Testing Times

After Sunday’s crash and burn, Monday was never going to be more than a short, easy, slow run. In fact, I surprised myself by being able to get out of bed at all. Once out on the road the legs took a few miles to feel better but eventually I started enjoying the run. I sure felt a lot better than the day before.

I wondered if there was any point in doing the evaluation workout on Tuesday, but in the end I figured that fatigue is one of the things these workouts are supposed to flag up, so I went ahead as planned. I was quite surprised by the way my legs reacted. The first two evaluation workouts in this training cycle were a bit of an effort; while it is a rather mellow workout, I still had to work for it. Yesterday I managed to run at HR 161 pretty much on autopilot and keeping the heart rate at that level felt a lot easier. I also managed much better to stay close to 161 than on the previous 2 occasions, even without the help of the audible alarm feature.

Date          2 Jun   16 Jun    28 Jun
Mile 1         7:19     7:16      6:55
Mile 2         7:17     7:20      7:03
Mile 3         7:16     7:27      7:06
Mile 4         7:16     7:23      6:57
Time to 130      34       40        32

I was very pleasantly surprised by the figures. Not only has my pace increased, I was able to keep it reasonably constant throughout the 4 miles and the time it took for the HR to recover to 130 was the shortest yet. While there is still a good bit of speed missing until I can match the best evaluations from the Vienna training cycle, this is rather encouraging and I stopped worrying about the effects from Sunday.

Having said that, I decided nevertheless to cut back the mileage a little bit and after an email from the old coach, rapping my knuckles a bit, even managed to keep the pace very mellow for another day. Maybe I’ll get the hang of this slow running business after all. Train slower to race faster (well, at the right time, that is) – it worked last time round.

I probably should not write the next paragraph at all, it’s just tempting fate, but my knee seems to have come round. Rick pointed me to an article that exactly described my pain and blamed the ITB, so I dug out The Stick and started working. I noticed an immediate improvement, and when I got lazy on a couple of occasions and stopped using it, the knee threatened to act up again, so I’d say there is a good chance that I have finally found the solution, as long as I remember to keep using it. As much as paying 48 dollars for a glorified plastic rolling pin seemed outrageous at first, that thing has been excellent value for money after all.

27 Jun

8 miles, 1:04:01, 8:00 pace, HR 143

28 Jun

12 miles, 1:28:56, 7:25 pace, HR 150
   incl. 4 miles evaluation: 6:55, 7:03, 7:06, 6:57 (rec. 00:32)

29 Jun

8 miles, 1:03:02, 7:53 pace, HR 140

Bonked. Hard.

Stop sniggering at the back, I’m strictly talking about the American, running related meaning of that word rather than the decidedly more fun British interpretation. Today’s run was not pretty.

Actually, the last few days had been fairly good. The HR showed a bit of a wobble on Thursday when it was several beats higher than expected for the slowest training run in ages. It may have been the shoes. I always used to swap between two pairs of shoes, one reasonably light (e.g. Nike Lunar Elite) and one heavier and cushioning (e.g. Asics Stratus), always worn on alternate days. After my knee troubles, which started in April, I exiled the heavier shoes (Saucony ProGrid Ride), which meant that I was now swapping between two lighter pairs (Nike Lunar Elite and Saucony Kinvara). On Thursday I wanted to save the Kinvaras for Friday, and in order to avoid wearing the same pair twice in succession, I dug out the Rides again.

It felt like having two bricks strapped to the feet. I still don’t think it entirely explains the relatively high HR, but it goes some way. I have gotten so used to the lighter shoes, I never want to go back to the cushioning ones again.

I resurrected Fast Friday, which was my one day of fun under Mystery Coach’s base training, which means running 10 miles a bit faster than the rest of the week but still very much within limits, with a HR of no higher than 155. That’s still a very limited effort, but when you try and stay in the lower 140s for the rest of the week it is something to look forward to. As it happens, I ran a bit too hard but the 7-minute pace was much better than expected, a bit of payback for Thursday I suppose.

Niamh took the kids to Dublin on Saturday to gawk at her newest Nephew, which is why I delayed my run until the afternoon, after they had left. I run 98% of my runs in the early morning and running in the afternoon had the effect that my RPE was completely out. It did not come as a surprise, it happens every time when I run in the afternoon, but I found it impossible to correct. I felt like I was crawling along virtually at walking pace even though the pace and HR fields of the Garmin told a very different story. I found it impossible to slow down even further, I already felt awkward. Of course I ended up with a HR that was way higher than planned.

Which brings me to today. After the highest weekly mileage in months and some way-faster-than-planned runs on the preceding days, running the steep hills around Caragh Lake for my long run was quite possibly never the brightest idea. I was a bit worried about my knee, but that never became a factor. I could tell early on that my legs were totally unused to the effort of climbing 600-feet hills; the HR went past 170 even though I tried to keep the effort as low as possible. I guess I then should not have tried to stride out on the downhill, going the next 2 or 3 downhill miles at 6:30 pace wasn’t that great an idea either. By mile 10 I could tell I was faltering and within 2 or 3 miles I had hit the wall, hard. It was ugly from here on. I kept telling myself that it’s those runs where you really have to push yourself where you gain the biggest fitness from, but did not believe myself. I just wanted to lie down beside the road and die in peace. The sun had come out, which did not help as I was getting dehydrated and did not carry any water with me.

4 miles of being hungry, thirsty, knackered and then starving, parched and completely exhausted turned into a death trot. I could almost imagine myself in the final miles of the Western States 100, which was held at exactly the same time, a good few miles away in California (ok, not really). Despite crawling along at 8-minute pace, my HR was in the high 160 (!!!) and I could not get home soon enough. As soon as the Garmin hit 17 miles I stopped running and very, very slowly walked up our driveway. A drink and some liquid carbs revived me sufficiently, but there is a lesson to be learnt somewhere I guess.

23 Jun

10 miles, 1:20:05, 8:01 pace, HR 145

24 Jun

10 miles, 1:10:16, 7:02 pace, HR 156

25 Jun

10 miles, 1:15:36, 7:34 pace, HR 153

26 Jun

17 miles, 2:14:05, 7:54 pace, HR 160 (!!!)

Weekly Mileage: 77

Back on Track

It sure has taken a long time. Ever since the Vienna marathon the legs have not felt quite right, the HR was always too high for the given pace and there was no pep in the legs.

All of a sudden I can feel the difference. The shift is subtle and if some scientist took some measurement, she might not spot it. But I can feel it.

So it’s time to increase the mileage and get a few weeks of proper base training. I have finally managed to slow down a little bit to keep the HR where I want it.

