Solo Run

Back to Basics

2012-01-11T20:34:00.009Z

After scaling my highest peak last September/October and descending to base camp last month I am ready to set off again to scale some new heights. The batteries have certainly been recharged - I have added over 4kg to my fuel stores (all good fat) so I am ready to burn - my motto (excuse) being "train heavy and race light".

The first peak I have targeted is the 39.3 miles of Connemara on April 1st - by peak I mean PB, which is anything better than 5:24:30, although if I am to do it justice a sub 5:15 is called for. As for chasing (pacing) Thomas to a Sub 5:00 well.........it is fools day after all.

Most, if not all, of my training for Connemara will be in the aerobic zone - certainly no anaerobic intervals at the track. However unlike last year I will target long tempo runs - obviously not at typical 10k tempo pace but scaled back towards marathon pace.

Now that I know where i'm headed it is time to find where I am. With that in mind my track session last night was a repeat of the 5 mile evaluation runs I did last year to gauge my aerobic fitness. Then, over the period from January 27th to March 29th, my aerobic system improved so that I could run the 5 miles @ 140 HR nearly 3 minutes faster (37:18 down to 34:24) - or to put another way I could cover 1,000m in 600 heartbeats in March compared to 652 in January. Well last night proved that I am back where I was this time last year, taking 650 heartbeats to cover each km, although the spread of paces from mile 1 to 5 (8 seconds) was a bit more encouraging than this time last year (18 seconds).

Onwards and upwards, the dizzying heights await.

Perseverance

2011-12-31T18:53:00.002Z

When I returned to my car last Saturday morning with 7.5 of my 46 miles still remaining to be completed I was on my last legs - absolutely no energy left. The gel and half bottle of coke I had consumed 7.5 miles previously had given me a great boost but the effect had long worn off and I was now on empty, completely flat and simply ingesting more coke was not going the light the fire under my arse that was necessary to get me moving again. I needed to sit down, rest and see where I would go from there. I could always go home and complete the last 7.5 miles later in the day when I had recovered a bit. I knew deep down that this was unlikely to happen as once I hit home the rest of the day would be mapped out for me - I already had to pick up a set of cymbals to complete Safan's Christmas drum kit and a few last minute provisions in the English Market on the way home.

After a few minutes rest I decided I would walk the last 7.5 miles if I had to and so I headed out from Pairc Ui Caoimhe along the old rail line on a 3.75 mile out and back struggle. After 100 yards I managed to break into a slow jog, which felt no worse than walking and on I went, counting down the miles to the turnaround where I walked for a minute or 2 and consumed the remainder of my coke before resuming my slow jog - averaging a pace between 9:00 and 9:30. After a while I forgot about the end-game and just concentrated on each step I was taking, living in the present moment - and isn't it all about the journey. Eventually I arrived back at the car, no worse than I had been 7.5 miles earlier, after learning a valuable lesson in the perseverance of the mind and body. Just when you think you can go no further just concentrate on the next step and you will be amazed at what you can achieve.

2011 Review

I averaged 2,560 miles for the year in just over 341 hours giving an average pace of 8:00. The relatively high mileage ultra training for the first 6 months saw my average monthly pace rise to 8:39 in June for the Portumna 100k (my longest race to-date @ 9:16:28). Thereafter the mileage dropped off as quantity gave way to quality and my average monthly pace dropped to 7:24 by October - which explains my best race result of the year at the Dublin City Marathon.

The year was turning out to be a year of ultra PB's (Connemara and Portumna) and Marathon pacing (Limerick, Cork, Dingle and Dublin) until I decided in July to get some speed back into my legs and train for the Charleville HM in September (1:22:32 PB) and the Cork to Cobh 15 miler (another PB in 1:35:32). At the last minute I decided to trust my good form and race the Dublin City Marathon at the end of October, chasing the holy grail of a sub 3-hour marathon and managing to scrape under the bar with a 2:59:19 PB, not too shabby for an M45 - no need to chase down those age-group PB's yet!

As for 2012, well all I can say at this stage is here's to more PB's, new frontiers and Happy New Year!

46

2011-12-24T14:35:00.004Z

2 x 23

#1 - 0001hrs - 3:02:12 (7:55 pace)

#2 - 0843hrs - 3:34:01 (9:18 pace)

Shattered! I'm getting too old for this.

Hibernation

2011-12-22T21:57:00.004Z

My recovery from the Clonakilty marathon went very well with none of the usual aches and pains and no requirement to alter my gait walking downstairs. Having said that I have only run three times in the last 12 days, the first of which on the Tuesday following the marathon felt the best. My body has told me in no uncertain terms that it's time to rest. To be quite honest it's been winding down since Dublin and I was lucky to get in a good run in Clon.

My weight has increased steadily over the last 8 weeks as my reduced running volume has freed up significant time to enable me get two more meals into my day - the two extra holes I had to punch in my belt in September are now redundant and won't see action for a long while.

A friend told me last week that putting on weight would build up my immunity to infection, which would have been compromised when training for Dublin. Funnily enough I came down with a cold this week, my first infection of the year. I think myself that it's what I eat as opposed to how much I eat has a lot to do with staying infection and injury free. I certainly feel that switching to more unprocessed foods to get closer to my racing weight during the summer months had the added benefit of improving my recovery rate from hard workouts and increasing my immunity to infection. My calves, which gave me so much trouble in Connemara in April, responded well to the tempo training in August and September and for the first time in a Marathon did not limit my performance in Dublin.

So...............where am I headed. Well with Christmas upon us there's not point in reversing my dietary trend. I have signed up for both the Dungarvan and Ballycotton 10 milers in January and March, but neither will be the focus of a specific training plan. Anyway Dungarvan's too soon and Ballycotton? no excuse there. I'm leaning towards heading back to Connemara in April for some unfinished business - to complete the 39.3 miles without my calves giving up the ghost before the hill out of Lenaun and in the process knock a decent chunk of time off my PB. I thought about concentrating on improving my PB's over the shorter distances but for some reason that doesn't seem to interest me as much. You'd think I'd have had enough of the long stuff as 2011 has been good to me on that score. You'd never know I might change my mind before the year's out.

Wishing you all a peaceful and happy Christmas.

Ideal

2011-12-10T22:47:00.005Z

A cold sunny day greeted the 1,500+ participants of the Full, Half and Mini Marathons in Clonakilty this morning. The start was delayed due to the large number of runners who decided to register on the morning. There were a few clubmates running both the full and half.

I travelled down with neighbour Ian, running his first half, six months into his running career and John D running the full on a training diet of 8 mile runs - to be fair he did say he ran a long run from Cork to Cobh at the start of October, no problem there so!

Just before the start I met my Cousin, Liam, who had travelled from Dublin to run the full. He has already signed up for the Connemara Ultra next April (it must be in the genes, mothers side).

The half started about 0.25 miles ahead of the full and mini and about 5 minutes earlier. Once the gun went I eased into a comfortable pace in the 7:30's, finding clubmate Rob (aiming for 3:10 - 3:15) within the first mile and Maura (aiming for 3:15 - 3:20) shortly after. My decision to run in a singlet was justified as the day began to warm a little - although I wore a disposable long sleeved top for the first 2 miles. The first 4 miles are relatively flat as we clicked off 7:30 pace and were joined by Liam, John D, Anne and Catriona (whom John D and I ran the full 26.2 with last year). Rob forged ahead before we hit the hills of Inchydoney. I was next to move ahead as we began to hit the back of the half marathon field. I passed the first timing mat at 5.5 miles in 41:46 (7:35 pace average - compared to the 7:30 average the Garmin gave me).

The Garmin was not recording laps as the data bank was full, so my mile splits went unrecorded, except for the ones I remembered. Heading from Inchydoney, back on the flat road around the back bay, I continued my steady pace, making my way through the half marathon field. Heading inland again and now on a steady incline I pass mile 8 in 59:03 (7:23 pace overall, compared to 7:18 on the Garmin). Shortly afterwards I rejoin Rob as the full and half fields split and go on their separate ways. The marathon course suddenly became a lonely spot with 2 other runners choosing the right fork in the road that would eventually take us on a few gradual downhill miles to the picturesque village of Rathbarry, passing mile 10 in 1:13:24 (7:20 pace average). My plan was to hit 20 miles in 2:25 - so I was nearly a minute behind the 1:12:30 half way split. No big deal as my slower start was the reason for the deficit.

Passing Castlefreake we both came on the shoulder of Thomas Sheehan, who joined us on our journey - Thomas was not necessarily happy to see me, as the last time we met was when I left him behind at Mile 16 in Dublin. Back on the coast now the three of us turned left at Owenahincha beach climbing again over the headland to the Long Strand and the halfway point, which we pass in 1:35:17 (7:16 overall pace) - just 17 seconds behind 3:10 pace and still feeling reasonably intact. I had a few scares earlier, when I got a pain in my right foot, which thankfully subsided as suddenly as it had come. I also felt a tightness in my right calf and then remembered that I had left the salt/endurolyte tablets Denis had given me back in the car - doh! Was I going to regret wearing my 1,500+ mile red racers with the soles compressed to half their thickness from nearly 2 years of pounding pavement.

There are 2 runners ahead, but it takes us a mile to catch up as the road rises again towards Fishers Cross with the Galley Head Lighthouse off to the South. How is it that I never fully remember all the hills on this course. Still the legs feel pretty good but the HR does rise to keep the engine firing and delivering the additional energy needed for these climbs. Thomas begins to drop back at this stage and Rob and I are left with one of the guys we caught, as the road falls again towards the Red Strand - no time to stop and enjoy the view.

Up ahead is the left turn as we head inland and the start of a gradual climb that will take us from sea level to the highest point in the course at about 110m. There is about 2 hours on the clock as we take the left turn and I tell Rob that we have about 20 minutes to the top of the climb (the benefit of running this section 3 times during August). The first section is relatively flat as we pass the 17 mile mark. As the road begins to rise Rob begins to fall behind - a little at first, but gradually his footfalls quieten and eventually can't be heard.

I am on my own for the first time since mile 8 (and then I was surrounded by half marathon runners). There is a guy a few hundred yards ahead that I just make out through my myopic vision. He gradually comes back to me as we reach the highest point on the course and I recognised him from the single calf guard he wears on his right leg - none other than Seamus Murphy, who gets the odd mention in Thomas's blog. I tell him that this is the last hill on the course, bar 1 (incorrectly as it turns out - sorry Seamus) and that the last 4 miles are flat, which he is grateful to hear. I forge ahead as my legs have survived the climb pretty intact, albeit fatigued. I do my best to take advantage of the downhills by striding out but they're a little too steep.

Mile 20 comes in 2:25:12 (7:16 pace average), 12 seconds behind where I wanted to be - good stuff, my 3:10 target is still looking good. Two guys ahead come back to me as we drop steeply down to the Beach at Duneen and take a left up another sharp climb as I pass one guy and the other pushes ahead - although at the next climb he stops and walks and resumes running after I pass. We are now dropping down towards Dunmore Hotel and the last 4 flat miles and there are 4 or 5 runners in groups ahead. I see clubmate Donnacha at the 22 mile water station, just after finishing the half in 1:29 (well done Donnacha) and cycling out to support Maura over the last 4 miles of the marathon - there's devotion for you ;). He even finds time to chase after me to give me a water bottle after I had missed picking one up - cheers Donnacha (to be fair the guy handing out bottles was offering "sports drink or water" and when I asked for water he found he was only holding sports drink and could only offer me a puzzled look as I passed by).

Over the next half mile I pass the guys in front but hear a new footfall 4 or 5 yards behind me. My mind starts working overtime, playing tricks on me - Do I surge to pull away or slow down and let them pass? Could it be Rob? or is it one of the guys I just passed coming back at me? I do nothing and just keep ploughing along at a steady pace - maybe i'll eventually burn him off. He never comes on my shoulder but is not far behind as we turn right onto the first of 3 causeways that will take us back into Clon and the long awaited finish line.

I start counting down the time using 3:10 as my notional finish time - 2:50, twenty minutes left. Past Mile 24 (2:52:57 - I think) - still ok for 3:10 but doubtful for my sub 3:08:58 (pre-Dublin PB). The footsteps behind have faded, I turn right onto causeway No.2 - 2 guys are ahead running noticeably slower than I am. Keeping the pace is becoming more difficult but still manageable. I pass the 2 guys in front and the road ahead is completely empty as I round Inchydoney and turn left onto the last causeway. I pass the 25 mile mark with 3:00:00 on the Garmin and follow the flat road around the shores of Clonakilty Bay. A sole spectator tells me i'm in 20th position. Only 5 minutes left, will I get under 3:09, I can hear the finish line MC in the distance, congratulating the first female finisher. Past the 26 mile mark and a half marathon walker - 3:07:xx - i'll make it under 3:09, up a short incline and the drop towards the finish line, I felt great, elated to have run my race to plan, delighted to be finished, no TV cameras this time to record a far stronger marathon finish than Dublin 6 weeks ago - turn left for the 10 foot run to the finish line, the clock turning to 3:09 the first time I see it. Stopping the Garmin it shows 3:08:47 - 11 sweet seconds below my 3:08:58 A-Target, tight...very tight......but sweet.

Who was in hot on my heels, 5 seconds later? only Seamus Murphy who I had thought I had left behind at mile 20. He must have dug pretty deep to pull that off. Fantastic recovery.

The official results give me 16th place in 3:09:02 Clock & 3:08:49 Chip.....even tighter again. (7:12 average pace). That'll do me, although I was still only 4th M45, with 3 M40 runners and the leading lady (3:07:24) also in front of me.

Maura had a fantastic race getting second female spot in 3:16:40 and a 10 minutes PB, on a hilly course!!! Fantastic result Maura well done. Rob was about 30 seconds ahead of Maura, although I dind't see him and get a chance to talk to him after the race. John D was a shade over 3:30 just behind Catriona and Anne, whom he paced to the 20 mile mark. What's most impressive is that he gave me 4 gels at the end of the race having consumed one of the two I had given him before the race - either he has cut me in at the start of a gel pyramid scheme or he should be running the country. Liam finished in 3:24, which he celebrated over a few pints in Debarra's Pub - now there's something i'd like to endure for a while. See you in Connemara Liam (hopefully)

Ian was waiting at the finish line, having completed his first half in a very respectable 1:54 and all with a dodgy calf which he injured earlier in the week. A feed of sugary tea, Clonakilty black pudding, mince pies and biscuits recharged the batteries as we caught up on a few stories of pain and suffering and congratulated Ken who travelled from Antrim to complete his 100th marathon - and Ian thought we were mad.

I mentioned to Ian on the road home that John was a more prolific blogger than I was. "You know the Running in Cork Blog" John asked Ian. "Can't say I do" Ian replied. Well if you saw the look of incredulity on John's face. In Ian's defence he is only running six months.

Ready, Willing and.................

2011-12-08T20:06:00.006Z

..............we'll see.

Since Dublin the motivation has understandably waned. Clon, which was my 2011 target marathon, has been relegated to an end of season fun race. I am still looking forward to it as it is a scenic course with plenty of challenging climbs, although I doubt i'll put in the same effort as I did for Dublin. Subconsciously I have eased up on the discipline - for starters I am 2.5 kg heavier that I was before Dublin as my body replenishes its stores of fat in preparation for winter. On the plus side there is no pressure and while I want to enjoy the experience I also want to see what I can do on a hilly course. Sub 3:10 is my A Standard - ideally break my pre-Dublin PB of 3:08:58, but if things get too difficult I won't be going out on a limb to chase it.

The forecast for Saturday is quite good with the temperature just above freezing, the wind easing and the rain giving way to sunshine - perfect for sightseeing.

Taper?

2011-11-27T16:59:00.005Z

With the Clonakilty marathon only 13 days away (I must remember to sign up for it) I completed my one and only race specific workout today, heading out of the house shortly after 8:30 this morning for a two and a half hour run. The plan was to run in a reasonably glycogen depleted state so, as for all my morning training runs, I had no breakfast and also left the gels at home. The aim was to encourage my body to burn more fat at a moderately hard aerobic pace, so that on race day my glycogen stores will last longer.

Instead of heading east towards the City I turned west heading into the hills between the Bride and Lee valleys on a beautiful sunny morning. As Clonakilty has a few hills along the course it was hills I was looking for. With a long hill at mile 3 using the 4 or 6 mile cut-in wasn't going to work today so i just eased into a pace under 7:30 until I hit the hill. My target was to average 7:30 pace through the hills taking advantage of the downhills to compensate for the slower uphill sections.

Things went pretty much to plan over the first hilly 8 miles, in fact I was a minute ahead of my 7:30 target. With a half notion of getting under 3:10 in Clon, I dropped the pace towards 7:10, which I maintained pretty much to mile 19 - passing 13.11 in about 1:35. Over the last few miles the effort of maintaining pace was increasingly stressful and it eventually dropped to 7:31 for mile 20, which I passed in 2:24 - still ahead of my notional 2:25 target. I kept going until 2:30 was on the clock and was glad to stop - 20.83 miles (7:12 pace & 144HR Avg). If i'd kept going my pace would almost certainly have dropped to 8:00 and slower as fatigue was well and truly setting in. Hopefully the hills in Clon won't be as tough and i'll be a little more rested.

Now time to taper, I suppose. Although with my weekly mileage at 45, I'm already halfway there.

Filling The Void

2011-11-19T20:04:00.007Z

One thing I had not planned for after the Dublin Marathon was the lack of a medium/long term goal. What am I to do now? While I had planned and trained to break my half marathon PB in Charleville on 18th September there was no target time. The plan, hatched in late July, was still only a diversion on a longer road, something to keep me amused en-route to a greater destination. Where was I really heading - a 15 mile PB 2 weeks later? again another thing to keep me amused (and motivated) on my journey. And then the fog began to clear a little and I could see a greater prize, much closer than I thought. Is this where I was aiming for all along, suddenly within reach, is the pilgrimage over, is this the road I should take, I didn't have much time to think - probably a blessing in disguise - and swerved off the road without indicating and the rest is history.

Now that I have arrived do I stop here? final destination, settle down, eat sleep and be merry, content with life. What about the journey? wasn't it fun? isn't that what it's all about? can't stay here forever! But which road do I take? does it really matter? Pick one and the next long term destination will reveal itself when you're ready. One things for sure you got to keep moving.

So I am back on the road, after a week of eating and sleeping. 2+ kg heavier, so no shortage of fuel. Before diverting to Dublin I had planned on running the Clonakilty Waterfront Marathon on 10th December and while I haven't signed up yet I think i'll stick to that plan, in the absence of anything else. I had a notion, pre-Dublin, that I could PB in Clon - a tough ask on a hilly course but since I PB'd in Dublin I can relax a little - no pressure - treat it as an experiment - another 6 mile cut-in or maybe a 13.1 mile warmup to a 13.1 mile race. We'll see.

My recovery from Dublin followed a predictable enough course and while my HR for a particular pace may still be higher than it was before Dublin everything else appears to be back on track. My speedwork at the track was initially at MP and an attempt to join the 6:00 mile pace group for 3 x 2k last Tuesday was met with a "you're not that good so piss off back to a slower group" from my body which bailed after 400m into the 3rd 2k. To be expected really as I have not trained at that pace all year - shows the importance of specificity. To be quite honest I was aiming for 6:20 pace, but the choice was 6:48 or 6:00, unless I wanted to run on my own.

No problem with recovery though as I managed to follow it up the night after with a 39:30 10k (6:22 pace) in the Run for Mark in the Dark Charity 5k/10k in Cork. The race, over 4 x 2.5k laps (2 laps for the 5k) on the flat Monahan Road/Center Park Road loop, was well supported. My reason for entering was to support a worthy cause - something positive in all the doom and gloom. The fact that there were two races with the start/finish at the same location (so maybe not exactly 5k/10K) with a clock to see progress after each lap made it more interesting than most races. My plan was to run by feel, head out at a comfortable pace and see how I get on - certainly not looking for a PB. The clock showed 10:06 after the first lap, which automatically reset my internal governor to a sub 40 minute target. I just kept the pace comfortably hard and the 2nd lap came with 20:01 on the clock - I resisted the urge to chase down a guy who passed me racing for the 5k finish line as I was in a 10k groove. Lap 3 was less comfortable but still manageable - 29:53 on the clock. I continued the pace heading into lap 4. The course got progressively congested between laps 3 and 4 as slower runners running 3/4/5 abreast prevented me from taking the racing line - jumping onto the footpath, splashing through puddles - all part of the fun. I reeled in and passed a few runners on the last lap as my pace increased slightly, crossing the line in 9th place in 39:30 - although the results give me a 39:41 (adding 10 seconds to my first lap)

Oh the struggle of it all

2011-11-09T23:45:00.007Z

My brother, who knows his way around youtube, posted the TV coverage of my marathon finish. Although his remixed extended version is far funnier. he'll make a career in movie production yet.

Warning, I do not look as pretty as Scott did at the end of the Osaka Marathon.

Dublin By Numbers

2011-11-06T22:05:00.009Z

My average weight in kg over the last 2 months, down about 3 kg from my average racing weight over the previous 3 years (although I was 86kg at the start of this year). I reckoned my previous 82kg would get me a marathon between 3:08:58 (my 2009 PB) and 3:14, depending ontraining/form etc and that a weight of 76 kg would get me anywhere between 2:55 and 3:00, all other things being equal (i.e. training, motivation, etc.). Not in the least scientific but what is? Anyway it gave me something to focus on. For a runner I am still on the heavy side of the spectrum with a BMI of about 23.5. - could I reduce it to 20.5 and run a 2:40/45 marathon at 70kg??? Would I want to put myself through the sacrifice? Anyway I jumped into a marathon 3 kg off my 76kg target (more an aspiration than a target as I was not seriously chasing it) and scraped under the bar, probably because my form was better than ever before. My empirical formula would have given me a 3:02 to 3:07 marathon for 79kg.

5 The number of years since I ran my first marathon (2006 in Dublin) in 3:47:08. I came back in 2007 for a 3:22.08 and a very shaky finish (deja-vu last Monday). I returned again in 2009 for a 3:08:58 PB)

9:43

Improvement on my 2009 PB. €47:50

The total cost of everything I wore on Monday. Shoes €30 (March 2010), Socks €0.50 (August 2011 - part of a multi pack), Shorts €7 (June 2007 - the only ones with pockets to carry gels), Singlet €10 (Club Singlet July 2011). Getting under 3 hours Priceless. 161 Average HR 6:50 Average pace. The best guess miles splits cobbled together from the Garmin (missed loads of laps), timing mats and where I was relative to the "even split" pacers are:- Mile 1 - 7:14 easing in

Mile 2 - 7:00 Mile 3 - 7:01 Mile 4 - 6:51 Mile 5 - 6:48 - 34:54 for 5 miles (6 seconds ahead of target) Mile 6 - 6:52 - Effort feels tougher than expected and I'm not on target pace Mile 7 - 6:41 - Cranking it up on a gradual descent Mile 8 - 6:32 - Downhill out of the Phoenix Park and in the wake of the 3 hour pacers Mile 9 - 6:47 - Latched onto Pacers, all aboard Mile 10 to 13 - 6:44 - Riding the pacing train - could zone out for a while Mile 14 - 6:52 - Stuck in pacing group, felt I didn't have the juice to go it alone Mile 15 - 6:50 - Need to be running in the 6:40's as pacers could crank up the pace later Mile 16 - 6:50 - If I don't go now i'll be spat out the back of this group later, gotta go or else!!! Mile 17 to 20 - 6:42 average. Results put me 20 seconds ahead of the lead pacer at mile 20 Mile 21 - 6:42 Only 8 seconds ahead of lead pacer at 20.5 but pulled away on the descent to 21 Mile 22 to 25 - 6:55 average. probably slowed from 6:42 to over 7:00 by the time I was caught Mile 26.22 - 7:21 pace - more like 6:48 pace to 25.8 and a death march to the finish. 276th Place overall

27th

M45

2:58:37- 2:58:51 (253rd to 259th) Clock time and position of lead and last 3 hour Pacers.

