Something Ventured, Nothing Gained

Even after last weeks half baked efforts at session’s combined with the early week scare with my knee, I still was of the mind-set to go for it in Tullamore. Recent 10K/5K times had me somewhere between 1:30 and 1:31 but in my head I convinced myself that having a bash at 1:30 was a good idea. On Friday night I had an Army reunion Dinner in Portlaoise which wasn't going to help but I kept the celebrations limited. Still didn't get to bed until 2:30 AM and still under the grand illusion that 1:30 was doable.

Murphy's Law

Courtesy of Rory Mooney

What can go wrong will go wrong. This is exactly what happened on Saturday, why because I am an idiot and let my head rule my body. Got to the race with herself in tow, not feeling too bad all things considered. Went for my warm-up, stiff as a plank and right knee just didn't feel good after a mile. Mile back it seemed to loosen out so a couple of legs swings at the start. Unfortunately my coffee did not kick in and had no effect on the rear but hopefully the channel was empty. Briefly meet with Gary beforehand and lined up behind the 1:30 guys. Plan was to go with them into the slight breeze to halfway and hang on for dear life. After the last race debacle I wore the GPS watch this time, but no need, two guys had the pace bang on from the go. They explained they would lose some time for the first few miles due to the drag and wind. Splits reflect this 6:49; 6:57; 6:59. Passing mile 3 I had to finally accept that this delusion ejeit was not in 1:30 shape, as this felt extremely hard for Mile 3-4. Only 2 weeks previous I had held faster easily. Group started to slowly disappear from here to mile 6 7:11; 7:11 & 7:34. At mile 6 coffee had finally started to work , “where's the Toilet I enquired”, “Up the road” Two more **** miles up the road. It was quite warm at this point and I was flagging badly 7:27 & 7:06 on the downhill stretch, Finally got the Toilet in Mile 8-9 (9:20). On the bog I did a quick calculation that I would need to be 1:06 or better at Mile 9  to try and get a PB. Soon I departed and hit mile 9 (1:06:31) I thought even if I ran 1:30 pace to the finish I would not get a PB (wear a pace band, you cant do maths in a race). Decided to put in some MP miles instead so the day would not be a total waste of time. 7:22, 7:22; 7:23 where at a manageable effort. As I hit the last mile a Tullamore Harriers Runner passed me. All the marshals lined along the route where encouraging him to stay ahead of me. Race on, so I pursued him and finally caught and passed him on the track, we then got hit with what I can on describe as a Monsoon. Luckily It was for my last 200m. Crossed the Line in 1:36:17 disgusted with myself. Last mile was 6:52 with 0:48 for the bit at the end.

Aftermath

Herself was suitable impressed with the spread that was put on afterwards and it was good. For the race itself you could not fault it in any way. Also the facilities available at the club are damn impressive. Its just a pity we cant run the National Half Marathon there instead of having to do the Rock n Roll thingy in Dublin. For me drive home and the right knee had stiffened up. A wise decision was made last week to book an appointment with Leon for Monday. Realistically I should have done a DNS when it showed signs of stiffness in the warm up,that would require a runner with a brain. I would suspect very few would have actually done any different so us runners brains go out the window once we pick-up our race numbers.

Its madness but its my madness

After making the correct decision to run easy in the build up to Boston, how was I going to curtail the urge to run faster. I had come across this article on Heat Adaptation before and figured I would give a go to see a) would it be of benefit and b) definitely would prevent me from running too hard during the taper.
As explained in the article, first layer base layer, second layer non breathable waterproof. This keeps the sweat from been wicked away from the skin. Third layer warm layer and another fourth layer water/wind proof to keep the heat from escaping. These layers are applied to head and legs as well. There is a warning in the article so I wore a heart rate monitor and never let the heart rate go above 80% (160 bpm).
Of course the first time I deck out with my four layers last week we had temperatures of 16/18 degrees. Herself indoors thinks I should be locked up. During the winter I hit out for a run in Shorts and a tee shirt and just as the summer hits I don 4 layers.God knows what all those who encountered me in the evenings on the Drumcliffe Road thought.