Monday saw some more progress in my injury rehabilitation. For the first time in ages I ran without my knee strap. I was a bit apprehensive but figured that the shortest run of the week would be the best opportunity to try this. It went reasonably well, but there was some discomfort during the last 3 miles.

I felt absolutely knackered on Monday, btw. Early Sunday afternoon Niamh made some bitchy comment about the lawn mower gathering dust. I could not possibly go out and do the garden after that, it would have looked like I'm following orders. So I waited 5 minutes and THEN went out to make it look like it had been my idea all along. Score! (I wish). It didn’t change the fact, though, that by the time I was finished 5 hours later I was toast; I was more tired than after all of my recent marathons. The fact that then I could not sleep at night and got less than 5 hours did not help.

A good night’s sleep on Tuesday made all the difference and I felt reborn. I was a bit hesitant about the knee strap but on the way out of the door made the decision to leave it at home. I felt fully vindicated when I made it through 10 miles without the slightest amount of trouble. I thought I had finally left that chapter behind.

So it was all the more disappointing that I felt some discomfort again this morning, halfway through my run. Nothing bad and certainly not interfering with my run but disappointing nevertheless. I’ll get over it, eventually, but I need to show a little more patience, I suppose.

Today was “National Cycle to School and Work Day”, so me and Lola cycled together to her school, I then continued on to work and at 3 o’clock Niamh collected her by bike as well. Luckily the weather just about managed to cooperate. They really should advertise these things. Nobody else at work seemed to be aware of this.

20 Jun

8 miles, 1:03:55, 7:59 pace, HR 140

21 Jun

10 miles, 1:18:23, 7:50 pace, HR 146

22 Jun

12 miles, 1:33:21, 7:46 pace, HR 146

Dad's Day

Might indeed help others training for their first sub-3. Having MC himself (or herself) at the end of an email must have been invaluable too.

Just to re-iterate this, Ewen is absolutely right. Having MC helping me with my training was absolutely invaluable. The training plan I posted got me under 3 hours, but without help it would not have been enough. I don't want to discourage anyone from at least reading through this and picking up some pointers, but I won't take any heat if your marathon isn't as good as you hoped.

Actually, Ewen's right on another point, MC may just as likely have been female. I'm embarrassed to say I never even considered that. Give me a whack over the head for misogyny.

I could still do with some help, actually. If someone could force me to slow down on my training runs, I'd probably benefit. Maybe I should set up an automated email account that periodically sends me an email saying "run more and run slower" in various shapes and form. It worked when I got them from MC, but telling myself at the start of each run (and during) is not half as effective.

I still haven't quite gathered the courage to run the big hills around Caragh Lake again, despite the fact that my knee handled the steep downhill of the DAR just fine. I have been running plenty of miles along the undulation road on the other side of the lake instead, my preferred running route anyway, which will hopefully build up the leg sufficiently to handle the big hills soon enough. Thank to Rick, btw, for pointing me towards this article. It's yet another theory of what might have gone wrong, but using The Stick on my ITB is well worth trying. It won't do any harm.

I can't believe it's the 19th of June already. Where did half the year go? I really must be getting old, because that's what all the old people used to say all the time when I was young. The fact that the weather was so bad hasn't helped. It really does not feel like summer.

"Do you want breakfast in bed for Father's Day", asked Niamh? "Err, ... no ... unless you want to get up at 6 o'clock". That offer was declined. Instead we had pancakes after my run at 10 o'clock. It also gave the kids time to make their own card. Everyone signed it. Niamh, all 4 kids, and the gerbil had a good nibble as well.

I must have been tired and cranky on the last mile of today's 15 mile run because when that car came up from behind and hooted at me, I was about to turn around and give him a mouthful of abuse for hooting at me for no reason - it was at the very last split second that I recognised Ed at the wheel. He was only being friendly. That would have made for quite some story, I guess, the next day at work. I'm squirming at the mere thought.

Now head over to Grellan's and leave your congratulations on a mind-boggling achievement.

18 Jun

10 miles, 1:17:31, 7:45 pace, HR 151

19 Jun

15 miles, 1:54:21, 7:37 pace, HR 150

Weekly Mileage: 68

This Was My LifeTraining

After I finished the Vienna marathon quite a few people asked me about my training. I have of course described every single workout in this blog, but reading all that is not the easiest way to get a grasp of the system. I have therefore written a little document, outlining the training plan and the ideas behind it, as well as a few observations from the time when I followed it.

I am making no claims whatsoever on the benefits of said document. The training I did was never meant to be followed slavishly, the coach tweaked it as we went along, responding to feedback from my workouts. But I managed to break 3 hours in the marathon that way and maybe someone else can do, too.

The document is available here. If you read it and have any feedback (apart from abuse), you can let me know.

Maybe the best thing about writing it was me remembering a few things about the training again. I am well aware that I should follow the coach's recommendations more closely at the moment. But thinking "I should run more and I should run slower" is just not the same as getting an email from the coach telling me exactly that.

One thing I did remember was doing an evaluation run. It worked the same way as always, 4 miles at HR 161 and then coming to a full stop, measuring the time it takes for the HR to fall back to 130. It was quite windy, which isn't ideal as it has a clear influence on the numbers, but such is life.

Because my Garmin's sound has died I can no longer use the alarm to keep the HR in a very narrow band and have to check the watch more often as relying on perceived effort doesn't work particularly well. As a result I once more ran the first mile too hard but managed to tune into it quite well for the rest. The coach's formula to work around that problem was to add 3.5 seconds for each beat too high, and the adjusted figures are as follows:

7:16, 7:20, 7:27, 7:23, recovery 40 sec

I am doing surprisingly well keeping the pace constant but Good God, this is slow! I know I still have the marathon and the DAR in the legs, but still! Unfortunately, wishful thinking alone won't make me any faster.

The evaluation is a rather mellow workout, but I still paid for it with heavy legs this morning. Luckily I only went out for 8 miles, which passed quickly enough, but I really should finally start following my own orders and run more and run slower.

15 Jun

10 miles, 1:17:32, 7:45 pace, HR 150

16 Jun

12 miles, 1:29:55, 7:29 pace, HR 156
   incl. 4 miles evaluation: 7:16, 7:20, 7:27, 7:23

17 Jun

8 miles, 1:01:37, 7:43 pace, HR 151

Don't Mind Me

Apparently, the prizes given out at the Dingle Adventure race were very nice. Amazing even, according to one competitor. Which is why I can only stare wistfully at the results page, noting that I managed the second fastest 10k time as well as the fastest 1k-sprint time, and that Noddy had the fastest kayak time of the entire field. Our mountain "runner", on the other hand, ... ok, I'll let it go. As a team we came in 15th out of 39 and that's the only statistic that counts and there are no prizes for that.