I finished 38 seconds behind the last pacer - no wonder I thought I wouldn't make it over the last 100m. If the lead pacer had been 30 seconds further behind me at mile 25 (heading for a 2:59:07 clock finish) would I have run most of the last 1.22 miles at a more even and manageable 7:10+ pace, taking me to the finish line in more or less the same time without blowing up or was the 1 minute cushion the pacers had a blessing in disguise, getting me to push as hard as I could.

I had switched to overall time on the Garmin at about 2:38 - mentally saying that I had 20 minutes of pain left - and counting it down in 5 minute quarters. Once the pacers passed before mile 25 (2:50:xx) I stopped looking at the watch and just concentrated on sticking to them. I only looked at the watch again when I got dropped, but at that stage my mind was in no position to make any sort of analysis - so seeing 2:57 on the watch, when I had no reference to a finish line or the pace I was running at, was meaningless other than to instill a general sense of urgency/panic - just about when I had that one-way communication with my legs.

Dublin in Picture

2011-11-04T22:37:00.000Z

Hitting the Phoenix Park after the 4 Mile Mark

(Courtesy of Joe Murphy)

200 yards behind the 3 hour pacers

Tucked in behind the 3 hour Pacers before making my move at Mile 16

Video near the crest of the last "Hill" at Mile 20.5

From leaders to those who came in around 3:10/3:15

I run past 16:45 minutes in followed 8 seconds later by the lead 3 hour pacer. Glad I didn't know he was that close. He didn't pass me for another 4.5 miles.

25.5 Miles - Sequence of Photos by Clubmate Joe Murphy Zone of Pain

Nearly There

One small step for man, one giant leap for.......

Carpe Diem

2011-10-31T21:29:00.012Z

10 Days Ago

Hi xxxx (Organiser of Dublin City Marathon Pacers) A long shot here I know. Any chance of me racing Dublin instead of pacing............I have a good chance of getting under three hours based on recent form......................................

9 Days Ago

Hi Grellan, it should be ok for you to race, since we have 3 others at 3:30...........................Game On.

I kept the whole thing low key, not telling anyone so as to keep the pressure off.

The Short Version

There were a few surprised clubmates at the start line this morning. Apologies for the deception, especially Killian, who had told me last weekend that he was aiming for 3:30 so he'd be sticking with me. Hope you had a good day without me Killian.

My plan was a 4 mile cut-in from 7:20 pace to 6:40 - catch the 3 hour pacers before hitting Dolphins Barn (mile 11) and tuck in behind them for the expected headwind out the Crumlin Road to the halfway point and strike on from there - I make it sound so simple. The first 5 miles felt tough (35:06 - clock time) as I felt warm and clammy and my HR was 10 BPM above where it should have been. Seeing the pacer balloons off in the distance and getting no nearer, despite the 6:45 Garmin pace, was mildly irritating.

I bided my time and managed to increase the pace gradually on the descent out of the Phoenix Park and was more or less on their tail by mile 8. I stuck with them to the halfway point (1:29:42 - my official clock time) but did not forge ahead as I felt i'd do better to keep with them a while longer. At mile 16 I decided to forge ahead as I knew that if I stayed with the pacers my chance of getting under 3 hours would be slim - i'd never keep the 6:50 pace on the drag out Clonskeagh to Fosters Avenue (18.5 to 20.5) and trying to maintain it would kill the last 10k.

I don't know how far ahead of the pacers I got but could hear the cheers for them not too far behind - it certainly was a risk running in this no-mans-land, where most of those in front of me were slowly been sucked up by the relentless 3 hour pacing hoover. I passed mile 20 in 2:16 (1 minute off target) leaving 44 minutes for the final 10k (7:05 pace). On getting to the top of the last "hill" at mile 20.5 I though I had it in the bag as the pacers had not caught up and it was downhill or flat to the finish - how wrong I was. My Garmin Pace from mile 20 was showing 6:45, passing miles 21, 22 & 23 - still no pacers but by now the encouragement from the spectators was something like "Great running lads, keep ahead of the pacers" - I still didn't look back but kept the head down as advised and now had to work hard to keep the leg turnover.

A few runners went past at mile 24, but thankfully none with balloons - more like an advance hunting party - I certainly felt like the prey. The 3 hour hoover was bearing down on me - the cheering crowds were deafening - my legs were turning to jelly - the pace that had once come naturally had to be fought for desperately, I hadn't come all this way for a 3:00:20, I can't let it happen.

The pacers were upon me before mile 25 as we crossed the Grand Canal. I surged to keep with them - down Westland Row, left onto Pearse Street, desperately hanging on - knowing that the longer I stuck with them the better chance I would have of coming in within the 30 second cushion they would leave in their wake between 2:59:29 and 2:59:59. Past Trinity College clinging on for dear life, down Nassau Street, half a mile to go and bang! pacers gone - the effort of the last mile had all but depleted my reserves, - my subconscious mind was floating somewhere above my head in some sort of out of body experience as it had all but failed to convince me to stop and was abandoning ship before the shit hit the fan - and boy did it hit - legs wobbly, staying upright was a struggle and one last desperate message from the conscious mind to the legs to sprint the last 400m was met with a resounding "would you ever go and fuck yourself" before the communication line between head and body went permanently dead. If you ever saw that you-tube video of the battle for 4th female at the 1997 Ironman World Championships you'd get an idea of where my body was over the last 400m (although not quite as bad obviously).

I still managed to move forward at about 10 minute mile pace in a sea of fog managing to see 2:59:2x on the clock, but not knowing where exactly the finishing line was. It was all captured on National TV as the marathon was being televised this year and the commentator took a particular interest in those managing to scrape under 3 hours, especially the shaky looking ones saying "Congratulations to Greelan McGrath on his sub 3 hour marathon" - lest there be any doubt. (He didn't mispronounce my name - that was the name on my entry -i've been called worse)

My condition at the finish line got me a free wheelchair ride to the medical tent for a few tests and a bit of rest before going on my merry way - and what a merry way it was.

The official results give me a finish time of 2:59:19 (chip) and 2:59:29 (Clock) with a Clock half of 1:29:42 - so pretty much even splits (1:29:32/1:29:47) with a slow start, fast middle and a short but dramatically slow finish.

My pace band for tomorrow

2011-10-30T12:34:00.000Z

Should be ok for the first half. The forecast wind and rain will make the second half challenging to say the least. The course video is below. Best of luck to all those running and hope to see some of you out there.

Practice Makes Perfect

2011-10-15T16:41:00.010+01:00

Subject your body to a particular stress often enough and it adapts, gets used to the stress and accepts it as normal. That's what Abina told me on our 21st wedding anniversary last month when explaining the longevity of our marriage ;) I was wondering where my ability to endure came from. It's a fine line obviously - too much stress and the body will sooner or later blow up and break down, necessitating a long period of recovery before further stress can be applied. I have moved away from the marriage analogy and am not referring to divorce and re-marriage, i'm very happy with the stress I have thank you very much.

As my speed-endurance is in a good place at the moment because of my body's positive adaptation to the stress I have applied over the last two months, I decided to, more or less repeat, last Saturday's Marathon Pace endurance run to see if it felt less stressful than last week (relativity being the key). The route wasn't much different than last week except that I kept away from the City Quays, swapping it for a loop around the less congested Mardyke/College Road and the walkway from Inchagaggin to the Straight Road.

I did make a couple of changes though.

First off I decided to start a bit slower than last week but cut-in over 4 miles - 7:20 - 7:10 - 7:00 - 6:50 and then MP @ 6:40 target.

Second I swapped my 1000 mile+ €13.50 Lidi runners (Paced Limerick and Dingle in them) for my 1000 mile+ €30 red racers I bought in Decathlon Barcelona last year (served me well in my recent HM & 15 mile PBs - although there's a gaping hole in the side mesh - so what). Would I run better in a pair of DS Racers/Kinvaras/Lunar Racers/Saucony ??/NB ??/ and if so why? That's a totally different post.

Thirdly I didn't fancy the idea of wearing a running belt to carry water so I didn't and left a bottle outside the front door with a half notion of looping back after 10 or 11 miles - I never did.

Finally, I left the gels at home too (no water anyway and the only gels I had required water for consumption). I was also following advice from Keith Livingston (thanks Rick for the link) who does not appear to be a fan of gels, in fact he recommends using gels only in the last few miles of a marathon, if you have to! Here's some of what he has to say about the marathon:-

If you want to go as far and as long as possible without hitting the wall, you must have THREE things going for you:

1. A trained ability to utilize a blend of (‘unlimited’) fatty acids and (‘limited’) carbohydrates for long periods at high aerobic levels, thereby conserving glycogen (high energy) stores for the business end of your race.

2. Sufficient hydration of the muscles to allow access to the stored glycogen. Glycogen is really an endless starchy chain of glucose molecules. It needs about twice its volume in accessible H2O to be metabolized. So a marathoner who is ready to race will often be slightly heavier than normal.

3. The patience to start slightly slower than your intended race pace, so as to spare glycogen and come home full of running. The marathon doesn’t ’start’ till the 20 mile/32km mark, so go steadily till then.

The traditional “wall” that marathoners hit at around 20 miles represents the final unloading of glycogen stores from the type IIA fatigue-resistant (aerobic) fast twitch fibres as they are sequentially recruited while the slow twitch fibres have exhausted their work capacity.

. HOWEVER, if one has trained the fatty acid system properly by many weeks of long runs to depletion, BY ALL MEANS use a carbohydrate gel in the last few kilometres of a race (but test it out in training at least once on one of your weekly long runs!)

I headed out into the wet morning (first wet run in a while) covering the first mile in a relatively slow 7:25 but was soon up to speed. The first 2 MP miles were in 6:29 (downhill) & 6:44 (uphill) - past the point where I took a gel last week - would I last the pace, when will I feel the inevitable fatigue. The miles came and went, maintaining a steady effort which delivered a pace just under 6:40. All thing going well i'd keep the MP going until mile 16. Things did go reasonably well, except that I hit the incline up past the Carrigrohane Post Office after 15.6 miles and had to push the HR to keep close to the 6:40 target until I had 16 miles under the belt - certainly glad to ease back after that, although the remaining four miles were all under 7:20 pace. I was also beginning to feel the early signs of dehydration (to be expected), deferred perhaps by the light rain that fell from time to time.

20 miles in 1:16:11 (ps correction 2:16:11 - thanks Rick) - my fastest 20 miles to-date, and I only "raced" 16 of them. During the later MP miles my HR was in the low to mid 150's (with the exception of the mile 16 uphill effort), which would appear to be my sub-threshold MP HR.

While the table below certainly points towards a sub 3-hour marathon it is worth noting that the standard certified marathon course never measures 26.2 miles on the Garmin and an average of 3 seconds per mile should be added to the splits to get a truer reflection of what is required - about 1:30 minutes or 0.2 miles (i.e. pass the Garmin 26.2 mile mark in 2:58:29 or reach 26.42 Garmin miles in 2:59:59 - take your pick)

For God and Country

2011-10-09T20:19:00.005+01:00

Part of being a member of a running club is turning out once in a while to represent the Club at a race - so when the call to arms came to come out and support today's Cork County Novice, Masters and U23 Cross Country Championships in Conna I felt duty bound to sign up. After all I was one of the few club members who didn't take part in the National HM Championships, preferring instead to pace a marathon in Dingle on the same day.

There was a good turnout on what turned out to be a warm, dry and breezy day. The course was relatively flat with a few mild undulations, token mud section and a few small rough sections at field boundaries to make it interesting - quite enjoyable to race on actually. This, my second ever cross country, is a different type of racing than I'm normally used to. I left the Garmin on the kitchen table, by accident more than anything else, but was glad I did. Cross country is not about pace or mile splits but more position in the field (of runners that is).

The men's course was 4 laps of 1,500m (6km in all), with my primary aim being not to get lapped. My legs didn't feel too bad during the warmup, given the 20 hard miles I put them through yesterday - my recovery appears to be quite good lately, although I wouldn't want to tempt fate. Perhaps because I didn't come into today with any expectations or specific training I was more relaxed - no pressure.

Because I didn't know how hard it was going to be my philosophy was to head out at a steady pace for the first lap and see how I feel from there. Because of this I was towards the back of the field over the opening 400m but for the rest of the race kept a reasonably steady even pace, passing runners right up to the finish line. Seeing the herd of runners streaming through the field gaps in front of me during the first lap reminded me more of a cattle drive than a race.........hee-haw.

There's something about cross country, that I can't quite put my finger on, that makes it different, enjoyable despite the energy sapping effort. You certainly notice your strengths and weaknesses - how you gain on others going up the slightest incline and struggle to keep up on the downhill, digging in with the spikes to take a sharp corner or gain purchase on a slippery bank, trying not to turn over on your ankle when you hit a stone under the surface - great fun ;) Maybe it's the way the inner child likes to run.

The results put me in 50th place out of 107 runners covering the 4 laps in 24:02 (6:27 pace if the distance is correct) - just getting into the top 50%. Just goes to show how competitive it becomes when the field is limited to club runners - and that is without senior and intermediate club runners who were not eligible to run.

Looks like the Eagle Novice Team (in which I was the third member) came 6th overall and the M40 Team (in which I was the first member) was 4th overall - just out of the medals. Although, at the track session last Tuesday I did receive my bronze medal for my 100m sprint in the County T&F Championships back in July. The applause from clubmates at the trackside was embarassing - if only they knew I came 3rd out of 3. Still a medal is a medal and it takes pride of place over all the other "finishers" medals I have. The M50 team fared better getting 2nd overall, with Pat Murphy claiming 2nd M55 and Pat Twomey 2nd M60. Well done Pat.

Practice

2011-10-08T20:52:00.008+01:00

As my next race is a marathon, I thought I'd get a long run in this weekend. As I had agreed to join the club for the County Novice & Masters Cross Country in Conna on Sunday my long run would have to be today. To add a bit of a challenge I thought i'd test my form and try out a six mile cut-in to a sub-3 hour Marathon Pace and keep the pace going for a few miles. Not the best idea perhaps as my form would surely be compromised by last Sunday's race and I wouldn't be giving myself the best chance for the cross country tomorrow but!...............nah i've no excuse really.....I just wanted to do this.

The plan was to cover the first mile in 7:10 and reduce the pace by 5 seconds for subsequent miles until I was running 6:40 for mile 7 and maintain than pace for up to 10 miles!!! Yeah I wasn't thinking too clearly on that one. I headed out shortly after 8 having spend the previous 2 hours watching Ireland being outplayed by Wales in the Rugby World Cup Quarter Final. My route into town via the Model Farm Road along the Quays and out the Straight Road, with a few diversions around Ballincollig was reasonably flat. My fueling consisted of a pre-run coffee, a 200ml bottle of water (didn't want to carry anything heavier) and a few gels in my pocket.

The first 6 miles went reasonably well, if not slightly ahead of pace, although I had to concentrate on keeping pace on some of the rises on the Model Farm Road. I took the HR monitor to see if the gradual increase in pace would see a more controlled rise in HR - unfortunately halfway into mile 1 the Garmin was already showing 199 and did not come good until the end of mile 3. By the time I hit the start of mile 7 I was on a gentle drop towards Dennehys Cross, which was a more gentle introduction to the first "MP" mile. I took my only gel and a swig of water at this stage. The next few miles went reasonably well despite the dodging in and out of early moring traffic along the City Quays and soon I was heading out of town with 10 miles behind me. I knew I wouldn't keep the pace up for another 6 miles and settled on cutting back after 13.11 - 7.11 miles @ MP. Out the Mardyke and onto the Straight Road @ Mile 11, at this stage looking forward to reaching 13.11, struggling to keep the pace for those last 2 miles.

On reaching the HM mark I cut the pace back towards 7:30 for the journey home, extending my route to get 20 miles in. With a sniff of the finish I dropped the pace back down to 6:40 for the final mile home. Hope there's something left for running around a farmers field tomorrow.

Cork to Cobh - A 15 Mile Tempo Run.

2011-10-02T19:49:00.008+01:00

Today was the fifth anniversary of the first race I ever ran - Cork to Cobh 2006 (1:58:29), in preparation for my first marathon (Dublin in 3:47:12). Looking back now it does seem strange that my first race should be a 15 miler, you could see where I was headed.

Since 2006 I have come back every year to run the road from Cork to Cobh and reducing my 15 mile PB in the process.

2007 - 1:42:32
2008 - 1:38:56 - PB coming into today - failed attempt at a MP run.
2009 - 1:43:15 - MP run for Dublin (3:08:56 current PB)
2010 - 1:39:57 - A summer of triathlons and no endurance running.

Given my form at the Charleville HM 2 weeks ago I knew that, illness or injury permitting, I was on for a PB today - the only unknown being by what margin?

My primary goal was a PB, all things going well I should get under 1:37:30 (6:30 pace) and if I was on top form I should have a crack off 1:35 (6:20 pace) - McMillan gave me 1:35:11 (1:35:29 for the 13.07 mile Garmin measured HM) after Charleville. I didn't feel on top form getting up this morning (maybe 90%), stopping off in Tesco's en route to the race start for some paracetamol.

I warmed up with Clubmates John x 2 & Derek. My plan was pretty simple - keep the pace in the 6:20's and if I feel good for a few faster miles i'll know. While I didn't feel 100% I was going to put my faith in my body's ability to churn out steady fast miles - if it didn't last, well at least I gave it my best shot. Derek was aiming for miles in the 6:25 to 6:30 range for his MP attempt at sub 2:50 in Dublin, so I aimed to keep him in sight.

The day was warm and overcast with a slight easterly breeze. I placed myself a few rows back, and got off to a reasonably unimpeded start covering the first mile in 6:26 followed by a 6:27 - already 13 seconds above the 6:20 average for my "A" target. I wasn't that bothered about it so early in the race but decided to keep a tally of the deficit so as to focus on something. For the first few miles out the Lower Road I was on the shoulder of Derek (not literally).

Miles 3 & 4 in 6:21 & 6:20 - "14 seconds over - try to keep under 20 seconds for five miles which will keep me on sub 1:36 pace". Derek, sticking to his high 6:20's pace, was behind at this stage.

I caught up with a group of four or five just after the 4 mile mark approaching the Island Gate and kept the same metronome pace, eventually pulling ahead and coming alongside clubmate Eric, who was targetting 1:35. Mile 5 in 6:19 (13 seconds over). A short while later Eric falls behind and I am on my own. Passing Glounthane Church approaching 6 miles a Guy comes from behind and asks a few spetators how Ireland is doing at the rugby "leading Italy by 26 to 6" is the response - good news all round. The guy looks very comfortable and I assume he will pull ahead. But when I get a cheer from clubmate Laura (supporting boyfreind Paul, the ultra trail legend) he says "so you're Grellan of the running blog - make sure and give me a mention". That's how I met Rory O'Sullivan on the road from Cork to Cobh, good to see you Rory.

Rory said he had run the Charleville & Cork Half Marathons and so as to gauge how I was doing I asked him what time he got in Charleville. "1:26" he replied. "If you keep this pace, you're going to beat that time today, you look very comfortable". "I dunno, I could blow up yet" was his reply. We ran on in silence towards the 7 mile mark. Miles 6 & 7 in 6:24 & 6:25 (22 seconds over 1:35 pace - need to keep under 30 at halfway to keep on pace for a sub 1:36)

A gradual rise to the halfway point (3:11 lap => 23 seconds over) I take my one and only gel approaching the mile 8 waterstation as Rory falls behind (Didn't see you at the end Rory so I hope you did well) and I am joined by one of the guys I passed earlier. Mile 8 in 6:23. The guy on my shoulder more or less stayed with me for the rest of the race - good to have company although the only exchange we had over our 7 miles together went something like "It gets hilly towards the end?" to which I replied "a few long drags really, but not that bad".

The next few miles went a bit faster, aided perhaps by the gel and the drop from Cobh Cross. Miles 9, 10 & 11 in 6:15, 6:18 & 6:19. (17 seconds off 1:35) - "Could I make it back, although the worst is yet to come with the gradual rise, particularly mile 14". We passed 2 runners before mile 10 and shortly afterwards were told by a spectator that we were number 29 and 30. "who'll be number 29 at the end?" I thought. Historically over this section of the race I have found it particularly tough as fatigue sets in and and course throws a few inclines at you just to try and break your rhythm, but today I felt reasonably ok still comfortably hard but no higher gear available. We pass a walker before mile 12 but get overtaken by another guy in a West Waterford AC vest shortly afterwards - still 29th & 30th. My running companion falls behind a few yards every now and then but catches back up, giving me hope that he is nearer the limit than I.

The undulating road blunts the speed a little taking the pace back into the 6:20s with miles 12 & 13 coming in at 6:27 & 6:22 (26 seconds over). We gradually reel in and overtake a guy in an orange top as the road rises up over the rail line for the slowest mile 14 in 6:37.

One mile to go, time to push on and sure enough my companion goes out in front by a few yards and while he never gets too far in front the pep is not in my legs or my mind to put in the extra effort needed to catch him. This is the norm for me at this stage in a race - unless I am being chased down over the final 100m, I will rarely put in an "eyeballs out" effort, subconsciously settling for a sub-maximal push in the knowledge that the reward is not worth the effort. Still I push hard over the final quarter mile downhill into Cobh, half out of hope of catching the guy in front and half out of fear of being overtaken - neither happened as I crossed the line in 1:35:32 - 32 seconds over and 6:09 for my last and fastest mile of the day. With that result McMillan gives me a 1:22:50 Half - not too far off Charleville, although today I crossed the HM mark in 1:23:29.

Another PB in the bag - delighted that I was able to maintain an even pace throughout without any noticeable fade, covering 3 x 5 miles in 31:53/46/53 (2 x 7.5 miles in 47:53/39 - negative split). My calves were a bit tight afterwards but not as tight as after last Tuesdays 4 miles on the track @ 6:11 pace. I think Paul was spot on with his comment on my last post as to the likely reason why 4 miles @ 6:11 pace should feel at least as tough as 13.1 @ 6:18 pace - my lactate threshold is somewhere between 6:11 & 6:20 pace. Rule #1 - Know your LT pace. Funny how 10 seconds per mile can mean the difference between blowing up after 30 minutes and running solidly for 90 minutes and beyond. Beyond? Hmm..........26.2?

Paces

2011-09-28T18:10:00.008+01:00

With my HM PB pace now pushing south towards by 5k PB pace I though I'd have a look at all my PB paces from 100m to the marathon and see if there is a pattern. Discounting my PB paces from 100m to 1 mile (although it is good to know that I could hold my own with the World Marathon Record holder over 100m) all my PB paces from 5k to 21.1k are getting quite close to each other - between 6:00 and 6:18 with a bit of a gap to my 15 mile PB pace, which I hope to close on Sunday, and a chasm to my Marathon PB pace (Not even in the same minute).

No doubt about it, my (current) strength lies in the middle distance races from 10k to 21.1k, where all my "breakthroughs" have come from. I seem to be able to hold a decent pace for quite a few miles but haven't yet extended it to 26.2. Nor do I appear to be able to increase the pace by much over "shorter" distances. I know "specificity" in my recent training has something to do with it, but I also think that I am more "suited" to certain distances.

With 2 weeks between the Charleville HM and the 15 mile Cork to Cobh race on Sunday my training is all about maintaining form. I did complete 2 "speed" workouts since Charleville and although they were similar in that they both fell into the broad "tempo" category they couldn't have been more different.

The first, a club run on Saturday, which might look the toughest on paper, consisted of a 5 mile tempo, 3 minutes standing recovery (I took 4) followed by 4 mile tempo. The key to this workout is maintaining a consistent steady pace, leaving enough in the tank to complete the session as fast as you started it. The 5 miles was a 2.5 mile out and back along the old Monkstown/Passage line, which I completed at a fairly consistent 6:19 pace. Despite the 4 minutes standing recovery I found it easier to get into the pace for the 4 mile tempo, again out and back along the rail line. While the effort felt tough it did not get any tougher as the miles passed and I managed to keep the pace consistent at 6:21 - ideal "specific endurance" training.

