26 weeks training for 26.2 miles -7 days to go

Monday 24^th March,

Heading into the second week of the taper I was thinking about doing 30-33 miles this week. Dispensed with the recovery run on the Monday and concentrated on a good workout for Tuesday. Plan was to a 1 hour time trail and see how far and fast I would go. The end result was very positive, in keeping with how the fast stuff has been going since October. The first mile was solid clocking in around 8.13 pace and after that I got faster and faster without actually feeling under pressure at any stage. Miles 6 and 7 came in at 6.57 and 6.53 with the last mile around 7.19 or so. In all I covered 8.31 miles at 7.13 average pace on a lovely spring evening. I did allow myself a little piece of self pity – in this case had I raced the mallow 10 I suspect I might crept in under 1.09 maybe even closer to 78 minutes. It’s all immaterial now – i enjoyed the pacing but next year hopefully I will get a crack at another 10 mile PB. Maybe if I trained specially for the 10 mile distance but this is unlikely as marathons are the only races I have actually prepared for.

Wednesday was another day off. This is my 7^th marathon I have trained for and I rarely feel entirely sure about the tapering side of things. However science is science and the experts seem to know what they saying – in this reduce mileage but maintain intensity. What hasn’t reduced is my appetite – need to keep a eye on that.

Thursday was a evening of running by myself. I tend to avoid the club sessions as they are out of kilter of where I am now. This time I ran 8.5 miles or so with 5 x 2 minute sprints (1 minute rest between sets). I had no garmin this time but i reckon 8.5 miles in 65 minutes was about right. Again the pace and sprints felt very relaxed. Friday I finished up with a overly long recovery run of 65 minutes (6 miles) in the company of my wife. It was her long run, my recovery run. The pace was about right for recovery (11 minute pace) but perhaps i stayed out 20 minutes more than what was required.  Aoiffe was happy with her run but  is getting annoyed she isn’t getting any faster. It’s to be expected considering she is only running 7 weeks and we have done no speedwork. We will probably work on that in May after her work based charity run is over. I don’t think she need not worry about getting through the distance.

Another rest day Saturday this time spent up in Cork city doing the mother’s day thing with mum. I couldn’t make it up Sunday. That day was reserved for my last long run. The plan was to run 90 minutes with 1 mile slow/ 8 at sub 3.30 marathon pace and the last two miles on heavy legs. I hit mile 9 in 70 minutes with mile 8 and 9 in 7.25 and 7.20. I jogged the last two miles on tired legs at 8.25 and 8.15 pace feeling quite comfortable. A satisfying workout. 11.3 miles in 90 minutes

Mileage for  the week. 34 miles (Tuesday 8.3 miles, Thursday 8.5 miles, Friday 6 miles, Sunday 11.3 miles).

A chip off the 90- Mallow 10 2014

Week starting 17^th March.

I kept forgetting this was the first week of my taper. 56 miles last week would normally mean a 20% cutback this week but as the Mallow 10 was on the Sunday the cutback was a small bit more pronounced. I don’t think this will be a problem.

Monday was the usual 4 mile jog in the company of my wife. Tuesday was a planned tempo run. As the weather was improving and the evenings getting longer I wanted to run  my favourite route – my house to Pikes Cross and back up again. I warmed up with a 2.2 mile run and then proceeded  to run a 5 mile tempo with a 1 mile cooldown and 4 X 1 mile sprints and 1 minute recoveries. The tempo was very positive – all done just under 7 minute pace. My fastest tempo in a year. I considered running a extra mile in the tempo but thought better of it. Wednesday was the usual 11 mile run in Mayfield but slower than normal 1hr33mins (8.25 pace). Thursday was a rest day enforced by work commitments more than anything else. I made up for this by running 6 miles on the Friday at 7.53 pace. A satisfying run with the last mile at 7.30 pace.

Saturday was time spent with the couch to 5k group – 2 relaxed miles. It’s great to see new runners starting with the club.

