Turning point?

August 23^rd 2015

I managed a rescue of sorts this week after what was a very tough opening few days of training. The stomach bug was in my system until last Wednesday but energy levels were pretty dismal to the point I took 2 days off on Thursday and Friday.

 The first 3 days of the week were not good at all. Basically the running day consisted of me going for a hour jogging or so in the morning, breaking into sweats and heavy breathing after maybe 10 minutes and then suffering for a further 45 minutes, stopping for a 3 minute walk doing another few minutes of light jogging before having to stop a mile out for home for a 15 minute walk back to the house. I then would get in the door empty what was left of my gut lie down and drink a glass of dioralite.

Pretty crap (if you excuse me) to be honest. Tuesday was only marginally better – 2 mile warm up 15minutes X 2 at 7.30 pace and a 1 mile cooldown before panning out again. I thought I was over the worst of it by Wednesday but after coming back after another walk run hour I nearly passed out after coming out of the shower. Common sense prevailed and Aoiffe swore me not to run for at least 2 days. It was a easy promise to make. I was a spent force. The gains I had made up to the August weekend were being undermined.

Thursday night I must have slept 12 hours waking up at 10 am. I took another day off Friday and decided to see if I could do a hour light jog on Saturday. Adopting a very slow and cautious approach keeping the pace down to around 9min to 9.15 for the first hour I was feeling pretty ok , all things considered. I decided to keep going. I was feeling ok after 2 hours covering 13.5 miles – a slow pace. A sensible me should have left it at that but I decided to loop back around Pikes Cross and back down the Railway. These last 3 miles were a struggle. I was stuck in the one gear and there was a definite sense of effort involved. The legs were feeling tight and my head was getting tired. I had to stop for a gulp of water in the railway station but these hardships were good things. It meant my body was readapting to the notion of the long run. In all I ran 18.1 miles in 2hrs40minutes – average pace was 8.51- slow and I suspect the Hr wasn’t particularly low either. However I was delighted to have got the work done even if I was wiped for the rest of the day.

We headed up to see Kevin Bridges do a gig in the Opera House – not one of his best gigs and I was wiped out again the next day after a 3 hour round trip to Cork to see the man perform a very odd show. However rather than go for run On Sunday I went for a 40 minute 2.8 mile walk with Aoiffe- the quads and muscles were achey, a feeling that persisted until Monday.

I had plans to run the Ballycotton 5 mile race and the Tullamore half marathon on the following Saturday. I also had plans to run the Liscarroll 10k and the Clonmel 13.1 the week previously. These races were to play a part in my training but maybe a more back to basic approach might be required.

Miles for the week – Monday 7 miles, Tuesday 7 miles, Wednesday 6.2 miles, Saturday 18.1 miles, Sunday 2.8 mile walk. 41 miles in total.

 Holiday photo taken with Toledo in the background, probably one of the nicest places I have ever ran (or visited).

Spanish belly

Sunday  16th August

Sitting on the couch a bit glum. Tummy started to give me a lot of trouble last Wednesday on the way down from Dublin airport. Aoiffe had picked up a serious vomit and tummy bug the night before we left Malaga to fly back to Dublin and it was only a matter of time before I picked it up. I am probably getting over it at this stage – Aoiffe not as much.

In terms of running over the last two weeks I didn’t do a huge amount in particular during the week of my holidays principally because I didn’t expect I had to as I had put down some very big weeks in the lead up to the break. I ran 4 miles and around 7 miles in Madrid on the Monday and Tuesday and another 7 miles and 4 miles in Toldeo. To be honest I have liked to have done more running but I got a pain of a headcold on the Friday and that laid me low over the weekend during the trip to Granada. Sound like a bit of a crock don’t I?

In Malaga on the Tuesday the cold had cleared up and I ventured for a 80 minute run on the Tuesday morning last week. All my running had to take place at around 6.50 am in the morning so warm was the weather during the day with temperature’s hitting highs of 40 degrees. Even at 6.50 am in the morning it was still in the mid to high 20 degrees so the pace had to be slow. I also ran my time using a stopwatch rather than a garmin.