The second session was at the track last night - 16 laps in lane 3 (4.14 miles), single file with the leader, who changes every 200m, setting the pace. I completed one of these on the Tuesday before Charleville and it felt relatively comfortable @ an average 6:18 pace. Last night was different, the pace was faster particularly at the start ( 2 laps in 3:03 = 5:54 pace, slowing down to 6:06 pace after 4 laps). 10 of us started but a few dropped by the wayside. With 4 laps to go I dropped off the back, leaving 5 to finish the session. I ploughed on on my own completing the session in 25:35 (6:11 pace), 26 seconds faster than 2 weeks ago but feeling the effects much more, no longer comfortably hard and calves quite tight afterwards.

While the pace of both session varied by only 8/10 seconds per mile the effect could not have been greater. Maybe it was the varying pace of last nights session (good training for tactical racing) compared to the steady pace of Saturday's tempo's, which I am more used to. Maybe I wasn't fully recovered from Saturday's session, although there's no reason why I shouldn't have been or maybe I can run 6:20 pace all day but 6:10 is too much, who knows.

Riding the wave

2011-09-22T22:20:00.008+01:00

Sunday's HM PB is now my breakthrough race, my best result according to McMillian, eclipsing my 10 mile PB of 1:02:38 set in Dungarvan last year - I should now be capable of 1:02:09 over that distance and a 2:54:04 Marathon. In fact I was asked by a few people would I not give up the 3:30 pacing job in Dublin and go for the sub-3 hour. However running a fast half does not necessarily translate to running a fast marathon - anyway i'm committed to pacing Dublin and looking forward to it - the sub-3 can wait for another day.

I sent a text to Race Director, Michael Herhily, on Sunday about my missing chip result and he said he would check the finishing video and put my time up on the results, which places me between 26th and 27th, 1 second behind the guy in front (even at the halfway timing mat - but I was actually about a minute behind him at that stage). I then got a call on Tuesday night from Glen of ChampionChipIreland who said he had read my blog and wanted to resolve the discrepancy with my finishing chip time - he said that my chip had registered at the start mat and the halfway mat (41:38) but for some reason did not register at the finish - I could have missed the mat at the finish but have no recollection of doing so. Glen sent me the amended results yesterday - I must say i'm very impressed with the level of attention my missing result has got.

My negative split of 42 seconds was enough to gain me 8 places over the second half of the race (35th down to 27th - If I hadn't faded over the last mile i'd have made 24th place). This result shows that all I need is 5 or 6 weeks of speedwork off an endurance base to get in race shape. Two months ago I struggled with an average 6:55 pace on a downhill 15 miler, and felt worse at the finish than I did last Sunday (partly due to blunted speed from the 100k 4 weeks before perhaps). 1 month ago I failed to crack 40 minutes for 10k (I know it was hilly). On Sunday I ran 4 sub-20 minute 5ks (fastest 19:07) or 2 sub-40 minute 10ks (fastest 38:50) so I think I'm pretty much at the top of the curve - I just hope I can stay there until the 15 mile "Cork to Cobh" on Sunday week and have at crack off my 15 mile PB (set a few weeks after my previous HM PB in October 2008).

Finally the best of luck to a few guys out there racing this weekend:-

Richard running the River Ayr Way Ultra - His first ;)
Marty & Clubmate Pat running the Berlin Marathon.
Bob in Tokyo running a half marathon.
Nearly forgot about Trevor and Mike running the Fredericton 10k/Half.

Also hello to Richard Forrest, a reader of this blog, whom I met this week for the second time, not at Charleville where you would think as we both raced on Sunday, but in the County Library, where I was attending a meeting during the week. Keep up the running and maybe i'll see you on the road from Cork to Cobh.

12 Miles to Go

11.5 Miles to Go 400 yards to go 15 yards to Go

10 Yards to Go

Charleville HM - There's life in this old dog yet.

2011-09-18T15:41:00.018+01:00

At 10 this morning I was lined up in the Car Park of the St Josephs Foundation, Bakers Road Charleville with 400 others for the start of the inaugural Charleville Half Marathon. My training had gone pretty well and all the indications were pointing towards a new PB (< 1:24:30) or something close enough. I was coy enough about predicting my finish time, stating a target of "about 1:25" if anyone asked - although a few club mates asked what time I was pacing, as I never appear to be racing these days.

My plan was to start relatively easy @ about 6:40 pace and drop down to the 6:20's over the first 2 miles - a version of the marathon 6 mile cut-in I talked about a few months back. I had a gel tucked in my ass pocket for a bit of mid-race refuelling about mile 8. I borrowed a functioning Garmin from a friend to keep an eye on the pace (no HR monitor though - thought about bringing my Garmin for the HR monitoring but decided to Keep It Simple)

The gun went and we streamed out of the car park right turn and down the road at a comfortable pace. Right again onto the Kilmallock Road - Garmin reading 6:15 average lap pace - a bit too fast but everyone around me was running this pace - in fact people were passing me. Geraldine O'Shea of St Finbarrs AC, who normally finishes behind me in races passed me out.

"WTF ... maybe the Garmin is not showing the correct pace, after all I do feel comfortable.....maybe she's doing the relay (4 x about 5k)"

The Garmin was reading correctly as we pass the 1 mile mark in 6:15. Geraldine gone ahead. Two Guys from Galtee Runners pass me. Mile 2, which includes a slight rise comes in 6:27 - a more sensible pace - but a sign that maybe I went out too fast.

The road is dead straight with a line of runners strung out in front of me and a noticeable group about 200 yards in front. Miles 3 and 4 come in at 12:43 total - nice and steady. I go ahead of the 2 Galtee Runners after the 5k water station (about 19:39) but the younger one comes back at me and moves ahead. The group in front has split up at this stage and I pass a few who have fallen off the back, including Geraldine. Keeping a steady pace in the low 6:20's Mile 5 comes in 6:21 - continue to pass a few - into Kilmallock and Mile 6 in 6:19. Feeling a bit fatigued now.

Left after the Church towards the second water station (I take my first bottle of water here) - over the halfway timing mat and look at the watch - 41:34 ( x 2 = 1:23:08)

"Close to 1:23 pace - I'd need a negative split to get under 1:23 though - tough ask as most of the 2nd half is west into a headwind - still feeling good - make hay while the sun shines"

We are now on a minor road with a gradual downhill. Passing the half way mark gives me a bit of a boost and my pace picks up with Mile 7 coming in at 6:08, pass a few more with the Galtee Runner just up ahead. Feeling very good over this section of the course and I take advantage - Mile 8 in another 6:08 - can't believe how relatively easy that came. Running on the shoulder of Galtee Runner now and I can tell he is making an effort to keep with me as his breathing is more laboured than mine as we both gain on another runner. A 100 yards later and they are both behind me. Mile 9 comes in 6:11. Still going strong but feeling less comfortable. 100 yards ahead is the 2nd Female (I think) and over the next mile I gradually reel her in as we both turn right onto the main road for home passing Mile 10 in 1:02:46 - 8 seconds outside my PB - which just happens to be my best result ever - this is going to be good. Mile 10 in 6:14.

The road ahead is long and straight and with my myopic vision I can just make out a runner in front, 150 to 200 yards. With the 2nd female behind me at this stage the course becomes quite lonely and it is a matter of keeping the head down as the strain begins come on. Mile 11 in 6:18, slowing down but still ahead of my target pace - just keep the last 2 miles under 6:30 pace and I should get under 83. A gradual rise now as the pace slows, the guy in front is getting gradually closer, so I must be doing alright. Mile 12 in 6:21 as I enter Charleville, with the road continuing to rise, probably not a lot but enough to wreck the head - legs and body feeling the strain now, all I want is for it to be over - must keep it together. The guy ahead is now just 40 yards away and 10 yards behind another guy as we turn left for the final half mile. The Garmin tells me the lap pace is 6:31 - there's nothing I can do about that, just don't let it drop any more. I have no incentive (or energy) to take on the two guys in front. In fact I get passed by a guy and can do nothing to respond. I had put in my surge from mile 7 to 10, that was my race, nothing left. Mile 13 in 6:31 as I turn left into the St Joseph's car park for the final 100 yards - cross the line and stop the Garmin at 1:22:32 - magic!!!

Delighted with my result, I had set out 6 weeks ago to target this race and see if I could get a PB and I nailed it - my history of doing this is a bit hit and miss so all the sweeter when I do it. The only niggle is the fact that the Garmin recorded a distance of 13.07 miles, a tad shy of the 13.11 regulation distance for a HM - still a 1:22:47 allowing for the correction. Never did take that gel afterwards, maybe it would have helped me over the last few miles.

Well done to North Cork AC for putting on a great event, well marshalled and the refreshments afterwards were second to none. My only gripe was that my time was not up on the results posted in the hall afterwards, despite the fact that I wore a timing chip, which they removed after the race.

Pushing the limits

2011-09-11T23:29:00.000+01:00

Specificity

Training programmes normally culminate with a peak specific endurance run about 10 days out from the main event - the optimum time for the training to be of benefit - leave it too late and the body will not have absorbed the full benefit of the session - for a marathon it's normally longer (2 weeks + before race day) as the body may not be fully recovered in time for the race. By peak specific endurance I mean the toughest race pace workout of the programme.

As I have not followed a programme for the Charleville Half next Sunday (apart from joining the club speed sessions in late July/early August ahead of the National HM last weekend) I reverted to my running library to pick out a specific endurance workout that might do the trick. One that interested me was the 3 x 5k @ HM pace for "Highly Competitive" runners in "Run Faster" by Brad Hudson & Matt Fitzgerald - sounded like a tough mother - there was a slightly easier version of 4 x 3k @ HM pace for the "Competitive" runner or the 6 x 1 mile @ HM pace for the "Low-Key Competitive" runner. Naturally I gravitated towards the most difficult one.

The one doubt I had was that my peak run was scheduled for last Thursday - 5 days after running the Dingle marathon. I know, if I was serious about training for the half I would not have run Dingle - but there's serious and there's SERIOUS and the offer to pace Dingle was irresistible. My first run after the marathon, a 5.8 mile unintentional progression run with Brendan @ 7:29 average pace on Wednesday went off without a hitch. Still the doubt was there on Thursday - Would I be recovered enough? Would I complete the full session? Would my pace suffer? As the Garmin has lost it's GPS function I headed for the track with the mindset of "see how I get on". While previous HM pace sessions had been @ 6:35+ pace I decided to head for a pace closer to my PB pace of 6:27, which fitted in perfectly with running in lane 3 (1:40 laps or 50 second half laps - easy to remember 20:02 for 5k or 20:50 for 5.2k = 12.5 laps in lane 3).

The first 12.5 laps went off reasonably well, can't say they were easy (because they weren't) but I was a few seconds below target - 20:44 (19:56 for 5k).

A walk/jog 400m around the track in 3 to 4 minutes (a concession from the scheduled 90 second recoveries) and start into the second 5.2k.

Hit the target again - 20:44. Although I was fairly fucked at the finish and felt reasonably happy to call it a day. However Brendan, who was at the track running 800's at the same pace and had joined me for a few laps earlier on said he had one more 800 to do so I ran with him with the intention of running 1k but extended it to 2k and then 3k (3.12k in lane 3). I probably could have run on but my calves were getting tight and the next club session was starting - no point in risking injury - 7.5 laps in 12:25 (11:56 for 3k)

All in all 13.52 km (8.4 miles) @ 6:25 pace - that'll do me.

Mixing it up

My legs were a bit dead for Friday evening's short 4.5 mile recovery run on grass but I wasn't about to give them a break as I had signed up for the 150k Rebel Tour leaving CIT at 9 on Saturday morning, heading down to West Cork - Crossbarry, Bandon, Enniskeane, Dunmanway, Clonakilty, Timoleague, Ballinaspittal, Kinsale, Belgooly, Riverstick, Ballinahassig and back to CIT.

The weather forecast wasn't great but the day turned out better than expected. There were 500+ cyclists at the start line (and equal numbers signed up for the 80k and 50k routes, starting at 10:30 and 12:15) There was a lead car for the first 55k to Dunmaneway (1st food stop) to keep the pace from going suicidal - yet staying with the front group required a fair amount of work, which I was willing to put in as the alternative was cycling into a headwind on my own at a much slower pace. I got dropped about 8k out from Dunmanway but managed to catch on to another guy's wheel and get pulled back in - 40 to 50 in the group by the time we hit Dunmanway. While it wasn't a race (I'd be left for dead in a race) I enjoyed the challenge of having to put in the effort to keep pace - kept me focused.

For the remaining 95k I paired up with Eoin/Eoghan/Owen?(take your pick) from Douglas (who was cycling a hybrid!!!) as we took turns at the front to keep a steady pace. The sun came out as we hit the coast road from Timoleague but the strong south westerly wind was a struggle at times. 2nd food stop at Ballinaspittle (ate & drank like a horse) and we headed south for Garrettstown, where the cross wind blowing sand off the beach cut into our arms and legs.

For the final 40k or so we joined those doing the 80k and 50k and the road became more congested. Yet we maintained a steady pace, surprised that my legs were holding up reasonably well and after 5:06:02 in the saddle we arrived back at CIT. Eoin had 149km on his Garmin - 18.2 mph @ 131 HR. I cycled the 4.6 miles to and from CIT with neighbour Ian to get my (our)first century ride (101.8 miles) - and he only bought his bike in July - with his longest ride @ 35 miles!!!

The Limit

Despite fuelling well at the food stations yesterday I awoke this morning 1 kg lighter than 24 hours earlier. I wondered would this be an advantage for the scheduled 15 mile hilly club run at 8 this morning. I was in two minds as to whether I should run it at all as the only pace on offer was 7:30 miles. Clubmate Vivian, who had also completed the rebel tour, was also a bit apprehensive about doing the run. The first time I ran this route I pulled up with a calf strain 13 miles in and had averaged about 8 minute miles at that stage. Running 7:30 average pace over this course with 100 bike miles in my legs (not to mind Thursday's peak speed session) was going to be rough.

Vivian and I were the only fools to join John O'Callaghan, who had scheduled the run. We were joined by Paul Daly about 2 miles in - none of us had a workable GPS watch so the pace was guestimated (turns out we were quite close overall). The run certainly was a challenge for me with my HR maxing at 161 at the top of the toughest climb, about 6 miles in - I was at my limit. I managed to recover on the flat/downhills which enabled me finish the run intact although a slight tightness at the base of my left hamstring/back of knee after yesterdays cycle escalated to "ache" status and requires a bit of TLC with the foam roller. The average for the 15 miles was 7:27 pace @ 137 HR - glad to be finished and looking forward to a rest day tomorrow.

Home for a shower and quick breakfast before heading off to support friend Puds (Liam) and clubmates running the Blarney Half Marathon. Puds, who comes from a cycling background and dips in and out of running had told me that he was training for the race with a target of coming in under 1:20 and sure enough he finished 13th overall in 1:19:49 - there's a guy who sets a target and knows what he has to do to get it.

Have a good week.

Dingle - 3:29:Something

2011-09-03T13:26:00.008+01:00

Fantastic day in Dingle today. The rain and wind cleared overnight for a bright and mild morning - perfect for running a marathon.

The pacers met up the night before in the "Blue Zone" restaurant for a bit of carb loading before retiring to the B&B. I was sharing with Shane (the 2hr Half Marathon Pacer), who came with the gang from the "Bridge" - soon to surpass Dublin as the most prolific marathon destination in the country. If you haven't run a marathon in the Bridge you haven't lived (I haven't lived - yet). Tom (head pacer) and Paul also made the trip from the Bridge to pace the 4:30's. Frank was down from Dublin for a bit of gentle 4 hour pacing after surpassing the 100 mile mark in the Belfast 24hr. He had Ken in tow, pacing 1:45 for the half and doing a hard sell for sponsorship for some charity walk he is doing in NYC in November. Thomas was over from Killorglin to keep me on the straight and narrow, with Niamh as official photographer and cheerleader. Aonghus, pacing the sharp end of the half at 1:30, and his wife completed the ensemble.

Thomas and I wore our pacing kit from Cork (the promise of gear for Dingle did not materialise) with Balloons tied to our back (My balloon burst about 5 miles in - can't keep anything, me). With an undulating course and the worst hill at mile 21 our plan was to run by effort more than pace and to bank about 2 minutes by the time we reached the 21 mile mark. To cut a long story short (See Thomas for the long version) we more or less stuck to the plan, but despite our best endeavours we lost all our pacees - we had 6 followers at mile 18, whittled down to 2 at mile 21, including the 2nd female (we think) but lost them going up the hill and passed a few more on the way. Hit the top before the 23 mile mark and exchanged places with a few guy on the road down to Dingle - our Female pacee nearly caught up with us on the downhill but fell back as the road levelled out - she wasn't too far behind us at the end though. With the finish line in sight and no one to pace, Thomas showed his competitive spirit and sprinted the last 50 yards to come in a few seconds ahead of me - if he's any gentleman he'll let me have the "win" in Dublin.

After the race I met John Meade, fresh from winning the half for a second year in a row - great running John - and Denis Kelliher who swore after the Connemara ultra that he would never race longer than 5 miles again - a man of his word (tells me Dublin will be his 13th and last marathon)

While the course was the most undulating marathon I have run I was relatively comfortable throughout, leaving the 2 "insurance gels" in my pocket with my fuel consisting of water, a quarter of orange and a few jellies at mile 18 and a banana at mile 21. A great run on a perfect day for running - over a very scenic course - what more could you ask for? Well how about a pink digital skipping rope and an XXL reflective cycling bib (that would be a hazard to cycle in)that greeted me from my goodie bag at the finish - just what every runner needs (someone must have been clearing out their attic).

Big Heart

2011-08-28T15:18:00.017+01:00

Abina always said I had a big heart, or was that mouth, I can never tell. However according to this article (when you read past the section on sudden death in athletes) a larger than normal heart explains why my heart beats more slowly than it would had I maintained a sedentary life. When it comes to pumping more oxygenated blood around the body to supply energy to muscles during exercise the heart can either beat faster or pump more with each beat. As there is a limit on how fast your heart can beat, no matter how fit you are (an elite athlete has the same maximum heart rate as his/her equivalent couch potato) the only adaptation the heart can make in response to the constant pressure of training is to pump more during each beat (stroke volume), which requires a bigger chamber, 33% bigger and more. The surprising thing is that the heart adapts very quickly - within a few weeks of commencing a sustained training regime. Likewise the adaptation reverses quite quickly once we stop exercising regularly - a bit like any muscle really. So for those that train intermittently it would appear that the main thing that changes is the size of their heart. A low resting heart rate and a larger than normal heart in an average person is an indication of a probable heart block, hypertension or heart failure, so if your are in the middle of endurance training it is probably a good idea to say so when visiting the doctor - although if you suffer from any of the above and are in the middle of endurance training................

While my resting heart rate is at an all time low of 34 to 35 bpm (I manually measured 172 beats in 5 minutes two weeks ago = 34.4 bpm - taken before rising) and my training HR is quite low, I have also noticed that my racing HR has come down since I started running, with last weeks 10k averaging 158 bpm and a max of 166 over the closing stages - can my heart not beat faster than that in a race. My 10k PB in April 2008 (38:15 - 6:09 pace) had an average HR of 168, which maxed out at 177 over the closing stages (10 bpm higher). Maybe I'm not pushing myself hard enough, although increasing age does account for some of the reduction (roughly 3 bpm over 3 years). So while I am getting more bang for my buck I have less bucks than I used to have. Still I am encouraged by my best ever race result, my 10 mile PB last year, where my HR averaged 161 for the 6:16 average pace.

Training

I have spent the last 2 weeks in West Cork, where training has gone pretty well. I followed the Shannonvale 10k with a Sunday long run of 20 miles covering miles 5 to 24 of the Clonakilty Marathon route, topping the week with 64 miles (highest since ultra training in May)

This week I was just shy of 60 miles as I cut back today's long run to 15 miles, which is all I need for my next key race, the Charleville HM on 18th September. It also doubled as a taper for the Dingle Marathon, which I am pacing next Saturday. I did however up the pace to provide some training challenge and averaged 7:25 pace over the partially hilly course, stopping sporadically to take photos, which explains the suppressed Avg HR of 126.

McMillian gives me a 1:29:07 half marathon (6:48 pace) for my 40:03 10k last week, which, to be quite honest, is an easy target. Without the hill I reckon I would have covered the 10k in about 39:30, which still gives me a relatively soft HM target of 1:27:54 (6:43 pace). Maybe that's where my fitness is at, but i'll surely improve over the next few weeks, how much will the Dingle Marathon blunt my speed? - too many unknowns so I settled on 6:40 pace as my HM training pace (1:27:24) for this weeks specific endurance run - secretly hoping to get under it.

I had planned on 4 x 2 miles @ HM pace (with about 2 or 3 minute active recoveries - hadn't really thought it out, maybe 90 seconds would do as this is likely to be my penultimate specific endurance session before the race). The day before I had completed an "easy" 12 miler where everything felt relatively effortless for the 7:31 pace. This "flow" continued into the warmup for the 4 x 2 mile session where the pace came down to 7:10 without too much effort. I had picked the flat road around Clonakilty Bay for the session running from Inchydoney to Ring Village (lower) and back. I settled into a pace just below 6:40 which felt relatively comfortable to maintain and, approaching the two mile mark, decided to run on to 3 or 4 miles before taking a break. I ended up running for about 28 minutes (27:56) before running out of (flat) road and turned back with an average pace of 6:34 on the Garmin. The initial headwind on the return leg kept the pace in the 6:40's but it eventually came down to 6:36 - covering the return leg in 28:09. I decided to round the session up to an hour and ran on for another 4:30 before cooling down on the mile home. I covered 9.21 miles in 1:00:37 with an average 6:35 pace which is more encouraging than my visit to McMillian. Could I have maintained the pace for another 3.9 miles? More than likely. Will the Charleville course be as flat? It's billed as a flat course - well then at 6:35 pace I would come home in 1:26:18. Getting that bit closer to my PB all the time.

One of the benefits of running the back roads of West Cork for the last two weeks, apart from the scenery, is that you get to spot where all the blackberries are - so I returned later for a bit of foraging.

Finally some photos form this morning run. It will be difficult to return to suburban running. If the sun come out for Dingle next Saturday it will be a spectacular run.

Shannonvale 10k - Real Evaluation

2011-08-20T19:51:00.008+01:00

Ok so my recent evaluation shows that I am running pretty efficiently, getting more miles per gallon, but that means nothing unless I can translate it in to a pretty decent race - after all I train so that I can race, don't I? and being able to run 5 miles in 34:17 at 140 HR tells me nothing about how fast I could race 5 miles - other than it is somewhere under 34:17, but how far under?

So that is why I was toeing the line last night with about 60 other hopefuls at the start of the Shannonvale 10k, a low key race just outside Clonakilty in West Cork. I met up with Diarmaid at the start line, both of us aiming for somewhere around the 40 minute mark. Based on recent training I would expect to break 40 minutes for 10k - on a flat course, no problem - but there was a hill thrown into the mix on this course shortly after the 2k mark to make it more interesting and the 40 minute target that bit more elusive.

Ready, steady go! and we were off down the hill through the village and up the incline at the far side. 1 minute in and the Garmin showed an average pace of 5:37 per mile. I counted 14 in front of me but passed a few going up the incline, turn left and I'm somewhere in the top 10 with Diarmaid at my side. A guy in blue I had passed on the hill passed me out going down a slight incline as the field settles into their respective race paces. 1k in 3:55 - on target, but early days yet. 2k in 7:58 with Diarmaid at my side, steady pace all the way.

Shortly after the 2.5k mark the hill was upon us and our pace plummeted towards 8 minute miles and beyond as the grade steepened. With the twists and turns we could not see the top and Diarmaid began to pull a yard or 2 ahead of me. Passing the 3k mark close to the top, the Garmin read 12:35 - the hill had knocked me 35 seconds on the wrong side of my target.

As we crested the hill I caught up with Diarmaid and we coasted down the other side passing the 4k mark in 16:34 - back on target pace but unable to claw back the deficit left by the hill. We could only see 2 runners in front, the guy in blue and a guy in black compression socks he had passed going up the hill. We didn't look behind. We picked up the pace slightly to the 5k mark over a very gradual downhill passing it in 20:26 - halfway with a 26 second deficit on our target - it was going to be a tough ask to claw that back over the last 5k.

