End of year repeats

Thursday 27^th December

Jogged 3 recovery miles with Aoiffe.  Aoiffe took up running over the summer but was having problems getting beyond the walk/ running method before realising that simple consistency (3 times a week) does wonders for the body’s ability to adapt to stress and then increase one’s mileage. This in turn is my roundabout way to mention that at the moment I am revisiting “Jack Daniels – Running Formula”. Chapters  5 to 10 are pure gold dealing with marathon pace training, interval training, cruise training, threshold training and so on. At the moment I am focusing on the interval and threshold training and I don’t think I am doing too much wrong except perhaps there is little point in running one mile intervals. Daniels argues a 5 minute interval is sufficient as you are sustaining VO2 max development for the last 3 minutes. Any time longer than that will lead to rising LT threshold levels and the quality of the workout diminishes.  I found that running 4 minute intervals with Paudie last week rather than the normal 4 X 1 mile intervals I do produced a better quality return and quicker recovery period. Furthermore I was chatting to a runner from Midleton after the Cork half marathon and he said there was little point in one mile intervals for very much the same reason. He thought you get very much the same effect from running 1km intervals provided you allow correct time for recovery in between sessions.

Saturday 29^th December

Planned to do 10 miles with the last 5 at goal pace (7.00 minute pace). Wasn’t even close. Ended up doing 9 miles at a average 7.30 pace. Stopped after 9 miles as the last mile saw the pace drop to 7.30 pace. Took a 3 minute recovery and jogged the last mile at a recovery pace. I wasn’t even close to getting near my goal in the last 4 miles. Did 7.96 miles in the first hour which isn’t bad and not too far off what i could manage when training for Dublin (my record training pace there is 8.5 miles) but as workouts go it was very poor and I was more than a bit pissed off getting home. Currently I would only manage a 1.12.XX to 1.14.XX time in Dungravan.  Mind you if I was training for a marathon the 7.30 training pace would be very good indeed. In fact this time last summer the most i could manage was 7.50 training pace so perhaps I am being too tough on myself Will keep at it..

The splits were as follows

9 mile run in 1.07.55 with mile 10 at recovery pace 8.45.Total time 1.16.35

The splits were as follows. Mile 1 (uphill jogging) 8.26, 2)7.54, 3) 7.39, 4) 7.17, 5) 7.14, 6)7.23, 7) 7.09, 8) 7.13, 9) 7.31

 

Sunday 30^th December

Jogged 6.5 miles at recovery to medium pace. Slight strain / pull just above my right  hip. Had hoped to run the Bandon 5 on the 1^st January but that may not be possible. I am now wondering when to fit my midweek tempo run in. I was thinking about Monday but Wednesday may be a better bet. It’s much easier to do these tempo runs when in a race than on your own out on the road. Funnily enough it’s harder to keep the pace down in a race whereas it’s harder to keep the pace up when out on the road on your own. I ran the same race last year and I was pretty sick doing it.

6.5 miles at 8.51 pace

Mileage for the week 34.5 miles

Monday 31^st December

2.5 mile warm up- 6 X 1/2 mile repeats with 2 minute recoveries and 1.5 mile cooldown.

Repeat 1) 3.08 2) 3.22 3) 3.15 4) 3.20 5) 3.16 6) 3.18. Ran these at 5K pace and was very happy to keep under that pace except the 2nd repeat where I held off. Couldn't face a tempo run today, hopefully during the week. Clocked up 2053 miles this year, 39 average miles a week ;-)

My race highlights this year are easy to pick out. Number one has to be achieving my goal of a sub 3.30 in the Dublin marathon and feeling really strong and powerful while doing it. The buzz of leaving the pacers in my dust at mile 18 and having a armchair run all the way to finish is something I won’t forget for a long time. God knows I worked really hard for it so much so I haven’t done a whole lot in the last 8 weeks.. Other highlights are achieving a 13.1 PB in the Bandon, Cork and Charleville half marathons and hitting 4 PB’s in one race (Liscarroll 10km). My biggest disappointments were the Dungarvan 10 mile and Rome marathon (great weekend though).

Meeting up in Cork to-night with a few friends for dinner bringing in the New Year. Must be showing my age, 10 years ago we would have been on the batter in Sir Henry's, Hogmanay in Edinburgh or at a house party in Dingle.

Happy New Year!!!!!

