The Biggest Smile - Part 1

So here I was a little disappointed but relived as I approached the finish line. Marathon number 50 done, my first official Ultra but the wheels had come off big time over the final 6K that I missed my secondary target of 4:10 which I felt was well within my scope. This feeling didn’t last long as once I crossed the line it turned to sheer joy, I suddenly had as Seb put it “the Biggest Smile in Portumna”

The night before

On receipt of an Email prior to the event I soon realised that we could pitch tents the night before the event. This appealed to me as there would be less stress involved in trying to get to the 7AM start if I went the night before. Went to Limerick on Thursday and picked up on of these pop-up tents. As not to look stupid I did a trial run on setting it up. Popup tent does what it says on the tin, but getting it back into the bag took an half an hour to figure out. Arrived in Portumna on Friday evening to see several hotels already pitched there. So I set my minion tent besides Finns minion tent in the shadow of Hotel MacKessy fitted with its own elevator and en suite bathrooms. What a way to relax the night before an event burgers, wine both red and yellow, Mo produced a guitar so a sing-song started. Only downside was the midgets where having a field day on us. Pretty soon we all retired to our respective abodes for the night. Didn’t sleep to well but never do before a goal race any way.

Race Time

Courtesy of Mary Mockett

Up at 5 am got my number, breakfast. Alan Gorski joined me at the table and he was bemused that I could eat so close to a race. Luckily that has always been the case my issues seem to be on other side of that particular equation. Vincent Gutherie had the kettle on and I got a coffee which moved the necessary, a quick warm up and off to the start.
I had initial after a strong finish in The Burren thought that sub 4 was a possibility but the recent heat/humidity had raised doubts on this. I decided not to wear a GPS watch and wear a HRM for the first few laps to ensure I didn’t overdo the effort early. Took off at the start and found myself a bit to close to the front HR showed the effort to be a bit too high ignored it for 1K. It was however still rising so I dropped the pace back. This left me running comfortably with Mark who I meet in Ballyvaughan for the first two laps. Both came in over 25 minutes so I decided that 4:10 would be more likely time. Discarded the HR Strap and picked up the pace from here and try and hold the effort till the end.
My original plan was to bring my Son Christopher with me to act as crew, he neither had the inclination of getting up at 3 AM or coming camping with me for the pleasure of watching his dad run around in circles for the day. So on Lap 3 as I rummaged through my supplies under the MCI table Brenda Barrett Dunphy immediately volunteered to take over the roll. Nutrition for the day was going to be a mix of Jaffa’s and Pringles every second lap. It worked very well, I would tell Brenda what I needed for the next lap and it was available on arrival.

Courtesy of Mary Mockett

Not much to say about the race, laps flew by, the half marathoners soon joined us and the course was now busy. As they passed me it didn’t bother me as I was well in tune with my pace and moving nicely. Briefly spoke with CM from boards where we discussed which was worse been dead or injured, I think we concurred that death was the better option. At around 38K I passed Alan Gorski he was struggling, I was motoring. Passed the 40K mark and I was about a minute up on 4:10 pace but from here on things started to get difficult. Once we passed the 2K marker I really had to grind. My legs were starting to feel dead as doorknobs. Antos friend gave me a lift after this which got me going again until I hit 44K. The cool breeze we had in the morning on the long last kilometre of the loop had suddenly turned into a Calima. This knocked the stuffing out of me. Kept running, I was not going to walk just keep in moving. Hit 45K 3:45:xx on the clock, this meant I needed a sub 25 final 5K, spurred on by the crowd I lifted the pace but once I hit the climb at 1K the pace dropped again to I kept going but the pace was gone from my legs 4:10 was gone at this point. Got to the turnaround looking for coke or anything to lift me. No coke took an orange instead. Started to walk for a bit. Saw Alan coming against me and decided there and then right he is not passing me out so I started running again. Combination of the Orange and the downhill I got up to a reasonable pace but once we hit the 4K again it was a death march to the finish. In my head just keep running while trying to listen for footsteps behind, they never came I crossed the line in 4:12:24.

