Holiday Time

While most people tend to struggle to get runs in over the holiday period, I am the opposite. The time that the Donohue clan don't hit the Algarve means a stay at home vacation. This normally involves at some point me running a marathon. I had managed to convince the clan this year to head for West Cork namely Clonakility and by chance it coincided with the Keith Whyte Ultra. The cat was let out of the bag about four days before hand when one of the offspring came across one of the many Team Hoyt posts on Facebook. Anyway a beautiful day, in a beautiful location surrounded by beautiful people. Marathon number 36 in 3:50 with two miles cool down one pushing a chair.

It was great to see Fozzy win the 100K much deserved and his club mate David had a great race coming back from a close DNF to get second. Loads of Marathon club Members got their medals and the highlight been Leo on his 100th as well as the Cake.

Afterwards while waiting 20 minutes for a plate of chips after the race in the Courtmacsherry Hotel, I noticed Team Hoyt in a side room out of the glare of the media. Dick was changing, feeding and generally looking after Rick. Personally I think Eimear Hurley summed this up correctly when she called him a remarkable Father.

Next phase

I have been loosely following a program form Italian coach Renato Canova. There is really no set program like HH or P&D and most of his online posts on sessions relate to elite runners with not very good English. So looking at various internet resources I have based them against time. A Two hour session for an elite is a Two hour session for me, mileage and paces will vary. My recent 5K time puts me able to at least train at sub 3:10 pace for an Autumn Marathon. Hopefully the gods will shine on me and that will be the result but I won't say no to a sub 3:15 if that's what pans out. So I downloaded an excel spread sheet courtesy  of T_Runner on Boards or whatever he is called now. My aim for the next Six weeks is to do a mix of shorter faster session midweek with the longer slower ones on the weekend. In between will be 5 mile or 4 & 7 Mile recovery days.

First up in Clon on the Wednesday was 7* 1K @ 6:35 pace with 1K recovery @ 8 minute pace. All Recovery intervals in this phase will be ran at 8 minute pace. On paper this looked hard but I nailed it and was really pleased that this was done given the race on Saturday. The following Saturday I did 3 * 5K @ 21:49 with 1K recovery again at 8 minute pace. Horrible wet and windy day but nailed it again. These 2 sessions really gave me confidence about the remaining sessions in the coming weeks. 22:00 was my 5K PB only 3 years ago now I was stringing 3 of them together in a session. Tougher ones to come but I feel I have step up to the plate and will get through them.

Up and Over

Marathon De Escargot’s in Portarlington was the destination for my latest Marathon. Having meet Mark chief bottle washer for the day on the course in Dublin twice, once as a runner and secondly as a DJ I felt it was time to participate in his event. This event’s funds go 100% to charity so I was happy enough to part with the few €’s and once I got an accurately measured course with a bit of grub afterwards was all I was looking for and that's what I got.

Pre Race

Unfortunately this race coincided with Willie week. This normally means gigs in Milltown Malbay into the early hours. This was the case on Friday night got home at 4am so the decision to get the train to this race was a safer option then driving as I could very well fall asleep at the wheel on the return leg. Train from Ennis would get me to the start with 20 minutes to spare. That's if Irish rail play ball. They didn't, I had to change and Vaseline up in the bog of the train, which was a new experience. Train arrived in Portarlington @ 9:15 and even with the short walk to number pickup it was 9:20, ten minutes before the start. This still left enough time to meet with some old friends, Eamon who I had not meet since his Dalmatian Run in November was about to try a Marathon again as well Frank, John, Dipak, Leo and Patrick the Belgium.

Race Time

Soon we set off. Water was in short supply for the first 3 or 4 miles and of course it was the one time I was thirsty. Plenty of water and fruit, jellies etc. after that. Todays race plan was, 4.5 Miles Warm Up followed by 4 sets of 7:10 min pace for 2 miles and 8:00 min pace for 2.5 miles. Race went pretty much to plan expect the third set was into the wind and when we turned out of it, I was expecting a cross/tail wind, but it was still in my face, a bit demoralising but toughed through it. The marshals where great along the way and passing/catching runners makes this type of session easier to do in a race then on ones own. Finished the set and after 1-2 miles easy picked up the pace to roughly 8 minute pace again to finish in 3:36:34. Medal is class acts as a bottle opener as well. T-Shirt was cotton, in fairness the organisers where trying to do something different with this, I would prefer none and give more funds to the charity.

