New Year

It's been a while.................. my longest absence since inception. I've sat down to put pen to paper a number of times, wrote a few lines and then abandoned it. On the plus side my running has fared a bit better although there were a few months where I was just going through the motions - not enough motivation to spur me on to new challenges and not enough apathy to fall off the wagon completely.

 

 

My weekly mileage after the Belfast 12 hour in July was a bit hit and miss and lacked focus. That is despite the fact that my recovery after the race was the best it has even been so it wasn't physical. I had a half notion of ramping up for the Dublin Marathon at the end of October, but when I missed a few track sessions to get me up to speed before starting a 12 week marathon programme I mentally  relaxed and let the whole idea slide. I was keen to run the inaugural Glen of Aherlow 39.3 mile ultra on 20th September, signed up for it late and managed to get around the course without too much difficulty, although I did fall once or twice on a technical section of the course and finished in about 6:26, well down on where I would have liked to be but no more than I expected based on my lack of training and a generous diet - fighting gravity is so much harder when you're carrying excess baggage. 

 

The low point in my training cycle came when I pulled up with a strained hammy 9.5km into pacing the 30km Human Race in Limerick on 5th October. The day before I had fallen heavy after tripping on a uneven footpath while our for an easy run, tearing 2 layers of skin from the palm of my left hand (i'll spare you the gory photo). The strained hammy the following day may well have been a latent injury from the fall. My training over the following weeks primarily consisted of walking, reaching a new low of  6 miles for the second week of October - the only way was up.

 

 

As the hammy began to heal I decided to spend the rest of the year building up a solid base of aerobic endurance so that I could start 2015 in good shape. Over the next 8 weeks I covered 718 miles (average of 89.75 miles per week) setting my first 400+ mile (405) month in November. The most noticeable benefit was a reduction in the pace of my easy training runs, reducing from 8:45 to below 8:00 pace for a 120 Hr. I assessed my aerobic function by conducting a MAF Test on 2nd December, with a noticeable improvement compared to my only other MAF test for the year on 7th January. Some of that improved function was due to weight loss as I managed to cut most carbs out of my diet. Still the 578 heartbeats per Km is very encouraging (once I get below 600 I know I am in good territory). Although my weight starting out in 2015 is closer to what it was at the start of 2014 - that's the magic of December!

 

 

 

 

My only other race was the Clonakilty Marathon on 12th December, which I ran as an aerobic training run, starting off at a relatively comfortable pace, falling in with fellow Clon man Thomas Neville, with the initial target of pacing him to a 3:20 PB. However my competitive instinct got the better of me and after about 14 miles I  took off on my own to see if I could break 3:15. (we had hit halfway in 1:41 = 3:22 full). With 3:06 on the Garmin passing the 25 mile mark, I increased the effort, plunging well into the anaerobic zone to pull off my fastest mile of the day (6:16 - albeit on a net downhill) to get me across the line a few seconds under 3:14. Happy days! My endurance base ensured that I felt reasonably comfortable crossing the finish line, no longer daunted by the 26.2 mile distance.

 

 

Of course the main motivation for putting in the miles over the last few months was to cover 49 miles on Christmas Eve without suffering too much. As for last year I started a 4 in the morning and more or less ran continuously until I was back home with 49.25 miles on the Garmin - 7 hours and 17 minutes later. I ran all but 10 miles (Mile 15 to 25) in the company of Clubmates from Eagle AC - A big thanks to those who looked after me as it may not have looked liked I needed any help but the knowledge that I was not alone was all the motivation I needed to keep going. While I felt the fatigue coming on after 10 miles, it never got any worse and I more or less kept a consistent running pace for the full duration.

