Friday 31 December 2010

This is the end

This time last year I was in much better shape, but i'm not complaining. It's more exciting when the only way is up and improvement is before you.
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Jan - I started the year with 2 PB's in January - 4 miles on 24th and 10 miles on 31st - which remains my best race over any distance (62:38 - 6:16 pace).
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Feb - My good form continued into February where my key long run for the Barcelona Marathon, a 20 mile PB in 2:19:30 (1:13:36 followed by 1:05:56) went off without a hitch.
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Mar - This was followed by a calf injury which I took into Barcelona scuppering my only realistic chance to-date of a sub-3 hour result - pulling up at mile 9 but toughing it out for a 3:10:28 time (perhaps unwise -
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Apr - but the mental battle was good training for what lay ahead in April where the highlight of my year was completing the Connemara Ultra in a shade under 5:30 - and a new PB.
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May - was a recovery month where I shifted emphasis towards other disciplines in preparation for the summer tri season.
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Jun - Pacing the 3:30 group in the Cork Marathon on the June Bank Holiday was a great experience, that I hope to repeat in 2011. June also saw me complete my first sprint tri in Caherciveen.
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Jul - I concentrated on the shorter distances and the Ballycotton 5 mile summer series targeting a series top 50 t-shirt. The month saw me break my 5 mile PB twice but
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Aug - a 2 week lay-off due to an injured toe scuppered any notion I had of going sub-30 in the final race in August - still managed to get the top 50 t-shirt though.
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Sep - I returned to endurance in September competing in my first ever half iron distance tri and missing out on a 5:30 finish by a few minutes.
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Oct/Nov - Off-season months having decided to skip the Dublin Marathon to give my body a break.
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Dec - With the Connemara Ultra my only confirmed race in 2011 I ran the inaugural Clonakilty Marathon in December to kick off my endurance base training.
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So 4 PB's, Pacing Cork and the Half Iron tri sum up the years highs.
Time now to move on and chase down some more elusive records - there's also M45 PB's to set and break and perhaps some new race distances?
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Meanwhile back at the ranch
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The recovery from my 45-mile day last week has gone pretty well, with two whole days of inactivity - well apart from my digestive system, which was working overtime to clear the high demand placed on it. Needless to say it coped admirably, although the odd bout of heartburn didn't go unnoticed (I never get heartburn).
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Santa brought me a new Garmin 305 - my letter must have reached him this year. I didn't ask for a 310 or 405 as I was not looking for added functionality and the cost on the website I pointed Santa towards (€121 + p&p) was very competitive and about €40 less than the cost of my first Garmin. Funnily enough my old 305 appears to have come out of it's 6-month coma, with full cognitive function - although all the buttons on the right side of the face are gone, requiring the use of a pointy object to operate (a bit like the kids at times). As the prognosis is, at best, unclear I won't be asking Santa for a refund.
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With my last run of the year completed my total mileage of 1,750 (approx) is well below the 2,400+ of the previous 3 years.
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Roll on 2011 and Happy New Year to all.

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Friday 24 December 2010

45....

...(3 x 15)
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I turned 45 today. Got the idea a few years ago from this guy. He turns 30 on 30th - today I wished I was as young as him. Had decided a month ago that I was going to do it but didn't know if I could pull it off (logistically and physically). I knew I wasn't going to do a continuous 45 as I was not in that sort of shape and being out for 6 to 7 straight hours on Christmas Eve was going to be a big ask.
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#1 - 0002hrs - 2:04:12 (8:17 pace) - Icy conditions particularly just after mile 6 where I had my one and only scary moment. No life except for taxis and a few lone walkers from the pub. Carried 1 gel but did not take it. In bed just after 3. Up at 0830hrs to no water (frozen service pipe) which delayed start of #2.
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#2 - 1100hrs - 2:07:55 (8:32 pace) - similar route to #1. Took 2 gels at 5 & 10. last 2 miles were drudgery as bonk set in. Arrived home ravenous to find food stocks depleted, Abina heading out to work and a shopping list on the table. Lay on the couch for an hour after shopping and eating all round me wondering how I was going to get through #3.
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#3 - 1630hrs - 2:06:50 (8:27 pace) - Decided to run on the snow covered grass of UCC Farm (2.3 mile loop) where I could feed from my goodie bag of coke and cereal bars after each loop. Surprised myself as I was expecting two and a half hours of hell - survived on coke alone and got my fastest (39 @ 7:41) and slowest (44 @ 9:17) miles of the day. Finished up in the dark. Legs not too bad and no issues - yet!
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Time for beer and rest - oh yeah!
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HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL. Hope this post finds you in good spirits and health.
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Sunday 19 December 2010