With the Cork marathon and the DAR now finally out of the way and my knee under control I can finally start training properly, I hope. Since I have no "A" race, I can do whatever I want, but it also means that the training I did for Vienna won't really work here because without a target race you can't implement a proper periodisation. I'll start out with weeks and weeks of base training, but since there will be some races in there, that's not base training as the coach had in mind. It means I won't hit the highest possible peak. That's ok, I suppose, because if there's no "A" race there is nothing to peak for. I just can't bring myself to train like I did for Vienna again. I was training for that single event for 7 months and it took a lot out of me, mentally. I need to re-charge those batteries before I commit to anything serious again.

That all sounds rather familiar, I think. I might start sounding like a broken record.

Actually, does anyone still remember records? It's not the same as a broken CD, and definitely not the same as a corrupted mp3 file. Weird. So familiar once, and now a complete anachronism.

I think I'll cut this short before I ramble even more nonsense. Shorter posts. How am I doing, Ewen?

13 Jun

5 miles, 38:38, 7:44 pace, HR 147

14 Jun

8 miles, 1:02:05, 7:46 pace, HR 149

Not Very Adventurous

I was not going to post another picture from Cork, but the pacers one is great and I had to put it in! And while I was at it, I thought I might as well put the one from the finish up as well. It looks like I've just had a very nice, enjoyable jog.



Last year I got a phone call from Kathryn a day or 2 after the Cork marathon asking me to run the road section of their relay team in the Dingle Adventure Race because their original runner had to withdraw due to a dodgy knee. After a bit of hesitation I agreed, even though the timing wasn't great, 5 days after a marathon. This year Liz, one of the team members, took the whole thing to a new level entirely and rounded up at least 20 people to do the event, with 2 of them (Kathryn and Ed) doing the entire race and the rest in several relay teams. Unsurprisingly, I got the road section again. And once more, the race was a mere 5 days after the Cork marathon.

Being part of a relay team means spending several hours standing around, waiting for your turn to start. This was especially hard early on when we were gathered at the base of Mount Brandon in the freezing rain without a shelter nearby. Luckily the weather improved eventually but not my mood when it became clear that there was a certain mismatch in our team. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great when someone finally gets his backside out of the door to get some exercise, but in all honesty I'd prefer for that to happen at a different time than the one when I'm freezing my bits off at the mountainside in the Kerry rain. Most of the field had long passed by when I finally got going.

The first mile is steep downhill with 350 feet of elevation drop, which is decidedly sub-optimal when you've got a) sore quads from a marathon b) a dodgy knee and c) both, but after waiting around for hours I hammered it pretty hard to work off the frustration and ended up with an opening mile of 5:22. The second mile is uphill with a gain of 150 feet and I ended up paying for the fast start, and the next 4 miles gradually drop another 350 feet, and yes, I kept paying for the first mile, in addition to the already leaden legs from the marathon. Having said that, since most runners had just cycled across Connor Pass and hiked/run across Mount Brandon, I picked up runner after runner in quick succession. Kathryn and Ed took well over an hour for that section, and they were not moving any slower than the guys and gals around them, so I took about 25 minutes off most of the other athletes out there. It left me embarrassed to be skipping past people who had been out for 3 hours already at that stage, and I just ended up wishing most of them good luck, but not everyone appreciated being left in the dust like that by a relay runner with fresh legs.

Kathryn ended up somewhere around 6th of the ladies - respect, what a fantastic result!

After my 10k run I passed the timing chip on to our Kayak man, Noddy, and since there was another 1k left at the end of the kayak leg I took it off him again after his paddle and ran the last k pretty hard to the finish. Apparently Noddy had expected to run this section, but because I was the runner on our team I had not even considered the possibility that he had wanted to finish it off himself, and he may have been a bit annoyed. Sorry man, no offence intended.

Anyway, as I told Liz, this was my last year of doing this as part of a relay. Next year it's all or nothing. If it's 5 days after Cork yet again in 2012 I may well end up with nothing because I'm pretty sure I'll get roped into pacing Cork again, but if the dates change I'll do the entire race. I have no intentions of feeling guilty for every man and woman I pass on the road ever again.

As I'm sure you are aware, running hard down a mountain is not the ideal way to recover your post-marathon legs and I'm a bit sore again today. The good news, however, is that there is not a twinge from my knee. I think I'm finally over this.

Finally, and on a complete different note, massive congratulations go out to Gerry Duffy who is right now in the middle of doing his 10th Ironman in 10 days. Gerry was one of the 32-marathons guys last year, and is an all-round top bloke. Please go over and sponsor his absolutely mind-boggling achievement with a couple of quid. You owe it to yourself.

10 Jun

5 miles, 38:48, 7:45 pace, HR 149

11 Jun

8 miles at the DAR, including:
   6.26 miles, 39:35, 6:18 pace, HR 176 (max 186)
   0.69 miles, 4:08, 5:59 pace, HR 169 (max 186)

12 Jun

5 miles, 39:33, 7:54 pace, HR 146

Aftermath

I just realised one distinctive advantage of running a marathon with a balloon and a very distinctive singlet – you find lots of images of you. Actually, considering how I usually look like Quasimodo’s less handsome older brother in those pictures, maybe that’s more a drawback. But I don't think I've ever had such a big smile at the end of a marathon.













Credits for the photos go to Darren Spring and Gearoid O'Laoi as well as a couple of other people whose name I did not manage to dig up. If one of these pictures is yours you can always drop me a comment and I’ll credit you.

In last year’s marathon, when I was NOT running as a pacer, Seamus stuck to me like a shadow for 15 miles until I dropped him. This year I inadvertently managed to finish the job, this time as one of the official pacers, of course. Funny how things work at times.

I had a look at the provisional results. Apart from the fact that there is a glaring empty space where my name should be at position 116 (what’s going on here? They had my name!) I checked out how many of our group managed to break 3:15. Looking at runners with a half-time split within a couple of seconds of mine and Tony’s 1:37:33, there were 5 who finished between 3:13:35 and 3:14:08. Two more got a time of 3:14:26 and 3:14:28 (that’s got to be the 2 lads who went ahead with a mile to go), and, sadly, that’s it for the guys who were with us at the halfway mark, though we picked up 6 runners between halfway and the finish who stuck with us to the end. There’s no less than 9 runners (unless I missed some) who dropped off at some stage after halfway and finished between 3:15 and 3:19, and some more who finished a bit further back. It shows how difficult it is to maintain even splits for a marathon – most of the guys who stuck with us for a considerable time did not manage to hang on until the end. But I hope the ones who made it found the pacing helpful – we certainly had plenty of people thanking us afterwards and leaving comments on various sites.