Mile 49 - Time for Some Breakfast
 

 

The Year That Was

Plenty of Miles



Not Too Many Marathons/Ultras (*Pacing)

One Win

2015 Targets

 

I have already signed up for my first marathon in 2015 although it's not until September. This marathon is somewhat unique though as i'll have to swim 2.4 miles and cycle 112miles just to get to the start line. Should be interesting - don't know how i'll fit in all the training. I'll have to find something else to keep me motivated for the first half of the year. With this in mind I have nearly committed to my second race in 2015 - another marathon on 14th March in Barcelona. I have booked the flights but haven't signed up for the race yet. This will be my third trip to Barcelona, the last time out in 2010 I struggled home in 3:10:28, after pulling up with a dodgy calf at mile 9. There are a few clubmates running it too so it should be fun. My training will start in earnest next week or the week after where I will be following the 10 week programme I used for Portumna last year. I had hoped to race the Dungarvan 10 during the first week of February as it fitted in perfectly with my schedule (HM race 6 weeks out). However the race sold out in less than two days, which I was not aware of until two weeks later - there were no such issues last year - West Waterford AC sent out email notification. I'll just have to find another longish race up the country.

After that I am spoilt for choice on the ultra front:-

 

 

• 21st March - Wicklow Way Ultra (51km) - unlikely as it will be one week after Barcelona
• 3rd/4th April - Vartry 100 (100 mile/50 mile/50k) - the 100 looks tempting, it all depends on how the recovery from Barcelona goes.
• 13th June - Wicklow Way Solo. Would like to make up for 2014.
• 13th June - Portumna Ultra (100k/50k/marathon) - not on the radar for 2015.
• 17th/18th July - Energia 12hr/24hr. The 24hr is certainly tempting - although only 5 weeks after Wicklow is cutting it fine - maybe the 100k in Portumna would be better preparation.

My general plan is to build up endurance on the bike in preparation for the Ironman, which should stand to me for the long ultras. Time will tell.

Happy New Year to all and hope to see some of you out on the road in 2015.

Base Camp

 

My body has well and truly come down from the peaks of 2013, acclimatised to the lower altitudes of recovery and rest, refuelled on a diet of "whatever took my fancy" and is now ready to scale new heights in 2014.  I had forgotten that my fuel tanks are infinitely vast and can accommodate more that I can physically eat, so much so that I tipped the scales just shy of 86 kg at the weekend, close to 10kg more than when I was in the rarefied air last summer. By my estimation I could hibernate for 43 days on that additional fuel alone.......I wonder did hibernation form part of human evolution........we certainly have retained some of the traits in terms of lying around doing nothing for days on end.........although I doubt that our ancestors would have had one hand in a box of quality street and the other around a glass of wine. 

 

As with the start of any journey it's always good to know where your starting from so that you can assess your progress. With this in mind I headed to the track this evening to run a 5 mile evaluation at my new MAF Heart Rate of 137. The result was predictable enough when compared to previous years. For example on 10th January 2012 I covered the 5 miles in 37:17 but at a higher target HR of 140. It's the number of heartbeats per km that tells the real story - 642 this evening compared to 650 in 2012. My first MAF test last year was at the end of January and resulted in 621 Hb/km. Lets see how well I do in 3 to 4 weeks time. When in peak shape I would expect the figure to dip below 600 Hb/Km.

 

As my aerobic efficiency should improve with reducing weight I will also record my weight before each MAF test to see if there is a linear relationship between weight loss and aerobic efficiency - hence the new baseline figure of 7.52 Hb/Km/Kg body weight - very similar to the "power to weight ratio" used in cycling. Onwards and upwards!

 

There Or Thereabouts

One of my other little holiday experiments involved carbohydrate deprivation for two weeks as part of a carbohydrate intolerance test recommended by Phil Maffetone in his Big Book (my holiday read). The idea behind the test is to severely restrict carbohydrate intake for 2 weeks (no high- or moderate-glycemic carbs, no fruit even) and assess the impact on physiology, energy levels etc. before gradually weaning myself back onto various carbohydrate sources and assessing their impact to see if they have an adverse effect (e.g. wheat). Dr Maffetone swears by this test citing it as

 

"the best way to jump-start your metabolism because it quickly shifts the body into a higher fat-burning state." and that "tens of thousands of athletes have used it as a necessary platform to get healthy, lose body fat and significantly improve aerobic function and overall endurance."