Tea Party

Got my cuppa tea and several (packets) of Custard Creams. The girl doing the tea/food was solo which didn't help things but it turned out there was a valid enough reason for this. Having been involved in organising club races I get what happened. Traffic on the course meant runners safety was far more important then the speed of tea pouring. I still got a good feed so no complaints here. Not a photograph of me to be found must start wearing a pink running gear again.

Travelled home in the company of Club mate Antonio who failed again to go sub 3:30, but as he said he was in a better state afterwards this time. His time will come in Dublin.

Step up

Mileage has really come up since I started to concentrate on P&D 55-70 Plan. Even with only 28 Days in February I still managed to equal my largest monthly mileage of 220 Miles. While some runs have been very hard due to fatigue this week saw a pencilled in recovery week. By Friday morning I was really feeling fresh. So much so I decided that the 4 miles Easy/Recovery where not going to serve any purpose other then add miles to a total so I decided not to run but do 40 or so lengths of the local pool instead.

Parkruns

In Two weeks a new Parkrun will start in Lees Road Ennis. A place I know only too well and I was asked to map out some possible routes for the run, and while the final route is not finished I can say its one of those seanic routes with rolling hills. On Saturday I travelled to the nearest Parkrun in Clarisford, Killaloe just to get a flavour of what the event is about. After a quick race brief course description we went to the start and 123 we are off. Trotted along at an easy pace finishing in 25:06, but still managing 1st in my age category. Luckily Curley Cunningham is older then me yet he manage to pass me twice. Overall it does what it says on the tin. A timed run over 5K Distance in a park. While around 75 ran I would expect initially the numbers to be bigger in Ennis. We just need to get enough volunteers for the first few runs. Anyone interested drop an email to john[at]claresportspartnership[dot]ie.

Spring is in the Air

Definitely not. Sundays return to the Marathon distance was a tough one. An encounter that will some day serve me well At the start of lap 3 in UL at about Mile 14 I got hit with what I can only describe as the hail storm from hell. Nasty ice bullets hopping off me. The easy thing to do was turn left into the start finish area and DNF. Did it enter my head no, I luckily had my head in the right place for these sort of conditions. I soldiered on and after struggling for much of the first half. It seemed to galvanise me to a strong finish. Talking with a certain RD from Clonakilty afterwards I would concur with his assessment that racing is 99% in your head. He is right, if your head is in the right place your body will cope with most anything you ask it to do. Sunday’s run ended up been on paper a stroll at 4:05:00 but in fact it was much more then that, it was the manner in which I finished out the run that gave me as much real satisfaction as if I had done a PB. A special word about a guy who never says much but on Sunday delivered some of the best facilities we could ask for. Together with his family we where really well looked after in the form of a stream of never ending tea/coffee and all sorts of confectionary with the added bonus of a nice hot shower afterwards. Derek and Maryse take a bow.

PB's and Hills

Tempo Running !!

I decided to venture down and see what kinda tempo run the boss does on a Tuesday Night. On arrival Richie's clock has been transported to the complex so we could keep track of our times. This should have set off alarm bells but when the boss says we are running a 5K time trial and you can run it at any pace you want. This code for flatout as fast as you can, and there are no prizes for guessing the course either. My PB for 5K is old and stands at 22:01. I decided that I would have a go at sub 21:00. We set off and I tried to pace myself off someone but no one was at my pace. Anthony went off in front was clearly sub 20 and then there was me. I had a discussion with Gary post DCM about not using a watch in races and trying to judge it by effort. While I did have my watch, but trying to hit the light button and run 5K pace was not working out. Pretty much time to put my idea into practice, so all I did was hit the lap button at each mile. Well it was a disaster in terms of pacing, I went out too fast 6:34 for the first mile and fell apart going up the hill on mile 2. 6:56 & 7:01 for mile 2 and 3 with 21:17 as the overall time. A bit disappointed and the HR figures where low so maybe I just didn't push it hard enough. There will be other days where having some other runners around in these sharp end races might make me shove on that extra bit. A new PB coming home was a little bit unexpected.