Anyway, after taking a rest I was back on the road this morning. The quads were a little bit sore, but not much considering it was only 3 days after a 3:14 marathon, and the knee was perfectly fine. I’ve started weaning myself off the strap, I no longer wear it for 24 hours a day and so far so good. I can feel it improving all the time, which is why him and him and him can bitch as much as they want on twitter. I’ve run through every other running injury I’ve ever had and this one gets the same treatment.

I got chatting to Mick Rice the evening before the race, which is always a great pleasure. He convinced me that it’s ok not to have an A goal for the rest of the year. Ever since Vienna I feel like my mental batteries are completely drained, and while I enjoy running as much as ever (I can’t even rest a dodgy knee, for crying out loud), I am not going to subject myself to another gruelling marathon training cycle until I feel ready again. This will be the summer of fun running without a goal race.

9 Jun

5 miles, 39:35, 7:55 pace, HR 145

A Job Well Done

I enjoyed pacing the 3:30 pace group in last year's Dublin marathon sufficiently to volunteer for another stint, this time at the Cork City marathon. I have raced this marathon twice before, once in 2008 when I first broke 3:10 and last year when I had a decent enough race just a few weeks after Connemara. But when the original pacer decided to run up Carrauntoohil the day before instead (a novel excuse, admittedly) me and Tony, who has paced that group in Dublin with me, got bumped up to the 3:15 group. We were both a bit nervous about it but just got on with it.

After three years of stone-splitting heat and last year's hurricane the marathon finally got a well deserved break with almost perfect running conditions today. It's about time.

All the pacers got their own uniform, bright yellow singlets that really stood out, which was a great idea. We also got green balloons and the choice of two different signs for the back. I let vanity rule and picked the one with my name on it. There was to be no hiding. Grellan had also produced some top notch pace bands; there was to be no excuse.



We lined up between Mick's 3:00 and Grellan's 3:30 balloon. Quite a few guys came up to me and congratulated me on Vienna, which was really nice and a great start to the day, so thank you every single one of you. Right at the start I thought Tony got a bit overexcited and sped off with a gap appearing, but within half a mile we were all together again. A sizeable group formed around us and we tried our best to keep the pace steady.

The Garmin is invaluable when you're doing a pacing job, it takes all the thinking out of it. The only thing you have to take into consideration is that the Garmin will always display more than 26.22 miles at the end because we never manage to run the perfect racing line. We were also aiming to run a little bit faster than target time so that runners crossing the line right behind us would still break 3:15. All this combined to give us a target pace of 7:20 or so on the Garmin. All we had to do now was run at the right pace and check the watch periodically. The pace band helped to re-inforce the pace with periodic feedback at the mile markers.

The early miles ticked along nicely. At mile 4.5 I felt a twinge in my knee, but it went away again quickly. We passed the first relay changeover (where Tony berated the waiting runners to give us a louder cheer) and then headed into the tunnel, a rather unique feature of the Cork marathon. I think the climb out of the tunnel is actually the longest hill of the day, but since it comes early on, just before the 8-mile mark, it's still easy enough.

We had built up a couple of seconds of cushion in the early miles but the long climb and a bit of a headwind coming out of the tunnel ate most of that up again and I put a bit more effort into it. The early miles had obviously been wind assisted. There was a good bit of wind around Blackrock, but nowhere near what we had to contend with last year. At one stage my balloon actually went past me - a certain sign of a reasonably strong tailwind. Around mile 11 we passed the half-marathon starting area, still over an hour before their start, but there was a good contingent there and we got the biggest cheer of the day.

Just before the halfway mark my knee sent out some discomfort signals again, and again they went away quickly. While I was slightly worried, this was actually going well.

The course turned into a rather sheltered walkway and the wind stopped being a factor. The road here was very narrow. It was just about big enough for our reasonably small group, but I'm sure later, bigger groups like the 4:00 one would have more troubles.

We passed the halfway point about 20 seconds to the good, just where we wanted to be. A few in the group gave a big thank to the pacers here, which I found a really nice touch. Thanks guys, it was very much appreciated!

The next few miles were the toughest ones, but it's all relative. Every year you hear some runners moaning about the tough second half, but that's just nonsense. The elevation profile is rather flat, easier than Dublin in fact, and there is nothing to be feared. But the stretch from mile 15 to about 21 or 22 is undulating and there are quite a few drags to conquer, and one very steep bit going up an overpass, but that is very short, thankfully.

Between miles 15 and 16 I suddenly started laughing. Tony, apparently concerned that I had just dropped my marbles, inquired. I had just realised that this was now my longest run since Vienna - but don't tell the lads in the group (there was no lady in our group, sadly). Actually, Tony's last 2 long runs had been marathons as well, he had been pacing in Limerick and Kildare. That's quite a schedule, but this stint here was the only one at 3:15 pace.

Despite my lack of long runs the miles ticked away nicely and I still felt great. We passed the Lough where there was a good group of residents cheering us on and continued on.

At mile 20 Tony and me suddenly got into a tangle - at least our balloons did. We tried to sort it out and just as it looked like we had succeeded the balloons came off their strings. One took off into the sky and I as left holding the other one in my hands.

Have you ever tried tying a piece of string to a balloon that threatens to take off while running at 7:20 pace? It's as tricky as it sounds but eventually I succeeded, though at a reduce string length. I had lost a bit of ground, which enabled me to see who was just about hanging on to our group. There were about 20 runners left, some of them clearly struggling. I tried to encourage them as much as I could while speeding past them to catch up, but I'm not sure if I had much success.

Somewhere between miles 21 and 22 I saw a familiar figure ahead of me. Seamus always runs with a calf guard on his right leg, which makes him rather easy to identify. We slowly drew nearer and then I caught up with him. "I'm on 3:20 pace" he said, "No you're not, you're right on 3:15". "Oh, I'd forgotten you're a pacer today". I encouraged him to stay with us for as long as he could. We were virtually at the end of the hills and the last miles would be a bit easier, at least when not taking the tired legs into account.

After a couple of right turns we arrived at the Straight Road, and this was definitely the home stretch. Tony kept imploring the group to keep running with us; ignore the legs, feel the rhythm and stay with us until the end. For some reason this really seemed to work.

We counted down the miles as well as the minutes left running. By now we started catching up with a lot of runners who had fallen off the early pace. All were encouraged to stay with us, but I don't think a lot took up the offer.