 

 

New year goals and the Caherdavin 5 mile race

24^th December 2012

 

Ran a easy 3 mile jog in the morn. Battery dead on the heartstrap so have to get that fixed. Nice day for it, grand and mild. Still reflecting on the race yesterday and wondering what will my strategy be for the Dungarvan training cycle I am under going. Hope to enter a 5 mile race on St Stephens day. Will try to use it as a tempo run – that is a run at a fixed pace rather than a all out pace. I know it’s early yet but a few running resolutions are entering the mind already

1)       Get a decent sub 70 PB in a ten mile race next year be it Dungarvan, Mallow or Ballycotton. If I scrape under 70 minutes so be it but I want to get a decent time.

2)       Use my new found 10 PB as a springboard for a new half marathon PB. Stretch out my 10 mile time to 13.1 mile,. perhaps 1hr30 to 1hr34minutes?

3)       Next step is of course the marathon. If I can get a 1.32 in a half marathon (Bandon, Limerick) then why not push for a marathon PB? Somewhere between 3.20 to 3.25 in either Cork or Dublin?

4)       Get my 5 mile time down to 6min30second pace per mile

5)       By the end of 2013 hopefully I will have enough in the head and body to get training for the Connemara ultra in 2014. Have to get permission for that though...working on the boss for that one.

6)       Beyond that I don’t know but thinking really long term (and this is really long term) it might be a chance to give one of the fast continental marathons a shot – Berlin, Frankfurt or Amsterdam. In this dreamland scenerio get as close as possible to a sub 3.15.

Of course many a slip between cup and lip............

3 miles at recovery pace. Around 28 minutes.

Tuesday 25^th December

Normally I do 6 miles up in Cork City on xmas day with a run up and down Patrick St, as there isn’t usually a soul out on the streets at 9 am but this year I was having the dinner in Charleville rather than Mayfield. Headed down to Doneraile park gave my donation towards the GOAL mile and jogged 6 miles at slow/medium pace around the settings of the park. Place was busy with walkers, joggers, families and so on. On the way out got chatting to a few of the Mallow AC people before back home for the B-I-G dinner.

6 miles in 51 minutes. Relaxed medium pace effort

Wednesday 26^th December

Woke up at 8.30am and by Jesus was I feeling the effects of the days before Xmas dinner. It wasn’t that I ate a lot or a drank a lot (one bottle of beer) but it was that it all was eaten at once. Brekkie, 3 course dinner and supper all followed within 7 hours of each other, Anyway the plan was to head to Caherdavin for a race. There was a choice of a 5 mile or a 10 mile race. I opted for the previous hoping not to race it but to run it as a 5 mile temp run at 7 minute pace. I was interested in a interview given by Br. Colm O’Connell when he said his runners stop performing a interval or tempo session when they fail to maintain the target pace. European runners just keep on going which on the face of it makes little sense if you are getting slower. The point of my temp efforts for the last 3 weeks is to get to my body tuned in at running at a certain pace, a pace I hope to sustain over 10 miles. To say the race is relaxed is a understatement. We all herded by the community centre in a housing estate and without any clear signal off we went. By mile 1 it was clear there was going to be no mile markers and by mile 3 when a jeep and trailer were trying to overtake me there was to be no stewarding either. Mind you unlike the mess at Clonakilty I was actually enjoying myself as the course out on the country roads was very good with hills and drops at various points and plenty of testing pulls. Mile 1 was completed in 6.56, mile 2 completed in 6.59, mile 3 in 7.00 and mile 4 in 7.01. That might seem like a big variance but the course was up and down and I was comfortable enough, happy I was maintaining my tempo pace. The last mile back to the start line was quite testing with a long pull uphill. At this point , if I was a Kenyan I would have stopped as the pace started to drop (yeah right) but I was determined not to let it beat me. Crossed mile 5 and stopped the Garmin. My watch read 34mins53seconds but the distance read 4.97. Nothing to it but to run the last 0.03 miles off course. I did this and then stopped the watch when it reached 5 miles. My revised time was 35.10. I mentioned it in a friendly way to the steward and he said “Era sure it’s close enough”. I wouldn’t have minded but it did cost a tenner and another 4 euro in tolls through the tunnel.

