run for fun, I'm ok with that I suppose. I need to find out these things for myself anyway and now is a good time to do so.

9 Jul

20 miles, 2:35:07,7:45 pace, HR 148

10 Jul

13 miles, 1:41:35, 7:48 pace, HR 142

Weekly Mileage: 79

Lost in La La Land

I am trying, I really am. Last year I went through Mystery Coach’s training cycle, trying to learn as much as I can, getting an understanding of the method so that I would be able to do it again on my own. The next step now is to actually do it in contrast to knowing in theory what I should be doing and then do something different altogether (umm, I’ve said that before, haven’t I?).

He drilled it into me time and time again, recovery, recovery, recovery, that’s what the base phase is all about. Run easy at all times, let the pace come down naturally, never push the effort, fill up your energy reserves for the peak phase when you DO work hard.

I had been good on Monday and Tuesday (not that I had much of a choice on tired legs), and I continued being good on Wednesday and Thursday, when I did 10 slow miles each, along Caragh Lake in absolutely lousy conditions with enough wind and rain that you wouldn’t keep a dog outside (actually, people still do).

I had just reached that point where I was really pleased about myself, running at the right effort level, holding back every day, not digging myself into yet another hole when Friday came along and I had to bring the whole house of cards crashing down again. Friday is the one day where I can put in a little more effort; I see it as reward for holding back six days a week. The most important word in the previous sentence, however, was “little”. That’s where I went wrong.

Of course the legs felt good after four easy days in a row. I never looked at the Garmin, never even contemplated looking at it as I was cruising along on autopilot, the mind somewhere in La La Land, just automatically tuning into the correct effort. Or so I thought. The first time I actually looked at the Garmin was when I pressed the “Stop” button back home, immediately realising that I had run much too fast, again. Oops. I thought I’d stopped doing that.

Sure, it’s cool to be hitting sub-3 marathon pace over 10 miles while cruising on autopilot, but now’s not the time to do so. As I’ve said before, this time round I'm learning how not to do MC’s training plan. I’m still hopeful this will be a sufficiently powerful lesson for the winter, when I actually want to train for real.

6 Jul

10 miles, 1:18:00, 7:48 pace, HR 142

7 Jul

10 miles, 1:17:50, 7:47 pace, HR 143

8 Jul

10 miles, 1:08:42, 6:52 pace, HR 159

Strawberry-Flavoured Chocolate-Coated Fudge

It very much sounds like my beloveds have re-started their assault on my waist line with a vengeance since their return from Dublin. On Sunday Niamh made a Pavlova (“I had some egg whites left over”), and after listening to too much Roal Dahl, Shea got it into his head that he absolutely had to create his own magic recipe. And when Shea gets something in his head, there is no stopping him. I wonder where he got that from.

With all those extra calories maybe I should add a few miles to every run to burn them off, but unfortunately my legs beg to differ. For some reason the pace just went bananas on Sunday, even with a low PRE and heart rate, so I could not even berate myself for running too fast as it was all genuinely easy, which was all the more surprising considering how much I had suffered after last week’s long run. One week later and all seemed to be so different.

It did all catch up with me though, and as soon as I woke on Monday morning I knew a few genuinely easy days were in store to dig me out of yet another hole. What followed was the slowest run in several weeks on Monday and another, not much faster one, on Tuesday, both limited to 8 miles.

People keep asking me what I'm training for, and nobody seems to believe me when I'm saying “nothing”. There is no goal race for the rest of the year. I just came across a list of road races in Kerry and I could be out there every fortnight if I wanted to. I might. I will decide as I go along. I won’t be at my very best because I won’t be able to peak for an ‘A’ race, but that’s fine. Doing it this way will hopefully let me re-charge my mental batteries and come autumn I’m hoping to start another, proper, build-up to a race early next year that will mean something to me.

Trying to follow the guidelines that I have learned from Mystery Coach is helpful, though. Right now I'm mostly learning what not to do, as I keep digging myself into a hole due to lack of recovery. The hope is that the lessons I'm learning right now the hard way will still be etched in my memory once I start training in earnest. I look at this summer mainly as preparation for the next training cycle.

By the way, I have been selected as a pacer for the 3:30 group in Dublin again this year. Grellan will be there as well. That should be great fun and it means I’ll still get another marathon done, even if I'm not training specifically for it. If you’re aiming for that time, see you there.

3 Jul

12 miles, 1:30:37, 7:33 pace, HR 147

4 Jul

8 miles, 1:04:50, 8:06 pace, HR 142

5 Jul

8 miles, 1:02:58, 7:52 pace, HR 146

Weekly Mileage: 77

Recovering

Well, last week I managed to dig myself into a hole by running too many miles too fast over too hilly a territory, in short I did not take recovery into account at all. This week I tried to take it easier, especially on the "easy" runs, which seems to have worked well enough. I also thought I had dialled back the mileage a little bit, but adding it all up now I can see that by Sunday I'll be pretty much back to where I was last week.

Thursday was a tad faster than the previous easy runs but still very much within myself and was happy enough with the effort level. I remembered that at some stage during the Vienna base phase I sent off an email or two to the coach, telling him how easy everything was and that I hardly felt like training at all, to which he basically replied that that's what it's supposed to feel like. It's fair to say that last week was not like that at all, but this week I got a lot closer.

I felt sufficiently recovered to attempt another "Fast Friday", where I try to run at a higher effort level than the rest of the week, but still very much within limits and the HR under 155. I managed that a lot better than last week (last week's long run serving as a dire warning not to be so stupid again), though still a bit too fast. One thing I managed to do was not looking at the pace fields of the Garmin at all during the run, which meant I was never tempted to speed up just to hit some random target.

I was pretty happy with that run but the test was to come on Saturday. I made several changes to last week. I made sure I started out very well hydrated, I ran slower and started an hour earlier, all of which helped but the major change was that I ran on legs that had not been trashed the previous days. The big climb felt much easier than last week, but to be fair it always feels much easier when I have done it already the week before. The first run after a break is always the toughest, once I get over the hills once my climbing legs tend to come back quickly,

Anyway, while I did get a bit tired later on it was nothing like last week's death trot and I arrived home still feeling good despite running a mile more. As long as I can keep last week's lesson in mind it will have served its purpose.

Just to confirm Niamh's suspicion that I'm a bit weird, I ran a mile around the house later that evening, just to confirm to Shea that 20 laps do indeed add up to one mile. According to the Garmin, that's surprisingly accurate. I hoped to add a few drills and sprints at the end of that, but Maia and Lola put an end to that. That's ok of course, some quality time with my girls tops everything else any time.

30 Jun

8 miles, 1:02:25, 7:48 pace, HR 146

1 Jul

10 miles, 1:10:44, 7:04 pace, HR 154

2 Jul

am:18 miles, 2:23:17, 7:57 pace, HR 149
pm: 1 mile, 7:55