With one mile to go I told everyone who still had something left to go for it. Two guys started speeding up and we told them we would not want to see them again until the end. They ended up crossing the line 10 seconds ahead of us, so well done to both of you. The others stuck closely to us, and to my surprise Seamus was still here. For this he gets my full respect. It is very difficult to up the pace so late into a marathon when you get caught and he had managed this rare feat very, very well.

We were soon into the last mile and then on the glory stretch of St.Patrick's Street. Our group had whittled down to 10 runners, but for a time as ambitious as 3:15 I think that's a more than decent size.

Once we were across the line all of them came up to us and thanked us for our efforts, which felt really rewarding. A few runners who had clung on until late did the same. Seamus was especially grateful, but all the lads had done the work all by themselves. Our own efforts were a very small contribution.

I was very pleased with how this had gone. Despite not running more than 15 miles even once since Vienna I did not have the slightest problem staying on pace for the entire distance. The quads started getting heavy around mile 24, but that is to be expected. The knee held up very, very well indeed, but as soon as I had done 5 steps past the finish line it started hurting, so I'm definitely not out of the woods yet.

As far as the pacing job is concerned, we had hit every single mile marker right on and kept on pace right to the end, always encouraging the guys around us. Even if I say so myself, this was a job well done.

Pacer paraphernalia: balloon, pace band, sign with name and target time.

6 Jun

26.22 miles (26.44 on Garmin), 3:14:26, 7:20 pace, HR 160
Cork City Marathon, part of the 3:15 pace group

A Short Taper

I'm following pretty much the same routine I did before pacing the Dublin marathon. It worked well then and will hopefully do so again. Since I have not done a lot of training in the weeks since Vienna there was no fatigue to taper from.

I did the coach's "taper workout" on Thursday which included a 4-mile evaluation run, just like the ones I used to do a dozen times when training for Vienna, and then 2x800 on the way back home. The evaluation run consists of 4 miles of flat road (I'm running back and forwards 4 times on the same half-mile stretch) at heart rate 161, comparing the mile splits and then measuring how long the HR takes to get back to 130 while standing still. My main problem was that the Garmin's sound has stopped working a couple of weeks ago (I dropped it onto the kitchen floor once too often) which means I could no longer use the automatic alarm to keep the HR in a very narrow band around 161. As a result I ran a little bit too hard on each mile, but the coach had a way to correct that, by adding 3.5 seconds to the pace for each beat too high. The raw figures were 7:09 (164), 7:10 (163), 7:09 (163) and 7:06 (164), which give me "corrected" figures of 7:19, 7:17, 7:16 and 7:16. The time to drop the HR to 130 was 34 seconds.

I'm now left scratching my head at these numbers. There was no slowing down at all over the 4 miles (in fact I was speeding up), which should mean my aerobic system is in great form, the recovery time was excellent as well but I was 20-30 seconds slower than during my peak shape. Luckily there is no need to guess how to proceed from here. I'm pacing the Cork marathon on Monday, will then spend a couple of weeks recovering from that and do another evaluation once I feel ready. Thursday's effort served to provide a base line that I can compare the next evaluation to.

Oh, and unsurprisingly I messed up the 800s. I should have run them in about 3:10 - 3:20 and the first one was ok in 3:16 but the second one was way too fast at 3:01. Oops.

Anyway, that was the last "serious" run, I did merely 5 miles both Friday and Saturday, running as slowly as I could without feeling awkward. This produced pretty much the expected pace on Friday but I did a double-take when looking at the figure this morning. It looks like one day into the taper I'm feeling great already.

It may have given me a few anxious weeks but now I am glad I got bumped up from the 3:30 to the 3:15 pace band for Cork. My knee has improved immeasurably over the last couple of weeks but starts hurting whenever I run slower, about 8:00 pace. I can't explain it either but it's the main reason why all runs over the last few weeks have been a bit faster than what I would have done under the coach's guidance. I will re-assess the whole situation after the marathon, which has always been the plan.

2 Jun

12 miles, 1:26:57, 7:14 pace, HR 158
   incl. 4 miles evaluation plus 2x800

3 Jun

5 miles, 39:21, 7:52 pace, HR 145

4 Jun

5 miles, 37:56, 7:35 pace, HR 146

Not Chasing Skirts, Honestly

With the knee improving every day, I tried a few things. The first was my return to the Caragh Lake road on Monday. It is quite a hilly run, and that used to aggravate the knee a lot, but I felt ready. After 5 weeks of almost relentless gale force wind, the conditions had finally improved and I did not feel the need for the sheltered but much more boring road towards Ard-na-Sidhe or the Devil's Elbow any more.

My knee held up well, but I definitely felt a bit of a twinge. I'm getting there, things are undoubtedly improving, but slowly.

Still, I was encouraged to try something else on Tuesday, namely stopping to wear the knee strap 24/7. This worked out less well, after a day in the office my knee was quiet sore again. Strange as it sounds, sitting in a chair seems to aggravate the knee more than running. As much as I would want to, I can't stop attending my desk job and the knee strap was back on for today.

I had planned a fairly slow run on Tuesday. I am well aware that I have been running a bit fast the previous week and tried to reign myself in; after all, there is a marathon to be run on Monday. I started out slowly enough, 7:50 pace or so for the first couple of miles. I switched off at that point and by mile 6 the average had dropped just below 7:30. Still, the heart rate was not particularly high and the legs felt perfectly fine and I was content to just keep going like that for the final stretch. Then I spotted a group of runners half a mile ahead of me, and I did what any of you would have done: I put the foot down.

Now, I am short sighted and I did not wear my glasses, so I could not possibly see who was so far ahead of me. That's my excuse. Otherwise you might accuse me of chasing skirts, because the group just happened to consist of 5 girls on their morning run. I knew some of them but had never met them out on the road at that time of day. Apparently I am not the only early riser round here any more. Once I passed them (after a mile at tempo pace, 6:30 or so) I kept going for a bit longer (otherwise they would have thought I had sped up just to catch up to them, wouldn't they?) and took it a bit easier on the last mile home. Obviously, the average pace of that run was significantly faster than originally planned. Oops.

I guess the universe made me pay for all that caper. This morning my knee hurt from not wearing the strap last night, the wind had picked up again, it was raining and I had slept through the alarm, leaving me just enough time for 6 miles. Then again, with the marathon just around the corner that might have been fortuitous anyway.

I got a bit of a scare on Monday night when the weather forecast predicted 25 degrees for Friday, just in time for another scorcher of a marathon, but relaxed when the next sentence was "but it won't last the weekend". Whew, that's lucky, but Niamh didn't quite see it that way.

I'm finally starting to look forward to the marathon on Monday. Now that I have found some confidence in both my knee and my fitness, they can bring it on.