 I hung around to watch the ten mile runners come in- a good half dozen flying in under 60 minutes. Fuck, they were fast. It really puts you in your place. I was chatting to one tall skinny lad from Killmallock who came in at 1.02.XX and he was literally foaming at the mouth when he crossed the line. We got chatting (after he cleaned his mouth) and he said he read the blog and enjoyed it. He then mentioned it to another club runner who came in at sub 60 and I was cringing slightly. The second guy did his best “pretend to be interested in a slow runners ego blog”face and thankfully moved on. To be as naturally fast as these guys must be a great thing indeed . Anyway waited for John Daly and Paudie and considering they were only training their times of 1hr11min and 1hr12min were very good indeed.

Quite enjoyed the day and then back home to the mother-in-law’s house for more food and well meaning calorie punishment.........

1mile warm up with 5 mile tempo run at 7.02 pace

2,000 miles per annum and a 5k race

18^th December

 

A bit of confusion about whether a club training session was going ahead or not. In the event it went ahead but Paudie texted wondering if i fancied a workout in Charleville instead. I agreed. 3 mile warm up followed by six sprint workouts and 90 second recovery. The idea was to cover the same distance (0.65 miles –around 6.40 mile pace) in around 4 minutes. Sprint 1 -4 minutes, sprint 2 -4.08, sprint 3-4.26, sprint 4-4.04, sprint 5 -4.30,sprint 6 -4.12. A tough workout with some variance between sprint 3 and sprint 5 and the rest but overall happy enough. Spent most of the workout chasing after Paudie who kept his times very tight.  Mile jog home.

 

8 miles in total

 

19^th December

 

Jogged 6 miles at slow medium pace roughly around 9 minute pace. Nice crisp evening for it. Legs felt heavy for first 3 miles , no doubt due to last night’s efforts but loosen up a bit for the last couple of miles.  Was happy doing this run but hopefully the pace will pick up.

 

6 miles – 8.53 pace -53mins15seconds

 

20^th December

 

Headed down to Quatertown industrial estate, Mallow with the guys and girls from Mallow AC. The estate is half a mile in diameter so it was perfect for to-nights workout. Mile and half warm up with a half mile of drills, strides and jogging. Then onto the tempo run. Shane, our trainer, said we would be doing a 25 minute tempo run at your favoured 10 mile pace. As I am hoping to do a sub 70 minute in Dungarvan 10 mile, it made sense to run at sub 7 pace. Mile 1 felt easy and passed in 7minutes07 seconds, mile 2 easy again in 7.00 pace and mile 3 again in 7.00 pace. Felt very comfortable. Funny how running in a group can make the effort seem easier. Decided to lift the pace for mile 4. The 25 minute run finished but I decided to do another 3 minutes to see if I could get 4 miles done under the 28 minutes. Stopped the watch when the garmin signalled 4 miles. Last mile completed in 6.46 but again I felt very comfortable. Finished with a half mile cooldown. A very satisfying workout- the hard part was driving home in the fog.

 

6.5 miles with 4 mile tempo in 27.53

 

22^nd December

 

Out of bed for what used to be a once regular routine – the long run. Did 10 solid miles. First 5 miles were completed in 44 minutes, last 5 miles in around 41 minutes something. As I said solid stuff. Racked up 2,000 miles this year which is another cause for quiet satisfaction.

 

10 miles 1.25.22, 8.34 average

 

23^rd December- Newmarket 5k

 

This was my first meaningful race since the Dublin marathon. The Mount Oval 6 mile was a charity jog with buddies, Clonakilty was a mess and the Doneraile 5k was another charity speed run. No I was looking forward to this one and while I knew I wasn’t going to get under the magical 20 minutes yet I had hoped to get under 21 minutes. Spotted the usual faces- a lot of whom were getting back in shape post Dublin or post Clonakilty marathons. At the top end of the field it was told to me the standard was very high indeed. I guess the prospect of the winner claiming a  300 euro prize fund for what was in effect a 15 minute race was enticing indeed. Did the obligatory 1 mile warm up and a couple of 2 minute sprints and took my place at the start line. The first ½ mile was downhill and I was careful to keep the pace at 6.40. By mile 1 I was feeling very relaxed and passed the first mile in 6.33. At 1.75 miles I was overtaking runners by the dozen and rounded the traffic cones for the turnaround back to the town. I spotted a number of runners who were ahead of me and resolved to catch up with them. By mile 2 a large gap had opened up between me and the runners behind me but i wasn’t strong enough to make up any ground. Looking at my watch the second mile passed in 6.38 and the chest was beginning to feel wheezy. It was after all my third speed session this week. Nevertheless I reckoned a 20.30 was well on the cards but the pull up through the town proved too much for me and mile 3 passed in 6.45. On the downhill stretch I caught a few stragglers and stopped my watch in 20.45. Overall I had mixed feelings about my performance. I was glad to get under 21 minutes but I should have pushed harder on the last mile rather than losing 10-15 seconds. In terms of where I stand in terms of traning for Dungarvan 10 I am on the right track. The next few races will give me further idea as to where I stand.It also concludes a very good weeks running.

