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