 

Before I had finished the sentence I had started my very own two week test, ignoring the recommendation that "The two week test is best performed during your aerobic base period"

 

To assess "before conditions" I should have completed a 5 mile aerobic test at my 138 MAF (Maximum Aerobic Function) Hr. As I was nowhere near a track I skipped this. In any event, I had my doubts that I could improve my aerobic function, given my recent form. Still I was excited to see what the impact would be. The first few days to a week were not too bad, but as I entered the second week I was getting a bit weary of the diet (plenty of eggs, nuts/nut butters, cheese (unprocessed) meat and vegetables) which was quite repetitive, and I noticed an increasing craving for sugar. I came off the deprivation yesterday and can confirm that sugar coated crusty raisin loaf has little or no impact on my physiology or energy levels, apart from the fact that  I found it difficult to stop after 3 or 4 slices.

 

 In fact the biggest impact of the whole experiment was the complete lack of energy for the first few miles of most of my runs, some of which were well above 9 minute pace. However I was equally surprised at how well my energy and pace picked up after I got over these 2 or 3 opening miles - one on the main recommendations of Dr. Phil is the 10 to 15 minute warmup/cooldown starting and ending at walking pace, the point being to gradually ramp up from your standing Hr (say 70) to your exercising aerobic Hr (say 130), which is the most efficient way of mobilising your limitless fat stores as a fuel source and minimising the burning of your finite reserves of carbohydrate fuel. The longer the distance the more important this becomes (e.g. the 6 mile cut-in approach to marathon racing).

 

As my next race will be nearly 4 times marathon distance, mobilising the maximum ratio of fat/carbohydrate fuel mix from the off is probably the single most important thing that will ensure I have the best chance of finishing in a decent time as the aim is to stretch my carbohydrate resources (preloaded and what I can ingest during the race) for a long as possible as I can't burn fat on it's own (fat is like the log to the carbohydrate flame - if there's no flame the log is feck all good to you) - and I don't want to spend the last 20 miles crawling on all fours burning the very muscles I need to get me to the finish line.

 

Jamie's post last week gave the best analogy of how I think our fat burning engines work most efficiently (although his analogy was on consistent training) - that of a big heavy ocean freighter that takes an age to build up speed, crawling along even at full throttle until it reaches its cruising speed which it can maintain forever, even if you ease back a little on the throttle - solid, dependable, reliable, enduring - granted there's no sprint finish with this engine.

 

I don't expect to feel as lethargic at the start as I did during my "carb depleted" runs. I was lucky that one of these runs - pacing the 3:30 group in the Killarney Marathon - started with a net 5 mile downhill section, which helped me ease into the effort without too much trouble, although the warm day proved challenging, with Tony (my fellow pacer) and I coming in alone, having lost our last pacees before mile 20 - 18th out of 212 finishers in a time of 3:29:33

 

I finished off my 2 week experiment with a 5 mile MAF test at the track this evening, with the results showing little change over my previous 2 tests in March and May. The slight dis-improvement since May, is probably within the margin of error of my Garmin HR monitor.

 

 

 

 

Marathon Training Week 6 of 10

Week 6 of my marathon programme only has one key workout - 3 x 4 miles at MP with 3 mile recoveries. This is the key workout of the whole programme. Nail this and I got the whole programme nailed. However as I was "volunteered" to pace the Inaugural Killarney Lakeside Marathon on Saturday I decided to defer my key session and swap it with my secheduled 22 mile long run from the end of week 7. My rationale was that pacing Killarney was only an additional 4 miles. However since all my training programme long runs have been close to 7:20 pace I requested the 3:15 pacing gig (7:26 pace) in lieu of my traditional 3:30 slot.

  Session 1 - Tuesday (1830hrs - 2030hrs)

With no specific speed session in the programme I used my Tiuesday track session to complete the 5 mile evaluation run, the results of which I covered in my pervious post.


15.66 miles in 1:58:28 (7:33 pace @ 128 Hr = 601 Hb/Km) with 5 mile Evaluation in 34:18 (6:52 pace @ 138.4 Hr = 590 Hb/Km).