3.1 mile race in 20.45 with 1 mile warm up.

 

Mileage for week 34 miles

 

 

Two contrasting tempo runs and meeting all sorts ....

Wednesday 12 th December

 

Depending on who you believe today or the 21^st December marks the end of the world – my 3^rd years informed me of this in class. Anyway my version of world's end was looming in front when I stood outside my house trying pitifully to look all fit and runner like by doing a few strides and drills. Yes it was time for my  tempo run. To be honest if I want to get under 70 minutes for Dungarvan I need to concentrate on temp runs and long runs. Anyway did 1 mile warm up to graveyard and then a mile down to the railway station, another mile back up to the graveyard and another mile on the Cork road turning off at the old Cork road by the council offices. I finished off with a 1 minute cooldown and a 1.5 mile jog home. Happy with the results. I kept the mlle temp under 21 minutes (20.48) but the mile splits did vary a bit with the last one over 7 minutes. That can be explained by having to slow down crossing the road and a strong headwind on the Cork road.

 

Mile 1 warmup (8.10) 3 mile tempo (6.48, 6.57, 7.03) and 1.5 mile cooldown 12.10

 

Thursday/Friday were total non running days. Came down with a cold and having to breathe through my mouth meant sleeping, nevermind running, was a issue.  Headed to Clon for the second week in a row to catch up with Doyler latest incursion into writing plays. This time I had Timmy for company and while I was on a strict diet of water and lemsips, a good night was had by all. In fact great kudos must be given to the boys and girls of the taigh na Astna company down in Clon. They are putting in great work with a lot of their players having no experience in acting. By Saturday morning i was doubting weather I would be taking part in the planned 5K dash in Doneraile park. I had planned to simply contribute to the cause by giving a donation and watching the race but as soon I received my number and spotted Sean Og O’hAilpin milling around I decided “What the hell”!!! warmed with Liam Murphy and Denis Cronin spotting a few familiar faces at the start line. My 5K history is pretty poor. My last experience of a 5K race was in Ovens last summer and any readers to the blog (is there any?) might remember it was a chastening experience. This time I was determined to improve my time and ideally run in around sub 21 minute pace. Of course after the first mile my plan to run a even pace went out the window. Ran the first mile in 6.16 and then the slow motion torture kicked in. Mile 2 passed in around 7.19 as did Sean og, Liam and Denis and a host of others. Glad to finish at the end. My third mile passed in 7.31 with the extra bit completed in 26 seconds. I timed my finishing time as 21mins 35seconds which if i had held my head and started slower should have been closer to 21 minutes. Still though a good workout and a good tune up race for the Newmarket 5K next Sunday week.  A bit more cop on required next time though.

 

1.5 mile warm up – 5k (ish) race @ 21.35 -1/2 mile cooldown.

 

Sunday

 

A welcome end to a long week was to be marked by a solo long run. Long is this case meaning 10 miles at 9 minute pace. It was obvious by mile 4 at the Charleville Hotel that it was going to be very long and very slow. My heart strap is out of action at the moment but I figured I was running too fast  as the cold was making breathing difficult. Dropped the pace to 9.30 pace and tipped away. Bumped into John Brady  of North Cork AC, ultra marathon warrior and Aidan Buckley who happened to be passing through town. John Brady was running sub 60 at ten miles and sub 3 marathons  in the days when runners were real hard nuts. Aidan is a bit of a icon in Mallow AC famous for high mileage, sub 3 marathons and a love for death, speed and gothic metal music. By 9 mile I had enough and was happy to go home. Next week will be looking for 10 miles. Steady as she goes.................. 9 miles in 1Hr23mins. Total Mileage for the week 29 miles

 

Below is a photo of myself and a true Cork sporting icon. I loved following the great Cork hurling team of 2003 to 2006 of which Sean , Donal Og Cusack and Brian Corcoran were my favourites. Will we see their like again?

Losing keys, drunks on the road and finding keys - a Christmas tale.

