A New Year a new Me

That is the plan, finally cleared the house of all its Christmas temptations and got back to a good clean diet again. This coupled with my regular Doctor issuing me with NSAID suppositories my UC/Proctics as abated some bit. On the first week I went for one of those talk to myself runs to try and maybe set a goal or target for the year. Its probably something that has been lacking since I ran Seville last February. Okay their is a goal in completing 50 Marathons (24 more) before my 50th Birthday in August 2016. While it is a challenge in itself, in my opinion it doesn't require me to push on to the next level. Really all it requires is that I stay injury free and get the job done. I had looked at tackling the shorter stuff but the faster interval training does leave me open to injuries. To other option is to go longer, I am kind of flirting with the idea of racing 50K in Portumna in June, not fully committed to it yet but a crack at a sub 4 Hour 50K would fit the bill of giving me a goal for the next few months.

Baseline Test

With this in mind I decided to run a Hadd Test just to get an idea at what level my fitness was at. The results showed that I had lost a small bit in comparison to where I was the last time I ran one. The lower/aerobic running was giving me 740 BPM/KM over 2K. Last year I was lower at 710 BPM/KM but I am now 7 lbs heavier. So all in all I feel a little more concentration on steady/ high end aerobic together with keeping my hand out of the cookie jar should leave me in shape come the end of February to consider having a go at a 4 Hour 50K

Loving the Trees

After seeing my workload for January, my intention of running MCI Marathon in Liliput was gone leaving me with the 3 hour drive to the sunny south east. Luckily I had some in car entertainment to shorten the journey in the form of Mr Enright. Oilgate been our destination for the day and Marie Chapman our host as Race Director with the ever reliable Vincent lending a helping hand. Great to catch up with the usual few and 60 or so runners took on a five 5.25 Mile laps for the Day. Each lap had a downhill start with a gradual climb back to the main road, and the obligatory tree hug halfway. The first lap fly by in the company of Tom and Paul, I didn't even notice the climb. Lap 2 saw the standard pit stop, but thankfully it was the only one of the day. Lap 3 things where a bit tougher but for the third Marathon in a row I finished much stronger. Lap 4 I put in some 7:30 miles to catch up with Paul after some running repairs with footwear, and on the final lap I was pretty much feeling very strong and able to keep the pace up to come home in sub 3:57.

Words to the Wise

Meet Thomas afterwards and I queried him re what type of mileage running will he do in preparation for 24 Hour Championship in Turin. His answer while vague is a pretty sound philosophy that everyone should bear in mind with regard to running and training. “I will run whatever mileage my body can recovery from”. Afterwards the usual presentations say Gillian and Oggie Winters received their 100 Marathon awards as well as a special award for Brenda M O’Keeffe to mark her record for most Marathons 74 in a calendar year for a Female. Clearly these guys have much better recovery ability then my old body.

You don't always get what you want

Build-up

Late last August Tom rang to tell me he was going to run the flattest Marathon in Ireland in Mid October in Charleville and have a crack at sub 3:21:20 the club auld man Marathon PB held by yours truly. Armed with this I put together a plan to maybe make a race of it. Unfortunately that plan never came about as I just trashed my legs in August. Feeling much better last week I did a 3 mile MP effort averaging 7:15 per mile which shocked me. Now I was thinking of having a crack if conditions on the day where favourable. What’s the worst that can happen is I crash and burn and hobble home. That all changed on Saturday morning, for the first time in 4 Years my Crohns / Proctitis flared up to an extent I contemplated not even running the race.

Race From Hell

On the morning of the race we get perfect running conditions but I know that racing is not going to happen as I am guaranteed a pit stop if not multiples. I wished Tom all the best and was sure barring a complete disaster he would nail sub 3:20. He ran 10 miles with me the week before at 8:20 pace like he was just out for a stroll. Of we set and I settled in with Valerie, Peter and Derek for the day as we rumbled along at 4:10 pace. As expected first pit stop came around 3 miles and I knew from this point today was going to be a long day. Caught up with the gang again only briefly as another jump the wall was required near 8 miles. This time I got rid of everything and I mean everything both ends, and was looking like a DNF when I got back to halfway. We met Tom coming back against us on target and looking good at 14.5 miles. Got to halfway but I was now feeling much better and for the first time felt I could eat something, scoffed my banana and some mini mars bars. Tom had gone through the Halfway mark in 1:41 pretty much on target. He had discussed this with me last week and the consensuses was to take the first mile easy and ease up to Marathon Pace over the second mile. Was going very well in the second half myself and the pace had picked up. Derek and Peter fell away so just Myself and Valerie until we caught up with Michael a recent MCI member. From here on things got ropey for me, I had no energy, starting to feel dizzy and I really had to concentrate on what I was doing. Now doubt my two companions noted my sudden lack of chat. We got to mile 23 which had a water station, I was hoping maybe there would be some coke but no such luck. Just about to look for a lift back when Valerie shouted back to me to come on its only 3 miles. So the runner in me did just that (us runners are not smart). Now I knew I couldn't hold the pace so I let them off in the distance and concentrated on getting home by doing what Thomas calls the Ultra shuffle. It doesn't look anything like running but at least you are going forward. Got to the finish spent and could only sit down. Got some Coke into me and I was grand again once it hit blood stream. Discovered later that Tom suffered the same fate, unable to take on Gel’s, coming home in 3:28 still a good time but missed his PB by 10 seconds.

