End of one week and start of another....

26^th May

Up and out the door by 7.11 am. I wanted to run 14 miles as slow a pace as possible and stay on my feet for over two hours. Ideally keep the heart rate low as well. Just as well really considering the way the sun was coming already. It was 19 degrees already and by 9.10 had climbed into 22 degrees. The hat was going to come in useful for this one. Shuffled along. The countryside along Colmanswell and Garryfine was stunning and it was great taking in the smell of cut grass and the sight of the plants and flowers pollinating. We don’t get many days like this in Ireland and it was a privilege taking it in. The cows and horses had more sense than me and were taking it nice and handy. Even spotted a fox run across from me.At mile 4 and mile 6 the HR climbed to 156 so i stopped and walked for a minute until it dropped back down. Took the climb at mile 10 nice and handy and came back into Charleville. Picked up my water bottle by my house and nearly gulped the contents in one go. Went out the Cork road and cut up by newline and through the park and back onto the main street before coming home. Hit mile 14 just outside my house. The neighbours drove past me and you see hem thinking this guy isn’t right at all. Felt very fresh and far from tired. I fact I felt energized and it was only 9.20 am. The temperatures were rising at that stage so plenty of water and stretching. My breakfast never tasted so good.

Jogged 14  miles with 3 90 second walking breaks. Average pace 9.16. Hr 147. A job well done.

27^th May

Jogged  3 miles with 4minutes jogging and 1 minute walking. A recovery run if not from the running certainly from the day before spent lifting bags of sods , rocks and soil. Gardening, eh?

Hr 120. Jogged  3.2  miles. 37 minutes

Total Mileage for the week. 48 miles

28^th May

Dispensed with the planned run this evening. A few (nice)unexpected family events and a tiresome search in Atlantic Homecare in Blackpool meant I didn’t sit down until 9.00pm. They haven't a clue in there.... Better luck to-morrow

29^th May

Had a break between work so left the building at 10.45 am and was out the door at Mayfield at 11.40. Ran 9 miles. Planned a sub 8 minute pace but no faster than 7.50 average.Decided to from Mayfield- Banduff- Ballincolly-Spring Hill-Old mallow rd-Commons rd-Blackpool- Wellington Rd-Middle Glanmire Rd-Iona Park. Could have done another 2 miles of running but felt 9 was enough. Did the run 1.10.44 (7.53 pace). Heart rate was 153 BPM. Finished with 6 X100 strides- didn’t do them strictly correctly but overall very happy.

From Metallica to the Beast of Ballyandreen

21^st May

Last time I did some interval sessions was two weeks ago. Approached this one with a mixture of squeamishness and expectation. Threw on Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” in the car on the way home to keep me motivated!!! Mile 1 warm up -7.39 pace. Possibly too fast. Mile 2- interval pace6.39 with 2 minute recoveries, Mile 3 –interval pace 6.31- the effort felt easier despite the faster pace followed by a 1.40 recovery. Mile 4 was very tough, legs were wobbling a bit. Completed the session in  6.40. I had nothing left in the tank at this stage and jogged the last 3.5 miles home very slowly. Knee felt sore but this has passed since. Mile 5 -9.20 pace. Mile 6 -9.49 pace, Mile 7 -8.54 pace, ½ mile in 4.09. Way more tired than I expected.

22 May

Up and out the door by 6.30 am. Resting heart rate was way too high –around 54 BPM. That said I felt strong and eager enough to head out for a run. After mile 1 – 9.00 minute pace i knew it would be a slog so rather than force the issue settled into a relaxed pace. Mile 2 was 8.38, Mile 3 -8.37 pace, Mile 4 -8.36 pace. Managed to pick up the pace and when i finished at mile 8.3 I was hitting around 8.15 average. My average heart rate was 147 BPM which was encouraging as two weeks ago it was 154 BPM. Total workout was 8.30 average pace around 1.08 minutes with 0.3 mile cooldown. Set me up for the day and then into work.

