The last long Run

I have this key workout that has been very effective in previous builds, namely 20 miles with the first 10 at 90% marathon pace and the second 10 at marathon pace. I don’t claim coming up with this myself; like all other training runs I got the idea from someone else, and apparently it is a staple in many marathoners’ programs including Ryan Hall's.

When training for Dublin I had done this as part of a back-to-back double, but this time I wanted to run it on fresh legs (remember last week? I do!) and I ran 7.5 very easy miles on Monday. This should have been 8, but because the clocks had just gone forward it felt too early to get up initially. Incidentally, my heart rate for that run was lower than for any other run in the present training cycle, so a) I really did take it easy and b) I’m still gaining fitness.

I had to get up at 5 am today, which is not the earliest I have ever risen, but my body clock is still on winter time, which meant it was basically 4 in the morning for me. My limbs were shaking as I got out of bed, but I slowly managed to wake up properly. It took me a bit longer than normal to get ready (blame the drowsiness), and I was slightly worried about not having enough time to finish the workout.

When I opened the door the light of my headlamp was reflected back by millions of tiny droplets right in front of me. Not only was it still pitch dark, we had the heaviest fog I can remember. It was so thick that I could barely see the road markings, even with the light set to full strength.

I got into the run straight from the off. Normally I run the first one or two miles at leisurely pace, but this was marathon preparation and I tried to get up to speed from the start. I soon discovered that I was doing better than planned. 90% of marathon pace is about 7:30, and I was easily running 7:15 pace. I did dial the effort down a little bit because I wanted to make sure I would not ruin the more important second half of the run. The coolest moment came at about 6 miles when I was passing a field with about 7 horses that all started to run alongside me. Because of the thick fog and the still forbidden darkness I could only catch a few glimpses of them, but I could hear them very clearly. Sadly, their field was fenced off after half a mile of equine companionship and I had to continue on my own. The third quarter of the loop is the toughest with a few climbs; not big or steep but enough to slow you down. I came back to our driveway after 10 miles at 7:18 pace, and the heart rate had mostly stayed in the low 150s, well below marathon effort.

After a gel and a few sips of water I was out for the second loop, sans headlamp, hoping to run at 6:50 pace. Obviously the effort was a lot stronger now, and when I checked the Garmin after about 2 miles I was rather disappointed to see an average pace of 7:15. I pushed a bit harder to make up the lost time, but when I was well past the 3 mile point of that loop and the average pace was still only around 7:10 I finally caught on to the fact that I was looking at the average pace for the entire run rather than just for that loop! Thomas you idiot!! One button later that was rectified and I gazed at an average loop pace of 6:48, much better and well on target. I passed the same group of horses again, finally being able to see the beautiful creatures properly. I lost a few seconds per mile on the climb again but made up for it on the other side and came home a second time, just under 68 minutes later, average pace 6:48.

I am highly pleased with that effort, and who knows, it might even indicate that I’m in shape for a sub-3 marathon in Boston, something that I had doubted beforehand. I can’t really compare the workout to the one I had done before Dublin because of the rested legs, but I was substantially faster today. At the very least this was a great confidence booster.

And now I guess I’m tapering.

There is a change of plan for the weekend. I got a phone call last night inviting me to join a local running club and to turn up on Sunday for a 5k in Ardfert, which is much closer to home than Cork. I pretty much accepted, and we will probably make this a family day out (I wanted the kids to see Ardfert for quite some time anyway), and I have less worries about a 5k 2 weeks before the marathon than I would have with a 10k. It looks like I will have to wait a bit longer to go under 39 minutes. Ah well.

30 Mar

7.5 miles, 1:04:19 pace, HR 131

31 Mar

20 miles, 2:20:57, 7:03 pace, HR 154
incl. 10 miles @ 7:18, 10 miles @ 6:48

Monthly mileage: 353

Signs of Progress

Some workouts you like, some you don't. I’m generally apprehensive before speed workouts, and sometimes before log runs. It doesn’t stop me from doing them, of course, but I’m always glad when they’re done. Friday’s progression run, on the other hand, was one I was really looking forward to. I knew it would be a tough workout, but I was confident I would be able to do well and I love the idea of running strongly over a long distance.

The plan was the same as last week, namely 3x4.5 miles divided by half mile of recovery. I didn’t program this into the Garmin but pressed the lap button manually. The problem was that without the helpful beep of the watch I ran past my slowdown points not just once but twice. However, that was the only thing that went wrong; the rest went swimmingly.

Not even the weather could stop me. I woke several times during the night listening to the wind splashing the rain against our window. I thought I might have to divert the run to the Ard-na-Sidhe road, but it stopped raining just as I got up, and I decided to run the same Cromane loop as last week. The general idea was to run the first segment at 7:30(ish), the second closer to marathon pace, and the third one at marathon pace or a tad faster if I had the legs for it.

From the outset I had to battle the wind, and the rain returned within the first mile. I struggled against the elements, but halfway through the first section I reached a turn, and from there on the wind would be supportive. I checked the watch and was very surprised to see the pace much closer to 7:00 than 7:30. I thought about slowing down, but now, with the wind pushing me on, running 7:00 pace was so comfortable that I kept at it. Admittedly I also benefited from the 60 feet net elevation drop over those miles. As mentioned, I felt so good that I inadvertently ran half a mile longer than planned and decided to cut the second segment accordingly. On the middle part I had to climb those same 60 feet again and the wind wasn’t as helpful any more. I still managed to get close to marathon pace and if that had been on a level road I’m pretty sure the same effort would have yielded 6:52. I was still reasonably comfortable at the beginning of the third segment, though I definitely started to tire during those miles. I managed to hit the pace though, and was so happy to be running at 6:48 that I missed my turn-around point and ended up with an extra half mile – again. Never mind.

I kept wondering why the run went so much better than last week until I remembered that 7 days ago I had done this the day after mile repeats, while today I ran them on fresh legs following a recovery day. Who would have thought that a strong workout is better on rested legs? Another lesson learned, and if I keep improving my training lore at that rate I might even know how to train for a marathon by the time Boston comes round.

I was really happy with the run, and especially with the way the legs felt afterwards. I took an even easier recovery day on Saturday with only 6 slow miles. But I got a real surprise when I assessed my resting heart rate. Despite Shea’s best attempts to disrupt it came up with 37, the lowest number I have ever seen. It had been 43 only six weeks ago and has steadily come down since then. I must be doing something right.

Unfortunately the foul weather returned today, just in time for the daylight saving time to arrive. I got up, had one look at the lousy conditions outside and decided to wait. It could only get better. Niamh eventually joined the rest of the family, slightly puzzled why I was still indoors at 9am, but very understanding of my reasoning. If this had been a recovery day I would have binned the entire workout but I did not want to miss out on half-mile repeats. I eventually ventured out when the rain died down, but I still had to battle the gale force winds. Maybe they were responsible for my slower-than-planned pace, at least that's my excuse. I did 7 repeats, 2 more than last week, but I missed out on the sub-6 target pace I had hoped for (with an eye on Yasso). However, I won’t lose any sleep over it.

I know that opinion has been divided, but I decided to run the 10k in Cork next Sunday. While it is definitely not my target race I still want to do reasonably well and accordingly I’ll take it a bit easier this week. This means that effectively I will be starting my taper soon, earlier than originally planned. I can’t call this a taper just yet because my most telling key workout, 20 miles with half at goal marathon pace, will be on Tuesday. That will be the last of the big workouts, and I’ll think of Wednesday as the start of the taper. I have moved the last of the progression runs to next week, where it will take over the long run. The pieces are falling into place, the hay is in the barn, and I'm running out of clichés.

27 Mar

15.5 miles, 1:49:24, 7:03 pace, HR 157
incl. 5,4,5 miles @ 7:01, 6:54, 6:48 pace

28 Mar

6 miles, 48:59, 8:10 pace, HR 137

29 Mar

9.6 miles, 1:13:20, 7:39 pace, HR 155
incl. 7x800, 6:06 pace avg.

Weekly mileage: 80.6

Windy Weather

Mike isn’t the only one concerned about my lack of sleep on Monday; I’d had the same thoughts already. Luckily I didn’t have to suffer any more sleepless nights, the last three evenings I got rather tired by 9:30 and went to bed, to sleep for about 8 hours each time. On the downside, this meant being awake before 6 am. I’m definitely a morning person.

Of course I took it easy on Tuesday, but I was actually surprised how decent the legs felt. I was exhausted after my 23 mile run on Monday, but the fatigue was more due to lack of sleep, the legs handled the distance just fine. I guess the slow pace just left them with plenty of reserves. I did notice another drop in my HR. I ran 8:12 pace with an average HR of 133; on the same run after lest week’s long run I measured the same average HR but 8:30 pace. That’s quite some difference. I generally tend to notice fitness gains by the low heart rate on recovery runs like these, and the data is promising. At the very least I know that I’m not suffering from overtraining symptoms.