30 May

8 miles, 1:03:00, 7:52 pace, HR 144

31 May

10 miles, 1:12:55, 7:17 pace, HR 154

1 Jun

6.05 miles, 46:50, 7:44 pace, HR 148

Let Them Eat Cake

I would show you a picture of the birthday girl and the presents and the party and the cake, but all of a sudden Niamh has reached that stage where she is dreading the birthday instead of looking forward to it and she is in deep denial. Even mentioning this will probably get me into trouble. Again. Instead you will have to take my word for it. The cake is great. I should know. I made it.

That's Niamh's big news, of course. Mine is that wearing the knee strap 24/7 has made a massive difference to my knee. I have been testing it out plenty over the last few days. During the last weeks, whenever I got into double figures I'd be in agony at some stage the next day. Now I'm fine. There is some slight discomfort over the first minute of each run and once I'm over that I'm perfectly fine for the rest of it, including yesterday's marathon prep run. I really think I'm finally getting over this issue and this time it is not just wishful thinking.

I was getting increasingly worried about my pacing job for Cork. Not only was I in doubt if the knee would hold for 26 miles, my lack of proper training over the last few weeks made me wonder if I would even be able to hold 3:15 pace for any meaningful stretch at all.

Therefore I set off on Friday with the idea of running at 7:21 pace for a short 6 miles run. I'm a slow starter and was slightly behind pace after 1 mile, more than made up for that on mile 2 and then just let the legs do their thing, which is why I ended up way too fast, but happy enough.

When training for Vienna the coach had me do a lot of back-to-back sessions where I did 7 or so miles on Saturday 10 seconds per mile faster than MP, and then a long run with various amounts of MP at the end on Sunday. Since I had unwittingly done the first part of the job on Friday I decided I might as well finish it off with a few marathon miles on Saturday. My plan to run the first half relaxed at 7:30-7:40 pace failed when the legs felt too good, the wind was on my back and no warning voice of the coach in my inbox and I ended up doing the full 15 miles at marathon pace instead.

Some of you might think this was a stupid thing to do, 9 days before the marathon, but I'm really happy about this. It was much more for the head than the legs; the serious doubts if I would be able to do the pace at all are dispersed and I'm confident I will be able to recover sufficiently to tackle the Cork marathon course. Thinking about it, this is 30 seconds per mile slower than my pace in Vienna. 30 seconds per mile is massive. I'll be fine.

The fact that I was able to bake a cake after my run was a bonus. Sometimes I really manage to surprise myself.

26 May

12 miles, 1:33:32, 7:47 pace, HR 153

27 May

6.05 miles, 43:17, 7:09 pace, HR 161

28 May

15 miles, 1:49:45, 7:19 pace, HR 161

29 May

8.1 miles, 1:00:30, 7:28 pace, HR 153

A Quick One

I've just realised that I have not updated this blog for 3 days and now it's late and this will be a short entry. Stop celebrating, Ewen!

The main problem is still my knee and it will remain the main problem for a while, no doubt about that. I have started wearing the knee support for 24 hours a day rather than just when I'm running. This seems to make a real difference. The problem with this, and also the reason why I haven't done it all along, is that the strap keeps rubbing against the inside of my knee. Last week I basically ended up with an open sore after the top layer of my skin had been rubbed off bit by bit, and that was as uncomfortable as it sounds. I have started putting moleskin on the sore spot which seems to help but needs to be replaced every day and I'm still on the lookout for a better solution.

I have tried two different knee straps, one is slightly more comfortable but the other one provides more compression and that's what I'm after.

Yesterday was the first day in ages when I felt the knee hardly at all. I was really happy about this and thought there was real progress, but today was one of the bad days again and I'm back to square one. As uncomfortable as the knee is at times, it's just not painful enough to convince me to stop running and it does not seem to be getting any worse.

The other thing driving me nuts is the weather. We've had gale force winds every day bar one over the last 5 weeks and it is really starting to get to me (I'm not the only one complaining, believe me). The one exception to this was yesterday, and that provided its own piece of fun. On the cycle home it was sunny, then raining, followed by hailstones, rain, sun and rain again, all within 15 minutes!

And I've just gotten my credit card bill, which includes a lot of the expenses from Vienna. 3000 Euro. Whoops! There goes the plan for ... anything, really. Anyone keen to sponsor a desperate marathon runner?

23 May

6 miles, 45:43, 7:37 pace, HR 151

24 May

10 miles, 1:15:29, 7:33 pace, HR 155

25 May

8 miles, 1:01:16, 7:39 pace, HR 152

Back In Black

The Cork marathon is in 2 weeks and since the original 3:15 pacers cried off with various excuses (like running 132 km over a few mountains), I got bumped up to the 3:15 slot for which, in theory, I would not even qualify (the original criteria was you needed a sub 2:56 time). It was worrying me sufficiently to get me back out onto the road. The runners in Cork are relying on me, and I can't let them down by being undertrained.

Ok, that's a lousy excuse, I admit. Fact is, after one week on no running I could not take the cabin fever any more, Niamh was about to kick me out and I wanted my fix more than I was prepared to play it safe. I have a pretty good injury history (as in NOT being injured, I mean), and as such am much more prepared to take a risk than someone who has lost months to injury in the past.

The idea is now to force myself through the marathon and then re-assess. The knee had not really gotten worse during the two weeks that I had run through it, but then it didn't get any better after a week of rest either. As I just found out, wearing a knee strap constantly, not just during a run, works wonders and I have hardly felt a twinge the last two days.

My latest theory is that the shoes might have something to do with the problem, after reading a remark by someone I know who had switched from Brooks Adrenalines to Saucony ProGrids, promptly got a pain in his knee that sounded exactly like mine and resolved it by switching back to Brooks again. As it happens, I started a new pair of ProGrid Ride a couple of weeks ago, which more or less coincided with my knee issues. It may be a red herring of course, but it's worth a try.

As it happens, I had a new pair of shoes in the cupboard anyway, a pair of Kinvaras. They may be from Saucony as well, but are an entirely different make of shoes. In general I am a bit sceptical about the barefoot and minimalist movement, but the Kinvaras are a transitional shoe with only 4mm heel drop rather than a minimal shoe, and they are not as ridiculously overpriced as, say, the Newtons either.

Well, what can I say, it was love at first stride. I just have to learn to keep my youthful enthusiasm in check and learn to run them a bit slower. The knee was fine (strapped in as it was that might not say much) and the shoes are so light they almost run on their own, but I'll run a bit more than 6 miles before converting entirely.