Medals

There was however some consolation on the day for Tom as he received his 75th Marathon medal along with Mark Hillard getting his 25th Marathon award. Then the big shock as Tom presented his Father in Law Patsy O’Brien with his 25th Medal.


 

The Marathon

I have always said that this distance is both cruel and rewarding. When all the stars line up and you nail your time its the best feeling in the world. However one small issue on the day and all your work will yield no reward and sometimes a rather horrible experience. I felt gutted for Tom as he has really had put in the work and had nothing to show for it at the end of the day. I have no doubt he will break 3:20 so I am currently only keeping that PB warm for him.

Shiny Happy People Laughing

The good the bad and the ugly

Thats what The Forest Marathon in Portumna was on saturday. The good being the spirit and comradeship of the Ultrarunning Community, volunteers, friends and family that had gathered for this event. The bad is despite all the training when something goes wrong on the day it goes very wrong. The ugly (for me anyway) was the cramps I experienced for the last 3 laps.

Race Day

Woke up Saturday Morning raring to go. First stop toilet see if I can pass, no go so some strong coffee followed by a large bowl of porridge. Check everything's pack followed by an hour's drive back. Picked up my number at registration. My bib number is seven, which as this is my seventh marathon is a good omen I tell myself. Urge to use the potty comes so coffee has done its job again. This prep is identical to prep used in all my marathons to date. Set off to the Start which is near the car park in Aldi to get ready. Getting changed in the car park it occurred to me that local housewives were probably getting more than they bargained for with all these athletic bodies togging out before their very eyes. Sun is shining a perfect day lay ahead.

The Start

Courtesy of Peter Mooney

God hates Marathon runners, today convinced me more of this. No sooner had we left the aldi car park to line up for the start but the heavens opened. You would think that maybe some of the ladies would have brought an umbrella for us to stand under no not on your nellie.
Off course there has to be a holdup and just as we get under way the rain subsides. We must run 2.2K from here until the start of the 5K loop. I pick up with the 3:30 pacer into the park and we are all running nicely and the pace is easy enough.
Start to 2.2K 11:00 (8:03/mile)

Early Laps 

Courtesy of Peter Mooney

My plan was to run this at marathon effort and see what splits I could get. I would need 24:15 to contemplate a shot at sub 3:25. First lap was 24:27 so I eased off to 3:30 pace. Was going along quite nicely at this stage until the end of the second lap. Picked up my first bottle of Electrolyte drink 250ml of water with half a Zym tablet. I have used this for the last 3-4 years in racing and training, hits my stomach and straight away my gut just contracts, like there is a fist trying to get out of there. I hold it down but its several minutes before I can get back on pace. After the issue with the Electrolyte I tried to take water at the turnaround on lap 3 but was only able to take a sip when the stomach again tightened up. This pretty much made my mind up as regards taking a gel at the end of this lap. The 3:30 pacer caught me here as well which really surprised me as I thought I had a little more time up on him. End of lap 3 pace is okay but again a small sip of water is all I can really manage.
Lap 1:  24:27(7:52/mile) Lap 2: 24:52(8:00/mile) Lap 3: 24:58(8:02/mile)

Making your Mind up

I now had a dilemma, stick with the 3:30 pacer and hope that the stomach issue resolves. The risk here is if it does not I will hammer the wall pretty hard and probably not finish. Or just easy back into a easy run pace for the remainder of the race. At best I may get some electrolyte on board but I really doubt I would be able to take on a gel at this pace. I decide to ease back about 2K into the fourth lap.  From here on I vary the pace and have a chat with some of the 100K guys along the way. Some can chat, some are facing their own demons and cant, others are walking and suffering but in true ultra fashion are still moving forward. This is the most enjoyable part of the race for me.
Lap 4: 26:08 (8:25/mile) Lap 5: 27:34 (8:52/Mile)