23^rd May

Went to Doneraile Park at 2.15pm. The expected heat wave has yet to arrive which is good news for running but probably unwelcome news for everyone else. Certainly work lacks that happy  sunny end of school feel preoccupied as I am with weather I will have a job to return to in September. Anyway did 2 laps of the park including 2 loops of that awful half mile hill climb but has a nice descent to make up for it.  Each lap came to around 3 miles with another 2 fast miles on a flatter part of the park. The last two miles were completed in 7.30 and 7.33 pace respectivately which got me  just under the sub 8 minute pace. Heart rate was 157 average and the 8 miles were completed in 1.03.45. I passed on the s6 X100 strides as the legs were tight enough afterwards. No point in pushing it if I am to race tomorrow. The music I played on the way home was "The Tempatations - Papa was a Rolling Stone" - the full 17 minute version.

24^TH May

Drove to Ballyandreen with Dermot Brennan from Cork City for this 5 mile race. This was the first race in the much lauded Ballycotton series. At a fiver a pop in the one of the most renowned road running areas in the country, this was one to check out. Mind you running on the hottest day of the year had me wondering would this be Rome in microcosm. When I was getting my number the guy behind the desk asked me if he knew me from somewhere. I said “Yeah you interviewed me in XXXXX  for a job but I didn’t get it...”. Poor guy creased up with embarrassment !!! Anyway lining up for the start on a narrow road it was obvious there was going to be a huge crowd for this one. A groupof us  got shoved 10-15 feet back from where we where standing and I was gloomily entertaining those Roman thoughts again. I hit the first half mile at a crawling pace of 4.00 minutes but then thankfully the gaps begin to appear. Mind you the first mile still took me 7.26. I was hoping for 6.40. I also stood on the toes of John Quigley – the Eagle Ac and Cork Cancer team  guy. Sorry!!!! Overtook another few familiar faces (the innocent shall remain nameless!!!) and by the time we hit the downhill slope into Ballycotton I was motoring. Mile 2 passed in 6.41 and I was becoming more hopeful of hitting a sub 35 minute time.  Mile 3 passed in 6.38 and I was feeling strong but mindful of the hills that were coming up. Much has been written about the “Beast of Ballyandreen” and in reflection I paid it too much respect. A more aggressive attack might havebeen  better though I did see one guy pull up with a stitch. Mile 4 passed in 7.17. At mile 4 it was all downhill, well more of a sheer vertical drop and it was time for a all out attack. This was the fastest mile of the race and my fastest ever mile (6.18). I couldn’t quite catch up with a tall blonde girl wearing a east Cork singlet or a guy with a yellow cap but i was very happy crossing the line in a official time of 34.34. I timed it as 34.30 over 5.03 miles. As a race i really enjoyed it and will probably will do the second race in the series next month. Now I know now I can run under sub 35 in a variety of topography and as a tempo workout it served me well. Perhaps sub 34 next time over the 5 mile distance? Dermot had another solid run in around 41 minutes. Listened to the Black Keys "El Camino" -cracking album.

Ran 7 miles (1 mile warmup, 5 mile race, 1 mile cooldown)

When a rest is as good as a run ....

Monday 14^th May

Instead of my normal interval work  I decided to use this week as a rest week. Not a rest from running just a rest from faster type running. Did 8 miles up in Mayfield at approx 9.10 pace. Got to see my niece Charlotte and popped down to a work thing later. Found the pace very relaxed and easy

Tuesday 15^th May

One mile warm up 9min pace followed by 3 miles of walk jogging with Aoiffe. Did another 2.5 miles on my own, 25 minutes. Was on my feet for around  70 minutes. Total mileage 7 miles. Again a very slow pace.

Wednesday 16^th May

Up in Mayfield again for this one. Added a extra mile by Banduff and Ballyvolane for this one. Attempted to run this at a undefined pace. Just wanted to see how I would go with it. Ran the first 5 miles at around 7.20 P – the terrain was largely downhill. Came up against that familiar hill by Montenotte up to Iona park. Never fails to throw me. That took me around 8.27 to complete and it was about to be a lot tougher from there to Boherboy rd. Miles 7 and miles 8 I did around 7.45to 7.55 pace – the last mile involving a long pull and rapid descent from Lady Crowned Church up to Lotabeg Green and down to the GAA pitch. The whole workout took 1hr and 50 seconds. While the pace dropped from around 7.20 average to 7.47 average  I was very happy with the workout as I managed the hills a lot better than last week.That said I will be resting over the next two days. A lot of late evenings this week with work and family commitments. A 2 hour commute every day is no joke and on Saturday I had a journey up and down to Bandon on top of my normal 350 miles a week car commute.