Base Camp

I certainly seem to be carrying more weight around recently. All the signs are there - I took a suit to be "taken in" this week (meaning to get it done over the last 6 months) and imagine my embarrassment when I tried on the pants and it fit perfectly - the seamstress must have though that there was a bit of wishful thinking going on. I’ve put on about 5 kg (11 lbs) since I last weighed myself 6 months ago. That's a lot of excess baggage to be hauling around the roads, especially over 26.2 miles. At a very simple level the linear relationship between energy, work and force (weight) tells me that carrying 6% excess weight takes 6% more energy. In other words the energy it took to run the Clonakilty Marathon last weekend would have carried me a further 1.6 miles had I been my normal svelte 82 kg (still not an ideal racing weight) or I could have used the same energy to complete the distance in 3:15. I know it’s not as simple as that and other factors come into play but I don’t like overcomplicating things. As the 39.3 miles I plan on doing next April will be very unforgiving on every excess lb that is not needed for essential bodily functions i'll have to reverse the current trend – well I’ll give it another week or two given the season that we’re in. When my daughter Keevsa asked me what I wanted for Christmas that was not running related I said she could get me a book on good diet written by Matt Fitzgerald called “Racing Weight” – technically not a running book. Maybe this will help motivate me to ease up on the crap I eat. I completed 35 miles this week following up Tuesday’s track session with two 5 milers on Thursday and Friday and a 16 miler in the park today. I ran 5 of those 16 miles with well known local runner Mary Sweeney. The time passed quickly as we chatted about last weekends marathon, in which Mary came 3rd, having faded from 1st place during the last 5 miles. We both agreed that the marathon was a great event and that we would be back next year. Mary’s highlight of the year was winning the F50 category in the national marathon championships in Dublin in October. While the Connemara Ultra is only 16 weeks away I have not devised, downloaded or even thought of a training plan. Perhaps I should - I like the heading of the Runners World ultra programme – “you don’t have to be crazy to run an ultramarathon. You just have to be ready”. Given that it’s a 16-week programme (albeit for a 50 mile ultra) I may just follow it loosely. While Thomas commented on my last post that reverting to 6:00 to 6:20 miles is a bit early in the season, I notice the runners world programme has me doing mile/2 mile repeats at 10 mile and half marathon pace, which for me (in my prime) is 6:15 to 6:30 pace. Seems a bit fast for ultra training. Tim Noakes in “Lore of Running” has a few ultra programmes – his own programme specifies various distances with jog, moderate and hard efforts. Another 14-week programme (Norrie Williamson’s) requires speedwork at 10k pace from week 2. So, on balance, I think I’ll introduce some speedwork over the coming weeks as I have entered for the Dungarvan and Ballycotton 10 milers in January and March and while I won’t be aiming for a PB, I won’t be jogging around either.

Tuesday 14 December 2010

Recovery

Of the 201 finishers of the Clon Marathon on Saturday Caitriona, John and I were among the seven runners who ran the last 13.22 miles at a faster pace than the first 13 miles (by about 1 second per mile - that's a 13 second negative split). The greatest negative split was by about 3:38 or 17 seconds/mile. By comparison the winner (Georgie Waugh in 2:34:01) ran the last 13.22 miles 25 seconds/mile slower than the first 13 giving a positive split of about 5:31. Just shows how challenging the second half of the course was. The greatest positive split was about 1:13:00 or 5:37 per mile - that's a tough way to complete a marathon.
Hanging off the back with 4 miles to go.
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Recovery consisted of 4 x 1 miles @ 6:48 pace with 2 min recoveries at the track this evening and while the effort was manageable and the legs responded well I was conscious of not pushing too hard - not just because of the marathon but due to my general lack of co-ordinated training over the last few months - in particular speedwork. I'll certainly take my time easing back towards the 6:00 to 6:20 miles I was doing at the start of the year.