11^th December. Tuesday night. Still very irritated after the debacle that was” Run Clonakilty” but despite that a excellent if a very weird weekend. My wife who was heading to her grandmother’s 90^th birthday party rang me when I was in Clon to tell me she couldn’t find her car keys. I had the other set but was in Clon and she was due to head down to Kerry. Cue panic stations!!!

 

 Having to take her fathers car and driving her relatives all around the wilds of Ballyheigue didn’t do much for her mood. I, of course , couldn’t let it rest at that and drove from Clonakilty  up to Charleville to look for the keys and make sure everything was ok in the house. No sign of the keys and I went back up to Cork for beers. I was only a couple of minutes up the road when I spotted a guy sprawled right out in the middle of the road. Got out and of course he was as drunk as a skunk, reeking of vodka and brandy sporting a nasty cut on his head. I called the Gardai and they did the rest. Guy was lucky I didn’t drive over him.

 

 On Sunday myself and Aoiffe spent the day looking for the keys around the house and still no sign. Didn’t even get a chance to put the tree we  were in such a tizzy, that and my hangover.My poor wife blamed herself for the keys loss and I had visions of forking out 400 euros for a new set of two car keys. When i went into work next day they were on my desk winking at me and my stupidity. My mistake –oops!!!! I obviously brought  the extra set in by accidenton Friday morning . Needless to say I am still on the receiving end of a slagging.

 

By way of compensation jogged a slow 4 miles on Monday night with Aoiffe at 12 minute pace. Lovely evening for it. On Tuesday I didn’t do the usual club run in Mallow much preferring to do a solid 6 miles up on the legs at 8.20 pace. I haven’t much base running done and it’s no harm to get more focused in this regard. Also the Tuesday hill sessions were leaving me with some very pulled calves and I needed a rest to-night from it. Quite where my running plans are taking me these days I have no idea though I hope to a race a week until the end of Janruary 2013. It looks also as if marathon plans will take a back seat for a while - Connemara is deferred until 2014.

 

Monday 4 miles recovery and Tuesday 6 miles.

Clonakilty 10K race report

3^rd December 2012

Monday – rest day. Being honest it was too wet to go out.Lazy I know...

 

Tuesday 4^th December

 

Hill session with the club.  .1.5 mile warm up. 8 X 2 mins hill session. Getting better at these. Covered 0.29 miles, 0.30 miles,0.29 miles, 0.29 miles,0.30 miles,0.31 miles, 0.30 miles, 0.31 miles in each session with equal jog back. Definitely making more progress each week. In the last couple of repeats I was running very strong. Hope to maintain 0.31 distance next week. 1.5 mile jog back to the car in bucketing rain.

 

7 miles with 8X2mins hill session.

 

Wednesday 5^th December

 

Did 3.5 miles at 7.42 average pace. Then another 3.5 miles fun run with 1^st year students where the girls met and spoke to Olive Loughnane, 4 times Olympic race walker.

 

Thursday 6^th December

 

1 mile warm up with 3 X 1 mile repeats – 6.54,6.56,7.08. Was getting slower and slower with each mile but I didn’t feel I was getting slower. A disappointing set of splits but that “banged up feeling” around the legs still persists. I think this may be due to the hill repeats on Tuesday,

 

5 miles with 1 mile warm up and mile repeats at 6.58 average and 1 mile cooldown.

 

Friday –rest

 

Saturday – Ran the Clonakilty waterfront 10K. Did the half marathon last year and enjoyed it. This year entered the 10K race with Dermot and Aidan. Great to met my buddies and despite the early start the craic was good in the car. After the race met up for lunch in Ballincollig and then for beers in Cork city. Great night with a big gang of us out – Derm, Aidan, Doyler, Timmy, Don, Annette, Riobard, Ger Condon. Suffering next day...

 

Oh yeah I  almost forgot to write about the race itself. A right mess. The organisers did a cute one alright charging 25 euro for a what was essentially a slow jog down the back. See the comments on Cork Running Blog. Did the 6.0 mile course (it wasn’t 6.2 miles) in 48 minutes. Last couple of miles were in sub 7 pace. I won’t be going to it next year and I hope they sort it out next year. It’s obvious the organisers were looking to make a few bob without looking after the punters. Sort it out guys and don't be taking the mick like this again and besmirching the name of a great place like Clonakilty.