Finding Yourself

My first trip to West Cork to pace the Clonakilty Waterfront Half Marathon. Tom had asked me several weeks before hand about this but it wasn't until I got the pacer email with Mr Desmond's attachment about pacing the hills when it suddenly dawned on me to check the course profile. I had wrongly assumed that because it was on the waterfront we would be at sea level for most of this. I should have read the course blob, scenic views, the only time you get thoses is at the top of hills.This was going to be a tricky pacing gig, I was pacing 2:15 half and doing it solo to the pressure was on. Normally the pace would be 10:17 per mile but the course was not anywhere near flat,so I made up a pace band based on the following, 9:30 for downhill miles, 10:00 on the flat and 11:15 on the climbs, initially this landed at 2:13:30, so I added the spare minute to mile nines climb.

Printed off the band and made my way down south with Clubmate and novice pacer Brendan. Arrived and meet up with the usual suspects, and hit to the hotel after 10:30 looking for grub. The hotel obliged at this late hour one or two well maybe even three glass of hydration before getting the head down. Woke the next morning early with Tom in a bit of a fluff trying to make sure we were already to go before 8.I got my fryup this time unlike Dublin but the Coffee took too long to deliver (must have been coming from Java). Back to the room to get kitted out when Tom informs us that key to today's operation is getting the balloons home BANG, no sooner are the words out of his mouth but he burst one, balloon carrying duties are handed over to the novice pacer as no one else was stepping up to the mark. Off to the start where we meet up with the Eagle AC contingent, photos, loos breaks and soon its time to make our way to the start. The half is starting out the road a bit so all three of us make our way out. I lined up at the back and it looked like there was a small crowd, however this was not the case as most runners had left it late getting here and where all lining up behind us. I thought about moving back but already a group of about 50 were around me, so  to hell with it, the faster runners have no else to blame but themselves when they get held up by us as they got to the start late. The gun went off on time and pretty soon there is a bit off shoving as faster runners come through us. The first 3 miles are pancake flat and in the still of the morning running along the waterfront sure where else would you be. The first climb at 3 miles was quite steep and I lost a lot of the group here, I even dropped the pace to 11:30 in spots but a lot gave up and walked. From here to Mile 9 is up and down but mostly down and some managed to catch up again. Had about Twelve on the climb at mile 9 and all made it up with me. However for some this exertion would catch them on the last three miles. I lost one on the downhill, knee gave up I think. Two more dropped out on the flat before mile 11. Two more tried to stop with a half a mile to go but a trick I learnt in Limerick was to place my hand on their backs which got them going again. A lot of runners who were struggling in the last mile came back to me but I told them that they had 30 seconds and keep going and not to stop. Most of the group had gone ahead and 5 or 6 had just dropped of me slightly. Got in in 2:14:28 just 2 seconds off requirement and spent the next bit roaring at the few stragglers coming in behind. Looking at the results later, any runner that finished 30 seconds after me got a sub 2:15 nett time and there was a gap of over a Minute to the next runner.Safe to say I don't think I could have paced it any better if it was a flat course and I still had my balloon so job done. 

Afterwards hung around for a good bit as the atmosphere was great and endless Tea/Coffee and Biscuits and of course the famous Clonakilty Black Pudding and Sausages on offer. Soon it was time to head back to clean up and head home to Clare again. I didn't get to meet a lot of the Marathon runners as I was gone by the time they finished especially Thomas who was doing his 50th, glad to say he completed it and got his Silver Medal from Pat O'Keeffe afterwards. The weekend itself was top notch from what I could see. I would not have expected anything less from Bob and his team.