You can’t be serious

Courtesy of Mary Mockett

I then heard Seb announce over the microphone 3rd place finisher in the 50K. What I initially thought there is a mistake here, but then slowly remembered who was doing the timing. My God the sensation of going from the dejection of missing a target to finishing 3rd from 100 runners in the race was some buzz. Immediately returned to the MCI table and gave my stand-in crew a massive hug. Sheer joy Seb was right I had the biggest smile on my face. Cracked open a can of 95.7% water for rehydration and took my rightful place on the Podium.

Results

Courtesy of Trish Carey

On looking at the results I gained places troughout the race. My last lap was not as slow as I thought on the course and everyone seemed to to suffer to the same degree. I was only 2 minutes outside 2nd place but those 2 minutes where outside my reach. The winner Rory Mooney was of course a country mile ahead and the closest I got to him all day was on the podium.
 
 

 

 

 

Splits for the nerds
0:25:54,0:25:43,0:24:45,0:24:28,0:23:57,0:24:33,0:24:28,0:24:58,0:25:37,0:28:02 4:12:24 3/97

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.

What a year for the roses

As I close of 2014 I cant help but look back at probably my best year running. Ran 2170 miles for the year my highest ever. Ran 12 marathons and got personal best at 5K, 10K, 10 Mile, Half and Full Marathons. At the start of the year I would have taken half of that. Haven't decided what the goals are for 2015, I have some options but nothing definite as off yet.

Trial and Error

Going to Portumna on Saturday morning must have been the first time that I really felt I had a greater chance of a non finish then a finish. Fitness was not the issue but I fear that a recurrence of what caused me to get constant injuries a couple of years ago had reared its head again. I need not have worried as the more the run progressed the better my hip/glutes felt, my only issue was that I set a new record for the number of pit stops Three. The other indicator as you can gather is an inflamed bowel which lets go pretty quickly when I run. Luckily there are plenty of hiding places from the grizzly's in Portumna. Had a good day and some craic/chat and banter along the way. Looking forward to running more of these next year. The other reason I ran Portumna is I am contemplating racing the 50K next June. My only other race there before was a disastrous Boston Qualifier attempt. While the course is perceived to be relatively flat it is tough and I found there is two short unnoticeable climbs that can zap the legs over 10 laps with a turnaround it probably not an ideal 50K course, however it does fit my time scale. Not going to make a final decision until maybe February.

Health and Fitness

While my fitness is at its best level in my life my health has taken a dip. A recurrence of Bowel Inflammation had me at the Doctor on Christmas Eve. The last occurrence several years was successfully treated with NSAIDs and a GP who would listen. I asked her to check my Vitamin D levels, which came back extremely low. After treating this the Inflammation cleared without having to resort to the use of steroids. Unfortunately she wasn't available on the day and Fill in Doctor just wanted to script me an 8 week course of Steroids. The Vitamin D test takes a month to come back anyway was his response. I tried to explain that I would prefer to try the NSAIDS first as before and Steroid's would have the side effect of not been able to recover sufficiently from running leading to other complications. He said well then don't run. Doctors differ patients die. I told him I would wait until my regular GP came back and not to bother filling the script. I don't think he was to impressed with me.

The niggles

Pretty much has summed up my running since after Eiddie Murphy. I had hoped to add one more achievement to this years tally in getting a sub 20 5K. Duhallow AC 5K in Newmarket was pencilled in late last October as the target race. Started to do 5K endurance work with some hill and faster intervals from about mid October. Thrown in the middle of this was Eddie Murphy Marathon my 25th for the year. I conceded that a weeks of very easy running would be need after this, an post midnight urge to use the little mans room settled this in no doubt both adductors seized up to such an extend I had to bum shuffle downstairs to relieve myself. At that point a week off was set in stone.

Return again, again and again

Always seems to happen, you take a week off running and every niggle ache seems to get magnified. Each time I tried a session which entailed me running fast the aftermath was some thing giving me grief from my right Achilles, left glutes or both adductors. This had the result in starting to miss/reduce some of the key 5K workouts and faster intervals.