The big day was of course the Mallow 10 on the Sunday. I was down for pacing duties (90 minute group). Of course I would have loved to have race it and I really fancied my chances to get under 68 minutes but not this year. I was looking forward to the job in hand. Myself and Dick Riordan were pacing the 90 minute group together and it went very well. While we were both very comfortable the heat at mile 7 played havoc with many of the runners. I would have loved to have slowed down to help them but the clock is our master so on we pressed. By the time we finished we had a small enough group. As usual the reception at the finishing line was top class. I timed my run as 1.29.55 but my chip time was out again (1.30.35). While I got the Ballycotton time sorted I was a small miffed at this latest breakdown - no fault of the club, more that of the timing company. Dick finished just behind me and his chip was correct 1.29.57. No more technological breakdowns not with Connemara in two weeks!!!

Mileage for the week 42 miles

Where's me bottle?

Week starting 10^th March

As my Ballycotton time was given as 1.10.13 on their website I had to email the people responsible for the chip timing. They are also doing the chip timing for the upcoming Mallow 10. Obviously my chip had malfunctioned as the time given was my gun time not my chip time. This meant a difference of somewhere between 30 and 35 seconds and the official difference between a sub 70 or not. Hopefully all will be resolved. Having to re explain your time to people ends up making one sound like you are making excuses.

This week also marks the last full week of training before the taper for Connemara begins so the emphasis was on high mileage.  To be honest I would be lying if I said my training has been high intensity – it hasn’t but it has been consistent. I still hope to get around Connemara in under 3hrs50mins but I don’t expect  anything in the 3hr30 range. It could be one those days where one will be glad to just get around. Main thing is to “enjoy it” and recover quickly. Best to get the” sandbagging” in early.

The training week from Monday to Friday went very well. 4 miles recovery on Monday, 10 miles at 7.37 pace on Tuesday, 11 miles at 8.10 pace on Wednesday and 10 miles at 7.47 pace on Thursday. The legs on the whole were feeling good leaving me with a 22 mile run up in Cork on Saturday in the company of my old buddy Aidan. He’s in training for the Limerick marathon in May and this was his first 20 miler of his training. I did a one mile warm up on my own in Mayfield thinking running around 3hrs20 on my feet would be enough of a long run with the hills providing a reasonable Connemara like profile.  The first 7 miles  went well but the pace was slow. My legs were heavy and Aidan was feeling the effects of a long working week and a long drive down. The water bottles I put the day before in the Commons rd, Mardyke and the Cooperage were meant to offer us some relief  especially as the sun was coming out by 12 pm. There fore i couldn’t believe when I saw they were missing, amazingly enough this was a pattern that was to be repeated at all our aid stations. I was well pissed off- I hope the morons that took them get a mild dose of the you-know-whats. Serve them right.

Thankfully Aidan had the sense to bring some coins to enable us buy some bottles at the garage. However the stopping at garages every 7 miles of so disrupted our rhythm and this combined with the heat, the traffic (crossing roads) and latterly the hills (Ballyvolane) made life awkward.

Nevertheless we had a good natter. Another point of concern was the fact that the Garmin froze twice out on the run so I was losing track of my mileage and time on the feet but by the time we headed back to Mayfield, I reckon I had 21miles to 21.5 miles spending around 3hrs13mins(9.27 pace) on my feet. It was all I had left at that stage. Aidan stopped at 20 miles.

Afterwards a big gang of the lads met up in Cissie Youngs to watch the rugby. I dined on Lucozade and chips and burgers from the local chipper. The food of kings....

Now whatever happened to those water bottles.....

Mileage for the week 56 miles

 

Ballycotton race report (sort of....)

Ballycotton 10 race report , 9^th March 2013.

In 2001 a few months after meeting the lady who would be my future wife I decided to take up jogging. I was 27 years old but was overweight and very unfit. My first ever run consisted of 3 laps of the local soccer pitch in Beaumont Dublin. I nearly passed out after my second lap and puked up after the third lap. I put it down to the beers I had the night before. I was working in IBM at the time and in the canteen over a full Irish breakfast I was asking one of the I.T guys about running and tips for training. He gave me the usual tips about taking it at my own pace and just enjoying it. He also remarked that he was heading down to Ballycotton to do “the race there”. I hadn’t a clue what he was talking about. He was incredulous that a Corkman never heard of “the Ballycotton 10”. He suggested I should try it some time. When I mentioned it to my house mate and  buddy Aidan he said “Yeah it’s a pretty big deal”. He added “My brother ran it in 52 minutes”.