Wednesday’s workout consisted of mile repeats. Last week I had done 6 of them, today I added an extra one. During the second repeat I didn’t think I would be able to finish the workout, but somehow the legs came round. The weather didn’t help, it was very windy, which made me do those repeats on the Ard-na-Sidhe road rather than run my usual loop to Killorglin. Repeatedly running up and down the same stretch of road isn’t the most exciting way to run, but I was so caught up in the effort that it didn’t matter. The workout went reasonably well: 6:28, 6:33, 6:31, 6:31, 6:45, 6:38, 6:21, which meant I slightly improved my average pace compared to last week despite the conditions. The fifth repeat was a bit off, and the first half of the sixth was even slower, but I managed to increase the effort a bit for the rest of the workout.

I was pleasantly surprised once again this morning by how well the legs felt. It looks like I have gotten over the worst of the weekend’s epic training already. I ran 8 miles at 8:00 pace, and would have been incredibly comfortable had it not been for the gale force winds. At one stage I was rounding a corner to see a veil of rain ahead of me, with the wind providing a stunning and clearly visible rippling effect. My appreciation of this natural spectacle was ever so slightly tempered by the fact that I knew I would be enveloped by it within a few seconds.

Apparently the windy conditions will remain with us for at least another week. I tell you what, if we have to battle gale force winds at Boston I’ll be the best prepared runner of them all. With less than 4 weeks to go I had a few thoughts about my racing strategy. The plan is to start slowly and not get caught up in the excitement. Starting from controlled corrals means I should be surrounded by runners of very similar ability, doesn’t it? If I can take it reasonably easy over the first, say, 10k, I should be in good enough shape to run the final 20 miles at a good effort. And with the first downhill miles, I shouldn’t lose much (or any?) time at the start, even if I hold back. All that sounds easy enough. But as they say, no plans survive first contact.

24 Mar

8 miles, 1:05:35, 8:12 pace, HR 133

25 Mar

10.5 miles, 1:18:43, 7:30 pace, HR 155
incl. 7xmile @ 6:28, 33, 31, 31, 45, 38, 21 (6:33 avg)

25 Mar

8 miles, 1:04:02, 8:00 pace, HR 140

Overload Training

For a change the most important sporting event over the weekend wasn’t my training runs but Ireland’s Rugby team win over Wales in the Six nations Tournament, thereby achieving the Grand Slam for the first time in 61 years (and, as one commentator put it, fulfilling their destiny). Even though I much prefer soccer to rugby I got completely sucked into the hype for the game, and the celebratory mood seems to have swept away the general darkness of recession for a while.

I still went running, of course. In fact, I ran a lot.

After two tempo-style workouts a recovery run was the only option for Saturday, and I got up bright and early for my 6 mile run. The rest of the day was mainly spent on chores and looking after Cian and Maia while Niamh was in Cork with the twins. This is at least a tiring as a tough run.

Somehow Sunday has become my traditional speed day. I had done the last of the 60/60 workouts last week, and following this article I moved on to 180/180. I quickly found out that this is a completely different workout. The thing about 60/60s is the short recovery time, and the HR goes up and up. 3 minutes of recovery, on the other hand, unfailingly brought my heart rate down below 140 each time. Unsurprisingly I was not able to run at the same pace, and the entire workout turned out to be a set of half-mile repeats. The average pace was 6:01, but if you left out the first one it would have been 5:57. Maybe I should add more strides to my warm-up routine, because I generally tend to feel stiff and awkward on the first repeat.

Since it was a nice sunny day (the last one for a while, apparently) we went for yet another family hike, this time a shorter trip up to the top of the Devil’s Elbow. This happens to be the place where my header photo had been taken; you should be familiar enough with it by now. We were back at the car within an hour, and I hoped my legs hadn’t taken much extra fatigue onboard.

Last week I had a great 22 mile run, and today called for the last really long run of the schedule, 24 miles. The distance didn’t worry me, after all this was just a bit longer than last week. What I was not looking forward to was the ridiculously early time I had to be out of bed. As it turned out, things were a lot worse than imagined; I was unable to sleep most night, and didn’t even need the alarm at 4:20. I was up 5 minutes early to make a bottle for Maia who didn’t have the best of nights herself. I had gotten less than 3 hours of sleep at that stage, and even those had been interrupted several times. It was so early that I needed the headlamp again for the first time in a few weeks. Once the sky brightened up a little bit I could see a few ominously dark clouds, and the wind was at gale force strength at times. Last week I had started slowly and gotten faster gradually. Today I was merely slow. I think the mental fatigue from lack of sleep was just as much responsible for that as the actual fatigue in my legs. I just kept plodding on, barely awake at times. I did manage to work out that with the slow pace I would have to cut the run short, or I would have been seriously late for work. I reset my expectations to 23 miles. Eventually, after over 13 miles, I finally started to shake myself awake, threw in a few surges and generally upped the pace. Believe it or not, the run felt easier from then on; finally I had something to focus the mind on rather then crawling along on autopilot. Not that I started flying, but at least the pace finally dropped under 8:00 minutes per mile.

I eventually returned home weary and tried after over 190 minutes. I had just spent more time running than I had slept during the entire night, and I remarked to Niamh that finally I might have overdone things. One lesson I learned is that running 22 miles on fresh legs is a completely different task to running 23 miles on tired ones. Starting long runs with heavy legs after a preceding speed or tempo workout is a good way to build your endurance. However, once the distance goes beyond 20 miles I’m better off recovering first.

I have done some savage training over the last 5 days, and the hardest block of training is definitely behind me now. With 4 weeks to go I hopefully have left enough time for the body to absorb the work. I have one more tough long workout in the schedule; next week I’ll try and run 20 miles with 10 miles at 7:30(ish) pace and 10 miles at marathon goal pace. But I’ll slightly re-jig my schedule and make sure to have an easy recovery day prior to that. Don’t say I never learn.

21 Mar

6 miles, 49:53, 8:19 pace, HR 135

22 Mar

8 miles, 1:00:38, 7:36 pace, HR 155
incl. 5x180/180 @ 6:18, 5:57, 5:55, 6:07, 5:50 (6:01 avg)

23 Mar

23 miles, 3:11:03, 8:18 pace, HR 140

Weekly mileage: 81.5

Tempo Training

If you’re reading plenty of runners’ blogs you know that the Boston bib numbers have been allocated. Apparently I ended up in corral 3, which is pretty far forward if you think about it. I can only hope I’ll be able to keep the pace realistic for the first few miles. When travelling thousands of miles to attend a race the last thing I want to do is ruin it with exuberance within the first two!

After feeling so great after my 22 mile on Tuesday, the very, very heavy legs on Wednesday came as a bit of a surprise. I wonder how much my fast last mile was responsible for this, but I guess the sheer distance and time on feet were more accountable. Taking it easy was the only option, and 8 miles at slower than 8:30 pace is what came out of it. On the plus side, the heart rate seemed to be dropping again.

There was still some fatigue in the hamstrings on Thursday, but not enough to stop me from attempting mile repeats. The schedule had them pencilled in for Wednesday, but of course running the 22 miler a day later than planned meant the entire week was a bit jumbled. I deliberated on the pace I should attempt; 10k pace was out of the question, as I had 6 repeats ahead of me, and half-marathon pace seemed a lot more sensible, so I guess about 6:30 should do the trick. As soon as I got up and had a peek out of the window I knew it was going to be a beautiful clear day, but at that time it was still foggy and there was even some frost on the ground. Maybe wearing a singlet was a bit daft, but I got away with it. When I checked the temperatures later it turned out that it had been no more than 4C/40F at 7 am, quite a contrast to the 18C/65F later in the day. Anyway, I managed to hit the pace on the flat or downhill miles, but unsurprisingly not on the uphill ones, and ended up with 6:35 pace on average. Considering that 2 weeks ago I had struggled to run 10k at 6:58 pace on the same course, I was happy enough with the outcome.

For today’s run I was back on the normal schedule, but not without hesitation. The plans was a but unclear, I was to run 15 miles in 3 faster 4.5 miles segments, but unless I missed it he (Ron Daws that is) never mentioned how fast those faster segments were supposed to be. I thought that progression run with the last 5 at marathon pace seemed reasonable enough, but that was purely my own guess. Since I had a tempo workout on Thursday I suspected that running fast again on Friday might not be the best idea, but since the pace was slower I decided to give it a go anyway. If in doubt I generally tend to opt for the tougher workout, not the smart one.