 

Total mileage. 25 miles for week

 

A sense of perspective

Monday 26^th November,

 This evening jogged 3.5 miles with my wife at 11.30 pace. HR was screwy tho 153.

 Tuesday 27^th November,

Session with Mallow AC. 2 mile warm up with assorted drills. Then the fun begins.8 x 2 mins of hills with jog down for recovery. Last week I overdid it big time and suffered for the next two days. This time (and for the next few weeks) I ran at a more conservative pace. I covered around 0.26 of a mile on each hill run – that is around 7.42 mile pace with the last one the fastest 0.30 of a mile at 7.09 mile pace. Eventually I will bbe hoping to increase the distance covered close to 0.40 of a mile. Finished up with a 1.30 mile jog to the car for a total workout of around 7 miles plus or so. The HR for each hill sprint was in the 158 to 169 range which suggests it’s a while before I can say I am back to full fitness.

 

Wednesday 28^th November

Wanted to see how would I get on myself on a short 4 mile run. I was gasping for air all the day, a sure sign that building a solid base of running and getting mileage on the legs is the name of the game for the next few weeks. Anyway did 4 miles at 8.20 pace. HR 150

Thursday 29^th November

 

4 mile run up in Mayfield, Body reacted better than yesterday though pace and HR was virtually identical. A lot less flatter than yesterday. Hr 150. Pace 8.18

 

Friday –rest day

Saturday- Didn’t charge the Garmin so that threw me a bit as I planned to do a 3 mile tempo effort. Anyway had to revise plans and ran using my stopwatch instead. Did a one mile warm up in around 8 minutes or so and did ran as fast as I could 21 minutes at tempo speed. I reckon I ran around 3miles or so and it felt like a 7.00 to 7.05 pace. Of course i could have been a lot slower than that but when i finished it was hands –on –knees time and a 2 minute walk before i was able to jog the remaining 13 minutes back to the house. Anyway it’s a start and the beginning of my Dungarvan 10 training cycle.

8 minute warm up – 21 minute tempo run – 13 minute cooldown jog .Roughly 5.3 miles. No Hr information.

Sunday 2^nd December

 

Met up with a smaller than normal group this morning at the roundabout in Mallow. A lot of the regulars are running in the Munster cross country championships or else spectating. Anyway most of the gang this morning opted for a 10 mile run. I had hoped to do 8 miles so myself and Tony Murphy decided to do our own thing. After 1.5 miles Tony’s knee problem forced him to head back to the car so i went off on my own. Ended up jogging around 6 miles of the Mallow Ten route so it was a useful scouting exercise as well as nice easy run. Spotted a couple of lads firing off shotguns bagging some game which was a welcome distraction as it starting pouring down from mile two to the end. When I finished I couldn’t believe my HR average was 87 BPM. That must mean I am morphing into a elite runner or that it really was that cold. I assume the latter was the case...alas!!! Did 2 more miles around the town and was glad to get home.

 

8 miles – 8.20 pace- 1hr06mins46seconds – Av Hr 87 !!!

 

Total miles for the week 32

Special mention must go to a young guy who worked in Charleville for a while as a physio in the local hotel here – Robert Savage. When I first started training for my first marathon in 2010 I suffered with a number of injury issues – knee problems, PF in the foot., sore back etc. Robert was the guy who put me right and while I only went to him probably 4-5 times in two years he really struck me as being a great guy. I was also interested in his other work with a football team I followed for many years – Cork City FC and found his stories of his time working with Reading FC to be a source of his great amusement. His girl friend Lisa Nybo was also working with him and my wife found her to be a excellent physical trainer where she specialised in circuit training classes.More importantly they were nice and good people. Anyway they went  back to Lisa’s home country of Norway this year to pursue new opportunities and I really have never found a physio team as good (or as nice) as them. It was therefore a terrible shock to hear of Rob’s untimely passing during the week. Very sad to hear about it and I hope Lisa and Robert’s family get through the worst of things in the time ahead.