Thursday 17^th May/Friday 18^th May

Rest day.  Batteries feeling a bit low since Wednesday. Have done a fair bit of mileage since Rome marathon In March. Don’t want to be burning myself out before I even get into marathon training programme. Will definitely do 3 miles recovery on Sunday and back on track for next 4 weeks before I take another cutback week. Have house painting to keep me out of trouble on Saturday so meeting up for the match on Saturday may not happen at all

Bandon half marathon report

12^th May

Up and out the door by 7 am. Journey to Bandon took only a 1 and 15 minutes from Charleville. Reading the preview on John Desmond’s Cork running blog didn’t fill me with much hope. Lots of hills and climbs from mile 4 or so.. It was turning out to be a lovely day and the stewarding in to the rugby club was very well done. Met my two buddies Dermot Brennan and Kieran “Doyler” Doyle outside the clubhouse. The lads had decided at the last minute to do the 10K. I said to the lads I’d see them later. Truth be told I was feeling quite nervous about this one. But a 1 mile warm up followed by stretches did wonders for my tight hamstrings and my tighter nerves. Did another 1 mile warmup with some easy sprints and we assembled for the start.

It’s amazing how  one sees all the same faces at these races. I mightn’t know all the names but at this stage i have people named according to hair colour, running style etc. God knows what if any names are given to me.

Mile 1 – Mile 3 felt very comfortable and decided to run at 7.30 pace as long as possible. I was overtaking plenty of runners whose breath sounded very heavy. (mile 1 -7.32, mile 2 -7.38, mile 3 -7.06). By mile 4 and mile 5 I was feeling very strong and aware I was running well within myself. Amazing what a few weeks of intervals and tempo runs can do for ones pace. The mile markers were tallying well with my garmin and by mile 5 my time was 37.01, ahead of schedule. Just as well really because we had come to a mother of a climb at mile 5 to mile 6. I took this reasonably well and by mile 7 I had hit 7.00 pace. My time was 51.54 but at this stage I was feeling very strong. No one had overtaken me at this stage and I had the satisfaction of overtaking a number of jock types. Don’t know what they made of this 38 year old man with the gut tipping past them!!!

Mile 8 – 10 I was pretty much on my own. I overtook two lads. One was wearing was orange teeshirt, the other a red teeshirt but I figured their relaxed style meant they plenty left in the tank. We were hitting a lovely downhill slope since mile 8 and my splits reflected this. (7.00, 7.11,7.15). At this stage things were getting tough for me as the rise in temperatures  meant my pace slowed down. The slower 10K runners merged with the rest of the field and the road became crowded again, much to my relief. By mile 11 I was in a spot of bother as the brain was telling the body to slow down. Had to really focus now. The two relaxed lads strolled past me. Had to admire their effortless style- maybe some day....

At mile 12 I was running with this guy in his 40’s. We ran mile 12 in 1.29 or 8.00 minute pace and then we came to another crest of a hill. It was obviously designed to break whatever resolve we had so there was nothing to do but take it one step at a time. By mile 13 I knew I was going to set a PB and relaxed a bit. I hadn’t expected to PB this one and my running partner streaked in front of me as did a longhair guy. These were two of 4 people to overtake me  towards the end but knowing I was going to set a PB I didn’t care. Crossed the line in 1.37.26 and finished in 59^th place. I was chuffed and even happier to see my two friends waiting for me as I crossed the finish line. Nice one lads, nice one!!!!

Recovery didn’t take long and headed back to the car with the lads. We went our separate ways and arranged to meet up again next week to watch the Champions league final in a Cork pub. A excellent day. Listening to a old “Spiritualized” album on the way home felt great. Even Joy Division sounded upbeat!!!! What will the plan be for the Cork half marathon now? Can I improve even further?

2 mile warm up (17.00 minutes) followed by 13.2 mile half marathon (1.37.26). No heart rate information.