The distance to the two guys in front had remained constant since the 3k mark as we all appeared to be maintaining a steady pace, passing the 6k mark in 24:24 (another 2 seconds off the deficit) as the course changed to a very gradual uphill. The guy in the compression socks was slowly coming back to us and he looked behind to see how far back we were - "He's suffering" I said to Darimaid "we're gaining on him". I was feeling reasonably strong at this point and as I gained on the guy in front Diarmaid fell off the pace and dropped a few yards behind. I passed the 7k mark in 28:23 hot on the heels of the guy in front but just maintaining target pace, unable to eat enough into the deficit, now at 23 seconds. I passed the guy in front and gradually pulled ahead, still maintaining a pretty constant pace as opposed to putting in a surge - the 8k mark came in 32:22, another second chipped off the deficit, but not enough to get me near 40 minutes with 2k to go.

My central governor was telling me that 40 minutes was unachievable at this stage and that there was no point in pushing any harder - the legs are already beginning to feel very heavy and there's no point in killing yourself. I pushed on regardless repeating to myself that this was not the time to throw in the towel - push on as hard as you can, regardless of the outcome - weakness at this stage could lose you a place - the 9km mark came in 36:14. I'll need a 3:45 last km to get under 40 minutes - my breathing at this stage was pretty laboured and my legs leaden. The guy in blue was anywhere between 50 to 100 yards in front. I pushed on as hard as I could, turned right onto the main road and down the hill to the village - surely the downhill will get me the extra few seconds I need - push hard - cross the bridge - downhill gone - still a 100 yards to the finish - up a slight incline - directed to the left over the finish line as the guy calls out "40:03". "Fuck!" was all I could utter with my last breath - so close.

Diarmaid came in about half a minute later behind the guy in the compression socks. We all shook hands on a job well done. The guy in blue introduced himself as Stephen O'Mahony, a fellow M45 runner from Skibbereen AC (although there were no category prizes in this race). Having come in about 15 seconds behind him I didn't feel too bad about my time as Stephen regularly places in the Category results in local races. The results place me 6th overall, with the field well spread out.

I had set out to evaluate my racing form ahead on my HM in 4 weeks time. Job done, although there's more to do, if i'm to get anywhere my HM PB.

Focus

2011-08-09T23:38:00.006+01:00

Target

At last I have decided to focus on another race as the 100k fades into the memory banks and some speed reluctantly returns to my legs. The 15 mile Maxi marathon in Killarney a few weeks back showed me that I still had some way to go to get back on form. Over the last few weeks I have jumped into the twice weekly speedwork sessions of a club group training for the upcoming national half marathon championships in Waterford on 3rd September. As I will be pacing the Dingle marathon on 3rd September I have signed up for the inaugural Charleville HM two weeks later on 18th September - hopefully the hills of Dingle will be out of my legs by then.

I had the opportunity to cycle the route of the Dingle marathon on Saturday evening as I dropped Ani and Saran to visit their cousin Robert who is on holiday there for a few weeks. An undulating course but more than made up for by the spectacular scenery - leaving the Killarney Maxi marathon (promoted as the worlds most beautiful road race) well in the shade. Similar perhaps to California's Big Sur Marathon, except the road is about 10 foot wide. On the Sunday morning I ran an 18 mile out and back run taking in the last 7 miles of the marathon course and the 1.2 mile brute of a hill at the 21 mile mark - it certainly will be a challenging pacing job, where pace will be based on effort and not speed - banking time on the downhills for the slower uphill sections - looking forward to the challenge. And there's always Thomas to fall back on.

I spent the rest of the day on the beach with the kids getting in my first swim of the summer - the water was surprisingly warm (relatively speaking) and the 15' waves great fun.

Training Pace

As I haven't raced a short distance in a year (my 5 mile PB at Churchtown South 2010) and my training for the ultra wasn't exactly peppered with fast runs I don't know what my training paces should be . Based on peak form in the past these would normally be:-

Repeats @ 5:00/20 (38 second half laps, 80 second laps) - 200s/400 - mile pace

Intervals @ 6:00 (90 second laps) - 400s to 1600s - 5k pace.

Tempo @ 6:20/30 (20 minutes and up) - 10k/HM pace up towards 6:50 MP for 60 minutes.

Steady @ 6:50 to 7:20 pace

Easy @ 7:20 to 8:00 pace

Recovery @ 8:00 to 8:40 pace

Any speedwork on the track up until the past month has been at a slower 6:30 to 6:40 pace for no other reason than I didn't think my ultra training needed anything faster and I didn't want to risk injury by combining high mileage and speedwork. Now that the long slow stuff is behind me (for the moment) and my weekly mileage has reduced considerably, my legs have recovered sufficiently to enable me to concentrate on getting familiar with faster paces again. I had nearly got into the mindset that 6 minute pace was too fast for me but getting pulled along in the group sessions the last few weeks at the track has proved otherwise, with paces varying from 6:13 for 2 miles to 5:44 for 800m.

My tempo pace has similarly proved fairly consistent with a 6:23 pace on a 30 minute club session last weekend, similar to the 6:24 pace average for the 25 minute session 2 weeks ago. These group tempo sessions are fairly tough and made more interesting by their split time out and back nature whereby at the 15 minute turnaround those that have covered more distance are chasing down the slower guys on the return leg - if everyone ran an even pace for the 30 minutes we should all end up where we started at the end of the 30 minutes. Of course you could take it relatively easy on the outbound leg and up the pace on the return but you'd only be fooling yourself.

Evaluation

I hit the track this evening with my HR monitor for a 5 mile evaluation run at a constant HR of 140. I completed 4 of these during my aerobic base training between January and March - progressing from 37:18 (7:28 pace) to 34:24 (6:53 pace) over the 2 months. While I knew my aerobic base was pretty solid I did not know what to expect - hoping to get somewhere close to my last evaluation on 29th March (6:53 pace @ 140.4 HR).

After a mile warmup, stretching and a lap to get the HR up to 140 I was on my way:-

Mile 1 - 6:43 (140 HR)

Mile 2 - 6:47 (141 HR)

Mile 3 - 6:53 (142 HR)

Mile 4 - 6:56 (140 HR)

Mile 5 - 6:58 (140 HR)

Overall 34:17 (6:51 pace @ 140.6 HR) - I won't get much better than that. The effort felt surprisingly comfortable for the paces achieved, although the variation over the 5 miles shows an appreciable reduction in speed.

It's Official

2011-07-23T11:58:00.005+01:00

My 100m PB has finally been ratified by the Cork County Board - 16.53 seconds. My third PB of the year after the 39.3 miles and the 100k, and unlike those races I was back running (racing) within 12 hours. McMillian gives me anything between a 3:03 and a 3:15 marathon for my effort - if only I had practiced using the starting blocks (practiced at all) and broke the tape at 14 seconds I'd be on my way to a 2:40 mara (all for the want of 2.53 seconds) - ah well there's always next time. . As I was toeing the line at the start of the race the MC announced over the PA system that the last race that one of the competitors ran was 100k (leaked from the club chairman). As the rest of the guys appeared to all know each other, they all looked in my direction - all I could do was shrug my shoulders as if to say "why not?". At least the spectators knew the reason for the 2 second gap to the guy with all the struggling slow twitch fibres.

I celebrated my new PB by joining some clubmates on a tempo run this morning, most of whom are training for the National Half Marathon Championships in Waterford on 3rd September or one of the other HM's in Blarney/Charleville a week or 2 later.

The plan was 25 minutes of fast running sandwiched between 1 or 2 miles of warmup/cooldown. Six of us in all met up in Carrigaline at 8 (Joe, Micháel, Norman, Paul Daly, Paul Hickey - out celebrating the birth of his firstborn - congrats Paul & Myself) for an out and back along the estuary walk to Crosshaven (old rail line) - flat and fast. After the warmup we eased into the faster pace - too fast for me at the start as I slipped to the back with the two Pauls shooting out the front. I maintained a steady pace in the mid 6:20's counting down the minutes to the 12:30 turnaround. Joe had told me on Thursday that the pace was going to be around 6:50 (must have been the salesman in him). with 12:30 on the Garmin we all turned and headed for home (avg pace of 6:24) - some with more ground to cover than others depending on how far they got. The return leg was a battle of mind against body as the rising fatigue in my legs coupled with the slow motion ticking of the clock eroded away at my resolve - yet the pace remained steady @ 6:24 and I ended my 25 minutes within 10 yards of where I started - good solid pacing - any faster on the outbound leg and my pace would almost certainly have suffered on the return.

A slow warmdown to the cars and we were all set for the day ahead. Where else would you want to be on a warm summers morning.

Measured my resting HR this morning at 35 (average over 5 minutes - min/max 33/39) lowest ever - maybe my HR monitor is malfunctioning as during some of my easy runs this week my recorded HR shot up as far as 170.

Speedwork

2011-07-21T22:19:00.006+01:00

I took it relatively easy on the running front following the race on Saturday as my quads were sore and achy - downhill running will do that for you. However that changed this evening when I returned to some faster speedwork.

I jumped into the middle of the Thursday club session with JP, Joe, Eddie, Rónán, Maura, Pat and a few more who had 1 x 3.2k, 2 x 1.6k and 2 x 800m with 3 minute recoveries on the cards. I missed the opening 2 miles, which was run at about 6:10 pace and therefore was relatively fresh for the 2 x 1 miles @ 6:02 pace each and the 2 x 800 in 2:54/52 (3:00/2:58 in lane 3). My legs felt like jelly for the opening 100m of each of the 800s but they rallied pretty well and I was "relatively" comfortable throughout, even managing a sprint at the end of the final one - I reckoned I covered the last 100m faster than my 100m PB of last Friday.

Given that it is a long time since I churned out 6 minute pacework at the track I was very happy with the session. To be quite honest I think I have been slacking over the last 6 to 9 months opting for slower interval paces and avoiding "short" races - perhaps because history has shown that speedwork inevitably leads to injury. Everything in moderation perhaps.

Killarney Finish Line (relief)

When is a race not a race

2011-07-16T14:13:00.016+01:00

It's not every day you get a PB, certainly not a PB where you come last and definitely not a PB where you come last and are only 6 or 7 seconds outside the world record - top class field. Well that was me in the 100m final at the Cork County Junior & Masters 2011 Track & Field Championships last night. Luckily I did not have to go through the heats and semi-final due to my form coming into the event.

In summary my warmup strides were faster than my actual race, I couldn't use the starting blocks for fear of falling over 10m into the race and I did not want to DNF, I still had to get down on my knees for the ready, steady, go - flashbacks to racing my brothers on the beach as a kid. I was left standing over the first 20m and never regained my...ahem...lead. There were three in my age group (M45), the rest were older, I think the winner was over 60 - not fair putting the big boys in the same race - still I got a bronze medal for my effort (well I will when they figure out I came third). What possessed me I hear you say - I don't know, unknown territory?

Unfortunately I didn't have time to wait around for the medal ceremony as I had to head to a funeral and forgo the possibility of more silverware in the shot and javelin, the other events I had entered for. All I can say is roll on 2012, bring it on!.....and who knows the other 2 guys in my age group may not show up.

. I did come out of the championships with a slightly dodgy right quad (this is beginning to sound like Dervla O'Rourkes' Blog) which wasn't the best preparation for this mornings 15 mile "Maxi-marathon" in Killarney which had a substantial downhill section - not good for quads.

Question: If a mini-marathon is anywhere from 3.8 (Cork) to 6.22 (Dublin) miles and a maxi-marathon is 15 miles, how long is a marathon?

Answer: As long as you want it to be.

Although if you favour the logical side of the brain and a "mini" and "maxi" are equidistant from the "normal" marathon you might come up with 10 miles or thereabouts. Either answer will do.

Anyways, I was up this morning at the unearthly hour of 4:45 (When Thomas normally returns from his morning run) to travel to Killarney with John D and Donal (thanks for the lift Donal) so that we could catch a bus for the 8 a.m. start of this point to point race taking in the spectacular scenery of the lakes of Killarney.

Lakes of Killarney (Ladies View)

Thomas was at the start line well before us anxiously looking for someone to pace off. As John had a camera for taking pictures en route I suggested he track Pat O'Connor who was in similar shape and also intending to race. I did suggest to John that he run ahead of the two lads and take photos of them crossing the line, which they would appreciate ;)

The day was overcast with a threat of rain, after all we were in Kerry - rain capital of the world.

Here's how my race went:-.

Uphill for the first 1.42 miles at a relatively easy pace - Mile 1 in 7:40
Opened it up a little for the downhill miles Miles 2 to 4 in 7:00/6:15/6:40
John was lamenting the grey day as he wasn't getting any good photos so I suggested he scoot along to the finish and take finish photos (including mine) - and the fecker did exactly that - releasing the brakes and powering off down the hill, leaving a wake of runners behind him.
Levelled off a bit from mile 4 to 5 and more downhill until the 7.5 mile mark, which I passed in 49:57 (15 mile 1:40 pace) - I was feeling pretty good at this stage - Miles 5to 8 in 6:46/05/15/40.
Some of the early mile markers were off (we were told that there were no markers as they had been pulled out by pranksters during the night)- the 10k marker came before the 6 mile one. The later markers appeared ok but were 0.1 mile short compared to the Garmin distance - "good, a short maxi is just what I need as I am beginning to feel the pressure".

I slowed as the course levelled out - Mile 9 was my last sub 7 minute mile at 6:56. Mile 10 in 7:13 (1:07:38)
The remaining miles were confidence bashers as those I had passed now began to pass me back as we moved off the road into Killarney National Park where the normally welcome paths killed my pace with the constant minor grade changes. I suffered on resigned to the fact that my legs were not yet prepared for the "speed/endurance" required for the "shorter" race.
I crossed the HM timing mat in 1:29:12 (although the Garmin displayed 12.99 miles). Shortly after I was passed by a runner and again during mile 14. I could hear the footsteps of another runner behind me coming towards the finish but I managed to stay ahead of him before crossing the line - not that there was any increase in effort from me - just a "I hope to fuck he doesn't pass me" prayer. Can't beat the power of a well timed prayer.
I finished the 14.91 (Garmin) mile race in 1:43:08 - ahead of my 1:45 target, but had to work harder than I expected - Miles 11 to 14.91 in 7:05/15/16/12/6:38.
John was on hand at the finish line to take my photo - although he hasn't sent it on to me yet.

Thomas and Pat had a right old battle for 2nd and 3rd M40 with Thomas hanging on for the win in a very impressive 1:xx:xx (I can't steal his thunder) - 8th overall.

My efforts got me 39th out of about 700 starters (although this should be put in context - it was primarily a fun event - borne out by the fact that I saw some runners recovering with cigarettes)

Post Mortem

2011-07-03T21:53:00.008+01:00

Reflection

The results of the Portumna 100k show that my second 50k (4:50:31) took 9.24% longer than my first 50 (4:25:57), which is not too bad considering that out of the 12 finishers I had the smallest positive split (the largest was 56%). However the guy who finished behind me incredibly had the only negative split (4:57:45 + 4:52:21 = 9:50:06) meaning he managed to climb 2 places during the second half of the race. While my pace had reduced to a pedestrian level by the time I had crossed the finish line I could have continued on if I had to, for how long I don't know. However 10 minutes later I could not have walked let alone run.

Recovery

My recovery has taken a circuitous route. Naturally my legs were achy and stiff for a few days. My left quad in particular did not function particularly well – to get into bed or a car I had to use both hands to lift my leg from behind the knee. I also had a blister on the side of the base of my right big toe, which I had to lance. All good recovery stuff.

Pain

However as the aches and pains subsided on Sunday and Monday a new pain was developing in the big toe of my left foot. I assumed it was a sprain resulting from the race that I had not previously noticed but by Tuesday night the pain had got so bad that I could not sleep and had to hang my foot out over the edge of the bed as I could not tolerate anything touching my toe – water falling on it in the shower was enough to cause pain – it was red and swollen and walking was only possible without shoes and with a distinctive limp.

Diagnosis

So on the Wednesday morning I ended up at the Doctor, who promptly proclaimed “that’s Gout” when I revealed the throbbing digit. I had to tell her that the purple toenail was due to an unrelated previous “injury”. Yet she took precautions and prescribed antibiotics in case of infection, an anti-inflammatory for the gout and told me to avoid purine rich foods in my diet (alcohol, read meat – particularly organ meat, mackerel, sardines, tomatoes...)

All Abina said is "It can't be Gout. Did you tell the doctor the distance you ran? "

"She didn't ask but I did tell her I ran a very long race. If she though it important she'd have asked"

"You should have told her" She replied.

When picking up the drugs she even asked the pharmacist what he thought, filling him in on the details -"How long?" he asked - "no it can't be gout" - I think he just didn't want to contradict her - by the time I hobbled up he was more interested in where I ran and whether or not it was an organised event.

Science Bit

To be honest I was surprised with the diagnosis as I understood that gout was associated with a rich diet and copious amounts of alcohol but apparently other factors include a genetic predisposition ( I have a younger brother who suffers from gout) and an under-excretion of uric acid from the kidneys (quite possible given the reduced kidney function associated with endurance events). Also an excessive breakdown of cells (muscle breakdown in this case) can lead to uric acid build-up and uric acid crystals can become deposited in tendons, joints, kidneys, and other organs. This accumulation of uric acid crystals is called gouty arthritis, or simply "gout."

Recovery # 2

The meds appeared to work for a while but the pain was nearly as bad on Thursday night, which forced me to consult Dr. Google on Friday morning. After viewing a few sites I was almost resigned to a life crippling pain and no hope for a cure until I happened on this guys site proclaiming the benefit of baking soda (bicarbonate of soda), which essentially increases the alkalinity of the body (blood/urine) thereby reducing the production of uric acid. After a day or two of self-medication I was on the road to recovery.

Running

I was sufficiently recovered by last Tuesday to venture out in a pair of runners, perhaps unwisely selecting the clubs track session for my first run. However I was pleasantly surprised that I managed to complete a ladder session at a decent enough clip (for me) - between 6:00 and 6:40 mile pace - but I could feel the dull ache in my legs during the 2 minute recoveries. I continued running for the rest of the week culminating in a hilly club run this morning over 11.7 miles @ 8:30 pace and while I can run I’m still a long way from full recovery. Plenty of time.

Plans

Apart from being accepted this week to pace the 3:30 group at the Dublin City Marathon at the end of October I have committed to no other race and so my current “training plan” is primarily recovery based – muscle recovery first followed by recovering some of the speed lost over the last 12 months. As Thomas is also pacing the 3:30 group in Dublin it will be our closest race to-date – forced to warmup over 40,095m for a 100m sprint ;)

Lets go round again.........

2011-06-25T22:21:00.005+01:00

............one more time...............by the average white man.

Maybe we'll............... life, at times, feels like a treadmill, with its repetitive and predictable nature where each day/week/month/year is indistinguishable from the next - you just get on with it without thinking of an end game. This is the frame of mind you have to get into when running a long distance - start thinking of the finish and you are setting yourself up for a very tough ride. Going into the Portumna 100k knowing that I was going to be on my legs for 9 hours or so I knew that 4 hours in I would get absolutely no comfort at all from thinking that I had only 5 hours left - so I had to get into the Forrest Gump mindset and think of running as a natural part of my existence as familiar as breathing, if it hurts, embrace the pain and make it part of who I am.

. Denis, our logistics man, having heard of our nights sleep before Connemara, booked a B&B 3 miles out of town, where Paul was staying. A 100m exclusion zone would have done, but Denis was taking no chances. . Breakfast consisted of a tin of ambrosia cream rice, courtesy of John, and a cup of coffee at the race briefing. The 100k was starting at 6 a.m., the 50k at 8 and the marathon at 10. There was also a 5k scheduled for 1 p.m. The course, a 5k loop through Portumna Forrest Park is shown below:- .

Denis dropped Paul and I to the start line with John the official photographer.

My nutrition consisted of 3 x 3 hour bottles of perpeteum (1 bottle premixed with water). coke, various gels, a flask of chicken noodle soup, endurolyte (salt) tablets, pancakes and caramel rice crispie cakes, percy pigs jellies and 2 bottles of vanilla ensure. Paul gave me a 500ml bottle of High 5 and 3 anti-inflamatories just in case (never took them before in a race). I ended up leaving most of the solid food in the bag, not because it disagreed with me but it just felt too much of a hassle to take and I was doing fine on the liquid refreshments - perhaps if I was going longer ;)

Before the off

And we're off

We toed the line at 6, no one pushing to get a quick start like you’d see in most other races. Then again with 13 starters it was unlikely that the potential front runners would be held up too much in the opening 100 yards. . Soon we were on our way and after 50 yards I found myself in 3rd place. However 50 yards later I had slipped to joint 6th, my only thoughts were on establishing my early pace of 8:50 miles. Paul had said beforehand that he would run the first 20 miles with me. I warned him that my early pace would be 8:50/9:00 dropping to 8:20/8:30 over 6 miles (2 laps). “That’s fine” he said. Yet within the first km he was gone – chasing down the three front runners – not wanting to be left behind.

Are we there yet? 1k done - 99 to go

I ran the first few laps with 100 marathon club wannabe Pat O’Keeffe, who’s plan was to get a couple of “fast laps” in before he slowed down, with his primary aim of just finishing. He finished last years 100k in about 13 hours. .

I stopped after every lap to pick up nutrition and walk the short out and back over the timing mat, depositing my bottle back in my bag before resuming running. After about 3 laps I parted company with Pat and spent the remaining 85k running on my own, except for a brief interlude with Ger O’Brien, where I accompanied him on the last 1.5k of his first 50k ultra - well done Ger.

Lets go round again - 17 more times

My first 5k loop had taken 28 minutes, reducing to 27 for lap two and then settling to an average of about 26 minutes for the next few laps. I was lapped by the front runner on completing my 4th lap – I couldn’t believe it – blistering pace for a 100k. I now had a marker for how the rest of the race would go for me compared to him. Assuming we followed the same progression curve he should lap me again at the end of my laps 8, 12 & 16 (laps 10, 15 and 20 for him.)

I was halfway through my 5th loop when the 50k started at 8 a.m. As part of the loop was an out and back section I had a good idea where I was relative to others. I could see the opening stages of the 50k coming against me as I headed in to complete my 5th loop – only 15 laps to go.

Paul was about half a lap ahead of me at this stage and we more or less remained in than relative position for the next 75km. The next 5 laps to the 50k halfway point were relatively uneventful. The lap pace was averaging 8:15 to 8:20 minute miles increasing to the 8:20s to take account of my “walking breaks” at the end of each lap. The second placed guy had lapped my just before the 30k mark (lap 6) – While this didn’t instill confidence I wasn’t upset as I knew I was still on target. If I felt good later I could always up the pace. Lap 8 came and went without the front runner passing me – I didn’t see him until lap 9.5 – proof enough to me that I was holding my own (relatively speaking).

My initial plan was to hold back until I had passed the 50k mark and up the pace for a lap and see how I get on, with the intention of starting the second 50k faster than the first 50 and holding on for even split race. With 4:26 on the clock at 50k I had a 4-minute cushion on my 9-hour target.

The pace gradually slowed which only became noticeable when the lap pace entered the 8:50’s after lap 12 (60km) going over 9:00 pace average when crossing the timing mat after my walking breaks. I accepted at this stage that I would not make my 9-hour target and after making a quick allowance for slowing even further pushed my target back half an hour to 9:30 with the big 10 looming in the back of my mind – while I felt reasonably ok I just didn’t know what the next 40k would bring – I had escaped relatively unscathed so far and who knows how long that would last.

I was surprised to see my heart rate, which had climbed into the 140’s, drop back into the 130’s suggesting that the “effort” wasn’t as tough as it had been. Was I taking it easy? Could I push the pace slightly? Just enough to get the HR back to where it was? I had never seen this in a race before – except in Connemara, but then only because I was injured and had to slow down. My legs appeared to be my limiting factor - as if the number of muscles available for recruitment was gradually reducing and there was noting I could do to change that. It would have taken a disproportionate amount of effort to increase the pace, not what I wanted to risk so far from home – maybe if the finishing line was within range but not 30 to 40km out.