2000 Miles

Along the way somewhere towards the start of the month I passed the 2000th Mile of running for the year. My first time to reach this which shows how consistent my running has been and this year I got through it without having to lay  up due to an injury. What was the difference this year ? When my body said I’m sore or tender I listened and adjusted my goals rather then blindly ploughing ahead with whatever training plan I was following at the time. Unfortunately recently this was becoming a bit too frequent.

Bad, worse and prospective

With the race fast approaching I planned a 6*1K 5K effort on a local track. It was a bit windy when I got there and squally showers where not helping matters. First was 4:06, feck that’s under target, pushed a bit harder on the next 4:11, crap pushed harder again to an extent that it felt unsustainable for 5K 4:16, feck this for a game of cowboys and canned the session. So a crap session 4 days before the race, maybe on race day it would come together. The following few days I got my prospective, My Uncle had a massive heart attack and passed away. He had a good innings and while it was sudden it wasn't unexpected. The day of his burial while bring him into the cemetery I lost my footing while carrying the coffin, in an effort to not drop the coffin I pulled something in my left glutes/hamstring/adductors. This effectively put paid to any thoughts of racing in Cork last Sunday. Having completely rested for the last week I ran 4 miles easy on Christmas eve without any major side effects so I will try and get a few miles in Thursday/Friday and if all goes well I may well give 26.2 a lash in Portumna on Saturday

A long road up to recovery from here, a long way to making it right

Recovery

Even backing off and walk/running the last 6 miles of last Saturday's Marathon, Sunday Morning was the familiar sight of me walking down the stairs backwards. By Monday I had recovered to the extent that I could now go forward front ways. Went to the local pool and did about 12 laps easy swim with a combination of easy kick drills. This did wonders for the legs. Tuesday I felt good enough to go for an very easy 5 mile recovery run, same on Wednesday. Thursday saw me go for a bit longer, had planned 8 but time restrictions (collect young lad from training) meant it was cut short to 6.5 miles. Saturday came and felt adventurous and went for 12 miles. All was okay until about mile 9 when the legs were starting to feel the pace again. Cut back the pace significantly for the last 3. With hindsight maybe 8-10 miles might have been a better option. Had planned to do 4-5 miles on Sunday but the legs were telling me otherwise. Another 5 miles easy this evening and things are starting to go in the right direction. Have a planned tempo run for tomorrow but we shall see what happens.

Nighty Night

One of the biggest tools in the speeding up of my recovery has being sleep. I am trying to get in as much as possible, a solid eight hours at night and even forty winks during the day where possible. To help with this the stimulants also have to get a knock in the head to a degree, i.e. caffeine and the yellow pints. Okay I did have a few deserved scoops after Portumna, which was to be expected. Overall I am happy with my recovery but my HR readings for both resting and easy pace are still a little higher then I would like them to be.

Reflection and Going forward

While it might be easy to blame the lack of salt/electrolyte for my cramps on the day in Portumna. In truth they may only have being a contributing factor. There was other things at play in the lead up to Portumna that probably added to it. Stress, in both my personal life and work for the month of May, saw my quality of training take a dip. At the time I didn't spot that my condition had deteriorated slightly and kept pushing the pace of some runs where maybe an easy back may have yielded better results. Hard Miles, or lack off of on tired legs. My training was loosely based on run less run faster, where you Cross Train between hard sessions and do very little recovery runs on tired legs. Aerobically I benefited from this plan in that I was always fresh for the next hard session, but both mentally and physically I wasn't prepared or had forgotten what it takes to run on very tired legs for the last 6 miles of a marathon. I am going to return back to some Hadd training again and try and add in extra days recovery runs. Hopefully the added mileage occurs without picking up any niggles along the way. I have also pencilled in one of the 10 in 10 marathons and currently I am on the reserve list for EOI marathon in early August. Whether I do these marathons or not, is unclear at the moment so I will leave that decision until nearer the day. If I do them they will be at a recovery pace (4:30 to 5:00), after which I will access where I am at in mid august to see if another stab at Boston Qualifier is in the legs.