Anyway, I ran the first segment at 7:20 pace which felt incredibly easy, even considering that it was net-downhill. I sped up for the middle on and ended up with 7:03 pace, and since that had been net uphill it must have been pretty close to a marathon effort. I felt quiet tired after that, but had enough in my legs to give the third segment a good go. I did indeed manage to just about beat marathon goal pace with a 6:51, but the effort felt harder than one I expect to be able to hold for 26 miles. Of course I still have 4 weeks to get used to that pace, and on marathon day I hope the old race-day magic will kick in, but in all honesty at the moment I have my doubts about the sub-3 goal. I compared my recent training runs to the ones I did before Dublin and they don’t seem to be any better, maybe even a tad slower. While this doesn’t rule out a better effort on race day, it’s not a particularly good omen.

The day turned into a rather epic one when Niamh brought my bicycle to the repair man, and I ended up running to him after work to pick up my fixed bike. Despite feeling really stiff and sore early on and running at an easy effort, I somehow got faster and faster. The difference between morning and evening runs is absolutely amazing! Maybe they should start marathons at 5pm.

18 Mar

8 miles, 1:08:03, 8:30 pace, HR 133

19 Mar

10 miles, 1:13:02, 7:18 pace, HR 152
incl. 6xmile @ 6:29, 50, 31, 30, 54, 19 (6:35 avg)

20 Mar

am: 15 miles, 1:48:02, 7:12 pace, HR 157
   incl. 3x4.5 miles @ 7:20, 7:03, 6:51
pm: 4.55 miles, 34:42, 7:37 pace, HR 142

A Perfect Paddy's Day

After writing Sunday's entry about my great but strenuous 60/60 workout, Niamh and Lola announced that we would go for another walk in the woods like we had done a few weeks ago. This can be surprisingly tough, especially since I am the one carrying Maia on my back. We chose to walk Rosbeigh Mountain, and even though we never got lost, because we always knew where we were, we often didn't know which way to proceed, and out map turned out to be hopelessly outdated. We returned to the car after over 2 hours, and Cian especially was completely exhausted. It was another nice day with the family though.

The price I paid was very sore sore legs on Monday, just as expected. This would normally have been my long run day, but I had planned a 22 mile run, which would have necessitated a 4:35 alarm call. With Paddy's Day on Tuesday I decided to re-jig my schedule, and a 8 mile run allowed me to sleep in until 6:20. Oh the luxury! The legs were slow and heavy, and I felt surprisingly warm, especially once the sun rose above the horizon.

With that in mind I decided to wear a singlet on Tuesday. While it is technically still winter, the temperatures seemed to call for lighter garments. I didn't want to leave it too late and left the alarm at 6:20, but I woke just after 5:30, and when I was still awake 20 minutes later I got up and got ready. It was quite bright at 6:15 and I had a waning gibbous moon straight ahead of me, and even though it was chilly I knew that problem would not last.

I had been fairly apprehensive about the run because of the distance and started quite conservatively at 8:30 pace, but the climb up the hills went well and I knew I would be ok for the day. The sun joined me on my journey at 7 am, and the temperatures rose significantly. The first half of the run was very hilly, the second half merely undulating. I was really surprised by how fresh I felt. I stopped by our driveway at mile 16.5 for a few sips of water, and then took about half a mile to get back into my rhythm. Because of the length of the run I kept resisting the temptation of speeding up until the last 1.5 miles, when I finally let go of the breaks and did the last bit at 6:50 pace.

Niamh commented that I looked like I had merely run around the block, and that's pretty much how I felt. I could easily have run longer and/or faster. I guess there's nothing wrong with my endurance.

It was still a glorious day, not a cloud in the sky and hardly a breeze, and we set off for the Patrick's Day parade in Glenbeigh. Shea and Cian took part in this as part of their school and Niamh walked with them. I joined the spectators with Lola and Maia. The best thing about small-town parades is that they are over quickly, the kids got some sweets, and we were back home after two hours. For once I declined Niamh's offer for a long walk in the woods, and just stayed behind with Cian for some entertainment in the garden. A few ball games with the twins and a few cuddles with Maia rounded off the day. It couldn't have gone better.

16 Mar

8 miles, 1:06:31, 8:19 pace, HR 136

17 Mar

22 miles, 2:55:29, 7:58 pace, HR 146

Working Out

When I asked for opinions at the end of my last post I should have known that I would get a rather wide array of answers. Thank you to everyone who took the time to write a comment; it just didn’t help me to make up my mind about that 10k. As Grellan pointed out there is actually a race in Beaufort next week, just about 10 miles from here, but I don’t have the brass neck to just turn up and run when I’m not eligible. As for what I would like to get out of one more race, the answer is one final fitness boost before the marathon. Races are excellent workouts, and I can always feel an effect afterwards, be it lower HR or faster subsequent training times.

My legs felt surprisingly fresh on Friday morning as I set off for my 18 mile run. I started out at measured pace, laboured up the big hill, and then just stared feeling better and better. I gradually improved the pace without even noticing, and was pleasantly surprised by my 10-mile split. I put some extra effort into the next few miles that ended up at 7:21 pace, and then ran the last 3 miles at a strong effort coming up with 6:51 pace. For once an effort like that actually yielded faster than marathon goal pace, if only by the smallest of margins. I seemed to get into really good shape at the start of February, but the illness I contracted just then set me back by a significant amount. I think I am finally getting back into that shape, which would be just in time. If things keep improving I’ll probably be at my peak fitness just in time for the marathon. Anyway, I was quite happy with that run, but my quads were very sore for the rest of the day.

Because that soreness was still there on Saturday I started wondering if I had overdone things after the race. I know I didn’t do any real recovery workouts, but I have never done those, and I have always recovered in reasonable time. My run on Saturday was very slow and short, but didn’t alleviate the feeling in the legs. However, I must have a really short memory, because when I felt better on Sunday morning I went ahead with the next 60/60 session as if nothing had been wrong. It was a beautiful morning, and while the temperature of 8C/46F wasn’t exactly balmy I decided to wear a singlet for the first time this year. The wind was still a factor, but nowhere near as strong as it had been in the past week. I had felt slightly apprehensive before the run, but felt surprisingly good at the start of the first interval. The first half of the run was into the wind but with a net downhill, the second half saw be battling uphill but with the wind at my back, and those two elements seemed to cancel each other out. Of course I got tired, and I could have sworn the 10th repeat was way too slow, but when I checked the Garmin I as still doing 5:3x pace. I had never done more than 13, but since I was still on pace I kept going on. Unfortunately I ran out of road after the 15th, because that’s where a big hill awaits. Only afterwards did I realise that I could have turned around and done at least one more repeat going the other way, but at the time my oxygen-starved brain wasn’t capable of producing bright ideas like that, so I stopped after 15 repeats. I was really happy with that workout, I had done more repeats than ever before at a faster pace than ever before, and I still felt like I could have done some more. Maybe the sickness in February prevented me from peaking early. At the moment I feel better every week, and while I’m pretty sure I would not be able to run a 2:59 marathon right now I am hopeful that the next 5 weeks will bring sufficient improvements to do exactly that.

13 Mar

18 miles, 2:18:04, 7:40 pace, HR 150
4 miles @ 7:21 pace, last 3 @ 6:51

14 Mar

6 miles, 49:41, 8:16 pace, HR 138

15 Mar

8.5 miles, 1:03:01, 7:25 pace, HR 158
incl 15x60/60 (5:37 avg)

Weekly mileage: 73.5

Use and Abuse

Of course I still have Sunday's race in the legs, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I'll take it easy. If you've been reading this blog for a while, that won't come as much of a surprise to you.

The legs felt stiff and heavy when I left the house Wednesday morning for my workout. Last week I had tried a 10k time trial and was less than pleased with the result. After some deliberation I decided to attempt 3x2 miles at roughly the same pace. I knew that Sunday's race would have an impact on the legs, and I gave myself permission to bail out any time. During the warm-up I wasn't particularly looking forward to the faster part, but when it started it actually felt ok. The first pace segment was with the wind at my back, and I managed 6:36 pace, which I was quite pleased with. The second was half with the wind and half against it and yielded 6:44. which actually came as a pleasant surprise because I had expected a lot worse. The third segment saw me battling the wind and mounting fatigue, and if there were such a thing as a helpline for abused legs they would have dialled the number at that point. I managed to complete it in 6:58, which meant that I had run those 6 miles a good bit faster than last week, albeit with half-mile breaks in-between. But with the race still in my legs, this was a much better workout than I had dared to hope for. I know I had gotten slower with each segment, but if you take the wind into account, it would explain a lot of the difference.

My training paces are always slower than you would predict from my race results. I prefer to look at it from the other side: my race results are better than my training paces would predict. That's something I can definitely live with, I just have to learn not to have an eye on the training pace all the time.

Despite being sore all day yesterday I did notice a marked improvement in the legs for today's easy run. It looks like I have recovered from the worst bits of fatigue from the race, despite my workouts. I think my heart rate has dropped slightly as well, which is a normal post-race effect.