While I could feel the dull ache of fatigue in my legs there was no huge discomfort or any sign of tightness. A dull pain had developed on the inside of my left knee, but it did not get worse. When I completed the lap I rummaged around in my nutrition bag for the orange anti inflamatories Paul had given me – all I could find was the dissolved remains of what appeared to be one tablet. The weather varied from full sun to heavy rain – I remember feeling the heat of the sun during one lap and reminding myself to apply sun screen when I next passed the start/finish area but by the time I got there it had started raining heavily and it didn’t seem appropriate to be applying factor 50. I enjoyed the cooling effect of the rain. My mind also began to play tricks on me - I remember at one stage picking up 2 gels from my nutrition bag and putting them in my short pockets and feeling like I had just added 2 bags of cement - the additional weight almost too much to bear – luckily the feeling wore off after a few 100 yards.

The marathon had started at 10 (4 hours in) and every so often runners would go flying past. I was also passing through the back of both the 50k and marathon field, particularly later on where quite a number of competitors were reduced to walking. John and Denis started crewing for Paul and I when they finished their 50k and we still had 5 laps to go (25k) – I was allowing 30 minutes per lap, telling John I had another 2 and a half hours plus to go - with 6:47 on the clock I was predicting a 9:20 to 9:30 finish.

At 1 p.m. (7 hours in) the 5k race started, but I hardly noticed the runners pass me as they appeared from a different world and it was all over in 1 lap. As I was walking in to complete my 17th Lap (85k) the 100k front runner came through to lap me for the 3rd and last time to finish well ahead of the field in 7:46. I came through 10 seconds later to claim 2nd place – no such luck but at least my spirits were good – only 3 laps or 15k to go - single digit miles!

Coming in 2nd at 85km

By this stage my pace had slowed to a pedestrian 10 minute mile – still glad to be moving forward and within sight of the finish, churning out mile after relentless mile. Coming in for the start of my last lap I felt great, joking that I had just arrived for the 5k race after a 95k warmup – I had waited a long time for this - the last time I would pass the now very familiar landmarks out on the course. My pace quickened temporarily but my new found energy was primarily psychological, not physical. I counted down the last 5k with a smile on my face. At 97km I even had time to take a gel that I found in my pocket. I had planned on doing a little dance coming into the finish line and going down on my knees to kiss the ground. However I don't think I pulled it off as gracefully as I had anticipated - but at least I had a smile on my face -

I didn't even get a chance to compose myself before getting my finishers medal. Official finishing time of 9:16:28 - Well done to Seb Locteau and his tream for putting on a great series of races.

My recovery has been a bit chequered, partly explaining why this post has taken so long, but more about that later.

I think i'll sleep downstairs for a while!

2011-06-18T19:28:00.006+01:00

Where do I start? At the finish I think as this is not going to be a long post, except for Ewen.

I didn't quite make my 9 hour target, although I was on pace for the first 25k - 2:13:59, and the second 25k - 2:14:01 giving a first 50k of 4:26:00. I dropped off the pace from about 60k with my third 25k coming in at 2:21:19 and the final 25 at 2:29:27 giving a second 50k in 4:50:46 and a new 100k PB of 9:16:46 (8:58 pace) - the chip time may be a few seconds faster as I was well over the line when I stopped the Garmin. Delighted with my run particularly as I don't think I could have done anything better, except perhaps organise my nutrition bag a bit better - rummaging through gels, bottles of this and that, flask of chicken noddle soup (worked great by the way) and assorted congealed sweets & salt tabs in a pool of water (did I mention the downpours) after running 75k is an art in itself.

My legs held up pretty well, with no cramping - just succumbing to fatigue as the miles wore on. I remember completing lap 12 of 20 and thinking that I was on the home straight with only 8 laps to go until it dawned on me that this still amounted to 40k - it's all relative I suppose.

The winning time was 7:46 - I just happened to be crossing the finishing mat at the same time, but alas with only 85k in the bag.

Clubmate Paul Daly came in about 15 minutes ahead of me in 4th position (he didn't wear a watch or check the time but thinks he didn't get under the 9 hour mark) - I was 6th. To put this in context there were about 19 starters. My time would have got me 2nd place last year (less than 30 seconds ahead of the guy who actually came second)

Clubmates John Desmond and Denis Looney completed the half (50k) in 3:48 and 4:40 with John taking second spot after the two front runners pulled out due to injury. This is on the back of his win in the marathon here last year. So a great day out for the Eagle Ultra boys (code for crazy old men).

My legs are naturally stiff and who knows how long recovery will take but the afterglow of completing my first 100k will hopefully last longer.

I don't know if the race report will be much longer as there's not a lot you can write about running around in circles, without the risk of repeating yourself.

I must go off now and find a quite place to lie down for a few weeks.

The six mile cut-in and other stories

2011-06-16T20:14:00.007+01:00

A while back Kevin Sieveright from the club dropped over a box of "Marathon and Beyond" bimonthly publications from the States he had been keeping in his attic. I read an interesting article in one of the them about a pacing strategy for a marathon involving the "six mile cut-in" which recommends starting your marathon at a pace that is 30 seconds per mile slower than your target pace for the first two miles, 20 seconds per mile slower for miles 3 & 4 and 10 seconds per mile slower for miles 5 & 6 and running the final 20.2 miles at target pace.

For me this advice is the opposite of what I (and most others) instinctively want to do for the first six miles of a marathon - lose all that time for no reason, you got to be kidding me. All you lose is 2 minutes - obviously the target pace for the final 20.2 miles has to include making up these 2 minutes. For example for a 3 hour marathon the average pace over 26.2 miles of 6:52 would have to reduce to 6:46 per mile for the last 20.2 miles to allow for the 6 mile cut-in. I can hear you say "6:52 is difficult enough to maintain and you want me to run 6:46 pace - for the last 20 miles - you're joking right?". Well perhaps if you are thinking this you're not in 3 hour marathon shape (or 3:30/4 hour whatever the case may be). Certainly if you adopt this approach you'd be running against the popular tide - and this is why I think it is one of the best pieces of advice I have read in a long time - because the success rate of the popular tide is not very impressive.

Think about it - for most races below the marathon distance we warm-up over a few miles with the last few 100 yards at race pace - same as the six mile cut-in (elites can warm-up for the marathon and can therefore do without it). It beats the hell out of stressing about getting on pace during the first 30 seconds of the race - you can relax and enjoy the opening miles and let those around you fight over the square yard of road in front of you. If you find that when you reach target pace you can't sustain it for 20.2 miles, you've lost nothing as it goes without saying that you couldn't have maintained a slightly slower pace (6 seconds per mile for 3 hour marathon pace) for a further 6 miles. This in-race "warm-up" becomes more and more important the longer the distance as it introduces race pace slowly, gets your body gradually used to the effort with a gradual increase in HR. Ever notice that if you go out too fast in the opening miles of a marathon your HR will never recover even if you ease off on the pace? Anyway my opening 6 miles of the race on Saturday will be a six mile cut-in experiment of 1. Now if only I could decide on a target pace!

In unrelated news Abina continues to amaze me in her continued interest in my well being although the focus is shifting more towards my nutrition strategy.

"I got you foamy ice creams (sweets) in Aldi" she said to me on Tuesday.

"They melt in the mouth more easily than the Percy Pigs I got you in Marks and Sparks and they have more carbs".

Sure enough they did - 80% to the 78% in the Pigs. I'll get her to crew for me yet. although....... .

Things turned more sinister last night when she said out of the blue

"Will you have to poop in your shorts on Saturday"

"What!!!"

. "Will you have to poop in your shorts on Saturday?"

"No, it's not a requirement of the race, why???"

"Angela ran the Cork marathon and she said there were loads of people in front of her who had pooped in their pants - and you'll be running for a longer than them on Saturday and you'll be eating more"

"They will have portaloos"

"Oh! I thought you couldn't stop"

She spent the rest of the evening cracking jokes with Keevsa on how I could wear incontinence pads or carry a poop scoop with me. The joys..................

Finally, a few marathon photos

The Marina - Mile 15.5 (Heel Striker)

Respect to Ian (755) - Who held on all the way (There were other - promise e.g. the three guys on the left in the previous photo - Gearóid(309), Stephen (377) & Mark (1345)

1492

2011-06-11T18:24:00.006+01:00

"The world is flat and if you head west you'll fall off the edge" Mr Columbus was told before he headed on his first transatlantic cruise in 1492. All that awaited him and his crew 20 miles west of the Azores was certain death. Luckily he managed to avoid the edge of the world despite the fact that the low cost carrier he was travelling with dropped him further from his intended destination than he bargained for - no change there then in 500 odd years.

With 6 days left to my first 100k run (freudian slip there using the word "first") Abina is getting a bit agnsty, dropping hints over the last few weeks that my heart might not be up to the task, despite the fact that I am following a well trodden path. I tried to reassure her that my heart will be more than capable of dealing with the relatively low effort and that it will be my muscular skeletal system that would be under pressure. I don't think she was convinced. "What about the guy who died on Mount Everest, he thought he was up to the task and what good is he now to his wife and newborn child who he will never see". Did I mention that Abina predominantly operates on a emotional plane - balanced by my logical disposition - making for a perfect schizophenic match.

Her next plan of attach was the fact that we have only so may heart beats in our lifetime and that i'll have used all mine up before my time - maybe I should take to my bed and wait for the inevitable, although i'll have a longer wait at my resting HR. In the interest of giving her the benefit of the doubt and to be quite honest she is probably (always) right I replied that for the 10 or so hours a week that my heart is working at 70 or 80 beat per minute (BPM) higher than normal the benefit is that it is working at least 10 BPM lower than normal for the rest of the week (158 hours). While this makes perfect sense to me it was like white noise to her as she replied with "well you're no use to me dead" or some such thing. I could have mentioned the life assurance and death benefit that she would get but thought it best not to mention it.

Abina got me thinking about the theory that we have so many heartbeats in our lifetime - anywhere between 2 and 2.9 billion according to this site. Based on this theory I calculated that if I exercised for 10 hours a week at an average of 70 BPM higher than my normal HR and the benefit of a healthier heart was a lowering of my normal HR by 15 BPM I would save enough heart beats over 20 years to give me an extra 2.83 years (assuming a normal HR of 70 BPM). Alternatively my 10 hours a week would add about an hour to my life, which could be seen as a poor return, if you'd rather spend those 10 hours watching the telly or reading a book. The following table shows the "theoretical" extension to your life in years after 20 years of exercising for 10 hours a week for various combinations of normal HR improvement and average gap between normal and exercising HR. You can see that your life expectancy reduces in the unlikely event that the benefit is outweighed by the exertion. A load of old bull really but a good counter argument should you ever be challenged by the flat earth society.

Postscript: 20:49 hrs -

I neglected to mention that 2 or 3 hours a week would be all the exercise you'd need to keep a healthy heart and therefore the optimum training level for the ultimate endurance event -life, as you'd be keeping unnecessary exertion to a minimum - don't tell the missus (I reckon i'd get another year with her).

Clock - 3:29:52.........

2011-06-06T19:01:00.007+01:00

.........Chip - no bloody chip. Left it at home this morning in my eagerness to remember to bring everything else. Chip about 3:29:25 as there were 2 runners between me and Frank, the other 3:30 pacer. A good day for running a marathon, generally overcast and relatively cool - the best since Cork restarted in 2007 - although it was a bit warm for the first hour or so.

To be quite honest I didn't feel great, with slightly tight calves from pushing the pace a bit on yesterdays 34 mile bike ride and a reasonably full bladder from the start. I contemplated stopping for a whiz, but with a baloon strapped to my singlet and "Sub 3hrs 30" emblazoned on my back, I thought it might be a bit unprofessional - pacers are not supposed to be human ;).

Despite the 7:54 average pace on the Garmin we passed the 8 mile mark, 7 seconds in deficit (1:04:07) - we changed this to a 10 second surplus by the half way stage and over the next 4 miles we extended that to about 40 seconds. There was a sizeable group with us but it was difficult to know who exactly was "with us" as the field was still reasonably congested. I began to feel good after about 15 miles, with the urge to pee gone and bio feedback indicating everything in good working order. My HR fluctuated between 125 and 140 - rising above the 140 on some of the "hilly sections".

Crowd support was very good particularly as we passed through relay changeover areas. The group remained reasonably intact, as we crested the last rise on the Model Farm Road at mile 21.5 and dropped down to Inchagaggin Lane and the Straight Road. I could see clubmate, Paul Cotter, ahead who had paced me on some of my looooong training runs over the last few weeks. Following his strong 3:34 finish in his debut Marathon in Dublin last year, Paul was targeting something in the low 3:20's. With about 3 miles to go I pull alongside him, but can only keep him on my shoulder for about 3/4 of a mile - complaining about going too fast after the tunnel f#ck*ed with his Garmin (my words not his) - the mind does funny things when faced with data that conflicts with it's own reasoning. He didn't fall too far behind as I could still see him 100 yards back as we ran along the Mardyke towards the 25 mile mark. Over the bridge along the UCC river walk and into the last mile with about 9 minutes to spare, still a good crew with us. Out onto the north quays, scooping up a few stragglers on the way with those with a bit of spare energy pushing ahead, right turn onto Patricks Bridge and the last 400m to the finish...stopping briefly before the finish to scoop up 2 more sub-3:30's - job done and legs feeling great, the best they've ever felt after pacing 3:30 (3 to-date).

A half mile jog to the Lee Hotel with previous pacing partner, Tony (now promoted to the 3:15 slot with Thomas), a quick shower, share some ultra nutrition tips with Tony (who's coaching the Irish team for the Trail World Championships) and off to the Long valley for a well earned pint of plain - carbs never tasted so refreshing.

Well done to all those who raced today, plenty of PB's out there.

I'm a bit pissed off that I won't have an official result, but then again I'm not looking for membership of the 100 marathon club (The annual sub is hardly worth another medal, no matter what it's made of - I can always fabricate my own) and will just add today to the 7 other "unofficial" 26.2+ mile runs this year - only 2 "official" ones.

Mile 3.5 - Early Days

Pickup

2011-06-04T16:41:00.005+01:00

With a marathon to pace in 2 days, today was a good day to break from my 50 miler training programme. I managed to keep my date with the twice weekly speed sessions on Tuesday (ladder session at the track) and Thursday (Tempo 5k) and my day off on Friday. With the weekend long runs cut back to 2 hours each, I wasn't missing out on much. Still I got just over an hour and a half on the grass of UCC farm this morning with clubmate Dennis, who is also pacing on Monday. I spent the rest of the morning putting a second coat of paint on the spindles of the stairs a home, a job I started a few years ago (Tapering is very handy for finishing odd jobs, so much time!).

As I was dropping Keevsa to school, yes school on a Saturday - supervised study for the Leaving Cert (state exams) which starts on Wednesday - seems like only yesterday when I was doing mine........ the flashbacks are less frequent now. Anyway as I was dropping Keevsa to school I decided to continue on into town, with Ani in tow, to pick up my race number for Monday. I had to go to a special desk at City Hall as I didn't have the necessary paperwork for priority processing, what with I being a pacer and having the luxury of being registered by the Hunnymonster. I met Gina who promptly gave me level 1 clearance and went away to get my pacing gear (yellow singlet and black shorts - cool) while I picked up my number and goodie bag, which contained another technical t-shirt - unfortunately I found it was a size too big when I got home (They gave me an XL instead of an L).

Met up with the Beirut taxi and his family as we browsed the food stalls across the river on Lapps Quay, his state of arousal suitably in check. My carb loading started with a spicy beef kebab and continued throughout the afternoon with anything that took my fancy. All that's left now is to wait up and relax until Monday morning. Looks like it's going to be a good morning for running with temperatures lower that yesterday and today and little or no wind.

Best of luck to all those running the relay, half and full marathon, have a great day.

C'mon the 3:30's.

Taper Week 1 (Run 28.3 miles, Bike 60.9 miles, Swim NIL)

May (Run 349 miles, Bike NIL, Swim 1.3km)

Blogger Bother

2011-06-02T07:46:00.008+01:00

For some reason I can't post comments on some blogs and can on others. Is anyone experiencing the same problem?

Blogs I can't post comments on include Pauls (over trails and hills), Robs (Running still), Martys (For the t-shirt) and Bobs (Training blog), so well done to you on your recent races/ time trials and good luck in your upcoming events. Funny thing is that some of them have received comments from others but I just get caught in a continuous loop that goes nowhere.

Plugging Away

2011-05-30T14:11:00.009+01:00

The last few weeks have been pretty repetitive on the running front

Monday - Day off.

Tuesday - Speedwork in the form of intervals at the track

Wednesday - Easy recovery run or day off.

Thursday - Speedwork in the form of a 5k tempo run

Friday - Day off

Saturday - Long Run

Sunday - Longer run

With all the days off I'm able to recover from the back to back weekend long runs and still get 2 speed workouts in - although i'm not as fast as I used to be.

The key workouts for the 100k are obviously the long runs and I finally appear to be getting my head and body used to them. Simple as it may sound it took a while for me to get the last key training element nailed - eating. Twice in the last month, towards the end of a 4 and 5 hour long run I suffered badly due to lack of fuel. Over a period of 10 minutes I went from feeling reasonably ok to a state where every step was a huge effort - the classic bonk/hitting the wall experience. While a few gels and water will get me around a marathon course reasonably intact, going longer demands a higher and more varied calorific intake.

This weekend I completed my last and longest back to back runs covering 64 miles over two days. The 4:05 hour 29.8 mile run on Saturday was the faster of the two, leaving my legs in a suitably fatigued state for Sundays 5 hour run. I managed to get by on Perpeteum and High 5 on Saturday but I was up before 6 on Sunday morning with my chicken noodle soup simmering away on the hob. I had carb loaded on beer and food the night before celebrating a neighbour's son's communion so breakfast consisted of the a cup of coffee to wake me up. Luckily I had the company of Paul Daly, another 100k nutter, for the 5 hours, which included an 11.2 mile club run out the now "very" familiar Passage, Monkstown, Rafeen loop. I stuck to GU gels and perpeteum for the first 3 hours and thereafter resorted to picnicing on soup, fig rolls (newtons in the new world), jellies, coke and anything else we could hoover up, took a few walking breaks when energy levels dipped and while the legs would be stiff once we resumed running we were able to shake the feeling off after a few 100 yards.

To be honest when I set out at 6:40 I didn't know whether I could last 5 hours as I did not feel great - energy was so-so and legs were stiff. However 2 hours in I felt better and by the time i had finished I felt no worse than when I had started. The average pace for the 5 hours was 8:45 which we managed to reduce from 8:50 over the last mile and a half as we chased down a "hare" out for his Sunday run - both of us pleasantly surprised that out legs complied. `We finished on the Marina with a dip in the river to cool the legs down, joined by a few crabs crawling over our feet.

My biggset concern now is the weather - with a veritable heat wave forcast from next weekend, pacing 3:30 in Cork this day week may be harder work than I bargained for.

Doing Time

2011-05-15T19:16:00.009+01:00

This weekend was all about time on my feet. The Runners World 50 mile training programme i'm broadly following (these last two weeks ;) has two weekends of back to back 4 and 5 hour long runs 3 and 4 weeks out from the race - although the first of the 5 hour runs has a note after it - (or about 27 - 29 miles). So strictly speaking the 27.8 mile 4 hour run I did last weekend is good enough for the first scheduled 5-hour run in the programme. The second 5-hour run has no such note against it so I decided to err on the side of caution and see what a 5-hour training run was like.

Time constraints on Saturday - the two youngest had to be in "Supernova" for 10:30 for a company "fun-day" - meant that I only got a 3.5 hour run in, starting at 6:15. A "walk in the park" literally as I ran the entire 3.5 hours on the grass circuit of UCC Farm, joined after a while by Pat Murphy, whom I paced to a sub 3:30 in Cork last year, who was out for his 20 mile long run. The time passed quickly as we chatted away and by the time Pat was done I only had 15 minutes left to run - certainly one of the most comfortable 3.5 hour runs I have ever done, despite the 8:12 average pace. Pat is aiming for 3:10 - 3:15 this year, having gone on to run 3:18 in Dublin last October. Lizzie Lee of Leevale AC was also out for a easy run, ahead of her half marathon in Gothenburg next weekend, where she hopes to run 6 minute miles to a 1:18 finish - having won the Ballycotton 10 miler in 58:47 (5:53 pace) in March, she should have no difficulty there.

My legs were in pretty good shape this morning for the real test. A club run of up to 22 miles was organised for 8 so my plan was to get an hour to an hour and a half in beforehand so that my "time alone" after the club run would be short. As I didn't have the advantage of running repetitive loops I took a back-pack (hydration pack with the bladder taken out) to carry my two 500ml drinks (4 hr perpeteum mix and a bottle of High 5) and a few crackers with peanut butter and jam (I wasn't getting hungry this time out). I only managed to get 50 minutes in before the club run (Stayed up to watch the Eurovision with the kids), joining Paul, Denis, Derek, Cian and Martin for an extended 18 mile loop from Pairc Ui Caoimhe out to Passage, Monkstown, Rafeen Hill, Moneygouney, Garryduff, Rochestown return. Denis was fresh back from warm weather training in Singapore and Derek gave us the low down on his 2:53 marathon in Tokyo - it's only a matter of time before he gets into the 2:40's.

As my nutrition was in the converted backpack, every 3 or 4 miles I had to take it off and open it to take a drink, temporarily dropping off the pace. In the latter stages I just stopped and walked to take on fluids (and solids) which served to double up as a rest from the fatigue of constant pace running. Four of us took the longer estuary walk around to Blackrock Castle on the way back to extend the run towards 20 miles (26 for me). Paul ran a loop of the Monahan/Centre Park Road with me to get his 22 mile target in the bag, leaving me with an hour to kill before I could finish. So I headed back out the 6 mile loop around to Blackrock Castle, repeating the opening six miles of my run and finishing up with a short out and back counting down the minutes to the 5 hour mark. While my legs felt reasonably ok the rising fatigue over the last half hour became progressively more difficult to bear and my pace slowed to a 9:30 shuffle by the time I was finished. Can't say it was lack of fuel as I didn't feel that hungry, although I was slightly dehydrated - what you'd expect after taking on 1 litre of fluids in 5 hours of running.

Before heading for home I dipped my legs into the River Lee to cool them down and aid muscle repair. I had to move my feet about a bit as the feeling of crabs or some other bottom dwellers crawling over them spooked me a little, maybe it was just underwater tumbleweed. The water was quite cool which felt good but as my feet began to get numb I called it a day.

My 8.5 hours of weekend running got me to 97 km or 60 miles, not far off my target race distance. However, despite the overwhelming feeling of fatigue towards the end of today's run, I know that the struggle I will face in the latter stages of the 100k will be new territory in terms of mental and physical torture. While my nutrition today worked reasonably well - the perpeteum certainly delays the onset of muscle fatigue by preventing the breakdown of muscle for use as fuel during prolonged runs. At no stage either did I feel the onset of cramps or muscle tightness - that's usually reserved for faster paced running. Still I slowed noticeably towards the end which points towards an energy deficiency - if i'm to last 9+ hours in a race i'll have to increase and vary my energy intake - perhaps take on more solids and add the magic that is coca-cola to my running diet. The sugary liquid carbs such as Gels & High 5 certainly become unpalatable after 3 or 4 hours so it may be time to switch to more savory snacks such as the chicken noodle soup and salted potatoes that appear to be a staple of a large number of ultra runners out there - the one peanut butter and jam cracker that I took mid-run today certainly went down well and will likely make it onto the menu for Portumna.

Despite the reasonably good longs runs over the last few weeks I still feel a bit overwhelmed by the task of completing (or is that competing in) a 100k.

Sat - 25.6 Miles in 3:30 (8:12 pace)

Sun - 34.7 miles in 5:00 (8:39 pace)

Build Week #2 - 80 miles (no swimming or cycling)

Finally a huge congratulations to Clubmate Paul Tierney who yesterday broke the record for running the mountainous 130km Wicklow Way heading out from Marley Park in Dublin at 4 a.m. and arriving at Clonegal in Co. Carlow 13 hours, 38 minutes and 51 seconds later, beating the 2008 record set by Eoin Keith by 7 minutes and 10 seconds. Huge respect.