Nevertheless I felt in terms of keeping the legs fresh I had done enough to allow me to run the Clonmel half marathon but the old Spanish belly intervened on Wednesday on the way down. I did run 8.5 miles on the Thursday in Charleville at a relaxed pace of 8.20 per mile but I should have worried when the effort felt harder than it should have. I had no energy on the Friday and things worsened over the weekend with my system acting in a “irregular “ way. Hence no running today in Clonmel and only 17 miles this week and 23 miles the week before.

We will see what the rest of the week brings.

Good workouts before holiday blowout

Week ending 2^nd August

A very good running week. I hoped to pack a good few miles in this week as it was coming to the end of the month and I wanted to get close to nearly 200 miles for the month of July (I managed 199 last year and 193 this time). Also with a 11 day trip coming up in Spain where temperatures are somewhere in the 40 degrees I might be limited to 3 runs a week. We tend to do a bit of travelling around when we go abroad so getting into a settled routine of running is tricky. At least by getting a good week up on my legs the following 7 days allows me to rest somewhat before building it up again for August and the big month of  September.

Monday – routine recovery jog. I had no Garmin but I did the usual 4 mile route. It felt very comfortable.

Tuesday – 8 miles with 5 miles tempo. Average pace for the tempo was 7.10.It was a faster tempo than this time last year and I should have pushed things on a bit for mile 2. Last mile was run in 6.59 pace. Hopefully by September I can get a faster pace on the shorter tempos, ideally around 7 minutes.

Wednesday – I was up early around 6.40 am for a 90 minute long slow midweek medium “long run” running from Charleville – Railway Rd – Bally hea and back via Charleville. I covered 10.25 miles at a solid slow pace of 8.27 per mile.

Thursday – Another early start with a 3 mile warm up jog and then 10 X 2 min intervals at 6.33 average pace. I rested around 45 -60 seconds between each interval and jogged a mile home. I ran 7 miles in total. Again not a very fast pace for intervals as a lot of runners who run a 5k under 20 minutes would be doing these intervals at 6 minute pace. 20 minutes of intervals is enough to be getting on with as the legs felt it the next day.

Friday – 4 mile recovery jog at 9.20 pace. Hr 135.

Saturday – The day of the long run. Like all my workouts this week I was running this on my own. The plan was to spend around 2hrs40mins on my feet but run around 10 miles at marathon pace. I ran 7.5 miles at a slow relaxed pace (7.45 pace). I took a sup of water and then ran the next 10 miles at 7.40 pace. I was very comfortable for the for 8 miles but the last two miles were tough. I should have kept a tighter rein on the splits at miles 7 and mile 8 and I suffered a bit for the last mile. The splits were the marathon pace run were 1) 7.46, 2)7.59 3)7.48 4)7.43 5)7.35 6)7.26 7)7.29 8)7.30 9)7.40 10)7.38. Nevertheless I was happy with the way the run panned out. I suppose it would have been good to have turned out another 2/3 miles but all in good time. I then tacked on another 15 minutes (1.5 miles) of slow mileage simply to get the legs running on depleted legs. A good workout. 19miles.

My next race will be the Clonmel half marathon in two weeks. I hope to get around as the legs will be jelly like after the holidays. Hopefully I can build up the fitness from that point onwards.

Monday 4 miles, Tuesday 8 miles with 5 mile tempo, Wednesday 10.25 miles, Thursday 7 miles with 10 X 2 miles, Friday 4 miles, Saturday 19 miles with 10 miles at MP pace.

50 miles

Week ending 26^th July

Monday morning the legs were a bit stiff probably as a result of the fact that I was a bit out of practice running for  2hrs20min . I ran around Charleville covering the 7 mls at 8.36 pace. The slow pace over a longer distance did the trick as I was pretty fresh over the rest of the day. This meant by Tuesday morning I was able to go for a 60 minute tempo. The plan was to run around 7.30 pace as distinct from a faster sub 7.10 pace over 30 minutes. In other words a longer tempo over a slower distance. These Tuesday workouts will after August (fingers crossed)  become the key “quality” workout of the week alongside the long run on the Sunday. The shorter long run on Wednesday is important after those Q1 and Q 2 workouts. Races on Thursday or club sessions keeps the interest going and improves my ability to run at short harder paces. Monday and Saturday are slower recovery  runs.