The Living End

Courtesy of Peter Mooney

Possible the toughest time I have every put down running. I have had bad runs and races before but nothing as hard as this. Still on my sips of water and 2K into Lap 6 bang left calf cramps. Stop try to stretch it (bad move) hamstring goes into spasm. So I start to walk and it dies down. A few minutes later I start running, if tightens up a bit again, but I find the faster I run the better it gets. So I now do an alternate walk/run strategy, 2 mins walk and then run at about 7:30 to 8:00 min pace to the next Km marker. This does not last long as the right hammer brings me to a halt just short of the end of the sixth lap. At the same time whatever ball of gas is in my stomach releases as well, thankfully in the upward direction. I hobble into the finish area contemplating stopping, I go over to my drink stash and I am finally able to take on board electrolyte, probably to little to late. A lady sitting beside my drinks offers me her seat, I was seriously going to go for it when I spot Martin from the Clare Crusaders go through. He is in as bad a shape as me and probably had 10 or 11 more laps to do in the 100K but he wasn't stopping, it spurs me on, I decline the offer and continue. She replied 'I'll mind your drinks for you'. Lap 7 was more of the same walk/run but the run was now dramatically getting slower and slower. At the tail end of the lap, the 4 hour pacers where entering the turnaround section as I was leaving it. The boss gave me a shout, there was no way they where going to pass me. Did the maths as rough as possible and I reckoned 7 min/Km would get me home in front of them. Last lap was pretty much that, kept plugging away and praying not to hear the bosses voice in the background. Finally got to the finish and over the line. Unfortunately I forgot that other runners were still coming through and I think I came close to taking out one of the leading 100K guys when I stopped up too quick at the finish. I hobble to my drinks stash and do take the offer of the chair from the nice lady this time. Her husband is doing his first Marathon and was with the 4 hour guys. Unfortunately he didn't make his time and faded badly on the final lap.
Lap 6: 28:43(9:15) Lap 7: 30:06(9:41) Lap 8: 34:12(11:00/Mile)
Overall Time: 3:52:01 (8:51/Mile)

Taking Positives

On the way back to collect my car in the Aldi car park, I said to the boss would you believe it my knee was never an issue in the race. He retorted 'At least thats a positive from the race'. There was in fact much more positives to be got from this race, the ever helpful volunteers and marshall's, the encouraging waves and words between runners as they meet each other on the course, the mooney clan taking photos and prizes, the lady in the chair, that now famous leap of faith (which I witnessed live for the first time), and the lovely home cooking in the ultra tent. I will take what lessons I need to learn from the last three laps and quickly put the experience to the back of my mind, but the other memories will stay with me for a long time to come.

Forest is a Go

Fingers Toes and everything else crossed

The last week has been hell on earth. A taper without running is not a very nice experience. After going for my pre booked rub down, PT reckoned that the knee was an old injury, Funny It never gave me grief before. Plan was to keep RICE for another few days. So we get the most fabulous weather for running that has not been seen in these fair isle for near on 2 years, what am I doing 7 days before a goal marathon, sitting on my arse with an Ice Pack on my knee. Finally the pain was subsiding and on weekend I hit for Spanish point and several dips in the Atlantic really helped not only with knee but other areas that had got a bit of attention from the PT.

The Test

I could defer Portumna to next year If I wished, but I was really looking forward to this. I also had to give Seb a few days notice, it would be unfair to leave it to the very last minute. Plan was Tuesday 20 lengths with the kickboard and 5 miler on Wednesday with 3 miles at marathon effort. As expected the Tuesday session was not going to be the one to stress the knee and went as expected. Wednesday evenings run was to be a different matter. Started off by weighing myself, up 5 lbs since last time I stood on the scales (24th May before 20 miler), checked my RHR which is normally around 49 to 53 but this was 57 to 62. Aphersivelily I start to run, knee was feeling a little bit funny for the first mile or so. Once I got into the MP pace I kinda forgot about it but with a mile down the other knee starts to feel tight across the top of the thigh. I up the pace and throw in a few butt kicks which thankfully sorts it out. I was ignoring the watch for pace and HR and just concentrating on running at a controlled pace both effort and breathing wise. With the RHR been up and more importantly the extra few pounds I pretty much expected the pace to be around 8 min/mile. When I got home I checked it and as expected 8:03 pace @ 157 HR, unfortunately this is not near 3:25 goal pace and there ain't much I can do other the pray for it to improve between now and Saturday. Final call was this morning to make sure that I got not adverse swelling or soreness from yesterday's blowout. Thankfully all is okay.