Sunday 12 December 2010

Ultra Training

Yesterday I completed my fourth sub 3:30 marathon of the year, which marked the start of my training for the Connemara Ultra in April. The first, in Barcelona in March was my fastest @ 3:10:28, coming within a minute and a half of my PB, despite becoming a cropper at mile 9. The second in April was my slowest at 3:29:42, although I did run a further 13.1 miles after I crossed the 26.2 mile timing mat. The third @ 3:28:51 was my first outing as a pacer in Cork in June. Today I managed to struggle home in the Clonakilty Waterfront Marathon in 3:26:57 in the hilliest marathon i've run to-date. Not bad considering my total mileage over the previous 5 weeks was about 100 miles.
I only signed up for the race on Wednesday - in fact I swapped with Gavin from work who as unable to run due to an injury - hence his name in the results. My preparation consisted of:-
  • 2 long runs - the first 2 weeks ago was 16.75 miles and the second, last week was a 22.4 miler in the park in which I bonked during the last mile and a half.

  • A training diet over the last month restricted to processed fast food in quantities normally reserved for Christmas celebrations. I remember returning from my first long run two weeks ago and not having the normal hunger pangs associated with being out on the road for 2+ hours, which I put down to having built up sufficient fat reserves over the preceding month to last through the winter.

  • My pre-race preparation consisted of attending the work Christmas dinner the night before - indulging in steak and sticky toffee pavlova, a single glass of red wine and coffee. To my credit I drank copious amounts of water as my colleagues depleted the wine reserve. I got to bed just after midnight with my stomach feeling like a lead baloon.

An early rise just before 6 and I was on the road before 7 for the 40 minute drive to Clonaklity. Registration was painless, except for the fact that the transfer of the number from Gavin to me was not on the system.

Part of the attraction of this race is that it is in my home town and the route passes within 50 yards of my childhood home in Inchydoney ( 5 mile mark), where I spent the hour before the race making last minute preparations. I drove into town and parked about 100 yards from the race start before making my way to the start line with 10 minutes to go. I met up with club mates Denis, John, Robert and Caitriona who were all running the marathon. A few more were running the half. The plan was to head out at 8 minute mile pace and see how it went. Robert was planning on something a bit faster, which was evident during the first mile, when he disappeared through the throng (the marathon start also coincided with a 6 mile race, with the half marathon starting 5 minutes earlier at a different location). Denis, who was aiming for sub 3:45, decided to head out with us at the opening 8 minute mile pace. While I was hoping for a 3:30 finish I was expecting my pace to drop off during the second hillier half of the course.

The first few miles were fairly uneventful with 2 miles around the town and a further 3 flat miles along the coast road to Inchydoney where we met the half marathon runners and the marathon leaders coming against us. Our opening mile of 8:45 was the slowest, but we had most of the deficit pulled back by the time we hit the 5 mile mark, which we passed in about 40:15. The loop around Inchydoney consisted of a few short sharp hills, but being familiar territory I knew what was coming. There was a timing mat at about 5.5 miles which we crossed in 44:52 (Clock time). Out of Inchydoney and back on flat roads heading for Rathbarry. The road began to rise again as we passed through the field of slower half-marathon runners until the routes diverged at about the 8.5 mile mark. As I was a few yards ahead I stopped and walked to take a gel at the crest of a hill after the nine mile mark, which I passed in about 1:11:45 (15 seconds under 3:30 pace). I resumed running when Catriona and John caught up (Denis had eased off the pace and was about 50 yards behind). At this stage Caitriona had just passed the 6th female and so our race took on an additional focus - could Catriona make the top 3. He PB was 3:22 in Dublin last year, so continuing on at 3:30 pace was the best plan of action, particularly as the hilliest part of the course was yet to come. John was issuing instructions on following the racing line so that we wouldn't have to run any longer than we had to. "You can be certain John Quigley was in the ditch (hugging the ditch perhaps) when he was measuring the course" he said, in deference to the official course measurer. As the road was full of twists and turns taking the racing line certainly cut yards off as we gradually reeled in the guy in front of us, who was running in the centre of the road.

The downhill miles into Rathbarry were in the 7:30's increasing our margin on the 3:30 finish to about 2 minutes, passing the 11 mile mark in about 1:26. At this stage in the race I should have felt more comfortable than I did, with over 15 miles left to run. In places there was some slush/ice on the road but it was not a real issue and could easily be avoided. Right turn at Rahtbarry towards Castlefreake and Owneahincha beach. We could see a group of runners a few 100 yards ahead and hypothesised on the likelihood of it containing one or two women for Caitriona to exchange places with.