Sunday 13^th May

A bit preemptive with this one but will do 3.2 miles in 35 minutes

Total mileage for week 48 miles

Intervals,hill runs, strides and tempos

7^th May

May Bank Holiday Monday. 1 mile warm up, 1 mile interval with 2 minute recovery, 1mile interval with 2 minute recovery. Legs were feeling like jelly at this point. 1 mile interval with 3.5 easy jog home. Splits for the interval miles were 6.40, 6.44 and 6.36. The last mile was my fastest despite finding it tough. HRM for last mile was  165. This was encouraging. Total mileage 7.7. Time on feet 63 minutes  (approx). Went to see the “Avengers” in Limerick. Bumped into the lovely Noreen Buckley, pro of North Cork AC. Preparations are starting for the Charleville half marathon in September.

8^th May

Supposed to be up and out running at 6.15am, taking advantage of my 10.05 start in work. Managed to sleep in until 7.30 am instead. Came back from work at 5.10 pm and headed out. The lovely fresh evening really perked me up and I ran 8 miles. I wanted to do a deliberate pace of 8.30, slow enough to allow me to recover from yesterdays session but fast enough to set me up for faster running during the week. Completed the 8 miles quite easily in a time of 1.08.08, giving me 8.31 pace. Was happy with that but disappointed with my average heart rate of 154 BPM. The effort felt easy but it was higher than I hoped. Hopefully in time when the schedule has me running “medium” run of 15 miles, the time will improve and the heart dropped.

9^th May

Ran up in Mayfield for this one.Haven’t ran up here in 10 weeks. Interesting route-first 3 miles take you from the highest point In Mayfield down to Leitrem st via the north ring road. A fast 3 miles. Mile 4,5,6 take you back up there again. Mile 4 and Mile 5 are pretty tough. Leitrem st-Wellington rd-St Lukes-Middle Glanmire rd-Montenotte-Iona Green. Mile 6 to Mile 7 are up and down. I ran the route struggled at mile 4 to mile 5 and used mile 7 as a cool down run. I finished the run with 6 or 7 X 0.1 strides. The heart rate was same as yesterday despite a harder effort. Some of the miles were completed at 7.17 and 7.07 pace

Ran 7.39 miles with 6 X 100 strides @ 0.1 mile. Average pace from Mile 1 – 6 was 7.47 minutes. Average HR 154 BPM

10^th May

Jack Daniels, Pfitzinger, Higdon and all the other notables talk about the tempo run. You run 1 mile warmup at a controlled pace and then a portion at a fixed pace. Not all out but “comfortably hard”. You finish with a controlled warm down. You should be tired but not so beat up that you can’t continue running. That’s the theory anyway. Now for the practice....

I had to dispense with the warm up mile for various reasons and decided to do a 4 mile tempo with a 2 mile cool down. Left the house at 7.15pm. I was thinking about 7.20-7.30 pace for the tempo part. First mile went very well 7.24. Then I took off. Mile 2 6.55. Mile 3 7.05. Mile 4 7.02. Average heart rate – 163BPM. Delighted with the workout. I did a lot better than I hoped. Could have pushed for a 5 mile tempo but all in good time.

Cool down portion should have been slower 8.18, 7.35 with ½ mile in 3.40. Average heart rate 153BPM. No change in the heart rate when i run between 7.35 and 8.30 this week.

7th May 7.7 mile,  8th May 8 miles, 9th May 7.39 miles, 10th May 6.5 miles.

Buying new trainers and keeping the heart rate low.

5^th May

Up and out the door by 7.15 am. Had to p-e-e-l  myself out of the bed for this one. Purchased a new pair of Nike trainers in that great shop “John Buckleys “on Thursday. The service and knowledge is second to none. Can’t praise the place highly enough. John, Conor, Mark and the rest of the staff are a institution in Cork running.

 Plan was to run 13 miles at a slow pace. There was two reasons for this. Firstly to spend a bit of time up on my legs. Running long runs at a fast or marathon pace isn’t always a good idea. Pfitzinger and all good running books speak of the LONG SLOW RUN. It’s the cornerstone of all marathon training. “Long” is important because you want to replicate the very thing you will be doing in a marathon – running for 3 or 4 or 5 hours. Slow because you want to train your slow twitch fibers to be able function correctly and also because you want to be fresh enough to perform the next workout and not be burnt out.  The second reason is to see how low could my heart rate go. A recommended range is 135 to 153 BPM. Anyway I ran the 13 miles. While running fast is difficult on the body, running slow without actually walking takes a bit of practice too. Completed the 13 miles in 121 minutes. Ran the second half marginally faster than the first half. First hour I ran 6.35 miles, second hour ran 6.7 miles Could have gone on for another hour at the pace I was going (9.18 average). Such a pace might suit me the day I decide to the Connemara Ultra. Heart rate averaged out as 138 BPM which I think is some sort of record for me. Normally it works out as 145-154 BPM over that distance. I was delighted with this, though I  was some way off some of the other bloggers featured here who can run 13 miles in sub  1r 30 mins and keep the heart rate even lower than mine. All in good time though.Will concentrate on the gardening and the FA cup final. Can’t decide who I dislike more – Chelsea or LIverpool