Burn out and a dodgy 'tache

Sunday 25^th Movember

 

Here’s the raw data for the last 4 weeks since Dublin marathon. Time to move on and all that but being honest I am hardly doing high mileage am I?. Probably the toughest workout of the lot was the club workout on Tuesday, week 4. Ran 1.5 mile warm up with the club, did various drills and strides, 8 X 2 minutes of hills with another 1.5 mile cooldown. I probably over do the last couple of hill repeats and the back of the legs have been feeling it ever since so much so I had to take 2 days off running. Having entered the Connemara marathon (April 7^th 2013) I am now wondering have I bit off a bit more than I can currently chew. It’s not the distance nor the course that bothers me it’s the lack of appetite for running that bothers me. The appetite for everything else has continued unabated ;-). This was confirmed to me today (Sunday) when I slept out and missed out on the club run and spent the day reacquainting myself with “Big Time” and “Macaroon” bars. Sleeping out is always a bad sign as I rarely need alarm to wake me up at the weekend. The photos below are from the Mt Oval 6 mile Movember run held last Sunday. I'm on the left, Derm is wearing the orange, Don (my marathon running buddy) is wearing the hat and Timmy is the second photo wearing shades and a blue tracksuit top.

 

I am sure good running and shaving habits will reassert itself soon. Anyway I will have a better idea of my form in a few weeks in the Clonakilty 10K. I had hoped to do the half marathon but the price (50 yo’s) was way too prohibitive so I hope the organisers take note. My buddies Aidan and Dermot are entering it too so if nothing else it will be a chance to catch up with friends. Will see what my racing strategy will be closer to the date but a chance of a improvement on 10K PB (41mins40secs) is unlikely.

 

While I'm at it I just want to mention a 5K Santa dash that is taking place on the 15th December in the lovely setting of Doneraile Park. Organised by clubmate Ger Vowles it's in aid of a number of charities to aid sick children. Check facebook for details.

 

Anyway here’s to Movember..................

 

 

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Marathon	Rest	Rest	Rest	Rest	3ml141	3ml146Hr
3ml139HR	Rest	3ml153HR	Rest	Rest	3ml139HR	7mls140HR
Rest	4.3ml150HR	4ml129HR12minpace	4.3ml159HR	Rest	4ml166HR	6mls151HR
3ml139HR	8X2minshills	4 ml75HR	Rest	Rest	6.5ml130Hr	Rest

 

What's up pussycat?

Two Questions - what's next and what have I learned?

It’s time to reflect on my Dublin marathon experience in particular for future marathons. Firstly what marathons will I be doing in the future?

I toyed with a number of ideas. Straight up my big target in 2013 is to get under 3hrs15mins in the Dublin marathon next year. Frankfurt or Amsterdam are tempting races and if nothing else a bit of variety is a good thing. Then again if it ain’t broke why fix it? On so many levels Dublin hits the spot everytime.

Next target race will be the Dungarvan 10 mile in January. I have never  run under 70 minutes in a 10 mile race so this challenge will be a good one. Also 10 mile races and 13.1 mile races are excellent tempo workouts in preparing me for marathons. I also hope to attempt the Ballycotton 10, Mallow 10, Kilnaboy 10 and Cobh 10 over the first 4 months of next  year . On top of that I will attempt a number of 5 mile and 4 mile races over April and May with possibly a view to completing all 4 races of the Ballycotton series.

Anyway back to my original point- what have I learned from the Dublin marathon?

1)       I can, if i work hard enough, get my marathon times down. In 2 years I have taken 31 minutes off my marathon times. A case of hard work triumphing over talent. Just how fast can I go?

2)       I need to be running 6 days a week and each run must serve a particular purpose. Recovery runs, tempo runs, LT sessions, long midweek medium runs, short medium runs, long runs and marathon pace long runs. Running miles for the sake of it serves no purpose except perhaps in the base building stage. These training runs allow to me to successfully assess what pace to run in races.

3)       Join a running club. I was lucky in that running with Mallow AC worked out so well. I’m not a “club joiner type” by nature but running the long runs in company and the benefit of structured speed sessions really helped me. Also talking and running with club members provides excellent focus and motivation.

4)       Enter races!!! Ideally try to enter a race every two weeks. Physically it allows the body to adapt to running under stress and mentally gives one that bit of strength over the last few miles. When training for Dublin I entered 3 half marathons and a 15 mile race. The benefits were immense

5)       Keep the weight down. I dropped nearly 10 pounds by the time the taper came around. Running 50 to 60 miles a week probably was the reason why the weight fell off me but cutting out or cutting down the beer, sweets, tea and cakes played a huge part as well.

6)       Finally have a realistic plan when racing the marathon and stick with it. Treat bad patches and good spells with respective respect and caution. The blog was a great aid in allowing me to record my thoughts and ideas and to plan a sensible strategy. It was also nice to get comments, feedback and compliments on it. I might stick with it!!