That was harder then I thought

I was going to run @ easy pace until HR hit 80% stop and walk/run back. First night the run only got to 1.25 miles before having to stop and walk to bring the heart rate down. Never felt so drained in all my life on the return journey. Got home base layer soaked and steam rising off me and drained. Continued on over the last seven days and yesterdays evening run I managed to do the whole 5 Mile run (2.5 miles out and back) with the HR hovering close to 80% but not getting to it. Still felt drained towards the end but I could handle it better. What I did notice last night was that while there was more sweat on the base layer the was very little salt staining in comparison to the first night. At least this proves that the adaptation has had an effect in reduce the amount of electrolyte I was losing under the conditions. Fortunately the forecast in Boston means I wont experience high temperatures but as they say what doesn't kill will only make you better.

The last session

This is the one that will determine what time I go for on Monday. 2 Miles warm-up, cover the watch and run what feels like Marathon effort(HR was worn to verify its not too hard/easy) for 3 miles. In my last few marathons this has always been a pretty good indicator of where I am at. Conditions for the run this morning are pretty similar to what is expected in Boston on Monday. Perfect conditions if they hold up. Set off felt really fresh 3 miles in 22:19 (7:27) pace. Felt very comfortable overall so much so that the HR reflected this @ 149 average. A little below what I would expect so the target for Monday is definitely sub 3:15 by how much we will see.

Dogs

Recently I have had a spate of dogs chasing me on runs. This again continued on Thursday Morning, about 3 miles into a 11 mile Run a young German Shepard rocked up beside and frightened the living daylights out of me. For a brief second I was worried but he turned out to be very friendly, we had a little chat. He had no collar or means of identification on him, and came about 100m with be on the run before deciding it was not a good idea to follow me. I rang local dog pound on my return who informed me he had been picked up. I really hope he finds a good home would love to take him but we just don't have the space a dog of this size needs and he clearly doesn't like long distance running.

A Step Up

Dusted off my copy of P&D and started the race prep section for Boston. Since I have been averaging 45-50 miles a week for the last year I have decided to give the 55-70 mile plan a crack. I wont stick exactly to the plan and have to juggle some key runs around to suit my commitment to pace Tralee Marathon. One thing I noticed is that some mileage will be adjusted. There are some Medium Long Runs of 15 miles, that would take me over the 2 hour mark which in my view turns the session into a long run. For these I will run based on time of 1:50 and 1:40 for the shorter runs. Same is true of recovery runs in excess of 6 miles. I will keep recovery runs to 50 minutes for the longer ones and 40 minutes for the shorted runs. This week was hard and this was after a marathon in my legs on the previous Saturday. On Saturday morning I did Long run with 12 miles at Marathon Pace/effort. Location was the nearly five loop of Finn Lake in Ballycar. I have forgotten how beautiful this stretch of road is early of a sunny Saturday morning, I also forgot how bad the road surface is in spots.I cover the watch for these but the combination of a poor road surface and tired legs, this turned out to be a very tough run. Never got into my stride and the last 3 miles really tested me to finish them. The watch and HR showed that I was near enough Marathon effort but the pace was slower then I would hope for. This is the main reason I never try to hit paces in these runs. I would like to think my current Pace would be 7:35 to 7:30 minute miles, but last Saturday that was not in the legs and I think there is no need to force the issue especially as the previous 7 days I had clocked 75 miles my biggest ever 7 day total.

Miles	Time	Average HR	Pace
1-3	0:23:04.9	152	07:41.6
3-6	0:22:52.1	153	07:39.5
6-9	0:23:22.0	154	07:42.1
9-12	0:23:19.0	155	07:43.2

It just got Better

After the disappointment of not improve my 5K PB. I hit the fairgreen in Ennis for one of my favourite sessions on Wednesday. 1200m repeats of 400m @ 10K pace followed by 800m @ Marathon Pace. No rest/recovery between any legs/sets just one straight up run. As I hadn't done this in a while I decided that 8 repeats would be enough. Set the paces based on the 5K time from Saturday (1:43 and 3:46), and cruised through it. Felt really good and strong throughout and the MP sections normally get very tough towards the end where very manageable so much so I threw in and extra 2 repeats to bring it to ten. I was very delighted with the run and the HR data which I looked at afterwards indicated that I could go much faster/harder. Either I had a bad race on Saturday for whatever reason or it really sharpened me up. Either way things are going in the right direction.