I was hoping to run another race before Boston, but it's not looking good. There is a 10k in Limerick next week, but I just found out that it's on Saturday, which makes it impossible for me to attend because either Niamh or me will have to drive the twins to Cork that day and the other one has to mind Cian and Maia. The only other race within reach is in Cork on 5 April, but I don't think running a 10k two weeks before the marathon would be a good idea. What do you think?

11 Mar

10 miles, 1:13:14, 7:19 pace, HR 158
incl. 3x2 miles @ 6:36, 6:44, 6:58

12 Mar

8 miles, 1:04:40, 8:05 pace, HR 139

Analyse That

I guess 10 miles races are long enough to deserve a bit of an analysis. I didn’t get round to connecting my Garmin to the computer on Sunday, and I got a real surprise when I finally caught up on Monday. Have a look at it.



Firstly, you can ignore the HR reading over the first mile and a bit, that’s a false reading that happens when the contacts aren’t moist. Secondly, you can see the slow pace at the start. The first quarter had an average pace of 7:20, at least a minute per mile slower than what I would have run on an open road. And since I still had to weave around plenty of people after that point I estimate that the start cost me about 20 seconds. Not enough to get anywhere near my mallow time, but I most likely would have ended up under 64 minutes. Ah well, never mind.

But what really struck me was that HR spike at 3.5 miles. If you remember the race report you can see that I actually noticed something funny happening to my heart at that point. I had no idea this actually showed up on the HR monitor. I googled for tachycardia and hear rate spikes, and the answers are reasonably reassuring, so I don’t think I’m about to drop dead. As I’ve mentioned, this has happened before, but never during a race, and I did have a medical check-up that came up blank. I have no idea what exactly is going on, but I honestly think it’s not as serious as it sounds.

Anyway, the other bit of information I gathered from the data is that I did not run hard enough! I know the HR is not an exact replication of effort, but the average HR of 176 in Mallow was significantly higher than the 172 in Ballycotton, and I can only conclude that I could have pushed an ounce harder. My easiest mile was the fifth, for which I actually have an excuse because I was sheltering from the wind behind a group. Apart from that, most miles should have been a tad harder. I only pushed hard enough on the last 2.

There were some photos as well. I didn’t spot myself at the start, but with 2500 other runners on a narrow street that’s not very surprising. I found one with about half a mile to go, which won’t win a prize for beauty. Well, I was redlining at the time. There was also an official photographer at the finish, where you can see me with the two guys I had just outsprinted. According to the SportTracks software I was doing about 4:40 pace at the time. It looks like I have finally acquired a finishing kick; all those 30/30 workouts have gained me two places on Sunday.

Following the possibly flawed theory that running on tired legs builds your endurance I went out for 15 miles on Monday. I chickened out of doing 20, but resisted the temptation of cutting it even further. Richard had made a comment on Sunday that my bed must be really uncomfortable, otherwise I would never get up so early. Well, that night Maia had been with us since 4 o’clock, and if you have to share a pillow with a thrashing toddler then getting up at 5:30 gets a lot easier, I can assure you. I was labouring badly up the steep hills, and the wind up there was less than inviting, but at least it wasn’t raining at the time. That came at the halfway mark, and for the next 2 miles I was distinctly cold and uncomfortable. I did question what I was doing, and I wondered how many other runners of Sunday’s race were stupid enough to be out and about at this time of morning. I felt a lot better once the rain subsided and had enough willpower to speed up over the last 4 miles, but not enough muscle fibres to do better than 7:25 pace. Coming home was a massive relief, though.

I finally got my recovery run today with 8 easy miles, again ever so slightly compromised by the wind and the odd rain shower. We’ve had it easy, weather wise, in February, and now it’s payback time. According to the weather forecast the worst is already behind us, but it didn’t feel like that today. The legs are as stiff and tired as I expected them to be. Tomorrow’s effort level will depend on how I’ll feel in the morning.

9 Mar

15 miles, 1:59:54, 7:59 pace, HR 146
last 4 @ 7:25 pace

10 Mar

8 miles, 1:05:05, 8:08 pace, HR 141

The Things We Do for Fun

After much deliberation I eventually decided to run 12 miles on Friday, and to run them as a progression run. The first 4 miles were very easy, which eventually turned out to be 8:02 pace. The middle 4 miles were at a better effort and came up at 7:42, though quite a bit of that was uphill., The last 4 miles, still net uphill came out at 7:03 effort, which isn't bad, but I ran them at a higher level than marathon effort, I think, and of course they came out a good bit slower than my goal pace. Never mind.

A parcel arrived during Friday, containing two new pairs of shoes, including a pair of Nike Lunaracers. I had been using a pair of Lunatrainers for a while, and was keen to give the racers a shot, after my previous racers had reached the end of their useful life. I took them out for an easy spin on Saturday, to test if I could wear them on Sunday. The run was fine, the shoes felt good, and I was on for the race.

My recent race preparation includes 3 easy miles in the morning, and I got up reasonably early on Sunday. I managed to wait out a hail storm followed by very heavy rain, and managed to squeeze in my run between two sets of truly nasty conditions. I set off in good time, the weather seemed to improve a bit on my way to Cork, and met Grellan and his neighbour, Pat. Grellan was kind enough to give us all a lift to Ballycotton. The wind there was blowing rather strongly, it was biting cold, and we knew it would not be a particularly easy day. After plenty of waiting around, we went for a warm up. With 15 minutes to go, Grellan went to the start line, but a call to nature delayed me for another 5 minutes. This turned out to be crucial. By the time I approached the start area, a wall of people blocked my way from way back. I followed two more guys who were pushing their way towards the front. Eventually, there were no more gaps to squeeze through, and I was stuck well behind where I wanted to be. I could see Grellan and Brendan well ahead of me, but there was no way to get closer.

The start came soon enough, and it took me 30 seconds to cross the line. The first minute was ridiculous, I was squashed in the crowd, and could not run properly. There were so many others around me, and dozens of morons who had started way ahead of where the should have been. Eventually a few gaps appeared and I managed to speed up. By the half way mile I was pretty much at the pace I was hoping to do. I expected Brendan and Grellan to be so far ahead of me that I would not see them again until the end, but was very surprised to catch up with Grellan just before the first mile mark. We exchanged a few words, and eventually I pulled slightly ahead. As I passed the one mile marker, a guy shouted out the times, and I passed just after 7 minutes. Unlike last year I remembered that I had crossed the start line after a delay, and my net time was just a bit slower than 6:30. By now I had a reasonably free road, and the second mile is the most downhill one, but I did start to notice the strong headwind. It was at that point that I noticed a guy in a white singlet with green and black striped across; we seemed to trade places regularly, as we sped past dozens of slower runners who had started ahead of us. Mile 2 went by in about 6:15, giving me an average pace of 6:25 so far. The next mile continued in much the same way, but the wind really started to bother me. What became clear very quickly that I was slower than in Mallow 2 months ago, but faster than in Ballycotton last year.

I took a drink at the first water station, and must have slowed down, because that's where I lost contact with the guy in the striped singlet. I wondered if I should keep up, but I was already pretty much at the edge. This became very clear when all of a sudden I felt rather odd. It's like my heart just went into overdrive. I was a bit worried; I've had tachycardia before, but never during a run like this. I changed the view of my Garmin to display the heart rate, which came up as 172, certainly not very high. This seemed to reassure me enough to basically forget about it and continue with the race.

With the headwind so strong, I found it basically impossible to keep up the pace. The average pace started slipping, until it reached about 6:30 by the halfway mark. I was still passing people, and eventually I caught up with a group containing Mary Sweeney, a local running legend. I started drafting behind her and her fellow runners. I felt I could have run a tad faster, but it did not seem worthwhile the extra effort in the wind. By the halfway mark we would turn out of the wind, and then it would be coming from behind. I could hardly wait, but until then I was content to sit and wait. Eventually we turned a corner, where Mary got her customary ovation from spectators. I mentioned to her that it must be great to have so many fans, which she agreed on, and then I was ahead and on the way towards the finish.

I heard a runner approaching from behind, and was absolutely convinced that it was Grellan. However, when he drew level it turned out to be someone else, though Grellan later confirmed that he was very close behind and actually saw me looking around. This was just about the only runner who had passed me for a long time, though I think I managed to re-pass him later on. At about the 6-mile mark I took my secret weapon, a gel. This seemed to have worked well in Mallow, and I tried to replicate this. While I was waiting for the boost to kick in I passed the 10k mark in about 40:20, which was slightly disappointing, about a minute slower than in Mallow.