 

Session 2 - Saturday (0900hrs - 12:15 hrs)

Killarney Lakeside Marathon

I travelled down with Ian (running the half), Denis (pacing 4:15) and Killian (pacing 3:30) for this reasonably low key marathon with all but the first mile in the Killarney National Park, over three laps between the Castleross Hotel and the old Copper Mines beyond Ross Castle - beautiful off-road course. When getting ready I noticed that I had brought my Asic Gel Tarthers instead of the DS Racers - I hoped the lightweight shoe would not cause much discomfort. I also forgot my heart rate monitor, which was a little dissappointing as I wanted to see how my HR would vary over the 26.2 miles.

This was my first time pacing 3:15, but I was not too concerned eventhough I was on my own. Still I decided to warmup for a few minutes as the pace would be steady from the off. I met up with Thomas before the start as he had planned to run with me for the first half. Tom Enright, who organised the pacers, joked that should Thomas and I be in the lead coming into the finish, that I was to let Thomas win, as it would not be appropriate for a pacer to win. No worries on that score as there were a few serious runners, in addition to Thomas, lining up at the start line.

Relaxing before the off with Clubmates Denis & Killian



Thomas stayed with me for most of the opening mile, pulling me along closer to 7 minute pace before he reminded me that I might be banking a bit of time - and then he was off, chasing down podium contenders.

There were about 12 runners in front of me including the leading lady with 3 or 4 around me over the opening miles. However most of these fell away by the time the first lap was complete, with the exception of John (using this as a 16 mile training run for his 3:15 attempt later in the year) and Brendan (PB 3:09), who was content to run 3:15 pace. We picked up Seamus at the end of lap 1, running his first run since completing the Prague Marathon last Sunday (a 26.2 mile recovery run). The miles seemed to fly by as we chatted away. We were pretty much on our own until mile 20, when Brendan began to push on.

Mile 19 - Brendan, Seamus and I

Between miles 20 and 22 we passed 4 runners, including the leading lady.

The Garmin indicated that the course was a bit short, but then again the tree cover may have interfered with the satellites, as the organisers had confirmed that the course was officially measured. I wasn't taking any chances though and made sure I had enough of a cushion to cover all eventualities. With no one within a few minutes behind me there was no point in hanging around for a 3:14:59 finish and with over a minute and a half of a cushion I ran into the finish line with Seamus, completing a very enjoyable run, my feet none the worse for wear having worn the lightweight Gel Tarthers. Certainly a very encouraging run, finishing 10th out of 121 finishers, at no stage feeling under pressure. The leading female, was first in behind me in 3:19:18, fully justifying my decision to finish a bit early.

26.22 Miles in 3:13:25 (7:23 pace & No HRM)

Weekly mileage - 69 Miles
Avg Weight - 77.4 Kg
RHR 40 (recovery from Marathon)

Evaluation

With nothing on the cards for my track session this Tuesday I decided to run a 5 mile MAFF evaluation run. Not the best timing perhaps, just 3 days after a race. Still, a good improvement, as I would have expected, given my weight loss since my earlier evaluations.

My best evaluation from previous years was a 34:17 five miler @ 140.6 average heartrate back in August 2011 - equivalent to 599 Hb/Km - so, allowing for a 2 BPM reduction in Maximum Heartrate due to increasing age, I have been able to maintain my perk aerobic capacity in terms of pace, partly (if not primarily) due to reducing my weight (about 2 kg in this case).

Over The Hill?

I knew during the first mile of my 5 mile constant heart rate (140 bpm) evaluation run at the track this evening that I was well behind on my previous evaluation 4 weeks ago. Still I persevered with the 5 miles which I covered in 35:23 (7:05 pace) down from the 34:40 (6:56 pace) I recorded on 28th February. I wasn't too concerned given that the temperature this evening was about 5C higher than for all my previous evaluation runs, although I doubt that it accounts for the full drop in pace. Perhaps there were other things at play (maybe an off-day) as I doubt that I have lost that much of my aerobic base. Also the fact that the fastest mile was mile 3 suggests that the HR monitor may have been acting up.