Interesting People & Lovely Balls

2011-05-08T20:09:00.008+01:00

This post is for Rónán, who told me this morning to update my blog.

Marathon Pacing (Great Limerick Run - 1st May 2011)

This pacing job gets you to meet all sorts of interesting people -

Following the pacers briefing last Saturday evening most of us retired to a local Italian restaurant for a bit of carb loading - if you can call 2 cups of coffee and a baileys cheesecake carb loading - well I already had a belly full of pizza at the briefing. Mick Rice, the 3 hour pacer brought his friend Lezan, who sat beside me. I could tell he was a fast guy even if I hadn't known that he was 5 times winner of the Connemara Half marathon. He was hoping to achieve a sub 2:20 in Limerick - well, I thought he has come to the right place - a restaurant full of marathon pacers!. He told me his PB was 2:13 which he got when winning the Dublin marathon in 2004. Not wanting to waste the opportunity I quizzed him a bit more:-

"What fuel do you use during your marathons" I asked.

"Water" he replied.

"Right" I said - "Doh".

He left shortly afterwards, leaving half his dinner behind him, which means he didn't get any dessert (I have the same rule in my house).

Tom, who organised the pacers, was hoping to break 3:30 with my assistance the following day. Tom's medium terms goal is to get 100 marathons under his belt by the end of 2012, after which he will concentrate on the shorter distances (he has 30 something done already). He's taking the patient route to a fast 5k ;). He's one of those crazy guys who ran the route of the Connematathon (Director's invitational) the day before he completed the ultra with the rest of us. He's also organising 5 marathons in 5 days in Sixmilebridge this July - well he's got to feed his insatiable appetite somehow. I shared a room with David, who was pacing the 1:40 group in the half marathon. However he got to sleep in as his race wasn't starting until 11:30 compared to my 9 a.m. start. No snoring this time out.

I had breakfast with the 3:15 pacers and was joined by Finnoula who was pacing 4:30. If that wasn't enough she was overnighting in Dublin after the race and driving to Belfast in the wee hours to complete the Belfast marathon on Monday - all part of her training for the 90km Comrades marathon from Durban to Petermaritzburg this June.

I was pacing the 3:30 group with Tony, my pacing partner from Cork last year, and an old hat at the job, compared to me. There was a great buzz at the start line as runners psyched themselves up for the long road ahead. Tony certainly went to the motivational school for marathon pacers as he really got the group going. Not being familiar with the route I found it quite good - the out and back past the 10k timing mat where you could see the front runners coming against you and have the craic with the other pacing groups - through the UL campus - through the historic City. We lost Tom shortly after mile 10 due to stomach issues.

It wasn't all plain sailing though - the long drag out past the 15 and 16 mile mark and the wide and windy St Nessan's Road back towards the City centre. We certainly lost a few along these sections. Still we had a core crew of 10 to 12 with us until about the 22 mile mark. Chris, a friend of Tony's, whom Tony has been pacing towards a 3:30 finish for at least the last year, was nowhere to be seen as we crossed Sarsfield Bridge (21.7 miles). The drag up past Thomond Park and the 23 mile mark was particularly challenging as one or two dropped off the back and those who had held back a little were advised to push on towards the finish. I held back a little to keep some sort of connection with 2 guys who had fallen back by 10 or 20 yards but there was another drag up past the Gaelic Grounds and the 24 mile mark and the two guys were unable to close the gap - I could certainly emphatise with them - the last few miles in a marathon are a huge physical and mental challenge, particularly if you have nothing left in the tank - still I reckon even pacing is the most efficient way to get around a marathon, the challenge being the selection of the correct pace, which you may even have to change on the start line depending on conditions - no point in heading out at PB pace into a strong wind or a hot sun - receipt for disaster.

Mile 21 - Group still Intact

The last 2 miles were spent encouraging those we caught up with to keep pace with us and come in under 3:30. Three guys, in particular managed to dig a little deeper, snap out of the fatigue induced autopilot shuffle that we all experience in the latter stages of a marathon and cross he line before the clock struck 3;30 - one poor guy discovering, when a volunteer came to remove his timing chip, that he had left it back at his hotel.

The first guy to cross the line after 3:30 was Chris, who had cramped just before the 22 mile mark, stopped and stretched and put in a super human effort to get back on pace covering the last mile in 7:26 and denied his sub 3:30 by 7 seconds (3:30:06) - although he was gutted he still managed a 4 minute PB, which he wouldn't have got had he thrown in the towel after cramping - gutsy performance Chris.

While my legs seized up a bit after the race (hammys in particular) a bit of walking loosened them out a bit. I met Lezan, who's "John Wayne" gait was worse than my own (even the fast guys suffer) and congratulated him on his second placing - 2:24 - beaten by his compatriot Freddy Keron.

Muzan - sharing 2nd place with Sergiu Ciobanu at mile 21.7

I got a lift back to the hotel with Chris and Tony, used the pool to loosen out the legs a little before heading back to Cork with John D (3:45 pacer), stopping off in Charleville for the obligatory burger and chips.

Ultra Training

With my eye on a 100k ultra in June I though it would be a great opportunity to used the 26.2 miles in my legs for some 100k race training and so the following morning I hit the grass of UCC farm shortly after 8 - opting for the 2.2 mile circuit so that (i) I wouldn't be too far from the end (ii) I didn't have to carry fuel, placing my High 5 drink at the start of the loop and (iii) emulating race day monotony - 20 x 5k loops. My plan was 3 hours at an easy pace between 8:30 and 8:50 (straddling my 9 hour target pace of 8:42 - don't know where it came from and I could be out by an hour or two). The light rain that was falling was in stark contrast to the sun of the day before. The first 2 hours went pretty well with an average pace of 8:38 and my legs holding up pretty well. As I felt relatively comfortable (it's all relative) I decided to up the pace for the last hour, trying to get the feel of negative splitting on race day and surprised myself by averaging 7:47 pace for the hour - glad to be finished though.

As ultra training is all about back to back weekend long runs I took it relatively easy during the week, getting two 5 milers in, the first on Wednesday at a recovery pace (100k race pace ;) and the second on Thursday with a 5k tempo thrown into the middle of it - my attempt to introduce some speedwork into my training after a long absence. The 5k at 6:42 pace (20:53) was tough but manageable - i'm a long way off a 3 hour marathon at the moment (a 1:30 half is even out of the question - unless it's downhill)

A rest day on Friday and I was ready for my long weekend, getting out the door shortly before 6:30 yesterday morning for a 3:30 run in the regional park - more mind numbing loops. I did mix it up a bit by taking different trails, which slowed me down a bit as I negotiated my way around tree roots and puddles. From the start I did not feel great - maybe last weekend was finally catching up with me. I averaged 8:41 pace for the first hour and 8:26 for the second hour. I decided to change tactics for the third hour by introducing fartleks starting with 7 mins fast followed by 7 mins slow and down to 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 minute. I had read somewhere that introducing faster running in an ultra can help with the fatigue and monotony of a constant pace (a bit like an interval session at the track) It started off reasonably well getting down to 7:35 on the "fast" sections and about 8:25 on the recoveries! averaging 8 minute pace overall - but I was toast for the last half hour struggling to maintain 8:30 pace, delighted to finish and wondering how the fuck I was going to run for 9 hours or (much) more, having visions of being on my knees before I am halfway through the race. I thought I might have entered the realm of "overtraining" but my resting heart rate this morning was 38, down from 39 when last measured on 20th March. An elevated resting HR is a typical indicator of overtraining.

My original plan for the weekend was 3:30 on Saturday and 4 hours on Sunday. The way I felt after Saturday's run had me thinking that running on Sunday would be both painfully slow and short. Still with an air of optimism and reasonably recovered legs, I headed out this morning on a Club run of about 15 miles over relatively flat terrain from Mahon to Passage West, Monkstown up over the 1.5 mile hill to Rochestown and back to Mahon, picking up the two Pauls at Pairc Ui Caoimhe en route. I refuelled with 500ml of High 5 and half a bag of cheese and onion crisps, the Kids had left in the car, before heading back out around the estuary loop to Blackrock Castle to meet up with Paul Cotter who had headed back to his car for refuelling (only to find he left his gels at home) and was coming in the opposite direction. The wind along this section of the Cork Marathon route reminded me of last years marathon where horizontal rain was added to the mix to make for a tough run. We also met up with Paul Daly, who had finished his run early (faster pace) to pick up Amanda, a visually impaired paralympic runner who he is guiding - if you thought pacing was difficult try guide running along a busy walkway on a Sunday morning with other runners, walkers, cyclists, dogs, all preoccupied in their own conversations/activities - you get the picture.

I dropped Paul Cotter to his car with 3:10 on my watch and headed out for another loop towards Blackrock Castle with Paul and Amanda, eventually pulling ahead of them for the final solo leg of my run. My legs still felt reasonably good although as I entered the last 15 minutes of my run I was beginning to feel the effects, primarily due to lack of fuel - Paul had teased earlier about what we would have for breakfast - "butter melting on a hot scone", which was nearly enough to send me back to the car early. I replied that the best thing about 4 hour long runs is that by the time you have breakfast it is lunchtime and you can double up. I stopped with less than a quarter of a mile to the car as I hit the 4 hour mark and walked in - tank empty. I took a chocolate/orange GU thick gel with water once I got to the car to give me enough fuel to drive home - Heaven!

25.1 miles on Saturday and 27.8 miles on Sunday gave me 52.9 (85km) for the weekend (still 15km short).

Lest you think I did nothing else for the weekend apart from seven and a half hour of running and put my feet up to recover for the rest of the day think again. With Abina working I was on duty to ferry Saran and his buddy to GAA (hence my pre-6:30 start yesterday) and on to McDonalds, organise a sleepover for Ani's friend and drop her home, drop Safan to town and Keevsa to her friends birthday party and today to meet her boyfriend for their six month anniversary and decide on such issues as whether self-raising flour would make any difference to the roux for the meatball sauce for todays dinner - thankfully I found the plain flour. In fairness they're nice meatball. If you don't believe me ask Abina. She took them to work a few months back, openend her lunch box in front of her colleagues and said "These are Grellan's balls and they're lovely"

Recovery week #3 (Run 47 miles, Bike NIL, Swim 3.8km)

Build Week #1 (Run 85 miles, Bike NIL, Swim NIL)

ps: I can't seem to control the line spacing in my posts - I close the gaps while editing but it appears to do it's own thing - any advice in this regard would be greatly appreciated.

In The Footsteps of Daniel O'Connell

2011-04-30T13:40:00.005+01:00

I had the opportunity to walk some of the Kerry Way this week following the route of the "Old Road" around Drung Hill (between Glenbeigh and Caherciveen). Thomas's run along this route as part of his preparation for the Dingle ultra last year put it on my "to-do" list. Spectacular views on a beautiful sunny day. During my walk I met Gail and Tommy, keen hill walkers from Milltown, who told me some of the history of the four routes around Drung Hill connecting Caherciveen and Kilorglin, - the oldest being the upper "Monks Road", which we were on, between 1,200 and 1,300 feet above sea level,

- the lower "Old Road" - now part of the Kerry Way, along which barrister Daniel O'Connell (The Martin Luther King of Irish Catholics in the 1820's) travelled from his home in Derrynane to the various courts sessions around Munster. There is a section of this which is quite scary (for me) to walk along as the ground falls very steeply from the 8 foot wide path 700 feet to the sea below. You can see the other two routes far below - the Old Railway line/tunnels, built in the 1880's, with the last train running in 1960 and the new road hugging the coastline about 100 feet above sea level. You'd certainly want a head for heights along this section. Tommy told me of some story about the wheels of Daniel O'Connell's coach going over the edge on one occasion.

Old Coach Road around Drung Hill - Photo Courtesy of Thomas

I was back there yesterday with Ani, Saran and 2 of their friends, heading up the "Old Road" and crossing onto the "Monks Road" to complete a 4 mile loop. Once we reached the highest point we rested, with the kids taking off their shoes and socks. We all ended up walking the next mile through a mixture of upland bog, heather and rock strewn grassy slopes in our bare feet, the kids delighting in the various textures underfoot, especially the soothing waterlogged moss covered bog - ignoring the general guidance given to hill walkers to use good quality waterproof walking boots.

Elevation profile (first 0.25 miles missing)

On the running front I ended my second recovery week with a 17.2 mile long run on grass and a total of 55 miles in the bag. 15 of the grass miles were barefoot starting off with clubmate Denis, sharing 4.5 miles at an easy 8:40 pace. Once Denis left I upped the pace towards 8 minute miles with the idea of averaging that pace for the entire run. From mile 5 to 15 my pace averaged 7:27 (1:14:32) - however the 15 miles took their toll on my feet with a few blisters developing over the last mile. I put on my running shoes for the 2.2 mile warmdown, joining clubmates Anne Marie Holland and Pat Murphy, both training for sub-3 hour marathons (Cork and Vancouver respectively) & Anne Marie Healy. It wasn't until I got home that I noticed the extent of the blisters on my feet. However they have largely disappeared at this stage, which is fortuitous as I am due to pace the 3;30 group at the Limerick marathon tomorrow.

Recovery Week #2 (Run 55.3 miles, Bike 34.8 miles, Swim 3km)

April (Run 150 miles, Bike 56 miles, Swim 7.5 km)

Baring it all

2011-04-19T21:36:00.005+01:00

My recovery from Connemara is progressing apace with two 5 milers at lunchtime yesterday and today, with no noticeable issues, other than the 7:33 pace today felt a bit tougher than it should have (still only 135 avg HR).

I headed to UCC Farm for a second run this evening in glorious sunshine to meet up with Denis for a run around the 2.3 mile grass loop around the playing pitches, with evening league teams warming up for their matches.

Following a 2+ mile warmup before meeting Denis I ditched the shoes and went for an easy barefoot run over 7 miles, enjoying the conversation more than observing any pace.

20 minutes into our run Denis, who has an eagle eye, compared to my myopic vision, noticed a girl in a dressing gown who had come against us -

"I could be wrong" he said "but I think she has nothing on underneath the dressing gown".

I on the other hand, hadn't even seen her and so we continued on our circuit. When our route took us back around Denis noticed again

"There she is again look" He said

I couldn't see a thing as we were still 200 yards away

"Is she naked" I said as my vision slowly picked out a naked form running across a pitch.

"That's her, streaking across the pitch" he said.

As we got closer she was running back towards us and her friends at the edge of the pitch, who were in hysterics. We gave her the thumbs up as we passed - not every day you get to appreciate the beauty of the female form in a natural setting.

Who said recovery runs are boring.

On downloading my run to Sportstrack I had to add my feet to the "New Equipment Schedule".

Model: Foot

Brand: Bare

Date Purchased: 24th December 1965

Expected Life in Miles: Now that's the six million dollar question.

Transition

2011-04-17T18:21:00.007+01:00

I did nothing for the whole week after Connemara - I didn't even ice my calf - i'm lazy when it comes to things like that. I did give it a rub of the foam roller which helped loosen some of the knotted tender muscle fibres.

My active recovery began today with an easy paced cycle around the hilly loop to Crossbarry followed by a 2 mile run and while my calf was a bit tight it did not hurt and the distance was short.

A big congratulations to Thomas on getting his well deserved sub-3hour marathon in Vienna this morning and to Rick on his 2:49 result in London and best of luck to clubmate Colin and Jamie running Boston tomorrow.

Sunday 17th April

2.13 miles @ 7:52 pace & 135HR.

Recovery Week #1 (Run 2.1 miles, Bike 21.3 miles, Swim 1 km)

The Weakest Link

2011-04-13T08:10:00.006+01:00

You're only as strong as your weakest link. That was the overriding lesson I took away from Connemara 2011. While my cardiovascular system worked well and was never challenged on Sunday my muscular skeletal system was not up to the task on the day - the engine was working fine but one of the motive parts was not (Didn't show up on the pre-race NCT). I remember thinking, going up the hill out of Leenane heading for mile 27, that if I could somehow run on my left leg only, which was in perfect working order I'd be in a happy place. I know........ an idiotic thought, but if there is ever a time for such thoughts it was then when some warped lateral thinking was called for after all other possibilities were exhausted.

The Beginning

The journey began in Cork on Saturday afternoon when I met up with John D and we both travelled to Galway to register and pick up Paul en-route to the Hostel in Oughterard, where Denis had booked a 5 bed room for himself (now out due to injury), myself, John, Paul and Norman, who was doing the half. On booking in to the hostel, the 3 of us headed out for a recce of the course before hitting the shops in Oughterard for supplies. Our fuelling strategies varied considerably with Paul preferring the tried and tested nutrient rich food supplement for the elderly "Ensure" which he bought over the counter in a Chemist and John opting for the other end of the food spectrum, farleys rusks preferring them to Liga which tend to stick to the top of his mouth - following extensive trials conducted over numerous weekends around the roads of Cork. Both John and Paul's other fuel choices were more in keeping with conventional wisdom - gels and high 5 carb drinks. John did have a bit of a panic in the first shop we went into when the limited baby food range contained Liga only, with not a Farleys rusk in sight. Luckily the shop down the road had a more extensive range and John returned triumphant with his box of Farleys.

We returned to the hostel, where we met up with Norman, Maura (who was running the Ultra) and Donnacha (who was running the half) and cooked up a bit pot of pasta.

To while away the time I had brought the 2011 census form with me and while strictly speaking it was to be filled out on Sunday evening I thought i'd get a head start. I had to think twice when it came to the following question on health "do you have any of the following long-lasting conditions or difficulties (c) a difficulty with basic physical activities such as walking, climbing stairs....". Well if I was filling it out on Sunday evening as directed this was a distinct possibility, but hopefully it would not be long-lasting.

Bed at 11, sharing a room with Paul, John and Norman. When we had been discussing sleeping the night before a race earlier we all concluded that it would be difficult to sleep interrupted, except for Paul who said "I have no problem with sleeping, i'll be snoring away in a few minutes" and in fairness he was true to his word - within a minute of the lights going out it came

SKN-x-x-x-x-x........zzzzzzzzzzzzz........SNK-x-x-x-x-x.........zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.........SNK-x-x-x-x-x

you get the picture (if you can depict it in better words - suggestions please) .

Thankfully Paul turned over after about an hour and the room fell silent. Somehow I feel Paul will be in a single room next time out.

We rose shortly after 6 and after a feed of porridge and coffee John, Paul, Maura and I headed for the bus in Oughterard. The bus was delayed which meant that we minimised the amount of time spent milling around Peacocks Hotel with the smell of nervous tension and deep heat hanging in the air. Knowing the drill I dropped my 2 drop bags in the bins. Powdered perpeteum/endurolyte mix in the 22 mile bin (I didn't trust myself to pop the endurolyte pills late in the race) and a bottle of coke in the 29 mile bin. I mixed my first 3 hour perpeteum drink and was ready to go.

Onto the bus for the short ride to the start where all the guys and some of the gals scoured the adjacent landscape to find an appropriate place to pee. Had there been any onlookers it would have been a strange sight to behold - hoards of people alighting from busses in the middle of nowhere for a mass participation urination. I met up with Ilgaz who had travelled all the way from Istanbul to run his first ultra in Connemara and we wished each other well.

The First Half

Soon we were on the start line for the most effortless race start - no pushing and shoving here - as we eased into a comfortable stroll. With a lead pack of 5 or 6 forming at the head of a string of runners stretching out in front of us we headed down the road to the 1 mile mark at Maum Cross and the start of the 38 mile loop around the Maamturk Mountains.

"C'mon guys" shouted Seb Locteau as we passed "only one lap to go" as we turned right onto the main road to Clifden. John, Paul and I pass the 2 mile mark in 16:04, mile 3 in 24:05 and mile 4 in 32 minutes - even 8 minute miles. While my plan involved going out a bit faster (7:40 pace) I was happy to err on the slow side, plenty of time to speed up later. I still planned on getting close to 1:40 for the half and even if I didn't I could make up any deficit over the 2nd 13 miles.

As far as we could make out there were 3 women in front of us with the two leaders in Athenry AC singlets, whom I assumed to be Valerie Glavin and Ruthann Sheehan having read about their amazing achievement in the Helsinki 24-hour race - Valerie set a new Irish record of 135.34 miles.

We caught up with John Hallahan of rival Cork Club Leevale AC and chatted for a while. John and Paul both ran the Wicklow way ultra two weeks previously. John (Desmond) takes a tumble over a cats eye around mile 4 but recovers relatively intact with a grazed knee (don't know how much damage there was to the ego). A few 100 yards later he diverts into a field for a toilet break and then there were 3. When John catches up with us half a mile later he uses his new found pace to forge ahead and within a minute he is 100 yards ahead.

John and Paul resume their discussion on Wicklow as I begin to drift ahead in search of some sub-8 minute miles. But I don't get too far as we regroup and catch up with female no. 3, who is none other than mountaineer Hannah Shiels who commented to the race director on finishing the ultra last year that it was harder than climbing Mount Everest. We chat for a while until Hannah asks what pace we are doing and decides that 8 minute miles is too fast for her.

I begin to pull ahead of John and Paul again, using both sides of the road to follow the racing line. I hit the lap button on the Garmin at mile 7, which gives me 23:15 for the preceding 3 miles (7:45 average). I catch up with Ruthann Sheehan, who is now running on her own and congratulate her on her achievement in Helsinki. Turns out she is originally from West Cork not too far from where I grew up. Paul catches up with me on a steep downhill section having decided to up the pace as he was feeling very comfortable, so we both run together taking it easy on the rises and striding out on the downhills. Miles 8 and 9 come faster than expected in 7:15 and 7:00 but feel comfortable. Just after mile 10 (7:39) we take a sharp right turn off the main road heading north for Lough Inagh and the marathon start point. The road twists and turns, up an down through the barren landscape as we plough on. Miles 11 and 12 pass in 15:09 (7:35 average) and with 1:32:21 on the clock we can see the tail end of the marathon start in the distance snaking along the shores of Lough Inagh. We come up behind another ultra runner before the half marathon mark and give him the honours of crossing the line first - 1:40:57.

7:45 for mile 13 and 7:42 average for the first half marathon - right where I wanted to be and still feeling good.

The Second Half

A few 100 yards in front is Valerie Glavin, the gap remaining the same over the next few miles, which pass at a good pace - 7:26 and 7:29 for miles 14.1 & 15.1, at which point we catch up with the back of the marathon field. At every water station we share a 500ml bottle which saves energy and time (& water). The next two miles are primarily downhill and pass in 7:18 and 7:oo, maybe a bit faster than planned but still reasonably comfortable. We catch up and chat with Valerie for a few 100 yards, who tells us that she is in 2nd place, with the first Female a few minutes ahead. By now we are well into the marathon field and it feels like we are flying compared to those around us, who are on 12 or 13 minute miles. The words of encouragement from them is a great boost (The ultra runners were given "ultra runner" bibs for pinning on their backs) and partly explains the increase in pace.

Coming towards the 19.1 mile mark I feel my right calf beginning to tighten up forcing me to ease back on the pace to prevent it from cramping. Paul began to pull slowly away from me as he kept pace. I had no choice but to let him go, but what concerned me more was the hill coming up after the right turn onto the Clifden to Leenane Road. I ran on and rounded the corner at the bottom of the hill and to my surprise the expected pain of stretching out the calf when running uphill did not materialise and so I could maintain my altered pace without feeling pain. I lapped mile 20.1 in 7:03 - obviously the marker was in the wrong place which was confirmed when the next "mile" came in 8:27 (The Garmin recorded 0.9 and 1.11 for these 2 laps) - still good going (7:45 average). While the tightness in my right calf remained I could still run comfortably and gave thanks for this as I crested the hill passing the "Stop and Pray" sign outside the local Church.

I was now behind the leading Female and over the space of the next mile I gradually passed her. I stopped and walked at the 22 mile water station to pick up my dry perpeteum mix and a bottle of water, taking time to mix the water and powder thoroughly, not a bit concerned about losing time to those around me. Soon enough I was back running passing mile 22.1 in 8:27 (including walking break). I overtook all those who had passed me, including the leading Female and was feeling good. Ahead of me lay the 2 mile descent to the shores of Killary Fjord, where I expected to pick up the pace and recover some of the time lost to Paul.