6^th May

Finished a very good running week with 3 easy recovery miles in Doneraile .Next race is Bandon half marathon  Saturday week- on my own for this one, it’s supposed to be tough. Anyway  will spend the evening watching the Cork hurlers play the ancient foe with the black and amber stripes.

5^th May – 13 miles

6^th May – 3 miles

Total mileage for the week  42 miles

Midleton 5 mile race

30^th April

Did 7 miles. Mile 1 warm up, mile 2 at 6.45 pace,2 minute recovery, mile 3 at 6.35 pace, 2 minute recovery,1/2 mile at 6.50 pace, jogged a further 3.3 miles. Total 7 miles. I was encouraged to see my second mile repeat go faster than the first. Effort felt easier too. Decided to do a another ½ mile repeat but the game was up by the time I finished. Happy enough with the effort. Nice relaxed 3.3 mile jog home.

1^st May

First day of Summer, second day of rain. Ran 8 miles in 1hr03mins. Works out as 7.52 pace. First mile went at 8.11 pace, at mile 5 decided to run at a 7.22 pace. Felt comfortable but decided to slow down for mile 6 (7.50 pace). Mile 8 finished at 7.36 pace. A good workout. The pace improved from 1 to mile 5, increased slightly at mile 6 and dropped again at mile 7 and mile 8.

2^nd May

Second day of Summer, first day of sun. Ran 5 miles with my new heart monitor. Took around 50 minutes. Average heart rate 117.

3^rd May

5 Mile Race Midleton

Was nervous about this one. I knew this represented my best chance of getting under 35 minutes / sub 7 minute pace. I had come close in Ballintotis 4 mile race a week previously and were it not for a crowded start line I would have made it. I ran the Midleton 5 two years ago. It was my second ever road race. I was happy to get around in 35.40 ish. Last year in the lead up to the Cork Marathon and in lashings of rain, I completed the race in 35.07. This year I was determined to allow for the fact that my Garmin would measure the course as being slightly over 5 miles. I reckoned a 6.50 average pace would get me under 35 minutes. At mile 1 I caught up  with my cousin Don Ryan. Don, a newly joined member of Midleton AC, is hoping to run the Cork Marathon. His times had improved dramatically since joining the club and I felt sticking with him would get me there. Anyway I felt awkward about getting in a close race with a family member (well until the last 200 metres anyway ;-) ). Mile 1 and Mile 2  passed in 6.40 and 6.49 respectively. Mile 3 had a slight hill in it and was reflected in the time of 6.59. I knew barring a trip or a injury I was doing well. I reached mile 4 in 6.56. Myself and Don were running very well together, each pushing the other along. Don was definitely running very well. We both laughed when a 8 year old boy jogged effortlessly pass a lot of us. Unreal!!!!! At mile 4.5 Don pulled to one side as his lace opened. Wishing him best of luck I took the last ½ mile like a man possessed. I was feeling very strong and could have easily have kept going for another 5 miles at this stage. I love the last 400 metres of this race – a straight run to the finish. Overtook a tall lad in black, almost catching up with a strong squarely built guy who was in front of me. Can’t deny I was pretty pumped crossing the line. A good days work. It is obvious the speed sessions are paying off. (Thanks Paudie!!! See you when you are pacing the Cork HM).

Don came in 6 seconds later- he too set a PB and was delighted with his time. Maybe we will race those last  200 metres next time!!!!

My time was 34.14 (6.50 pace) preceded by a 1.3 mile warm up jog.

30^th April – 7 miles

1^st May – 8 miles

2^nd May – 5 miles                    3^rd May 6.3 miles