  

Anyway, nothing I can do about it now - the real test of my endurance base is coming up on Sunday. Last year I averaged 6:53 pace for my pre-Connemara Maff test  but didn't get the chance to test my aerobic fitness as it was my muscular skeletal system that was the limiting factor. This year should be different.

My training couldn't have been more different than last year. My mileage for the last 10 weeks amounted to 560 miles (56 avg and 81 max) compared to 718 last year (71.8 avg and 114 max). Time to see if a lower mileage diet works just as well. On the plus side my average pace for the 560 miles was 7:37 compared to 8:01 for the 718 miles last year.

My primary goal remains a sub-5:15 finish, but if the body and conditions on the morning are both good i'll set a more ambitious pace and see what happens. I have a couple of pre-race ideas, but will be largely running by feel as opposed to being a slave to the watch. If the temperature remains high (it's forecast to drop) i'll certainly be heading out a bit more cautiously. As for fuelling, i'm less prepared (and less concerned) than last year. All I have taken during training is a few gels for my 30 mile long run, so I don't think I will need to pack like a mule horse - although I will make use of the drop bag system to stash the obligatory bottle of coke and perhaps a botle or 2 of perpeteum, left over from last year.

Evaluation #3

My aerobic capacity is more or less back where it was at my best last year, achieving 601 heart beats per km during my third 5 mile evaluation run this evening. My best last year was 600 Hb/km on 29th March - so i'm a month ahead. I did get down to 599 Hb/km on 9th August during the early stages of my low(er) volume speedwork preparation for my HM PB and the build up to Dublin. I'll probably complete another evaluation a week before Connemara at the end of March. and see if there's any improvement.

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As my HR monitor took a while to settle down during the last evaluation on 31st January I warmed up over the 5 mile run from home to the Track (I cadged a lift home) and after a short stretching routine headed straight into the 20 laps of the track, making sure to get my HR up to 140 before crossing the start line. My HR dropped from time to time as I took my eye off the Garmin when chatting to clubmates as we passed each other - that's why i'm concentrating on the number of heart beats per km as opposed to pace. Given the erratic nature of my recorded HR during my 2nd evaluation I am ignoring it and focusing on the improvement from my first evaluation on 10th January. Some of my improvement is due to weight loss - about 1.5 kg since my last evaluation. My recovery to 120 BPM of 33 seconds is a marginal improvement on the 35 seconds recorded on 10th January.

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Evaluation #2

Tight calves were the only side effect of running the Dungarvan 10, which I would have expected from the Vibrams. This did not affect my easy lunchtime recovery run on Monday @ 8:18 pace and my first sub-120 Avg HR run this year (118). This prompted me to run my second 5 mile constant HR evaluation run at the track this evening. 3 weeks ago I covered the 5 miles in 37:17. Tonight I was expecting a noticeable improvement.

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300m to go - pushing for home

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I warmed up with Denis and Tony with Denis reminding me that he also achieved 6 and 7 mile PBs (by 0:16 and 1:14 respectively) on his way to his 10 mile PB in Dungarvan on Sunday - so I at least can take the credit for pacing him to his 6 mile PB - although the figures suggest he did better after I abandoned him. More surprisingly he recorded an average HR of 80 over the 10 miles which suggests he could have broken 70 minutes if he worked up a bit more of a sweat ;)

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My own HR was pushing into the 170's during the easy paced warmup, which I put down to the cold temperature (hovering above freezing) but settled down after a while. However my HR was very erratic during the first 2 miles of my evaluation despite the even pace/effort and by the time it had settled down my mile splits improved slightly - suggesting the recorded HR during the first 2 miles was higher than my actual HR. Overall I averaged 140.2 HR for the 5 miles in a time of 36:23 - a 3 week improvement from 7:27 to 7:17 per mile for the same HR. The recovery to 120 HR of 41 seconds was slower than last time (35 seconds), which doesn't bother me too much. I'll wait for the next evaluation before drawing any conclusions.

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Back to Basics

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".

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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.

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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.

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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).

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Onwards and upwards, the dizzying heights await.

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Focus

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.

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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.

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Evaluation

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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).

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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)

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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.

Right where I want to be

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.

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Century

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.

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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)

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