June 18th  
          5 Miles Recovery 45:56 @ 9:12 HR 140

June 19th  
          5 Miles Recovery 46:06 @ 9:14 HR 140

June 20th  
          6.5 Miles Recovery 1:00:00 @ 9:14 HR 140

June 22nd 
       12 Miles Long Recovery 1:48:34 @  9:03 pace, HR 143      

June 25th  
          5 Miles Recovery 45:59 @ 9:12 HR 140

       

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

Recovery - "Love the way you lie"

Recovery Run

"Just gonna stand there and watch me burn
But that's alright, because I like the way it hurts"
My alarm ringtone the lovely Rihanna has interrupted my sleep again @ 6:30 A.M. This morning is one of those many recovery runs, the ones that you do after doing 20 miles the day before. Why in gods name would you want to even attempt to run when you are going down the stairs like someone twice your age. Simple it may hurt but I like the way it hurts and afterwards you will have a spring in your step again.
For the last year I have reduced the length of these runs from 5 to 3 miles but added in 20 lengths (25m) of the pool with the emphasis been on my kick rather the time and pull. This has had a very positive effect on recovery of my legs while at the same time reducing the impact from the extra miles.
Now I have never been a morning person but due to herself been out of action recently I have reverted my runs to early morning as its the only time I realistically can get them in. So it was with dread I took to the pool for the first time earlier this month after a 3 mile run in bright frosty conditions. Well I needn't have worried, it was like getting into a Jacuzzi it was that warm. I really enjoyed the swim and the legs felt really invigorated after it. I now really look forward to my early morning recovery runs.

Marathon Paced Run with spice added

Came across this recently on the interweb and decided to give it a blast to see its effect. Basically Run the first 1 minute of the mile at 10K pace and the drop back to Marathon Pace. Rinse and repeat for each mile. I pencilled in 8 miles of this last week but six was more than enough as it felt quite hard even to maintain Marathon Pace for miles five and six. Repeated this again today and while not as hard as last week, the last 2 miles (after the 10K segment) felt like the effort in the 3rd quarter of a marathon without having to run 13 miles before hand. The aim of this is to trick the body into conserving energy at a higher HR when we drop back the pace after the initial burst at the start of each mile. Its hard to gauge if this is having an effect at this early stage but as they say if i doesn't kill you it makes you stronger.

Boston Madness

Like many runners I was shocked and horrified at  the scenes at the finish of this years marathon. This has only heightened our resolve to be at the start next year's race. For this I need a GFA sub 3:25 but I suspect that may not even be enough as last weeks events will ensure that next years race will be over subscribed. With this in mind I will most likely need sub 3:20. Currently my pace would be 3:22 based on my Adare 10K. This was run in ideal conditions so I am sitting on 2 options here. Get the 3:25 first and have a shot @ 3:20 in August/September or just go for it in Portumna.

Club Run

Next week is the clubs annual 10K run. Details can be found here. I will not be running or even pacing this as I am in on a recovery week next week so Hi-vis vest for me and give a hand at the start and finish.

April 1st
          15 Miles  Long Run 13 Miles 1:46:12 @ 8:11 pace,  HR 154 with 1 Mile WU/WD

April 4th
          10 Miles Tempo 8 Miles 1:00:15, @ 7:32 pace, HR 157 with 1 Mile WU/WD

April 7th
           6.2 Miles 5*1000M off 400M Recovery @ 4:04 pace (4:01 to 4:05) with 1 Mile WU/WD

April 10th
          18 Miles Long run 2:42:51 @  9:02 pace, HR 139 (last mile @ 7:40 pace)

April 13th
          12 Miles,Tempo 10 miles 1:19:18 @ 7:56 pace, HR Malfunction with 1 Mile WU/WD

April 17th
          8 Miles Tempo 6 miles 45:10 @ 7:33 (10K pace + PMP) with 1 Mile WUWD

April 20th
          20 Mile Long run 2:53:05 @  8:36 pace, HR Malfunction (2 * 3 Mile PMP included)

April 23rd
          8 Miles Tempo 6 miles 44:58 @ 7:30 (10K pace + PMP) with 1 Mile WUWD

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