Old Friends

Jack Healy and Larry Rigney are two guys I have great respect for and when I saw that Jack was race director for a  Marathon in their native parish it was first on my list for the year. Never been to the centre of the Universe (Ireland) before and had heard that the course was of a slightly undulating nature neither where every going to put me off going. Plan for the day was decided after I overlaid Seville's Training Program and found that I had ran Craughwell in 2013 with the last loop at Marathon Effort. Was going to give this a whirl today. Friday night family DVD night saw me break out and consume some Chocolate and Coke, I was regretting it on the drive to Killeigh with my co pilot Tom. We got there with plenty of time to spare and time to do some running repairs on an ingrown toenail. This had the effect of taking the heat out of my feet so for the first lap they felt quite numb and took that long to warm up. Myself, Paul Hogan and John set out on the first loop. John had tweaked something in his hamstring during the week and it was still giving him jib after 3 miles. He decided to pull up and call it a day as had bigger fish to fry next week in Donadea. Hopefully he makes it to there. Towards the end of the second lap I saw the error of my ways the night before unfold rather quickly. I had surveyed the first lap and unfortunately there was no adequate concealed area for me to take a dump. This meant making it back to the start area to use modern facilities. Past several people here including Tom and George at somewhere south of 6:30 pace. Hooked up with Paul again shortly afterwards and we where joined by Alan and Cezary. Company was good and miles ticked on nicely until I had another visit to you know where at the end of the 4th Loop. This left me on my own as, and I had no intention of catching the guys back up, saving myself for the last lap. Crossed lap 5 and noted the clock was 3:16 and set about going as hard as I could. It was tough but manageable. Stiff breeze and hills where a lot more noticeable when going that bit harder. Finished out the lap strong to get in under 3:50. Did the last loop 4.4 miles in 33:17 just a little outside 7:30 pace. This combined with my good session on Wednesday Night has convinced me to have another crack at a Marathon PB in Boston.

Tik Tok part Deux

Preamble

Some information that is needed to give the reader some perspective on this run. My last Tik Tok experiment was done before Christmas in relatively ideal running conditions, for the second part Saturday afternoon was one with blustery showers. Since then I have lost 7lbs weight and I am pretty close to my race weight, well family keep remarking on it anyway. I have attempted three of these type runs over the last two years 4-5 weeks out from a goal marathon long PMP run, all have ended in disaster or non completion at target pace. This left me a bit apprehensive going into the session. 18 miles with 14 @ PMP. Well I wouldn't be worrying about the time as plan is not to look at the watch, cover it up and take a split every 3 miles and the last two miles, over the same 5 mile loop as the last time.

The session

Two mile warm up involved a few stops to try and sort out the footwear, eventually readjusted the socks as a seam was niggling the foot. Started off and tried to settle into what felt like a sustainable pace. Immediately got a shower with the wind picking but luckily it was a tailwind. Flying along but once I hit a few small hills I quickly realised that the pace was a bit too hot. It was maybe 2 miles before I thought I got it under control. Mile 3-6 and 6-9 conditions were good and I was motoring along hard but definitely a sustainable pace. Miles 9-12 started with the part that has a mile of hills and another blustery shower only this time the wind was in my face. Trying to sustain the pace now had become an effort so I had to dial it back a bit. In the final 2 miles I was able to pick up the pace a bit again once conditions got a bit better but things were starting to get a bit tougher. For the first time ever I got through this type of session, the legs where a bit tired towards the end of the run which is to be expected as I am at the peak of my training. It won't be like this on race day as I will have the taper to freshen up the legs before hand. Times below reflect the conditions on the day, I was very happy with the run but even happier when I got back to the car to review the splits. I was expecting an improvement but got a nice surprise when I say the splits

Miles	Time	Average HR	Pace
1-3	0:22:12.4	154	07:24.1
3-6	0:22:41.4	159	07:33.8
6-9	0:22:38.9	159	07:33.0
9-12	0:23:07.3	160	07:42.4
12-14	0:15:10.0	161	07:35.0

Dilemma

The next part of the plan includes a tune-up race. Sunday in Dungarvan has been on the cards for a long time. Ever since the pacer diner in Dublin when I mentioned it at the table John Desmond inquired what time would I like to get. I said I would love to be in sub 70 shape. Now if you asked me before Saturdays run I would have said 71-72 minutes was more realistic but since Saturday a shot of sub 70 is on the cards. Its not my goal race but I will go out with the 70 minute pace group and see how things pan out.