The Plan

Pondering last nights figures 3:25 looks beyond me, I have not totally given up on it as sometimes miracles can happen. So I will go out with the 3:30 guys from the start until we get to the start of the first loop. If its easy enough I will see if I can get to and hold 7:45-7:50 pace (24:15/lap) without having to push. If I can't then try and remain with the 3:30 guys. If this becomes an effort before the end of the 5th lap, I will just ease up and let the field gobble me up. The last thing I want to do is put a hard race in my legs just to improve my pb to 3:3x:xx. I will still have enough time to get sub 3:25 before September if I keep the legs fresh. If a sub 3:30 is there however I will take that and leave Boston qualifier till Dublin (3:20 pacers this year), this however would leave me out of the 2014 race. Thankfully the only certain thing I know about saturday is that I will be outside Aldi @ 12:00, so much good and bad can happen after that but thats what makes running Marathons so alluring and what I have missed in the last 18 months.

June 2nd 
        5 Miles M3 Miles Marathon Pace 24:09.2 @ 8:03 HR 157 with 1 Mile WU/WD

Taper Madness

Rest and Recovery

Mainly all easy runs last week, but a new issue has emerged. Prior to herself release from Hospital I had to clean the eve shoots as there were trees growing in them at this stage. Out with the ladder and and cleaned them down. Day after walking downstairs is causing me pain in my Right knee. Taper has truly began I thought to myself and put it to the back of my mind.

Sneak Preview

Paid a visit to Portumna on saturday to check out the 5K loop course for the Marathon. I had originally planned to do 4 laps at marathon pace and Warm up and Warm down section from Aldi Car Park. With last week's disaster of a run and my clicking knees from the ladder on Thursday, I decided to do an Easy 5K first and if everything held up do 2 laps at Marathon pace followed by a 5k cool down lap. From the outset I was very impressed with the running surface in the park, hats off to OPW and Coillte it is perfect, but as for the public road section from the Marina to the turnaround, its littered with potholes, not massive ones but they must be avoided at all costs. The course itself is for the most part very flat. There are two sections up and down, after the start its downhill for most of the First Kilometer and then uphill to the Second Kilometer mark, and from the Marina to the turnaround is uphill and down again back to the Marina. They are not major drags by any stretch but enough to make you work a bit harder. One section I found to be the toughest is the last Kilometer, it is one of those long stretches of road that never seems to be getting any closer, while it appears flat it is the only open section of road and on saturday it was into a stiff enough breeze. Only note of concern with this course is if its a fine/dry day like last saturday there will be a lot of visitors on the trails walking with dogs on leads and young children on bikes. This will causes congestion at times in some sections of the course during the race.

The madness begins

Set off first loop nice and easy then two loops at marathon pace where 24:42 and 24:36 respectively, while this is outside my goal pace the weather conditions (warm sunny evening) meant any faster would be too fast.
Warm down loop was cut short just hit the public road and knee went click and that was that. I could walk on it but running was causing pain. Walked back to the start not knowing for sure if I will even make the start in two weeks time. I had a pre booked visit to a PT for tomorrow and have been RICEing since Saturday so we'll just see what happens.

June 2nd 
        18K Marathon Pace 10K 49:43.2 @ 8:00 HR 157 with 5KWU 3K WD and 2K walk

Signed Up

Committed

Entered Portumna Forest Marathon last week. There is nothing like actually paying for something to focus the mind on training. Once I had done this I quickly set about drawing my training/racing schedule between now and then. Now all that is left is to complete it and avoid any major injuries

It never rains but it pours

When I started running 6 years ago, local races where sparse enough on the ground. This year there is a race on locally every weekend between now and Great Limerick Run in May. At the present moment I have only plans to race Adare 10K and pace both Eamon Moloney Memorial 10K (60 minutes) and Great Limerick Run Half Marathon (2 Hours). My main objective is Portumna and getting my Boston Qualifying time which means I may have to bypass a crack at my Ten Mile PB in either Kilnaboy or Pakie Ryan Memorial Run in Newmarket-on-Fergus.  