Whether it was the gel or something else, but I started feeling better. By mile 6 I had thought that there must be easier ways to get a mug, by mile 7 I was doing a lot better. The average pace had become faster again, to 6:26. That mile contained a few downhill parts, and on each of those I flew past a few more runners. This is something I have always done. I gain on the downhills, and I used to lose on the climbs. By now I have worked on my climbing strength; I am still able to run the downhills better than most, but I'm now able to keep my position on the uphill sections. Anyway, at one point someone I had just overtaken said something like “I'm going to hitch a ride”. I wasn't able to respond, but didn't mind the company. He didn't manage to stay with me for half a mile, though.

One of the guys I passed was the runner in the white singlet with the green and black stripes, who had pulled away from me 4 miles earlier. That little victory pleased me no end.

The 8 mile marker came earlier than I thought. Normally that's a good sign, but it was also the beginning of the section that I dreaded most. The 9th mile is a bitch, with a steep uphill, and several more smaller ones. However, I could smell the finish, and I had a new target, namely to beat 65 minutes, not just on chip time but also on gun time, which would be about 64:30 chip time. I was still on target, but with the climbs ahead this was less than assured. I gave as much as I could, and I still managed to overtake a few more runners. This was where I had caught up with Brendan last year, but I knew very well that I would see no sign of him today. But, I managed to keep on pace, and that was all that mattered to me.

With one mile to go, I thought our places were pretty much settled, but I heard footsteps approaching from behind. I managed to hold the guy off for a while, and the even higher effort meant I gained another place. But I could not prevent the runner from passing me eventually. With about a quarter of a mile to go I thought I could not possibly gain another place, but I started running like a madman. To my surprise I gained on the guys ahead, and managed to pass not just one but two other runners. The only one of that group who stayed ahead was the guy who had just overtaken me, and I crossed the line at 64:48 on the clock, with a chip time of 64:19. I was a bit disappointed to be over a minute slower than in Mallow. The congestion at the start certainly cost some time, but not enough to make up for the time difference.

One guy came up to me, thanking me for pulling him and his friend along. You're very welcome, mate, but in all honesty I was only looking after myself today.

Results are here. (Looks like a lost a place since the first, unofficial results. I used to be 199th, now I'm 200th)

Grellan came in half a minute later. He thought he had broken 65 minutes, but the official results have him at 65 on the dot. I wonder what he said when he saw that. Brendan, on the other hand, had a chip time of 61:39. Wow! Congratulations, mate! Richard caught up with us and took some photos. Looks like we had some fun.

6 Mar

12 miles, 1:31:29, 7:36 pace, HR 149
incl. 3x4 miles at 8:02, 7:42, 7:03

7 Mar

5 miles, 39:40, 7:56 pace, HR 145

8 Mar

17+ miles, incl:
Ballycotton 10, 1:04:19, 6:25 pace, HR 172
199th out of 2398

Weekly Mileage: 80+
Edited Monday morning to get rid of the worst of the grammatical violations. Writing a race report at 10 o'clock at night does not yield brilliant prose, apparently.

No Tempo

I don’t quite remember how this started, but ever since last year tempo runs and me don’t mix. We just don’t see eye-to-eye, metaphorically speaking. I’ve ranted and raved enough about this by now, and I guess I’ll spare you this time round. Let’s just state that my tempo runs aren’t tempo runs any more, and I’m not entirely sure how to fix this.

Sure, I’ve got the usual excuses. It was early on Wednesday, about 6:30 local time, and early morning hours aren’t conductive to fast running. Plus, the weather didn’t exactly help. In the middle of the warm-up, I started hearing precipitation fall against the trees and for several seconds couldn’t quite figure out why I wasn’t wet from the rain yet, until I finally realised that it was snowing, not raining. According to the weather pages the wind was at gale force levels, and I could never quite figure out where it came from – it usually seemed to come head on, of course. Oh, and it started hail stoning when I was about half a mile away from home, which is why I ended up with 9.9 miles. I did not feel like adding an extra 0.1 miles in those conditions just to get to a round number.

Anyway, I recently did start to worry about an important component missing from my training, namely sustained hard(ish) efforts. I did 2 or 3 runs at marathon effort and some short tempo runs before the hill sprints, but that was it, and it’s not a lot. The training schedule finally included a 10k time trial this week, but I was left wondering at what effort level that should be run. It was never going to be 10k race pace, I simply can’t do that without a number pinned to my chest. I always thought that tempo runs should be run at half-marathon pace, which would be 6:30 according to my PR, but I have run a 10-miler at 6:18 pace 2 months ago, which probably means that my HM PR is a bit soft. Never mind, I can’t seem to hit 6:30 in a training run, so I decided to run mainly by feel, and ideally the HR should be somewhere in the 160s.

What I ended up was 6:40 during the first half, and a big slowdown due to wind, snow, hills, fatigue and probably laziness on the second half, and I ended up with 6:58 average pace for the 10k segment, which is even slower than the planned marathon pace. Slightly worried I checked last year’s log, and was re-assured to find similar paces during the Dublin build-up. At the very least I don’t seem to have slowed down. I might break next week’s tempo run into 2 shorter segments (that’s what I did last year, even though I hated the break in the middle), and I’m thinking about swapping the tempo and speed sessions, i.e. do the speed sessions on Wednesday and the tempos on Sunday, because on Sunday I tend to run 2 hours later in the day, and the legs just feel so different. I do wonder if I should try and run a tempo run after work once a week, rather than do my entire running in the early morning. How I would do that without impacting on my family life I don't know, though. And let’s be clear, family will always come first.

Niamh refused to let my cycle to work because of the weather, and absolutely insisted on driving me. I didn’t think it was quite that bad, but gave in.

Today’s easy run was unremarkable. The weather forecast was bad, and I woke a few times in the night from the wind and rain but got lucky during the run. It remained dry until mile 6, and it only started raining more heavily on the last mile, which I can endure. This time I had to cycle to work, though.

4 Mar

9.9 miles, 1:12:59, 7:22 pace, HR 154
incl. 10k @ 6:58 pace, HR 162

5 Mar

8 miles, 1:07:07, 8:23 pace, HR 138

Back Home

I guess I’m a creature of habit, which is why I don’t even think about getting up early each day any more; I just do it. Being back home in Caragh Lake provided me with my usual roads, which I found comforting. It struck me on Monday that for the last 5 days I had run in different areas of the country each day: Thursday Cork, Friday Kerry, Saturday Cork, Sunday Dublin, Monday Kerry. I don’t particularly want to repeat the insane amount of travel that happened between each of these runs ever again.

With the Ballycotton 10 miler being on Sunday, I did hesitate on the mileage for Monday’s long run. The original plan had said 20 and the revised one 18, but the last thing I did on Sunday evening was to set the alarm for 4:50, time for 20 miles. Things got a bit more complicated when Maia woke as I got ready and I had to spend some time preparing a bottle and settling her back in her cot; I thought I probably wouldn’t have time for 20 miles and would end up doing 18 or 19 after all.

Since I had turned Saturday’s planned easy run into a tempo workout I couldn’t help but wonder how my legs would hold up.

I set off into the very dark night. In marked contrast to all the runs in Cork it was dead still; I did not encounter another human being for the next 2 hours. The weather wasn’t great with plenty of wind and the occasional rain shower, which is never a good combination. But the legs held up much better than they did the previous Monday, and when I reached our driveway after 15 miles I decided to go for the entire 20 miles and to put some extra effort into the final 5. I started that last section at around 7:30 pace but surprisingly managed to gradually increase it until I ended up with an average pace of 7:22 for the last 5 miles, 7:47 pace for the entire run. That’s a decent improvement to last week, but definitely not yet where I want to be.

Cycling to and from work was a chore, with the tired legs and the increasingly strong wind. At times like that I really want to buy a new car, but the journey is over after 20 minutes and then I’m happy enough with my bike again.

I took it really easy today, my first easy run in a few days, and something I really needed. For once I didn’t have to keep an eye on the Garmin to ensure that I wouldn’t speed up unnecessarily, the legs dictated the pace and the rest followed. I should have worn long sleeves though; the temperature of 3C/37 F would have warranted that, especially as the wind was definitely picking up again. One day I’ll learn.

I still haven’t quite decided yet how much I am prepared to compromise the marathon training for Sunday’s race. I’ll definitely do a time trial tomorrow; the question remains how long I should run on Friday. On a normal week this would be 18 miles. I’ll definitely cut this to 15 at most, but I’m thinking about doing no more than 10 or 12. Decisions, decisions.

2 Mar

20 miles, 2:35:34, 7:47 pace, HR 152
last 5 @ 7:22 pace

3 Mar

8 miles, 1:06:56, 8:22 pace, HR 140

Magic Insoles

I'm writing this text in Dublin on my fancy new netbook with Maia sitting on my lap, so I'm a bit distracted. If my thoughts seem disjointed, you know why.