It started off well with the mile to 23.1 passing in 7:29. However shortly afterwards as the slope got steeper and I began to lengthen my stride the pain came on in my calf with each footfall and I had to slow down to avoid doing damage and as my pace fell those around me began to move forward and those I had passed were now passing me. I stopped shortly after the leading Female passed me out - I was close to 9 minute pace at this stage, which was very frustrating given that I should have been breezing down the hill at 7 minute pace and heading for my 3:20 marathon split. I lapped mile 24.1 at 10:05 as I walked past the marker. Valerie Glavin came by and offered me salt for my cramps but by that stage I had already horsed down a bucket full of Endurolyte capsules, which had probably delayed the onset on cramps since the first twinge had come on at mile 19. I told her to keep going as she was only a minute behind the leader.

After walking for a while more I decided to test my calf by breaking into a slow jog for a minute at a time and while it was painful, it was bearable and sure enough one minute went to two and on to three as I managed to hang on to the back of a few marathoners. I was now on the flat 2 closing miles of the marathon and continued on with this shuffle through the 25.1 mile mark (9:09). I stopped briefly to apply Biofreeze to my calf (I had forgotten that Denis had given me 2 sachets last week) which provided some relief. The 26.1 mile marker came in 8:46 - 3:25:00 on the Garmin and within a minute I passed over the marathon timing mat (I think it was displaying 3:25:46).

The Third Half

For the second year in a row I had reached the end of the marathon in Leenaun in a knackered state, contemplating a hilly painful slow 2-hour 13.1 miles ahead against my pre-race expectation of feeling relatively intact with 3:20 behind me and a 1:55 allowance to get under 5:15 for the half. Christ I was even contemplating 1:50 and a sub 5:10 finish. Pre-race visualisations are great for motivation but my only motivation now was that, as I wasn't crippled ,I could not quit and I was still going to salvage a PB out of the day. And so I plodded onwards up the hill out of Leenaun. I could see Valerie Glavin walking up the hill in front of me with a race marshall walking beside her. As I came alongside she told me her hammys were gone (still not fully recovered from Helsinki) but she managed to resume running so we decided to pace each other in an effort to keep the momentum going for as long as we could. U2 were blasting out over an PA system near the top of the hill with guys wearing oversize heads resembling the band members strutting their stuff, which was a very welcome diversion from the pain.

Mile 27.1 came in 9:29. I was hoping the pace would go below 9 minute miles once the hill was crested. On passing the half marathon 1 mile mark (Mile 27.2) down the road I decided to start timing my miles from these markers instead as they were closer to the finish, if that makes sense (it did at the time). The road levelled out and on we plodded, with the combined responsibility of pacing each other keeping us both going. Mile 28.2 came in 9:32, still no improvement. The next mile was better at 8:33 which included me stopping to pick up my bottle of coke at the 29 mile drop table. I ran with it for a few yards so as no to lose contact with Valerie and it exploded all over the place when i opened it up - I hadn't let it go flat beforehand as the fizz doesn't bother me. After the initial shower it went down well and fuelled me over the next few miles.

Valerie must have been suffering more than me as she asked whether or not we would make in under 6 hours if we maintained the pace. I looked at my watch and saw 3:54:xx, giving us 1:35 to cover the remaining 10 miles if we wanted to get under 5:30, which gave us a 5 minute cushion if we maintained an average 9 minute mile pace (1:30 for 10 miles). My head was certainly clear, pity about my legs. On we plodded over the undulating course churning out steady if somewhat slow miles - 9:12 - 8:25 - 9:31 - 9:22 to mile 33.2. The wind had picked up a little and was driving from the side carrying with it a little light rain.

33 Miles in - at a guess (pacing an Irish record holder)

Valerie was looking for other runners to pace her, calling out as she passed a marathon guy walking

"are you alright?" ,

to which the response was

"I'm ok".

"c'mon so"

she'd say

"you can pace me".

I don't think she got any volunteers apart from a Woman who did offer her encouragement to chase down the leading lady and ran with us for a spell. Valerie was asking me whether or not I could see her ahead, but by this stage my glasses had fogged up in the rain and I had to put them in my running belt. I could see why she was on the look out for a replacement. Two ultra guys passed us along this section, looking very fresh and running at a pace that looked impossibly fast to me.

Somewhere around mile 34 Valerie began to flag. I'd look behind and she'd be within 5 or 10 yards of me. Next time I looked I could not see her - my myopic vision was no help. It was good while it lasted but all good things must come to an end.

I was now waiting for the final right hand turn that would take me to the foot of the "Hell of the West" for the final push towards home. I though it would never come. Mile 34.2 came in 8:37 and at last the village of Maum was in sight and the right turn to the 35.2 (HM mile 9) mark - 8:29.

All that was left was the long 2 mile drag up to the highest point on the course - a 350 foot climb, which on paper doesn't sound bad but after 35 miles and 4 hours and 45 minutes of running was as welcome as getting your toe nails pulled off (falling off is a different matter, which is a badge of honour among ultra runners i'm told) . I resigned myself to 20 minutes of putting the head down and slogging through the discomfort, resisting the urge to seek out the summit as it would only wreck my head - my resistance wasn't great and every so often I'd look up and curse under my breadth that the summit was getting no nearer. I was passed by another ultra runner halfway up, but I could offer no resistance.

Eventually I reached the summit and the 37.2 mile mark (9:27 and 10:01 for the previous 2 miles - not far off my 20 minute allowance) and was so fatigued that I did not take advantage of the next downhill mile to knock a few more seconds out of my PB, content to cover it in 8:52. It was only when I was well into the last mile that the fear on not making it home under 5:25 spurred me on to increase my pace. Passing mile 39.2 in 8:21 (5:23:46 on the Garmin) - pushing the last 0.1 mile down the finishing chute passing under the clock in 5:24:31, delighted to be finished and while my legs were well and truly spent the rest of me was reasonably intact.

The End

We regrouped in Peacocks Hotel, for soup and sandwiches before heading back to the hostel for a shower and the long drive back to Cork, dropping Paul back to Galway for his lift home and stopping in Charleville for the obligatory greasy burger and chips, the perfect antidote to the sugar laden diet of the previous 24 hours.

Post Race Pain

My right calf - to be expected

The big toe of my left foot, when confined by my "tight" work shoes on Monday. It was black after the race (3 out of 10 are now black) and it's 50/50 as to whether i'll lose it or not - saves on the pedicure bills.

Slight twinge in my left quad.

Other that that no issues, haven't seen a blister in 3 years.

Post Race Thoughts

1) Had my calf held up could I have run with Paul to a 5:10 finish - maybe not. I could have suffered more on the hills. Paul's motivation over the last half was that he had not realised that he had passed John (while he was on a toilet break) before the marathon mark and was chasing him down to the end. Paul did a 3:20 and John a 3:21 marathon.

2) I would have likely caught up with John and ran with him to the finish - 5:18

3) I was very confortable passing the leading Lady at mile 22 and she finished in 5:20 - so my 5:15 target was certainly achieveable.

4) How can I race long if my muscular skeletal system is not up to the task.

5) Portumna Marathon?, 50k? or 100k?

6) Pacing 3:30 in Limerick in 3 weeks, should be ok.

The results have me in 17th place out of 171 finishers, which squeezes me into the top 10%, not a bad days work.

Connemara 2011

2011-04-10T16:22:00.008+01:00

Half - 1:41 Full - 3:25 Ultra - 5:24:XX. Cramps at mile 19. Walked at mile 24. Still a 5 minute PB. Clubmates did very well:- Paul Daly, who I ran with until mile 19, finished in 5:10, without a watch and 2 weeks after the Wicklow Way Ultra. John Desmond, who went out with his usual fast pace, finished in 5:18. Maura Regan had a fantastic run finishing in about 5:40 to finish 5th Female - that would have got her 1st or 2nd spot last year. More later. Later You can see from the HR data below where my race came apart just before mile 24, where I walked for the guts of half a mile and once I resumed my effort was less than it had been before. More Much Later

The Long and Winding Road

2011-04-08T21:36:00.004+01:00

Less that 36 hours to go. I'm as ready as i'll ever be. I can't say i'm brimming with boundless energy following my 2 easy 5 milers on Tuesday and Thursday. The week was so busy at work that my final week of taper dovetailed nicely with my reduced spare time, although I didn't get as much sleep as i'd have liked. Still tonight is the important night for rest and with no pressing deadlines in the morning I should be well rested by the time I hit the road for Galway shortly after Midday.

I've prepared my 2 "three hour bottles" of perpeteum for reconstitution with water just before the race as it has a limited shelf life of as low as 5 hours, depending on temperature. So if it's as unseasonally warm as it was today (20 degrees C) i'll reconstitute the second bottle at the 24 mile drop zone. Apart from that drop zone I don't have any specific need to utilise the other 2 drop zones available to the ultra runners - i'll probably drop a bottle of coke somewhere and maybe an emergency perpeteum mix in case they lose the first one - I only got 2 out of 3 drop bags last year. Abina made a trip to the pet store today to pick up distinctive dog poop bags that will help me identify my drops among the sea of black and white plastic bags on the drop tables and she didn't let me down, landing home with a roll of orange and orange with black spots doggy bags.

Clubmate Denis Looney, who had to pull out due to injury, kindly let me borrow his new running belt with bottle holder, which I trialled this week and it worked like a dream. Denis is in a low place at the moment having to forgo the race after putting in the hard training, so hugs and kisses to him. It won't be the same without him.

To mitigate against cramping i'll carry endurolyte capsules in the running belt (and include 1 or 2 in the drop bags) - the recommended dose is between 1 and 3 per hour - so i'll be popping pills every other minute. I may also include some solid food in the drop bags, just in case I get a bad case of the munchies (a cereal bar or two) and i'll top off the menu with an emergency gel or two.

With the food sorted all that's left is my outfit - my orange shoes will match the doggy bags and after that it's mix and match with black and white, which compliment any outfit. Oh! and finally my pacing strategy, well I aim to go out.........................................................

An interview with Tony Mangan

2011-04-03T21:07:00.013+01:00

Nothing much happening as I finish off my second taper week with 42 miles in the bag so I though I'd share this interview with Tony Mangan in Brush Colorado 5 months in to his 3 year round the world jog - setting out from Dublin following the 2010 marathon and on target to return for the 2013 event. He's running a minimum average of a marathon a day for 1,000 days - makes Connemara seem like a 100m dash.

My paces this week have picked up as the volume reduces. Conscious of the fact that I need to reduce the stress on my legs I made sure and took it easy this morning - still the 120 HR gave me close to 8 minute miles - roll on Connemara.

Tue 29th Mar

Lunchtime 5.49 miles @ 7:19 pace & 131 HR,

Evening 9.76 miles @ 7:39 pace & 129 HR with 5 mile evaluation run @ 140 HR & 6:53 pace.

Thur 31st Mar 9.46 miles @ 7:27 pace & 134 HR

March (Run 380 miles, Bike NIL, Swim 1.5km)

Sat 2nd Apr 10.27 miles @ 7:12 pace & 139 HR

Sun 3rd Apr 7.8 miles @ 8:04 pace & 120 HR

Taper Week #2 (Run 42.78 miles, Bike NIL, Swim 1.5km)

MAF Graph

2011-03-31T13:41:00.004+01:00

Demonstrates the law of diminishing returns as the gap between lines closes over time and the improvement in fatigue resistance as the line slope flattens. Further low intensity base training is unlikely to yield an improvement in speed but perhaps could squeeze out a bit more fatigue resistance. Time perhaps to use the base as a springboard for something else! - Or extend it further into the abyss that is ultra running.

Right where I want to be

2011-03-29T22:16:00.009+01:00

I moved my last MAF evaluation run before Connemara from Thursday to this evening as I won't be able to make the track on Thursday and the track is the only place where terrain and distance remain constant. The only difference in weather conditions compared to previous evaluations was the light rain falling for most of the run. My legs were a little tired from a steady paced lunchtime run and I was a little unsure that the evaluation would show an improvement over the last three weeks. I told myself that the work was done and that the result will reflect reality - no place to hide. Unlike a time trial or evaluation race I could only push as hard as a 140 HR would allow.

The first mile in 6:51 was more or less the same as last time. The second mile in 6:52 told me that I was holding pace pretty good. The third mile in 6:51 brought to mind the above image of all the cherries (times) lining up - Jackpot. The fourth mile came in 6:53, still pretty good. The last mile in 6:57 was the only blip indicating a slight drift in pace. Admittedly the average HR of 140.4 was higher than the 140 recorded 3 weeks ago. Still I managed to reduce my heart beats per km by 6 to 600.

Certainly concrete proof that the 100+ mile weeks paid off in terms of endurance training, which is my main goal for Connemara. The longer that I can maintain pace for a given heart rate over 39 miles the better. While my first mile was a second slower than last time, my average pace of 6:53 was a 5 second improvement on the 6:58 average on 10th March.

I cooled down over a few miles with Joe and Michael who is returning to running following a period of "quite contemplation".

Roll on Connemara. I have 12 days to think about my race strategy -

Do I go out "relatively" hard and hold on for as long as possible? or

Do I aim for even pacing? what pace is even pacing? and will I still run the risk of falling off that pace? 39 miles can be very unforgiving if I fuck up the pace at the start.

I could go out conservatively and pick up the pace after 20/26/30 miles. Is it possible to pick up the pace after 20/26/30 miles of fatigue induced fog.

Do I run by heart rate? what should that HR be? Is it average or max HR? Do I run the first 13 less than 140, the second 13 less than 150 and the Sky's the limit for the last hilly 13?

So many questions.

I think at the heel of the hunt i'll be running by feel and chuck out all the figures, my body will know what it is capable of.

Playing the waiting game

2011-03-27T21:01:00.007+01:00

I misinterpreted the start of my taper as an excuse to take a running holiday with only 5 miles in the bag by Tuesday (32 last week) and following a bit of a push 25 miles clocked before I hit the weekend (65 last week). With back to back medium long runs on Saturday and Sunday I totalled 58 miles for the week, barely scraping past 50% of last weeks total. I had intended cutting back to 70%, but 70% of 114 is still a lot of running (80 miles).

I did replace the high volume with a few faster paces just to get my legs and heart used to working harder. As the week wore on the faster paces came easier as the high volume of the preceding days receded, but still noting that would set any PB's - except perhaps in an ultra.

Yesterday's Club run from UCC Farm was a 15 miler, the first 8 of which were over a hilly rural route to the SW through Maglin, Waterfall and the Viaduct with the remaining miles through the City suburb's including the cycle/walking path from the Straight Road to Curaheen. We finished a few minutes over 2 hours. For the same duration today I ran one of my regular routes into Cork, along the city quays and back out through Sundays Well and the Straight Road covering 16.76 miles at a steady 7:16 pace on a glorious sunny morning. I decided to skip the Mallow 10 miler today, as I had spent the previous 3 weekends at races.

I had a quick look at my rolling 7-day mileage over the last 2 months, since I recovered from my calf strain in Mid-January. I managed to get in 2 blocks of decent volume training, gradually increasing the number of runs and the length of my long runs so that I should have nothing to fear in 2 weeks time - still a whole lot of pain though.

I mislaid my Garmin on Tuesday so all my runs this week have been blind with no HR data.

Tue 22nd Mar 5.51 miles @ 7:48 pace

Wed 23rd Mar 5.51 miles @ 7:29 pace

Thu 24th Mar 10.06 miles @ 7:39 pace

Fri 25th Mar 5.28 miles @ 7:02 pace

Sat 26th Mar 15.18 miles @ 8:12 pace - Club Run

Sun 27th Mar 16.76 miles @ 7:16 pace

Taper Week #1 (Run 58.3 miles, Bike NIL, Swim NIL)

The Long Run

2011-03-25T07:16:00.005Z

It's easy to see why our other halves might view our longs runs differently. I saw this on Ilgaz's dailymile site and thought it was worth sharing. I'll be meeting Ilgaz on the start line of the Connemara Ultra on 10th April.

Work Done

2011-03-20T15:43:00.006Z

I've finally reached the end of my last 3 week training block for Connemara. All that's left is for an orderly wind down over the final 3 weeks of taper. Starting the week with a mild chest cold was not a good omen for my last high mileage week and so with a mixture of determination and caution I got through it without sacrificing mileage and still managing to lose the cold.

Not wanting to break the tradition of the last 3 weeks I finished off today with a race in the vibrams, again going out with a few more of the ultra club fraternity (John, Maura & Denis) and Donnocha (who is running the Connemara half) for a 14 mile slow paced warmup around the by-roads of Glounthane arriving back at 10:30 to sign up for the Janssen 4 mile road race in Little Island. My legs and body were certainly tired from the weeks mileage. I met up with Elmer, who was dipping his toe back in the water after a lay-off and clubmates Laurence, Monica, John, Pat, Denis and Derek (fresh back from his 2:54 Toyko marathon).

My plan was to take things relatively easy with a target of getting under 30 minutes (7:30 miles) - I thought that that was all I was capable of. I started mid-pack and eased slowly into the run. The first mile came in 7:16, which wasn't too bad. I continued on towards the 2 mile mark of the out and back course seeing those in front coming against me. I turned at the 2 mile mark without checking my split (7:15) and continued to gain on and pass others, passing the 3 mile mark in 21:25. While I was well under 30 minute pacing, I thought I wouldn't be able to close the 25 second deficit to get sub-7 minute pace overall (28:00) which would require a 6:35 final mile.

With about 3 quarters of a mile to go I came up behind a guy who was determined not to let me pass and upped his pace to match mine , with both of us passing others who were on even pacing. This went on for about quarter of a mile with my running companion resorting to quick shallow breathing to keep pace. With half a mile to go I decided to push the pace a little more as the finish was within striking distance. My running companion kept pace up a slight incline until, with about a quarter of a mile to go, he let out a roar, signalling that he was spent, and fell behind - certainly he had been working very hard over the previous half mile and ran out of steam before the finish line came. I kept pushing for the finish, crossing the line in 27:45 - 6:20 for the final mile.

Just under a mile warmdown back to the community centre and some welcome refreshments. While I hadn't planned it, I covered nearly 20 miles for the day (a record for the vibrams) which brought me to a record weekly high of 114 miles. Up until this month I never contemplated running over 100 miles in a week and with 308 miles covered over the last 3 weeks I have averaged 102.7 miles a week for the final build to Connemara. Whether or not I can translate that into a good result remains to be seen, especially as I haven't really thought about what a good result would be, particularly as form and conditions on the day can have a huge influence on how things turn out over a 39 mile run. If I had been training for a 10 miler or HM I generally would expect to be within a minute of target. But as the distance moves towards the marathon and beyond predictions are less reliable. Obviously I'd like to beat last years time of 5:29:25 (8:24 pace) but the challenge of averaging 8:00 pace and crossing the line in 5:15 is what I should be aiming for and who knows, I might get close. I just need to awaken the dormant fast twitch fibres over the coming weeks, if there are any left.

Let the taper begin.

Mon 14th Mar

Lunctime - 6.1 miles @ 8:06 pace & 124 HR (legs fresher than this time last week)

Evening - 10.07 miles @ 7:48 pace & 131 HR (Still chesty)

Tue 15th Mar

Lunchtime - 6.1 miles @ 8:01 & 131 HR (High HR and chest cold still there)

Evening - 10.67 miles @ 8:11 & 125 HR (Better but still chesty)

Wed 16th Mar

a.m. 8.21 miles @ 8:19 & 124 HR (Vibrams)

p.m. 8.21 miles @ 7:59 & 126 HR

Thu 17th Mar (Paddy's Day)

p.m. 16.04 miles @ 7:47 pace & 133HR (was in no mood for this run but got through it)

Sat 19th Mar

a.m. 29.17 miles @ 7:43 pace & 140 HR

Sun 20th Mar

a.m. 19.81 miles @ 8:25 pace with 4 miles @ 6:56 pace & 144 HR.

Base Week #8 (Run 114.4 miles, Bike NIL, Swim NIL)

Cruiserweight

2011-03-19T12:16:00.006Z

I started the year weighing 86.6kg (191 lbs).

I started last Saturday's long run weighing 82.9kg (182.8lbs) and finished it 1kg lighter and having taken on about 500ml of fluids (0.5kg) - so all-in I lost 1.5kg over 3.5 hours - or 0.57kg/hour. Lest you think I've discovered the quick road to weight loss it was all fluids and was put back on over the course of the following 24 hours as I re-hydrated.

This morning before my long run I weighed in at 81.4kg (179.5lbs) and returned with only 79.6kg hanging off my bones after taking on about 700ml in fluids - so an overall loss of about 2.5kg over 3:45 - or 0.67kg/hour (on a warmer day than last week). Cetainly on race day i'll be taking on more fluilds - somewhere in the region of 500ml per hour (0.5kg) - still less than what I expect to lose through sweat (blood and tears!).

In boxing terms I am in the cruiserweight division (175 to 200 lbs) which is between light heavyweight (168 to 175 lbs) and heavyweight (>200lbs). and there I was thinking I was wasting away.

Todays run was the last and longest of my long training runs clocking in at 29.17 miles over the 3:45 hours. My heart rate was higher than I would have expected creeping up over the 140 bpm early in the run and finishing up at 152 over the last mile. The average pace of 7:42 partly explains the increased HR - perhaps the previous 3 weeks training explains the rest. The combination of perpeteum and endurolytes (mixed with some dilute High 5 to neutralise the taste) worked reasonably well and the legs held up pretty well with the rising HR ensuring the pace remained reasonably stable throughout (Slowest mile 1 @ 8:03 & fastest mile 21 @ 7:26). There's no doubt about it but the longer the run the more mentally challenging.

Foot Strike

2011-03-14T20:29:00.005Z

It's difficult to tell from the attached photograph of the last 100m of yesterday's 5k whether i'm landing midfoot or forefoot. I suspect midfoot from the slapping sound I make (I assume I don't heel strike). I couldn't find any conclusive photographs from last weeks Ballycotton 10 either. As this is my last high mileage week i'm continuing to run despite the mild chesty cough i've developed. I know the rule that anything below the neck and I should stop running but the 16 miles I covered today in 2 runs felt fine and my legs felt fresher than they did this day last week so I'll continue tentatively. 6 days to taper!. <>

Century

2011-03-13T16:17:00.007Z

This is the second week in a row that I finished off with a race (that I didn't race) and again in the vibrams. This week it was the ESB/Fota Island Hotel 5k. I warmed up with John Desmond over 12.5 miles of quite country roads between Fota and Midleton on a beautiful sunny morning. We got back in time to register for the race and hook up with Maura and Catriona (who were planning on a 2-hour warmdown after the race - Maura is also heading for Connemara, Catriona ran the Clonakilty marathon with us in December).

We started in the middle of the pack as none of us we were looking to break any records. However I did break a record during the 7:23 opening mile when I clocked my 100th mile of the week. The route was a bit undulating but nothing very challenging. Mile 2 came in 7:13 (14:36) and with a mile to go I moved up a gear passing the 3 mile mark in 21:00 (6:24 for mile 3) and pushing for the finish in 21:35 (0:35 for the last 0.11 miles = 5:18 pace). A short warmdown with John gave me 16.1 miles in the vibrams for the day and 103 total for the week. We finished off with a feed of tea and sandwiches in the Hotel (very welcome) before heading for home.

Todays sunny weather was in stark contrast to the 3.5 hours of rain and snow I faced yesterday during my long run. Leaving the house shortly before 7 it was raining steadily and while it's never pleasant to start a run in the rain it's forgotton after a few minutes.

I was trialing my fueling for Connemara which is a combination of perpeteum (primary fuel) and endurotlyes (electrolyte replacement - helps prevents cramps). Unfortunately I made the mistake of ordering the endurolyte powder as opposed to the capsules. I mixed the perpeteum with water in a kiddie size (200ml) plastic squeezy drinks container and mixed the endurolyte powder in a 500ml water bottle. Perpeteum is generally recommended for endurance events lasting several hours to several days!!! and according to the blurb

contains 75% carbohydrates (from long–chain maltodextrins—no added simple sugars), 13% fatty acids from a specially made long–chain lyso–lecithin, and nearly 10% soy protein. A small portion of fat seems to cue your body to more liberally release its fatty acids stores, which account for up to two–thirds of one's energy requirements in long bouts of exercise. A little fat in the fuel also slightly slows the rate of digestion and thus promotes “caloric satisfaction,” another attractive plus during primarily aerobic ultra distance events.