Running with a crowd

Normally I am rarely out of the bed at this hour of a Saturday let alone running @ 8 A.M. This was the case last week when I had my first run with B.M.O.H. Meet up the crew in the square where 3 hardy boys already had a 6 mile warm up run done. Tipped along at 8:45 pace for the first 5 miles when we split into two groups. The pace picked up a bit from here so I dropped off for a few miles and meet up with them again later in the run as they took a little detour. Finished 13.5 miles in under 2 hours and just usual stiffness in the legs. Good to run in a group like this but my training cycle is 9 days so I will still be doing some long runs solo.


Feburary 6th
          6 Miles 4 mile Tempo @ 7:38 pace, HR 158 with 1 Mile WU/WD

February 9th  
          13.4 Miles Long Run  1:57:12 @ 8:45 pace, HR 145


February 12th  
          7 Miles 5 Miles Tempo 38:51 @ 7:43 pace, HR 152 with 1 Mile WU/WD

3 in 3

I have not gone mad

No I did not go mad and run three back to back marathons over the weekend. I did however run three events whose accumulated mileage did not even make up to the marathon distance. Friday night was Ennis Tracks Family Twilight Run over 5K in the grounds of Lees Road, followed by the Clare 10K Bra Run for Cancer on Saturday Morning in Ennis and finishing up with pacing duties in Charleville for the Half Marathon.

Running in the dark

My young fella runs twice a year, both times in lees road and both in darkness. Whether its Pieta house Darkness to Light or Ennis tracks Twilight run he is geared up for it. So we are off to lees road for his bi annual race. He wanted to improve on his time but of course he has no training done. He took off  too quick and by the 3K mark he was suffering and I know his time is going to be his worst. He suffered through the last 2K for a 28:05, a sore and not happy camper at all. So hopefully he will do some training or even join a club over the winter.

My moobs are not that big

In my search for a pink bra to wear in the Clare 10K Bra Fun Run on Saturday My daughter had hidden every single one of hers on Friday. There was no way in this world was I going to be wearing one of hers around Ennis on Saturday so I had to resort to wearing one of hers indoors instead. Start was at the west county where it looked like some mad hen party had descended on the hotel. Everyone had attired themselves appropriately soon it was down to St Flannan's to the start and we where sent on our merry way. Used this as a tempo run 2K warn up 8K @ 160-165 HR. Most where walking this or where going to be around the hour mark so for a change I could position myself at the front and not impede any other runners. About 10-12 runners hit off in front of me but I kept to the plan of 2K easy. I picked it up after 2K and started to real in each runner until I got to 7K. At this point I passed Brian Haran who was suffering a bit but was the only person who tried to stay with me after I passed him. He stuck with me until 9K but the hill got the better of him. I spoke with his mam afterwards and he had done a 100 mile charity cycle the week before. He is one tough cookie and one to watch for in the future.

As I was in the top three runners I had a Garda escort at the end of the race or maybe he was contemplating picking me up for indecent exposure.A very enjopyable way to spend a Saturday morning and over €5,500 raised for Breast Cancer Research on the day so well done all.

I'm a celebrity get me out of here

Pacing gig in Charleville on Sunday Morning and as I was gigging the night before I struggled with the early start to get to Sixmilebridge for a rondevu with some of the other pacers. Arrived in plenty of time in Charleville got ready, picked up our black balloons, not very smart a color choice especially when one has to write the time on with a black/blue marker. The boss had made up sheets with our names and time bands to attach to the back of our shirts. I may have needed one but my pacing partner Johnny from North Cork A.C. had no need. You see it seems he is a bit of a celebrity in this neck of the woods. During the start and all throughout the race All I could hear was "how's it going johnny ?".

At the start I realised that I had forgotten to calibrate my foot-pod for the slower pace. So I knew that the pace would show faster on the watch then what we where actually doing. So instead of 9:54 per mile I guessed that this would equate to 9:45 on my watch. My guess was wrong as a result we where down about 15 secs after 2 miles so I recalculated it would need to be 9:37 on the watch. We hit that average pace at Mile 5 and we where bang on every mile marker after this. Charleville is an AIMS accredited race so as expected the Mile markers where dead on and for future reference there was 5K splits as well.
We had a 20-30 in our group up until Mile 8 and from there to Mile 11 this had reduced down to 9. We lost 2 more on the run in, a guy cramped and his mate stayed with him. All the remaining lassies got home under the 2:10. Chip time for the day was 2:09:43 so pretty much done what was asked of us.Anyone considering  this race should do it as its flat and if there is no wind a very good PB course.
The only downside of this race is that the standard of baking and size of the spread afterwards  laid on by the North Cork Ladies will mean you will most likely consume more calories post race then where burnt during the race.