Niamh took a plane to Dublin on Friday evening with Cian and Maia, leaving me in sole charge of the twins. They had to attend their classes in Cork on Saturday, and that's where we drove the following morning. While they spent their 2 hours in UCC I took the opportunity to go for my run. I headed towards the Lough, which I knew from the marathon. I figured that a loop around some water should be a lot flatter than the rest of Cork's roads. Grellan once told me that amongst Cork runners a loop around the Lough equates to one mile, but my Garmin came up with less than 0.7 miles – sorry, guys! I didn't know if there was an etiquette towards the direction you're supposed to run and chose to run counter-clockwise. I met two runners who did it the other way, a girl running fairly slow, and a guy running a lot faster, and from his heavy breathing and the pained expression on his face I figured he was on a hard tempo run. This was supposed to be my easy day and I tried not to get sucked into an imaginary race, but the legs did have a mind of their own and gradually increased the pace with each loop.

Since we would not be heading home after the twins' classes and I was planning some speed work for Sunday, I only brought my racers; Saturday was my first ever “slow” run in flats, and somehow the feet seemed to turn over much quicker, without me telling them to do so. Maybe they put some magic insoles into those shoes, but I found it impossible to slow down. After 7 loops around the Lough it was time to head back to UCC. The fast guy was still doing his tempo run, I guess at about 7:00 pace. Top marks for effort, man! Personally I found it hard to run even 7 loops, from a psychological point of view.

When I was back at the car I realised that I had averaged 7:17 pace – I had done the fastest run of the week on what was supposed to be the easiest day! My first thought was that Ewen and Mike are going to give me grief for this – and that they would be absolutely right. But don't blame me, blame the magic insoles!

When Niamh had explained her plan of flying to Dublin, she apologised for making me miss my weekend runs because nobody would be there to mind the kids. Luckily I figured I could run in Cork on Saturday, and then I had the ingenious idea of driving to Dublin straight from Cork, thus enabling me to get a run on Sunday see my new niece. Everyone seemed to agree that this was a great idea, and we arrived at Nana's and Gaga's at about 7:30, not too late.

In the meantime, Ireland had beaten England at rugby at the historically loaded venue of Croke Park. As the coach said in his interview afterwards, every day you beat England is a good day!

I missed today's 10k race in Adare, but at least I was able to run a 60/60. I programmed the Garmin for 15 repeats, but that is only the max, not necessarily the correct number I'll end up doing. I wondered how much yesterday's much-too-fast run and the 5 hours in the car had cost me, but the things that bothered me most were dodging walkers with dogs and crossing a road. It felt a bit strange, I never felt like the legs were moving as fast than they should, but on the the other hand I felt pretty good for the first 10 repeats. Things deteriorated very, very quickly after that, though, and when the 13th was markedly slower than the previous ones I called it a day. Not one of my better workouts, for various reasons. Not even the magic insoles could save me today.

We're driving back to Kerry tonight, and I hope for a spell of uninterrupted training for a few weeks. There is still room for improvement in my running, which I will need to fill if I want to break 3 hours, and especially for anaerobic workouts I feel the need for my familiar routes in Caragh Lake, otherwise I can't seem to do them.

28 Feb

6 miles, 43:42, 7:17 pace, HR 158

1 Mar

9.4 miles, 1:11:33, 7:37 pace, HR 156
incl 13x60/60 (5:52 avg)

Weekly Mileage: 86.7
February Mileage: 235.5

Stumbling Blocks

Unless you are lucky enough to be a professional athlete, you will have to fit training around the obstacles that Real Life keeps throwing your way. I’m in the middle of a right old obstacle course at the moment, but so far training has not been interrupted.

A 2-day training course at Cork required a stay in a hotel, and if you ever find yourself stranded at Cork airport I can honestly recommend the Airport Hotel to you, but admittedly I had the added bonus of the bill being taken care of by my employer. The pastries for breakfast get 11 stars out of 10, they are to die for, and an excellent way of re-stocking depleted glycogen stores after an early morning run. The major drawback is that Cork airport is situated on top of a hill, and no matter which direction you are heading, the return journey is going to be uphill.

On Wednesday morning I headed towards Cork City centre. The run started with 3 downhill miles and an elevation drop of about 500 feet, which is very similar to my big climb on the Caragh Lake loop. My intention was to head straight into Cork, but I took a wrong turn and found myself heading eastwards towards Douglas. Since the objective of the run was to get some miles into the legs rather than a reaching a certain destination I didn’t really care and just carried on. I turned around after 6 miles, and surprisingly managed to retrace my steps without any major detours. Obviously the last 3 miles featured the same 3 miles as the start, but this time uphill. The longer the run went on the more uncomfortable I felt, not because of the fatigue in my legs but because the roads were much busier than what I’m used to in our out-of-the-way corner of the island.

Since I didn’t have much to do in the evening I seized the opportunity to sneak in a second run of the day. Hoping for a quieter and flatter road I crossed the main airport road and headed out into the countryside. I achieved my first objective, though the roads were still a lot busier than the Caragh Lake ones, but the fact that the road was called “Elm Hill Road” gives a clue on how the search for a flatter course went. Still, I managed a good pace and at the brow of the hill got a fantastic view of the surrounding area, all the way down to Cork Harbour.

Grellan was kind enough to meet me for a couple of pints and a lot of running talk in the airport bar.

I took it easier on Thursday with just 8 miles on a loop that I had scouted via Google maps, but for one mile I found myself on the Carrigaline road, which again was much busier than I had expected (I know I sound like a broken record). Still, I survived both the traffic and the major climb back towards the airport, and the breakfast pastries made me forget all the problems.

With the course finished I was back home and sleeping in my own bed last night, which was nice. A few more hours of sleep would have been even nicer, but 18 mile runs call for early rises, and by 5:20 I was on the road again, back on my old familiar Caragh Lake loop. The weather forecast hadn’t been great and I was waiting for the rain to come, but apart from a few drops at the 3-mile point it remained dry. The most noticeable difference to Monday was in my legs. Back then I had felt increasingly weary from the 12-mile point onwards, today I was much stronger and managed to speed up towards the end. After 11 miles I pretty much inadvertently increased the pace to about 7:20, and after passing our driveway at mile 15 ran the final 3 miles at an average pace of 7:01. This would have been faster if I would have been able to keep my mind on the task, an old problem of mine. After a while I start daydreaming, and as soon as my mind starts drifting so does the pace. Luckily this isn’t an issue at races, but I wish I could drop that habit during training runs as well.

There will be more Real Life obstacles over the weekend, but I think I have come up with a schedule that allows me to meet all my obligations and still keep on training. Life should start getting easier from next week again.

25 Feb

am: 12.2 miles, 1:33:14, 7:39 pace, HR 154
pm: 5.1 miles, 37:34, 7:22 pace, HR 155

26 Feb

8 miles, 1:04:47, 8:06 pace, HR 145

27 Feb

18 miles, 2:20:46, 7:49 pace, HR 151
last 3 miles @ 7:01

A New Life

The entire family were out hiking on Sunday afternoon when the long awaited news finally arrived: Niamh’s sister had given birth to a baby girl, and everyone was delighted, especially Lola. As a result Niamh is going to fly to Dublin on Friday with Cian and Maia, and I’m going to follow them on Saturday with the twins after their classes in Cork. This obviously means that I’m not going to run Sunday’s race in Adare, which is a shame. Racing myself into shape has worked very well in past training cycles, but this time pure training alone will have to do the trick, because I think Ballycotton might be the only race between now and Boston.

I re-checked the schedules, and to be fair Ron Daws is not calling the present phase anaerobic, but aerobic-anaerobic. The aerobic part is well taken care of by two long runs, and the anaerobic part consists of a fast day on the weekend and either a time trial or a hill workout in midweek. In short, this isn’t too different from the previous phase, but the hard days are getting a bit harder and the easy days a bit easier.

Monday’s 20 miler came as a shock to the system. Not only was it the longest run of the entire calendar year so far, I have only once run over 15 miles in 2009, and that was a mere 18 miles at the beginning of January. I thought about building the mileage gradually and only do 18 yesterday, but decided that since this wasn’t exactly the first time I have been training for a marathon I would jump straight into it and quit making excuses. It required a very early rise on Monday. When the hour of the alarm clock is still at 4 by the time I get up it drives home the message that, yes, this is early. Then, still very early in the run my headlamp started to fail, I think the batteries had run out. I had to negotiate the road into Ard-na-Sidhe in near darkness, I could barely make out the road, it was more sensing it rather than seeing it. It was only possible because I am so familiar with that stretch, but I managed to get through without bumping into anything, and once I got out of the wood things became a lot clearer.