" Is that fast” I enquired? He started laughing.

9 years later and pretty bored of jogging 3 times a week  by myself I decided to give it a shot. It was my first ever road race and another step on the journey that has become a integral part of my life. My finishing time was 1.20.16. it was very modest but I was hooked and I decided there and then to run a marathon. My wife, friends and family thought I was mad but I was made up. Since then I took part in the Ballycotton 10 in 2011 (1.14.14), 2013 (1.11.11) and 2014. I will never be a sub 60 runner or a sub 3 marathon runner. Like most mid pack runners one can always hope for incremental improvements. For me getting under 70 minutes in Ballycotton was a important part of that process creating a continuity that went all the way back to 2001.

 

Without going into too much detail about the race and while there was a muck up with my chip time I am glad to say the finishing time was 1.09.40. Mission achieved. My second sub 70 time in a 10 mile race. For the record Aidan ran in 1.08.30.

The story continues........................

 

The Daddy

Friday 7^th March.

It’s been a while since a update. The day after the Adare 10k the legs were feeling heavy, a feeling that lasted well into Wednesday. Accordingly I took it easy in terms of pace running 4 miles, 8 miles and 11 miles over the 3 days.All were run at a solid enough pace somewhere between 8.15 and 8.30 pace. It was pleasing to get the 11 mile run completed in Cork City. It’s something i would like to maintain over the next few weeks. Thursday was a shorter session – a mere 6 miles or so with 3 X 1 miles at 6.50 pace. These I ran with the club leaving Friday as a rest day.

Saturday was the day of the long run. A planned 22 miles in Charleville. I had to do this on my own rather than with the club as I had a work function to attend on the Sunday. It went reasonably well. I took it very handy with the first couple of miles at around 9.15 pace. I picked it up after that stopping for water at miles 7, 15 and 18. As usual I ran without a breakfast in me and didn’t carry any gels. The last 4 miles from Ballyhea were uphill but i was happy to see I ran these at around 8.15 pace. It was funny bumping into different people on the way – Judy, Ger, Fiona, Aoiffe. The little bit of encouragement helped a lot and I felt very fresh when I got to the front door of my house in 3hrs13mins39seconds (8.39 pace). It was even nicer having the couch to myself as my wife was out for the day. Nothing like a good veg on the couch watching a good film (A Prophet) after a long run. 51 miles for the week.

The following Monday was the usual recovery run in the company of my wife. She is training for a planned charity 6 mile jog in Limerick in May so I am volunteering my services as coach and “running expert”. Her pace while slow is steady and I am delighted with the progress she is making. Running isn’t her thing (more of a swimmer and circuits person) so all good so far.

However by Tuesday I had hit a bit of a brick wall. Didn’t sleep well the night before and had no interest of motivation to run. I have been in this place before and the best approach for me is to take a day off  running and get to bed early. That did the trick because by Wednesday I completed another 11 mile run up in Mayfield at 8.14 pace. The rest of the evening was a busy one but I had bags of energy afterwards.

I had planned to do a 7 mile tempo run on Thursday run at around 7.05 pace but with Ballycotton looming i felt it was better to run the tempo at slightly under 7.30 pace. Starting with a 1 mile warm up and a two mile cooldown  the 7 mile tempo was sandwiched in between at around 7.25 pace. It was a solid effort but there was definitely a small bit of zip missing from the legs.

As stated Ballycotton is looming on Sunday. I don’t really know what to expect. A sub 70 would be nice (sounding like a broken record now) but a course PB would be ok too (sub 71). Hell as I write this I would take a improvement on my last 10 mile adventure. Nevertheless the priority has to be Connemarathon. That is the Daddy. 25 miles for the week so far.