The run went very well covering the 8 mile loop from my house, the railway road, Pikes Cross, Cooleens and back home again. I did 8.10 miles in the 60 minutes at 7.25 pace. It wasn’t easy but I was able to maintain a good control at all times. The splits were 7.48,7.25,7.27,7.23,7.15 (downhill),7.15,7.12,7.21 and 0.12 @ 7.24 around the estate for the rest.

By Wednesday I was surprisingly feeling ok. No heavy or dead legs or anything like that. I got the 85 minute run completed by 8.30 am that morning at around 8.30 pace. I was told to run these slower but it’s hard to run these any slower than what I am doing. If anything it’s doing all I can not to run these at a faster pace. I ran the Charleville/Railway Rd/Ballyhea / Charleville route. It’s bang on 10 miles to and from my house and it’s a well known path at this stage. Most of the route is on the hard shoulder of the N20 but it’s safe out. I headed up to Cork called into my Mum’s and met some of the lads for a bit of lunch in 14A on French Church st.

By Thursday morning I was feeling a bit groggy. I had a poor nights sleep and was in little form that evening making the 105 minute car journey down to Churchtown South in Ballycotton. What did stand to me by the time I headed down was the 2 hour nap from 1230 to 230 and getting the dinner out of the way early. Obviously I have a lot of (unpaid) time off during the summer so there are no reasons not to feel rested. With the correcting out of the way I have a lot more free time.

Anyway the race in Churchtown was reasonably ok. It was my first 5 mile race since last August. The last 1.5 miles were pretty intense and I was on my feet at the end coming in at 34mins.40secs which is my typical / solid run time. I would have liked to obviously run faster but at this stage I have might have reached my peak at achieving 33.08 in Midleton 2 years ago. It was good to get the 0.5 mile warm and 2 mile cooldown in as well. My cousin and many Mallow runners did very well. It’s success at the short distances that will aid the longer ones.

That was pretty much it until Sunday running for 2hrs40mins. I had no garmin running 3 miles with Liam Murphy at 8.30 am joining the main group for another 14.5 miles. I feel reasonably fresh for a car journey up to Cork to meet Derm and Tim to watch a disastrous defeat by the hurlers to Galway. I would have hoped to have got a run in on Saturday but no such luck

Anyway a downbeat end to a good block of training. 50.87 miles. Monday 7 miles, Tuesday 8.1 miles, Wednesday 10 miles, Thursday 7.37 with 5 mile race, Sunday 18.5 miles approx..

42 again

Week ending 19^th July

Another weeks running done and dusted. Same mileage as last week – 42 miles. I probably would need to be getting into 50 miles a week territory pretty soon. Hopefully I will manage it this week and maintain the mileage the week after. 

The time from 3^rd August to  12^th August will see less mileage but the plan from then on is start ramping it in preparation for the Frankfurt marathon which will be 10 weeks from the time I get back in time for the dreaded Clonmel half marathon.

Plenty of time between now and then of course but I have been giving my post Frankfurt marathon plans some rough thought. I have ruled out doing any ultra next year, although I do hope to return to Connemara again in 2017 or perhaps give Portuma a shot. In terms of marathons I have vague notions of doing the Sixmilebridge or Clonakilty marathons afterwards but as I came a cropper last year training for Sixmilebridge maybe not. For the moment I don’t see myself training for anymore serious marathons until next year focusing almost totally on distances between 5k and 10 miles with perhaps a 13.1 mile race thrown in.

The cornerstone of this weeks training was 2 speed sessions and one LSR. Monday was the usual 4 recovery run (9.36 pace, HR 135). Tuesday was the speed work. 2 mile warm up with 30 minutes tempo and a 1 mile cooldown. The legs were dead enough and the splits were reflective of this. The average pace was 7.09 which is a small bit slower than the last tempo run but the last mile picked up to sub 7 pace. Not a bad effort all the same but hopefully the next tempo will see some improvement.