Not only was Sunday’s 60/60 workout in my legs, the aforementioned hike must have left a mark as well, because by mile 12 I was getting increasingly weary. I took an emergency gel, but that seemed to vaporise in my stomach and didn’t give me the boost I was hoping for. I was tempted to call it a day when I passed our driveway at mile 15, but only stopped for a second to deposit the useless headlamp and headed off for an out-and-back stretch, again to Ard-na-Sidhe, but in brighter conditions this time. I kept telling myself that I can always run the meagre 2.5 miles to the turnaround point, no matter how tired. Any thoughts of a strong finish went out of the window, and I was glad to have enough fumes onboard to get me back home eventually. Hard work it was, but it was eminently satisfying to note down a big fat 20 into the training log.

With the easy days getting easier only 8 miles were on the program today, and they were always going to be slow. Keeping Saturday’s lesson in mind I kept checking the Garmin to ensure that I was going slow at all times, but this wasn’t really necessary. My weary legs never had the slightest inclination of speeding up, and the heart rate subsequently was the lowest since a run early September.

Things are going to be disrupted for a few days; apart from going to Dublin for the weekend, I’ll be in Cork for the next two days for a training course. However, they do have roads to run on in Cork as well, and my gear is packed. I just have to make sure to be on my guard if Grellan wants to prime me with Guinness.

23 Feb

20 miles, 2:42:15, 8:07 pace, HR 147

24 Feb

8 miles, 1:07:09, 8:24 pace, HR 133

The Longest Minute

My training had been going exceedingly well until I got sick 2 weeks ago. This cost me a few days of lost running, another few days of slowly re-building my mileage, and another week of slightly compromised running. However, since about Thursday or Friday I feel I’m finally heading somewhere again.

The legs were a bit sore yesterday, especially the hip flexors, which was definitely a reminder of the hill repeats. You really have to lift the knees during those sprints, and it showed. The other thing I had to contend with was the wind. While it wasn’t exactly storm force it was stronger than what I had been used to over the past couple of weeks, and it was a factor. So I headed out along Caragh Lake on my easy run, and since I had to fight the headwind straight on I ran a tiny little bit harder than on my usual long run, just a percent of extra effort – or so I thought. It wasn’t until the turnaround point that I realised I was doing 7:45 pace, a good bit faster than what I usually do on easy days, especially taking into account the wind and the heavy legs. Of course I now had the wind at my back and cruised home easily without having to slow down either. Some people (actually, a lot) say you should leave the watch at home for easy runs to make sure you don’t run too fast. Maybe the opposite is true for me – I should check the Garmin more often on easy runs to make sure I don’t go too hard. Having said that, I would be lying if I denied being quite chuffed about the fact that I could run faster than 7:45 pace without pushing the effort even once.

Later on it was my turn to drive the twins to Cork for their clever little people class. Maybe I’m driving faster than Niamh, but I got there half an hour early (ok, ok, I DO drive faster than Niamh), which left me time for the weekend shopping while they had their classes. I’m not very familiar with Cork, but I did recognise a few roads of the marathon course, and the start of the Cork-to-Cobh race. After picking up the twins and driving all the way home I was completely knackered – all that driving can be worse than running.

I wondered if Saturday’s faster pace and the hours in the car would have a negative effect on today’s workout. Following Matt Fitzgerald’s advice I replaced the 30/30s with 60/60s today, which is supposed to be considerably more demanding. I programmed the Garmin for 13 repeats, but had my doubts if I would be able to hit that number. I did feel more optimistic after the first mile of my warm-up, because usually I don’t run that in 7:30 when I’m not even trying. I was still slightly apprehensive when I eventually launched into the workout. The first repeat felt awkward (and it turned out to be the slowest one by quite some margin), but after that I quickly got into the groove. It was definitely hard work, the one uphill one was pure torture and the minute rest seemed to be getting shorter and shorter, but I somehow managed to run all 13 repeats at an average pace of 5:47, which was definitely faster than expected.

I forgot to mention, I checked my resting HR today and it came up with 41, the same value I’d measured before I had gotten sick. I’m definitely bouncing back by now.

Thus ends the hill phase of my training, and the anaerobic phase is starting. However, I had to check Ron Daws’ schedules about three times before I could believe that he is seriously recommending a 20 miler AND an 18 miler each week during that phase, quite a jump in the long runs, considering that there was only one "long" run of 15 miles during the hill phase! I’ll do 20 miles tomorrow morning (I think), but I’ll wait and see about the 18. I might run a 10k in Adare on Sunday, which would give me the perfect excuse to cut the second long run short, but I haven’t decided on that race yet. One race I’ll definitely do is Ballycotton, 2 weeks from now. Looking at Grellan’s recent training I might have a hard time keeping him behind me, but I’ll try anyway.

21 Feb

8 miles, 1:01:49, 7:44 pace, HR 148

22 Feb

8 miles, 59:38, 7:28 pace, HR 160
incl. 13x60/60 (5:47 avg)

Weekly mileage: 71

Acid Party

That heading should bring some interesting visitors via Google. They'll leave disappointed, though. The acid coursing through my legs this morning wasn't illegal, and probably a lot less fun.

After whining a lot about my sore legs on Wednesday I was pleasantly surprised on Thursday morning about the lack of pain. However, within 5 minutes this was replaced by a sense of impending doom, emanating from the inner depths of my digestive system. I'll spare you the details, but I bet you can imagine them anyway. This had two effects. First, I took longer than normal to get ready, and second, I was wondering if I would be able to return home "in time". I decided to check my Garmin after 4.5 miles. If I was running at or under 8-minute pace, I'd carry on to my usual 5-mile turnaround point, otherwise I'd cut the run short. When I got there, the average pace came up as 8:13, which meant an instant turnaround, and showed me that the hill sprints had obviously left a mark on my legs. However, the gut, which had never fully settled, started acting up at that time and I was left wondering how I would make it home. I experienced a few rather unpleasant stomach cramps, but the last mile was decidedly faster than the rest of the run, as I was getting a bit concerned that an otherwise unremarkable easy run would end up becoming very memorable for all the wrong reasons. Thankfully I made it home. I'll spare you the details again, but again I'm sure you get the picture anyway.

A few of you have voiced concern in the comments that I might be pushing too hard. While I can't rule out that possibility, I'm the only one who can feel the effects on my body, and I'm reasonably sure that in the longer term I'm recovering enough between the workouts, even if that wasn't true for the first half of this week. Running two hill session in one week doesn't seem excessive to me. Lydiard's schedules usually have three of them, and in the early days he had six! In comparison, my one week with two hill sessions is rather meek. Anyway, I set off today on a carbon copy of Wednesday's effort. I had hoped that the tempo part would be improved, but the 6:52 pace was only marginally better. I think it might have something to do with the early hours. Sometimes the legs just don't feel very responsive at faster paces at 6:30 in the morning, especially on a cold day like today. At least that's my excuse.

After the tempo run I did the same 8 hill sprints of 60 seconds each. After the second one I had serious doubts about my ability to finish the other 6, but somehow managed to go through the entire session. The legs were howling in pain at the top of each repeat, drenched in lactic acid as they were (or whatever physiological explanation goes these days). However, on the 2-mile run home I felt that the legs were less sore than on Wednesday. Maybe they're getting used to being abused.

19 Feb

9 miles, 1:13:04, 8:07 pace, HR 142
stomach cramps aren't fun

20 Feb

10.5 miles, 1:26:03, 8:12 pace, HR 152
2.75 miles @ 6:52 (HR 161) and 8x60 hill sprints
lactic acid isn't fun either

Feeling Old

They, whoever they are, say that the one major thing about aging runners is the recovery times from tough workouts. Older runners just take longer to recover. According to my legs, I have been an older runner since Sunday.

The first things I felt as I got up at 5:30 on Monday morning were my very sore hamstrings. This is quite unusual; if my legs ache it's normally the quads, but not always. I briefly wondered if running 15 miles over very hilly terrain was a good idea, but, as always, pushed those thoughts aside and got ready. The run wasn't as bad as I feared. The first 11 miles, the hilly part, went reasonably well. Then I started on my "strong finish" stretch, where I had managed at average pace of 6:48 only a fortnight ago – just before getting sick. I knew that pace was well out of reach, and all I could tease out of my tired and very achy legs was 7:10 pace. Still, that's better than on the same run 3 weeks earlier, so things aren't all bad. It confirmed what I already knew, that the sickness had set me back a bit, but not by too much.

However, for the rest of the day I felt twice my age, moaning every time I had to get in or out of a chair, and it wasn't pretty. I particularly cursed the fact that we lived 5 miles out of town, because cycling that distance wasn't fun at all. I hoped that a good night's sleep would do wonders, but things weren't helped by the fact that I was on call for technical support from work and promptly got a call at 4 am, which lasted for about half an hour (Niamh wasn't overly pleased either). It took me a while to get back to sleep, and the alarm at 6 o'clock sounded far too early. I was still groggy by the time I hit the road, ran 10 miles easily, was surprised that I managed sub-8 pace with my tired legs, was equally surprised at the high HR, and subsequently had a hard time staying awake at all times during office hours. Somehow I made it through.