Normal Service Resumed

PMP or PME

What is my PMP time? I am aiming for sub 3:25 in Portumna so you would say its sub 7:49 pace. However if you enter my 10K PB set this spring various calculators will spit  out times ranging from 3:28 to 3:19 and just because a calculator spits out a certain time there is no guarantee that you will achieve this on the day.  Recently I have started to introduce Planned Marathon Pace into my Long Runs and Tempo sessions so what pace should I be running these miles at ? 7:49 obviously.
First of these session in the bridge one morning. A favourite of the running coach, some of the lads were doing 15 miles 2 miles warm up with 3 * 3 Miles PMP with 1 mile recovery in between. There PMP speed was around 8:15 so I tagged along at that as I had a 20 mile session down for the day. First 2 were grand but I decided when the others had gone their merry way to try the third @ 7:50 pace, by then the breeze had picked up and 2 miles where on an incline under these conditions it was a struggle to hold the pace. A struggle I won but it was more LT/10K effort. I was pretty disappointed with this at the time. The next session 10 mile PMP run, after two miles a malfunction on my watch meant that it lost connection with foot pod and HR unit (watch battery low) thus leaving me with a dumb stopwatch. I ran the rest of the run on feel as I had no clue of splits on the route. Finished with 1:16:40 for 10 miles 7:40 pace suitably elated and trying to figure out did that run come from. Conditions were ideal, which brought home to me that these runs should be done by effort rather than sticking to a pace. I have now reverted back to the old method of the body telling the brain when we are at Marathon Effort. Last 2 runs have been done like this and in wet and windy conditions. One was at 7:55 pace and the other at 7:49 pace. So currently my marathon pace is anywhere between 7:40 and 7:57 pace largely determined by factors outside of my control, the Irish Weather. Rather than trying to hit a certain pace in my PMP runs I have now resorted to running on what it should feel like or what I perceive it should feel like.

Short Stuff ain't easy

I have pencilled in two of the Clare Sports Partnership Summer Series races just to sharpen me up for Portumna, so on Friday last for the first time in nearly three years that I have raced a 5K or 4 Miler in anger and it showed. It was also my first opportunity to wear the new club gear. After a 2 Mile warm up with some downhill strides I hit the start, goal was to get as near to 27 mins or 6:45 average as possible. Course is uphill first mile undulating for second and third with a downhill stretch to the finish. Fresh breeze which will be in our faces on the way home so it should make the splits more even.

Lined myself up two or three rows back near Liam Daly of Ennis Track. I reckon if I beat him or could stay with him I would be near enough to my goal time. A quick word from James Sexton at the start about KM markers that took up legs and walked and off we went. From the offset it was clear hanging on to Liam was not going to happen, stayed with him for first half mile but no way I was going to hold this pace up. Tucked into a group of six, first mile split was 6:47 second mile started with a quick downhill but Liam was still gaining and at the first left turn I was 20 seconds or so behind. At this point I concentrated on staying with the group as the last mile and a half were going to be into the breeze. Mile 2 slightly quicker 13:29 still on target. After this the wheels came off. Group started to split, 3 lads in front picked up the pace dropping three of us but the other two guys were slowing dramatically leaving me on my own.  Try as I could I failed to bridge the gap to the guys in front who eventually split as well. Mile 3 showed 20:45. Final mile is downhill when some guy come alongside. I tag onto him for as long as possible maybe half a mile but he gradually he got away from me. Coming towards the finish I could see an Ennis Track vest coming alongside, I dug in and picked up the pace enough to open and maintain the gap till the finish. Cross the line James Sexton calls 27:28. I don't even look at the watch, my lungs are on fire and my stomach is about to evacuate its contents which very nearly happened.
The usual cup of Tea afterwards but for personal reason I have to make a quick exit so I don't hang around. Final results show me finishing 37th out of 185 overall. On reflection I was not in 27 minute shape and my lack of races/bad luck cost me maybe a 27:15 as I failed to stay with the 3 guys in the middle of the race but nonetheless another PB bagged. Next race is 5K in Ennis at the end of the month just before my Taper.

April 25th

          12 Miles, 10 Miles PMP 1:16:42 @ 7:41 pace,  No HR with 1 Mile WU/WD

April 28th

          15 Miles Long with 3*3 PMP and 1 Recovery 23:12/7:44,23:15/7:45,23:33/7:49, No HR 2 Miles WU/WD

May 1st         
          8 Miles Tempo 6 miles 44:46 @ 7:28 (10K pace + PMP) with 1 Mile WUWD

May 5th

          13.1 Miles Long run 1:59:28 @  9:09 pace, Pacing GLR Half Marathon

May 8th

          20 Miles, Long Run last 8 Miles 1:03:19 @ 7:55 pace

May 10th

          6 Miles, 4 Mile Road Race 27:28 @ 6:52 pace