Since I had only one bottle holder on my fuel belt I jammed the small bottle of perpeteum into one of the zipper pockets - which sat well during the run but was a bummer to get back in everytime I drank from it, particularly as my hands became more numb as the run wore on. My strategy was to take a swig out of the perpeteum first and then wash it down with the endurolyte rich water (about every 4 miles). The strawberry-vanilla perpeteum tasted great but the endurolyte water, which looked like dirty dishwater, was less palatable (i.e. it was terrible). It was all I could do to take one swig from it every 4 miles - so returning from a 3.5 hour run with 150ml left in the bottle was not a good hydration strategy. I can't say the run felt good - perhaps it was the rain, cold (it snowed after 2 hours) or just an off day (early signs of a chesty cough) but I wasn't convinced my fueling strategy was working. However while fatigue was setting in earlier than expected I did notice a recovery after taking the perpeteum, particularly after 2.5 hours (maybe it takes a while to kick in). Still better to learn the lessons in training. I'll give it another go next weekend and increase the dose of perpeteum ( I was a bit light in it's application) and mix the endurolyte powder with something a bit stronger than water.

Mon 7th Mar

a.m. 5.28 miles @ 9:21 pace & 114HR (slow recovery - achy legs)

p.m. 7.35 miles @ 8:20 pace & 124HR (better)

Tue 8th Mar

a.m. 10.47 miles @ 7:50 pace & 127HR (vibrams)

p.m. 6.13 miles @ 8:01 pace & 133HR (legs stiff)

Wed 9th Mar

a.m. 7.84 miles @ 8:04 pace & 128HR

p.m. 7.82 miles @ 7:47 pace & 129HR

Thur 10th Mar

15.51 miles @ 7:22 pace & 131HR with 5 mile evaluation @6:58 pace & 140HR.

Sat 12th Mar

26.59 @ 7:54 pace & 131HR

Sun 13th Mar

16.14 miles @ 8:14 pace with 5k in 21:35 (6:57 pace & 140HR)

Base Week #7 (Run 103.1 miles, Bike NIL, Swim NIL)

MAF Test #3

2011-03-11T00:21:00.006Z

Conditions at the track were very similar to those for the previous tests. If anything there was a slight breeze but this did not impact at all. A 1 hour warmdown afterwards shows that I am in ultra territory. I was interested in Ewen's recording of heartbeats per km as a tool for assessing how training is going so I have added it to the table. I must be doing something right as the improvement is continuing and the drift in pace over the 5 miles is still dropping. The improved pace of 2 seconds from mile 3 to 4 is a first, which is more than likely due to the margin of error in pressing the lap button at the end of each mile, although it is encouraging that the last 3 miles were at a consistently steady pace.

I got a package in the post this week containing my fueling for Connemara, which will get a road test this weekend.

(Not quite) Barefootin in Ballycotton

2011-03-06T20:11:00.008Z

I finished off my highest mileage week ever with the Ballycotton 10 today, pushing the 90 mile barrier for the first time. Needless to say I was taking in the sights for most of the race and only began to push the pace over the last few miles.

Following a 5 mile warmup with Paul (easy to spot the ultras) I donned the vibrams for the first time in a race. We got to the start with about 10 minutes to spare and consequently were placed towards the back of the 2,500 pack. Not too bad as the last thing I wanted was to get dragged out too fast. However I didn't realise that it would take me over 2 miles before I could run un-impeded. Following a first mile on the wrong side of 8 minutes (Paul had ducked and weaved through the crowd much more efficiently than I had) I settled into a 7:30 pace for a few miles with the vibrams feeling very comfortable and the aches and pains felt during the warmup miles long gone. I knew I needed to up the pace a little to get under 75 minutes (unofficial target) but there was plenty of time for that during the closing 5 miles. I passed through 5 miles with about 37:55 on the watch and the HR still on the right side of 140 (25 seconds off 75 minute pace). Over the next few miles I pushed the pace towards 7:00 as I had one or two targets in sight. I passed a guy wearing vibrams around the 7 mile mark - he wasn't making a sound compared to the flat-footed slaps I was making with every footfall - you could hearing me coming a mile off.

As the finish line got closer I pushed under 7:00 pace with my HR climbing steadily through the 150's and into the 160's, averaging about 6:43 for the last 3 miles and coming in a tad slower than I did in Dungarvan - 72:26. The only disappointment from the day was the chip I discovered on my Ballycotton Mug when I got home.

I travelled down with Pat and Thomas who both Pb'd on the day finishing a few 100 places ahead of me.

My main run of the week was a 3 hr 15 min outing yesterday morning leaving the house just after 7 - running into town along the Lee Road, out the Straight Road, back in the Model Farm Road, a few grass laps of the Farm and home via the Curraheen Road, with a 500ml bottle of High Five for company. While I felt a bit tired during the first 5 or 6 miles I got into a bit of a grove during the 2nd hour, churning out mile after mile at just under 8:00 pace while maintaining a relatively steady HR. While my HR pushed towards 140 over the latter miles the pace still remained sub-8 minute which is a good sign that my aerobic conditioning is continuing to improve - the next MAF test will tell.

Mon 28th Feb

a.m. 5.28 miles @ 8:40 pace & 116 HR - recovery run in the vibrams

p.m. 5.51 miles @ 8:07 pace & 130 HR - legs felt heavy

February - 279 Miles

Tue 1st Mar

a.m. 5.51 miles @ 7:41 pace & 136HR

p.m. 10.16 miles @ 7:49 pace & 129 HR with 5 x 1 mile @ 7:16 pace

Wed 2nd Mar

10.39 miles @ 8:04 pace & 134HR ( Avg HR 164 for 1st mile???)

Thu 3rd Mar

10.76 miles @ 7:52 pace & 128HR)

Sat 5th Mar

25.14 miles @ 7:45 pace & 132HR

Sun 6th Mar

17.96 miles @ 7:50 pace with 10 miles @ 7:15 pace & 140HR.

Base Week #6 (Run 90.65 miles, Bike NIL, Swim 0.75km)

Trans Pennine Trail

2011-03-04T20:04:00.007Z

This week I had to travel a bit further from the cave to go hunting as the pickings closer to home have all but dried up. As least I don't have to move cave (yet!). I spent 2 days in Leeds working on a project for Yorkshire Water staying in the Clarence Dock area close to the City centre on the bank of the River Aire at the head of the Aire and Calder Navigation System. To ensure my running would not suffer I had checked out running routes on Map My Run before I left with the only promising route being a 5 miler out and back along the banks of the canal/river skirting the City centre. However when I headed out at about 6:30 in the evening I found much of the pathway barred by closed gates so I was diverted back onto the streets. Determined to get my 10 miles in I ran around the streets of Leeds navigating by reference to the different coloured lights on the high rise buildings, twice ending up at the gates of the Tetley Brewery (and there I was thinking Tetley only brewed tea). After 7 miles I ended back in Clarence Dock and found the river/canal towpath heading out of town, following it for a mile and a half out and back to get the 10 miles in - a bit eerie when I left the bright lights behind and was running by moonlight through the industrial heartland of south Leeds the only person I met was another runner coming out of the darkness against me. At least I now had a route for my second 10 miler in the morning. The Trans Pennine Trail which traverses the country, starts in Rick's hometown of Southport and ends in Hornsea on the east coast, with a north-south spur between Leeds and Chesterfield. Obviously my 5 mile out and back 0n Thursday morning wasn't the most scenic part of the trail, but still a welcome diversion from trafficked roads and after passing under the M1 after 4 miles gave a picture of a more laid back lifestyle with barges moored along the canal waiting for lock gates to open, engines idly humming - no rush. I turned at Woodlesford Lock and headed back to the real world, the constant drone of traffic on the M1 never too far away. The big mileage is yet to come over the weekend.

Head for the hills

2011-02-27T21:45:00.006Z

The last run of my cut-back week was an off-road session in the Nagle Mountains (hills really) with Paul and James from the club. Paul has spent a lot of his time running off road, having completed a few mountain races. He's planning on running the Wicklow Way Ultra 2 weeks before Connemara. James isn't that far behind him, having run this particular route twice before. That's if you can call it a route as we climbed gravel roads only to turn off and head back downhill along rock strewn trails, stopping to walk through overgrown paths (Paul had thought about bringing a slash hook to cut back the vegetation - what would it be like during the summer months) - back up a 20%+ gradient where if you reached out in front of you you'd touch the ground (I walked a bit here). Needless to say my 140 heart rate threshold was well and truly exceeded.

I soon discovered what separated me from the 2 guys....weight. They both clock in at about ten and a half stone (67kg) ...mountain goats, whereas i'm nearly 3 stone heavier (84kg)... means a lot when trying to drag your sorry ass up a hill. We finished up the run with 3.5 miles on road to get up to 15 miles total. A good strength session. On checking the garmin after I was surprised the average pace was below 9:00.

That was the second of my cutback 15 mile weekend back to back long runs. The first was on another (less) hilly route to the south west of the City between Spur Hill and Ballinora before finishing up for the final mile on the grass of UCC Farm.

A Thursday morning run in the vibrams pushing close to my self imposed 140HR limit yielding a 7:25 average pace over 12.2 miles left my legs feeling tired and achy - just hope they got enough rest before I head into the final 3 weeks of high volume. I still don't know how I'll fit next Sunday's Ballycotton 10 miler into this high volume schedule - needless to say I won't be aiming for a PB, with my target similar, if not slightly better, than Dungarvan (1:12:03).

Tue 22nd Feb 8.3 miles @ 8:21 pace & 130HR with 5 x 1 mile @ 7:16 pace & 2 min recoveries. Wed 23rd Feb 2.5 Miles @ 7:56 pace (Treadmill) Thur 24th Feb 12.2 miles @ 7:25 pace & 137HR - Vibrams Sat 26th Feb 15.82 miles @ 8:21 pace & 131HR Sun 27th Feb 15 miles @ 8:45 pace & 134 HR - Off-road hilly run. Base Week #5 (Run 54.1 miles, Bike NIL, Swim 3.5 km)

Specificity

2011-02-20T19:43:00.007Z

With time a limiting factor this week I didn't get much cross training in, concentrating instead on getting as many running hours under my belt as possible, particularly as this was my third week of relatively high mileage with next week scheduled as a cutback week before heading into the final 3 week build for Connemara (plus 3 week taper). Apart from my evaluation session at the track on Thursday all I could manage were morning and evening 5 milers during the week leaving it until the weekend to go long.

With the Clubs annual 5 miler this morning I was banking on getting most of my weekend miles in on Saturday. The plan was to run for 3 hours (up from 2:45 last week) at a steady pace, which meant heading out from the house at 7:30 a.m. My route was an out and back from Ballincollig to Blackrock returning via Turners Cross and the Lough - following part of the route of the Cork City Marathon. I carried a 500ml drink of High 5 with me and while I never felt comfortable enough to push the pace too far under 8 minute miles I never got more uncomfortable as the hours passed by. I overshot the 3 hours by a few minutes happy to get 23 miles on the clock and my legs none the worse for wear.

This morning was all about the Eagle AC annual 5 miler in Carrigaline, where I was helping out with entries and results (291 finishers in all). Everything went fairly smoothly with a few glitches showing up between the "racemaster" software and our expectations of what it could or should do. We'll know better next time.

With the rain coming in from the west I wasn't relishing the thought of going out for a run when I got home in the mid-afternoon. I also felt tired after the week and was nodding off on the couch in front of the telly. "Why don't you go for a 2 hour run and then cook dinner" Abina said half joking. With 63 miles in the bag for the week I wanted to climb to the 70's to get close to last weeks total. 7 to 10 miles ought to do it. The hardest part was moving from the couch to the front door and once there I was on my way - no turning back. The first 6 miles were what I would expect the day after a 23 mile run although they were much faster than last weeks Sunday run (8:59 avg) at a few seconds over 8 minute pace. I decided that I would run for 1:30, which would get me to about 74 miles for the week.

After 6 miles my legs began to feel much more relaxed and while the pace didn't increase by much I felt very comfortable. I felt like my legs were going through some sort of adaptation and who was I to stand in their way - if they wanted to learn I would "learn them real good". The 2 hours suggested by Abina now became my target ..........that was until the 40 mile weekend total entered my head, which meant i'd have to turn out 17 miles - 2:15 ought to do it. And so that is how it transpired with the last 11 miles churned out at a steady pace, checking myself every now and then to keep the effort under the 140HR, surprised that I was not slowing down or feeling the normal long run fatigue, particularly as I had not taken any drink of fuel with me. An unexpected high. The only discomfort after the run could have have been prevented by a strategically placed application of vaseline.

Time now to rest for the week and let all that experience soak in before the next lesson begins.

Tue 15th Feb a.m. 5.3 miles @ 8:09 pace & 119HR p.m. 5.0 miles @ 7:59 pace (Treadmill) Wed 16th Feb a.m. 5.33 miles @ 7:40 pace & 132HR p.m. 5.16 miles @ 7:56 pace & 131HR Thu 17th Feb 14.6 miles @ 7:45 pace & 129HR with 5 miles @7:10 pace & 140HR (Evaluation run) Fri 18th Feb 5.31 miles @ 8:20 pace & 120HR Sat 19th Feb 23.2 miles @ 7:57 pace & 133HR Sun 20th Feb 17.07 miles @ 7:57 pace & 131HR Base Week #4 (Run 80.97miles, Bike Nil, Swim 1.5 km) - all about specificity.

MAF Test #2

2011-02-17T21:27:00.004Z

Warming up beforehand I wasn't looking forward to 20 laps of the track at any effort above easy. The opening lap to get HR up to 140 was probably my fastest - I crossed the line for the start of the five mile test with 140 on the HRM. I kept my HR pretty constant, although it dropped a few times to 133 for a few seconds despite keeping the same effort. The run also served as mid-week medium long run of over 14 miles as I am helping out at the Club's annual 5 mile road race in Carrigaline on Sunday and will not get in back to back long runs.

The result is certainly encouraging and though initially I though the cool calm conditions would have favoured a faster pace my first evaluation 3 weeks ago was run under similar conditions. I suspect that the improvement will be more modest in 3 weeks time.

Adaptation

2011-02-16T20:48:00.003Z

My base training is coming along slowly as I adapt to the increased volume. The absence of speedwork certainly has taken the pressure off to facilitate the increase in volume. I pushed the weekend long runs out to 2:45 and 3:00 again covering more distance on the first day while easing back on Sunday as it's all about time on my feet. I'll keep the relatively high volume and low effort going until the 3 week taper, when I'll drop the volume right down and introduce some speedwork, just to awaken the fast twitch fibres.

Finally if you're looking for a race this weekend why not come along to Carrigaline on Sunday morning for the Eagle AC 5 mile road race starting at 11. Details of the race can be found here.

Tue 8th Feb a.m. 5.29 miles @ 8:44 pace & 114HR (Vibrams) p.m. 9.33 miles @ 8:25 pace & 128HR with 5 x 1 mile @ 7:16 pace. Wed 9th Feb 2 miles @ 8:30 pace - Treadmill Thur 10th Feb 11.76 miles @ 7:40 pace & 132HR (Vibrams) Fri 11th Feb 5.31 miles @8:02 pace & 128HR Sat 12th Feb 20.74 miles @ 7:57 pace & 133HR Sun 13th Feb 20.05 miles @8:59 pace & 124HR (Vibrams on grass) Base Week #3 (Run 74.42 miles, Bike 20.82 miles, Swim 5 km)

Putting in the miles

2011-02-06T16:49:00.008Z

Despite having two rest days this weeks mileage was the highest in about 9 months at 64.3, nearly double last weeks total. Most of that came with 2 back to back weekend longs runs totalling 36 miles. If i'd been following the 10% rule i'd be waiting a long time to get that double in. I had been a bit behind on my training for Connemara compared to my club mates, so I took a bit of a gamble. The first run, yesterday morning, was a solo effort along the relatively flat roads between Ballincollig and Cork with the aim of staying out for 2.5 hours - it's all about time on my feet and not distance/pace (yet). The first 13 miles went reasonably well at a relatively even pace of around 8 minute miles, with the heart rate staying in the 120's and early 130's despite the strong winds. However from mile 14 on the pace slowed, first to about 8:30 pace and by the time I was finished it was close to 9:00 pace as I had to cut back to keep my HR under 140. At one stage I had to stop and walk briefly and continue on at a shuffle as it was climbing into the 150's going against the wind. As my endurance base improves I would expect this heart rate drift to slacken off as I become more aerobically efficient. I arrived home after 2.5 hours with 18.24 miles on the clock - 8:14 pace @ 134HR). My legs were a little stiff after the run so I went for an afternoon swim to loosen them out a little.

I was a little apprehensive about how long I should run today, given that it was my first back to back and I already was over 10 miles up on last weeks mileage. For the run I joined Denis, John and Paul from the club who are also training for Connemara and had covered 18/20 miles on their Saturday long run. The run was planned as a slow recovery pace effort around the 2.3ish mile grass circuit of UCC Farm. Perfect, I could go as far as I wanted without overextending myself. As we were on grass I opted for the vibrams but took a pair of runners as backup. The conditions were less than ideal with winds stronger than yesterday and plenty of mud (vibrams weren't built for grip). While the pace was on the wrong side of 9 minutes I wasn't concerned and with the good company the time flew by. The conversation varied covering such topics as .... you've guessed it.... ultra running, wing-suit base jumping (crazy f#c*ers) and birds (mainly the feathered variety;) but thankfully no politics. I actually managed to stay out 15 minutes longer than yesterday although I covered less ground - 17.87 miles, with a low average HR of 114 - fast stride walking effort?

On the plus side my legs held up pretty well (saved by the slower pace) and have none of the aches and pains felt earlier in the week - don't know where they came from or where they went to - Abina reckoned I was "coming down with something" - classic family diagnosis.

Tuesday was the other high mileage day with 7 easy miles in the morning and a track session after work - the closest I got to doing actual speedwork. I opted for 5 x 1 mile repeats with the 7:30 pacing group (well 7:30 in lane 3 ~ 7:16 pace) which just about kept my HR under the 140 upper limit (well it may have strayed up to 143 when I got a bit carried away passing a slower group). The 2 minutes recoveries passed fairly quickly but were enough to keep my HR under control. This type of session may just be what keeps me sane for the next few months.

Mon 31st Jan

5.27 miles @ 9:10 pace & 110 HR - Vibrams

Tue 1st Feb

a.m. 7.28 miles @ 8:20 pace & 124HR

p.m. 7.87 miles @ 8:29 pace & 126HR

Thu 3rd Feb

7.79 miles @ 7:50 pace & no HRM

Sat 5th Feb

18.24 @ 8:14 pace & 134HR

Sun 6th Feb

17.87 miles @ 9:14 & 114HR

Base Week #2 (Run 64.3 miles, Bike Nil, Swim - 4km)

Back to the future

2011-01-30T21:53:00.002Z

Time to burn off some fat................Having made my way through most of "racing weight" and read all good stuff about when and how often to eat relative to exercise (early and often), good and bad calories, partitioning (carlories that replenish fat, muscle & glycogen) the basic equation of balancing calories in against calories out remains the same. One interesting fact is that if I stayed in bed 24/7 i'd need about 1,858 calories per day just to keep the engine ticking over, without gaining or losing any weight. I wonder how many times a donut and cup of coffee goes into 1,858.

My primary strategy is to wait until my training load increases to match or overtake my calorie intake. Luckily this strategy is likely to work when training for an ultra. Keeping in this vein i've decided to keep things relatively slow over the next few months and spend some time base building to boost my aerobic conditioning. As my next key race is a 39 miler on April 11th I don't think speedwork needs to be top of my agenda for a while. In any event 4 to 6 weeks of speedwork is all I need for full anaerobic development.

I went back to this post from November 1998 for the technical bit. Essentially, while my main focus is on running long, I might as well stay on the steady, if somewhat gentle, aerobic progression curve (in green), leaving it until later in the year to develop anaerobic conditioning red curve). The great Lydiard himself is quoted as saying "The day you start doing anaerobic training and stop your (aerobic) conditioning, your performance level has been set for that season”.

The first sign that my calf was on the mend came on Saturday of last week where I managed 13.5 miles on the grass of UCC Farm, with Pat Twomey for company, at just over 8 minute miles.

To give me some focus over the next few months I plan on broadly following Dr Maffetone's approach (as I did 2 years ago) with most of my running under 140 HR. This could get a bit monotonous so i'll have to vary my training to ensure boredom doesn't set (I may even break the rule once in a while but nothing strenuous). Thomas has been doing something similar over the last few months, exercising great restraint and has come out the other end a lean mean running machine. Ewen has just commenced a similar programme to mine so I am in good company. To monitor progress I will do a steady 5 mile run at a target 140 HR every few weeks. My first evaluation was at the track on Thursday which went off reasonably well:-

Mile 1 - 7:18 (141HR)

Mile 2 - 7:22 (141HR)

Mile 3 - 7:30 (140HR)

Mile 4 - 7:30 (140HR)

Mile 5 - 7:36 (141HR)

Total - 37:17

Average - 7:27

Drift from first to last - 18 seconds (+3.97%)

When I did this 2 years ago my average pace for the evaluation (@ 143HR) maxed out at 7:14 before falling back to 7:23, after which I returned to "normal" training. Looking back it was probably a bit premature as 1 poor result does not necessarily make a trend.

I finished my week at the Dungarvan 10 mile road race, travelling down in glorious, if somewhat cold, sunshine with John and Denis from the club. My garmin wasn't charged so I decided to run without any watch. My plan was to aim for between 75 and 80 minutes, which should be well within my aerobic range and shouldn't stress my calf too much. I quickly settled for a 7:30 opening pace (which would get me 75 minutes) as there was a gang going out at that pace. However that appeared to be an overall average pace as opposed to an opening pace as I was on my own for the first 5 miles despite hitting the halfway point in 36:40 (7:20 pace).

By mile 5.5 I was on the shoulder of Denis who was running very comfortably. If my calf held up I intended to push the pace a little over the last mile - shouldn't interfere too much with my aerobic conditioning. Denis and I ran a steady pace for the next 3 miles until we hit the main Cork Road with about a mile and a half to go. With a sniff of the finish line I couldn't resist the urge to open up the throttle a little and chase down a few hares in front of me, so I bid Denis farewell and gradually upped the pace. Given that I had saved my fastest miles till last and most of those around me had given their all in the preceding miles it wasn't difficult to pass them - felt a bit like a cheat really, although it felt good too ;). My natural instinct when I pass someone is to push the pace for fear of a counter attack. In normal races where I push from the start this natural instinct is counteracted by rising fatigue but in this case this muscle sapping fatigue was a long way off so my pace just kept on getting faster so that by the time the finishing chute came I was close to an all out sprint - finishing in 1:12:03 - a bit faster than planned but still waaaay off race pace and nearly 10 minutes off my PB from this time last year.

As usual the race was very well organised by West Waterford AC any everything went off without a hitch. Great event!

Wed 19th Jan - 4 miles @ 8:24 pace + 3.34 miles @ 9:48 pace & 113HR

Thu 20th Jan - 6.97 miles @ 8:34 & 126HR

Sat 22nd Jan - 13.51 miles @ 8:04 pace & 132HR

Mon 24th Jan - 5.27 miles @ 7:44 pace & 135HR

Wed 26th Jan - 7 miles @ 7:53 pace

Thu 27th Jan - 8.17 miles @ 7:49 pace & 131HR w/5miles @ 140HR in 7:18/22/30/30/36

Fri 28th Jan - 5.31 miles @8:06 pace & 132HR

Sun 30th Jan - 10 miles @7:12 pace (no HRM but certainly over 140)

Base Week #1 (Run 35.8 miles, Bike 21.3 miles, Swim 3k)

On the mend

2011-01-23T10:08:00.000Z