There were no emergency support requests last night and I slept reasonably well, but somehow the legs were still sore, but by now the quads had overtaken the hamstrings in that regard. I wasn't too sure how I would make it through today's hill workout, but decided to go ahead anyway. I was dreading the tempo run part all through my warm-up. Of course, if you don't expect to run well you never will, and I subsequently ran my slowest "tempo run" in a while, clocking the less-than-three-miles segment at 6:53 pace (slower than marathon pace!!) though the HR confirms that it wasn't down to me slacking off. As soon as that particular torture was over I started dreading the oncoming hill repeats in equals measure. I had done previous hill sprints in 45 seconds; this time I resolved to keep going for 60 seconds each. However, maximum effort they were not. I have no idea if it's better to run 45 seconds all out or 60 seconds at a slightly more measured effort. Interestingly, the HR at the top of the 60 seconds was the same as I had reached during previous 45 seconds efforts. In any case, I had thought the legs were heavy at the start, but it was nothing in comparison how they felt at the end of the workout. It's a different kind of sore today, though. If there is a difference between acute soreness from today's run and chronic soreness from a run several days ago then that's what I can feel right now. If that's good (cause I'm working hard) or bad (cause I'm working too hard) is anyone's guess. So far, I have another hill workout planned for Friday. I'm not exactly looking forward to it, but I just have to keep the faith that those torture sessions might enable me to run Boston in less than 3 hours.

16 Feb

15 miles, 1:58:12, 7:53 pace, HR 153
last 4 @ 7:10 pace

17 Feb

10 miles, 1:19:10, 7:55 pace, HR 148

18 Feb

10.5 miles, 1:28:20, 8:25 pace, HR 150
incl. 2.75 miles @ 6:53 (HR 163) and 8x60 secs hill sprints

Evaluation

First things first, I'm glad to report that the knees are 98% back to normal. I still don't know what exactly had been wrong and most likely never will, but won't spend any time worrying about it.

I learned quite a bit about my present state on each of the last three runs. They were all very different, but the information I gleaned from each of them was quite revealing.

On Friday I inserted a long stretch at marathon effort into my run. I had done exactly the same workout 2 weeks earlier, before I had gotten sick, and it was a helpful comparator. In short, I managed to cover the 8.5 miles at an average pace of 7:09, six seconds per mile slower than a fortnight ago, and a very similar pace to a workout three weeks prior. It shows how much fitness I have lost in the meantime; and to be honest I’m happy enough with those figures. I can and will make that up again. What wasn’t quite so good was the feeling I had halfway through the run. I had just covered a short uphill segment at pace, and all of a sudden my legs turned to jelly, my HR jumped up and I felt pretty bad. I slowed down a little bit to get my HR and breathing back under control, but it took about half a mile to get back into the groove again. I’m not sure why I felt so bad pretty much out of the blue.

Saturday was an easy run. I had toyed with the idea of running a bit longer to boost my pathetically low mileage figure for this week, but sanity prevailed and I just ran an easy short effort. Mileage totals mean diddly squat on their own, and it’s not worth compromising your real workouts by running to exhaustion on what should be an easy day. Having said that, despite all the goodwill I could muster to run easily, my HR on that run was way too high. I was left scratching my head when I saw the figures on the Garmin. Sure, I had run a bit faster than I probably should have on an easy day, but I would not have expected the average HR to be in the 150s. I presume it means that I’m still not entirely over whatever illness had struck me last week. This actually ties in with the kids’ recovery from the same infection. Even after recovering from the worst they weren’t quite right for at least a week afterwards, and I’m apparently following the same pattern. On the plus side, they seem right as rain by now, and I expect to feel a lot better a week from now. If I don’t, I’ll seriously have to think about resting for a few days, like it or not.

After Saturday’s HR reading I wasn’t sure if I would be able to survive a 30/30 workout today. I programmed the Garmin for 25 repeats, but gave myself permission to bail out at any time. During the warm-up my fears seemed the get confirmed, as soon as I tried to increase the effort above a certain base level my HR would jump by a much higher margin than normal, even though my legs and lungs felt fine. After a bit of hesitation I started into the first 30 seconds sprint after all, taking it a bit easier for the first few repeats and hanging on for dear life from the halfway point. During the repeats it seems to help to count my breaths. This passes the time and it seems to ensure that I inhale deeply rather than hyperventilating my way through the workout. But there is no denying that it is a tough workout. I hung on towards the end, the 30 seconds rest breaks seemingly getting shorter and shorter; I was still gasping for air when the watch’s merciless beeps commenced for the next time. I survived to tell the tale and managed all 25 repeats at an average pace of 5:49. That’s marginally slower than a fortnight ago, but faster than expected in my compromised state. The average HR had gone over 180 on the last few intervals, and I couldn’t have done much more.

Looking at the training schedule, this should have been the last week of my hills phase. Since I have basically lost 2 weeks to illness I decided to extend that phase by a week before moving on to the anaerobic phase. Most of all, I hope to be over the after effects of that sickness by then. Ballycotton is in 3 weeks, and Grellan will humiliate me if I’m not in shape.

13 Feb

10.5 miles, 1:17:56, 7:25 pace, HR 159
incl. 8.5 miles @ 7:09 pace (HR 163)

14 Feb

8.3 miles, 1:05:31, 7:54 pace, HR 151

15 Feb

8.2 miles, 1:02:24, 7:36 pace, HR 162
incl 25x30/30 (5:49 avg)

Weekly Mileage: 55+

Kneeling Punishment

After running four cautious miles on Monday I had a pretty normal day back in the office. I could tell I wasn’t 100% recovered yet, but I felt well enough. When it was time to go home, my knees felt strangely stiff, which I couldn’t quite explain, but it didn’t particularly bother me.

It only hit me later back home when I tried to kneel down to fold away the laundry. As soon as I put weight on my knees an excruciating pain shot through both my legs that quite literally took my breath away. I managed to get into a tolerable sitting position, but that was one of the most brutal pains I’ve ever had to endure. You might think I’d learned my lesson, but I had to go through the same thing once more. It’s not unusual for one of us to be crying when I’m changing Maia’s nappy, but normally it is her, not me.

I can’t explain where that came from. I checked both my knees for swelling, but since it happened to both to them simultaneously I could not compare them to what they usually looked line, and there was no obvious deformation. I felt rather stiff when walking, but it was only when kneeling down that it actually hurt – and then it really, really hurt!

Going out for a run on Tuesday morning seemed a bad idea, but I did it anyway, just to test the waters. I felt rather stiff and awkward for the first 10 steps, and then the legs just relaxed and I didn’t even notice anything wrong. How weird is that, not that I was complaining at the time. I thought I only had time for four miles again, but eventually realised that I had inadvertently gotten up at 6 o’clock rather than 7, because I’m so used to getting up at the earlier time. As a result I stayed out for 6 easy miles, and then had half an hour of cuddles with Maia who was awake and chirpy when I came back home to a still dark and otherwise quiet house. I might have lost some sleep, but it was a nice start to the day anyway.

On Tuesday evening I decided there was indeed some swelling just above the knee caps and did some icing. This brought on some improvement because on Wednesday morning the stiffness had more or less gone, and the running was definitely unaffected. I cautiously increased the mileage again to 8 and took it easy until the last 2 miles when I sped up a little bit. It was supposed to be a nice day, but it was raining and I felt rather cold.

Today, Thursday, after some more ice, I can actually kneel down again without screaming out loud, but there is still some discomfort. At least I manage to get in and out of a chair without groaning, which is a good thing in an office environment, really. I ran 10 miles, and felt rather hot at first with my running tights and long sleeves. But this attire proved to be a good choice after all when it started raining again at mile 4 and never stopped. The run was fine, and while it was still markedly slower than before my illness, my legs are improving by the day. If I feel adventurous, I might try some MP miles tomorrow.

My lungs aren’t entirely fine yet, which I can tell easily on any uphill. I’m a bit paranoid about that since my pneumonia last year, but as long as I’m improving from day to day I can’t see much wrong. The knee issue is just weird and I can’t explain where it came from. Both knees got equally affected at the same time, and the entire episode started without warning. Maybe the illness last week caused some fluid to gather somewhere, but if that’s true and if so why, I haven’t got a clue. But just like the lungs, as long as the situation keeps improving, I won’t be too worried.

10 Feb

6 miles, 52:12, 8:42 pace, HR 139

11 Feb

8 miles, 1:05:18, 8:10 pace, HR 144

12 Feb

10.1 miles, 1:22:03, 8:07 pace, HR 146