The Valentia triathlon was on yesterday and one look out of the window made me glad that I had skipped it this year. They re-paid last year's fantastic weather with significant interest and I'm sure the swim was, let's say, interesting, even after being changed to be within the marina. In normal years, half of the fun of that race is to swim from the Irish mainland to the island. It did remind me, however, that I'd still love to do an Ironman one day, but until I can figure out a way to incorporate swim training into my rather busy life, this will remain on hold.

20 May

6 miles, 44:53, 7:28 pace, HR 158

21 May

6.1 miles, 43:34, 7:08 pace, HR 162

22 May

10.1 miles, 1:15:35, 7:29 pace, HR 155

You can safely ignore this

This just does not get old. I know you might disagree, but I don’t.

Eventually I’ll have to remove the match from our Sky box as it’s full and Niamh refuses to delete her Desperate Housewives episodes (and Maia is the same with her Peppa Pig ones). Until then I’ll watch it another few times. Sad, maybe, but what do I care!

The main reason I'm rambling about this is because there is no running to write about. I want to have a full day of no discomfort before I start running again. I thought I was there already on Monday, but as I got off the chair on Monday evening, I could feel the knee again (and that’s how the whole episode started). On Tuesday I could feel a twinge first thing in the morning, same again today. I’m starting to wonder if I'm imagining things, but for the time being I'm still prepared to wait.

Niamh keeps asking when I'm back running. I have not noticed any change in my personality but she might have. I think by the weekend she’ll kick me out of the house and onto the road. Allegedly I'm easier to live with when I'm running every day. I suppose dealing with four hyperactive children is hard enough and she doesn’t need a husband in the same condition.

I’ve started doing some much neglected core stability work, more out of boredom than anything else, and to be honest I have my doubts if I will keep this up once I'm back running. I still cycle to work and back every day, so at least I'm getting a bit of cardiovascular exercise, but not much.

In 19 days I'm supposed to pace the Cork marathon, but I’ll try and ignore that as much as I can. I’m clinging onto the hope that the fitness from Vienna (and the 7 years of training before that) will carry me through. It worked in Dublin last year.

What A Beautiful Day

It's been a spectacular few weeks. First this:



And now this:



35 years of waiting finally over. I can die a happy man.

Oh, and even though Google claim that they fixed all problems on blogger after some idiot had pressed the wrong button, I lost most of the comments for the last post. One of them was particularly insightful:

Stop running, you idiot!

though I'd respect you a lot more had you not hidden anonymously. Incidentally, I saw my doctor yesterday for an unrelated matter and mentioned the knee. After plenty of prodding and poking he decided I have some inflammation in my knee, gave me a prescription for pain killers and told me to stop running for a week or two. Now compare that to my prediction of a doctor's visit and tell me I was right down to the last tee.

Actually, since I felt yet another little twinge in my knee on Thursday, I had already stopped running at that point, believe it or not. Now I'll wait until the pain is gone and then get ready to pace the Cork marathon, which is in 3 weeks' time. I came into last year's Dublin marathon in exactly the same position, worrying about an injury, and came through without problems so I'm hoping for a repeat.

Oh, and one other comment asked which running book I would recommend. If I had to recommend just one book, it would be this one, as long as you're interested in running marathons. It's how I got below 3:30, and I know a good few guys who got a lot faster with the schedules in there.

And now, if you excuse me, I'm off celebrating. Even without my knee I don't think I'd be in condition to run tomorrow morning. Good days.

12 May

6 miles, 45:45, 7:36 pace, HR 147

13 May

0

14 May

0

Fresh and Breezy, Scattered Showers

Being a meteorologist in Ireland must be one of the easier jobs in the world, the above seems to apply 90% of the time and it sure has for the last couple of weeks. I have been reasonably lucky with the rain, Monday was the only day I got thoroughly drenched during a run (though Tuesday I got caught on the bike), but there is no escaping the wind. I even abandoned the otherwise flat and easy Killorglin loop as at the moment that entails running 3 miles into a relentless headwind and somehow that seems to aggravate my knee. That, and running either uphill or downhill. In theory a treadmill might be the best option for me at the moment, but I think I’d rather cut off my leg than suffer through that.

I keep having good and bad days with the knee. Monday was a bad day; after 6 miles I was in agony and went on to moan my way through the next 2 miles, but things improved once I had worked my way through that bad patch. Last week I was running with a knee strap, which definitely made a difference, but unfortunately it also rubbed against the back of my knee. Last Thursday or Friday I finally checked the area and was slightly shocked. We’re not talking about chafing any more, it was basically an open sore and extremely painful to the touch. I left the knee strap at home for a few days, which helped with the open wound but not the injured ligament. Yesterday I started using the strap again and immediately noticed a difference. It’s a balancing act, and so far I’ve just about managed to stay on top.

By now I can hear plenty of you screaming, stop running you idiot. Thing is, I may be stupid but not THAT stupid. If I thought it was a running injury I would have stopped a long while ago. But I'm pretty sure it’s not, and that’s not just wishful thinking. In addition to that, I’m not too keen on going to a doctor. On past experience he/she would send me home after a few questions and plenty of prodding with a prescription for pain killers and the advice to stop running. I could buy pain killers in the pharmacy without prescription if I wanted and paying €50 for advice I’d ignore anyway just does not seem worthwhile.

For treatment I’m doing icing, even though there’s no swelling, so that may well be useless but I suppose it does not do any harm. I'm elevating the knee when I can, and I try not to jump up and down like a deranged lunatic, except when Spurs generously score an own goal to send us into the Champions League. The one thing I think might make the biggest difference was to remove the swivel chair from my desk and replace it with a normal one. Seriously.

And, since you asked, one more thing:

I was just wondering for your opinion on how influential or beneficial your decision to get an online running coach was in achieving your goal. What did you learn most from his input and what are your views on proper, structured coaching?

I am absolutely sure that I would not have broken three hours in the marathon without the coach’s help, so I think it is definitely worthwhile getting a good coach. Only problem is, I think most online coaches are useless, and it’s the “good” bit that you need to get right. There are some good books on running and they will get you pretty far, but to reach your potential you will need a coach that knows what he’s doing and that you trust fully. What did I learn from him? A lot, not least the understanding that there is still a ton of stuff I still do not know about running.

9 May

10 miles, 1:19:06, 7:55 pace, HR 142

10 May

10 miles, 1:16:15, 7:37 pace, HR 152

11 May

10 miles, 1:16:20, 7:38 pace, HR 149

Why I Run

honestly I do not see why you take risks, while it would be better to go cycling for 4-5 days...

Roberto, as always, is absolutely right. My knee hurts every day and still I keep running day after day after day, when I could either rest or go cycling, which is entirely pain free. Well, I am cycling - from home to work and back, 50 miles a week, but that's commuting, not training or fun.