Left at Owenachincha and a sharp climb over the hill separating it from the Long Strand. We pulled in one or two on the climb and pass the 13 mile mark in 1:42:50 (clock time). Down hill past the long strand and the 14 mile mark. John falls behind for a bit as we climb up from the Long Strand and pass the 4th female. Past the 15 mile mark in just under 1:58. We had lost none of our 2 minute cushion on the 3:30 finish but the long climb from mile 18 to 20 is still in front of us. Downhill towards the Red Strand and we hear the sound of someone approaching fast from behind - John was back with us. It had taken a while for the gel he took at mile 14 to kick in.

Past the spectacular setting of the Red Strand and the long drag from sea level to the highest point on the course at about 110m began. To be quite honest, it wasn't all that bad as the grade was so gradual and levelled out in places. Much of this section was along a muddy boreen no wider than a car. Fatigue was beginning to set in but the pace did not drop much. Eventually the road began to level out as we turned onto the main road. A few hundred yards later we turned right and into another climb, but thankfully it did not last too long and we began to descend just before the 20 mile mark, which we passed in about 2:38:15 - we still had a 1:45 cushion on the 3:30 finish, which wasn't bad considering the elevation gain. Caitriona even found time for a pit stop while John and I slowed down. She was soon back on our shoulders as the gradual descent to Duneen beach gave way to the steepest (downhill) section of the course, which was hard on the knees and difficult to get any speed on. A gradual descent would have been so much better.

Once at sea level the road rose almost immediately for a short climb along the coast towards the Dunmore Hotel and I found myself falling behind the other 2. I thought the final 5 miles would be on my own but they came back to me as the road dropped towards the 22 mile mark. I had stashed a bottle of coke at the entrance to the hotel earlier in the morning, which I now retrieved. This cost me a few seconds and again I found myself about 10 yards behind. As John wanted some coke I thought he would slow down to let me catch him, but instead I found myself increasing the effort to catch up, which cost me as I began to fall off the pace again. less than 4 miles to go - keep it together. A guy in an orange top, whom we had passed earlier, was now on my shoulder with Caitriona and John 10 yards ahead. He eventually pulled ahead and joined the other 2.

Past the 23 miles mark and a right turn along the first of three causeways that would take us past Inchydoney and into Clon for the finish. Gavin, who had given me his number and was supporting his brother, gave a loud cheer as we passed. I fully expected to drop further behind the group in front but the gap stayed the same and by the time we hit the 24 mile mark we were all together again, with the bones of a 3 minute cushion on the 3:30 finish.

Grinding out the last few miles at the same 8 minute pace was all about ignoring the desire to stop and pushing on, counting down the remaining minutes. We stayed together in a group until the last 400m as the call of the finish line beckoned and John pushed out ahead, followed by the guy in the orange top and Caitriona, with me taking up the rear. Down the finishing chute and the right turn to the finish line where we were immediately greeted with a medal and a heat blanket. Glad to be finished and under my 3:30 target.

Caitriona never made her podium finish, but what a race she had, fantastic result, coming within 5 minutes of her PB on such a hilly course and even splits all the way. Well done Caitriona. Denis also finished a few minutes under his 3:45 target @ 3:43 while Robert had a great day coming home in 3:19 - he was right to head out at his own pace.

John and I headed straight for the physio area after the race to get a rub down, although my legs felt reasonably good with no specific issues. A day later, while my legs are stiff I do not have the usual post marathon issues associated with walking downstairs - a good omen for the ultra training that is before me.

Well done to the organisers for putting on a great event which was well marshaled and had more water stations than I've seen at other marathons. Luckily the weather was quite good with temperatures at 5C and a light breeze. It might have been less "fun" in freezing rain.

Sunday 5 December 2010

Move Along

Life is like an endurance event, an Ultra perhaps - sometimes it feels great and you're on top of the world and at other times you struggle and don't see the point in going on. The only difference perhaps is the form the euphoria or pain takes. The battle as always is to get through the pain, accept it, learn to live with and move along. One thing's for sure it doesn't go away, you just embrace it and make it part of who you are. What helps get you through is support, be it from family and friends or total strangers along the road - a word of encouragement here a helping hand there.

The last month has seen more pain than normal with the passing of my mother on 16th November after a long slow deterioration over the last few years. While she may have died a thousand deaths as she slowly faded from the woman I knew it wasn't until she took her last breath that the finality of it sinks in.

Joan McGrath 1935 - 2010
Needless to say my running has been up in the air since the end of October, with mileage for the last 5 weeks totalling 3, 5, 12, 27 & 51 as I gradually get back into it.