My knee is perfectly ok most of the time, there are only two things that make it hurt: when getting up from a chair (occasionally, not always) and after running more than 3 miles or so.

It's not getting any worse, and once the pain starts after a few miles of running (usually after running up an incline), it never gets any worse and I can take that level of discomfort.

It's not about the level of fitness. I have no goal race in mind, and I don't think I will for the rest of the year. I'll be running for fun over the summer.

Why do I run? I like the fact that I can get out of the door and go running for an hour or more and not have a single conscious thought for the entire time. It's a form of meditation. That simply does not happen on the bike where I have to concentrate on the road at all times. The level of discomfort from my knee is not high enough to disrupt that process and that's why I'm not too bothered about it. As long as it stays like this I am 100% sure I'm not doing any damage. It will go away eventually.

Call me hopelessly addicted if you like. That's ok. One of the other reasons why I run is that I prefer to be addicted to endorphins rather than other stuff I have experimented with in my past.

Call me an idiot if you like. That's ok, too.

Monday to Friday I ran the same 8 mile course along Caragh Lake at roughly the same pace and the same perceived level of effort, five times in a row. The heart rate was not the same, which is something I can't quite explain, but since it has come down to its normal level by now, I, again, am not too bothered about it. As the coach told me on more than one occasion, heart rate is not that reliable a marker.

Having found some confidence in my knee I went a bit longer again on Saturday, and then added a few more miles on Sunday. On Saturday I did not check the Garmin until more than 6 miles had passed, at which point I realised that I had averaged 7:14 pace up to now. I took it a bit easier on the way home. Apart from that there's not much to report. I got reasonably lucky with the rain and mostly escaped the frequent showers but it was windy every day, which I could have done without. No matter, I'll just keep on running.

5 May

8 miles, 1:01:43, 7:43 pace, HR 152

6 May

8 miles, 1:01:15, 7:39 pace, HR 147

7 May

10 miles, 1:14:07, 7:25 pace, HR 151

8 May

13 miles, 1:41:20, 7:48 pace, HR 146

Weekly Mileage: 63

My Bad

I had thought my knee troubles were already on their way out, otherwise I would not have run 12 miles on Sunday. Turns out, I was wrong. I was confident enough to run without a knee strap on Monday and within half a mile I knew I was in trouble. The right knee was really painful, but sometimes you just need to run for a few minutes to get some relief, so I continued on. The more I ran, the more it hurt. The more it hurt, the more I slowed down. Finally, after 2.5 miles, down to an average pace of 8:20 and by now basically in agony, I decided to try something new: I speeded up rather than slow down further, first to 7:20 pace and then to sub-7 (wind-assisted, as I realised at the turnaround point), and lo and behold, within 30 seconds the pain in the knee was almost completely gone! This was as close to a miracle cure as I have ever come.

The downside, apart from getting rather tired from the pace, was a pain in the left shin. Not shin splints, it was closer to the ankle. My best guess is that it was a follow-on injury, caused by a change in gait due to the knee pain in the other leg.

I made it back home, the pains in both legs eventually subsided during the day (cycling was entirely pain free, btw), so I tried my luck again on Tuesday, this time with the knee strap back on. I intended to run a little bit slower than the day before, but as it turned out I was doing virtually the same average pace, albeit in more even fashion. The knee was moderately painful, the shin was fairly bad.

At that point I really wondered why I was still running. I am not training for anything at the moment; rather unusually for me, I still do not have a goal for the rest of the year. As I am presently recovering from a marathon, I should just rest for a few days to let it all heal. After all, without a goal race there is no training to be missed.

It was raining heavily overnight, enough to wake me, and I decided to rest today.

Well...

By 6 o'clock I was wide awake, by 6:20 staring at the ceiling had lost its fascination and like the complete idiot I am, I got up, got dressed and went running.

Sometimes the stupid things are the correct things to do. Turns out, the knee pain was much better and the shin pain completely gone. I have no idea why. The one downside was a really high heart rate, which I can't quite explain. As I have been pushing my luck enough already, I'll keep things easy for another few days, keep the mileage as well as the heart rate low and try and stay away from the hills.

2 May

8 miles, 1:00:43, 7:35 pace, HR 153

3 May

8 miles, 1:00:39, 7:35 pace, HR 150

4 May

8 miles, 1:01:50, 7:43 pace, HR 154

Bouncing Back

Today marks two weeks since the marathon, and while the initial euphoria has worn off, the warm inner glow is still there. Not even a week back in the office could extinguish that. I must be experiencing the polar opposite of the post-marathon blues, but I've never suffered from those anyway.

On Wednesday, as I was getting up from the office chair, I felt a sharp pain in my right knee, and it has not been right since. Maybe I should have tapered my return to work, 8 hours in one go was obviously too much. The knee feels ok most of the time but there is some discomfort after running for 5 or 6 miles, and running uphill seems to aggravate it more than anything else; I won't be doing any mountains this week. As I'm pretty sure that it's not a running injury as such, and that it's getting better, I won't let it influence my running.

I did not have a plan for this week, just ran a few miles every morning, but was rather surprised when I added up the miles this morning and came up with 62. That's a lot more than I was expecting, and probably a bit more than is advisable. My legs felt rather heavy today and yesterday, and the mileage may well have something to do with that. Having said that, after a succession of runs with the HR in the 150s I seem to have gotten a handle on that and I have noticed a drop in the HR for the same perceived effort; I may start bouncing back after the marathon. Still, the next few weeks will see nothing but lazy running.

Our garden was well on its way turning itself into a jungle habitat and I finally got the lawn mower out of hibernation. Before the marathon I was always too exhausted from training to do any gardening work, then we were away on our holidays, and now it's already May. If I had realised just how much work it takes to look after an acre of garden, I would have told Niamh to pick a smeller house (yeah, right). After 6 hours of toiling I had gotten two-thirds through and the lawn mower ran out of patrol. But instead of praise, all I got from Maia was "Daddy, why did you cut down all the Daisies?". Sometimes you just can't win.

The Rally of the Lakes was on this weekend (it still is, actually), and one of the stages started right on our road. We went down the driveway to seem them all queuing up; the start of the stage itself was less than a quarter mile down the road. The kids were quite excited by it all; I just wished the event would not attract all those boy racers.

28 Apr

8 miles, 1:03:16, 7:55 pace, HR 146

29 Apr

8 miles, 1:01:40, 7:53 pace, HR 146

30 Apr

10 miles, 1:18:32, 7:51 pace, HR 149

1 May

12 miles, 1:35:20, 7:56 pace, HR 144

Weekly Mileage: 62