Wednesday was a slower 80 minute run but it was a lovely day for it. I ran 9.5 miles it total at 8.25 pace around by Pikes cross and Cooleens. All flat and all slow.

Thursday a training session with Mallow AC, warm and cooldown with 6 X 0.5 mile hill repeats in Doneraile Park. I was fine for the first 3 repeats (6.40 pace) but suffered badly in the last three (7.00). Lesson learned.

No running Friday or Saturday which probably needs to be rectified in future weeks.

Sunday was a long run. I met the Mallow crew at Newtwopothouse and jogged the 6 miles to Doneraile park taking part in a 5K fundraiser on behalf of local lad, Dessie Fitzgerald. I jogged down the back at 9 minute pace and then the remaining 7 miles back to my car. That gave me 16 miles in total at a pace of 8min50sec pace or 2hrs21min on the feet. It was slow and it wasn’t always comfortable but that’s the way it was meant to be. I need to emphasis long runs over the next few weeks.

A lot of stuff to work on.

42 miles (4 mls Monday, 7 mls with 4mls tempo Tuesday, 9.5 miles Wednesday, 5.5 miles with 6 X 800 metre hill repeats Thursday, 16 miles Sunday.)

Drom and Port

Week ending 12^th July

I ran two races this week, a 4 mile race in Dromcolloger (my third time doing this) on the Monday and a half marathon on the Saturday in Portarlington up in Co. Offaly. In between I ran 9 miles in 77 minutes in Charleville, walked 3 miles as a recovery session with my wife and ran 8 miles in Mallow with the club.I didn’t run on Friday or on the Sunday. I covered 42 miles this week.

An advantage of running the same course one year after the other is that it gives you a indicator of where you are. In Dromcollogher I was running my first short race since December so I was just aiming to give it my best shot. I came in at 27mins36seconds which was around the same time I ran in 2012. The splits were pretty identical too. I ran with Pa and Paudie for the first 1.5 miles so as not to take off so quickly so that I would not burn up in the last few miles. When I crossed the line I was glad to have got a solid time under my belt. I warmed up with 2 miles and cooled down with 1 mile for a good workout.

Tuesday was a easier paced day. I had planned to cover a fixed time in this case 75 minutes as prescribed in a number of running programmes. The idea was to run at a LSR pace. I covered 9 miles in 77 minutes, the pace was faster than LSR pace, 8.30 pace but I think I did pretty well. Wednesday was a walk in my wives company, always a good time for a chat about the day.

I took it handy on the pace in Mallow running the 3 X 10 minutes at 7.20 pace.

Saturday was the day of the half marathon in Portarlington. My mate Aidan only lives 5 miles from the town and the race was a good chance to catch up. Numbers for the 3 races – marathon, half marathon and 10K were small and I couldn’t imagine if the event would have another year in it. From my point of view I was going to use the race one of two ways- a marathon pace run or a simply just race it and see where my fitness was. I opted for the latter option in the end despite the 2.5 mile warm up. The course was marked in kilometres (road markings only) rather than miles but that wasn’t a issue for me and the water stations were well placed. At times the marshalling wasn’t always evident and some cars and trucks were too close for comfort. This is a point that needs to be sorted in future or someone could get hurt. Anyway my legs were finally a bit rubbery after 3 miles- they had no pep in them. I was in touch with the 1hr 40 minute pacers for the entire race but that was as fast as I could go. I obviously was out of practice. This was my fastest long race since last October so some stiffness was to be expected. In the end I crossed the line in 1hr39min51seconds not a fast time  but not entirely slow either. It means I am in reasonable shape but a long way off where I want to be. I was tired crossing the line which also indicates I gave it all I could.Hopefully I could build on this weeks training over the next few weeks.

Mileage for the week 42 miles. Monday 7 miles with 4 mile race at 6.54 pace, Tuesday 9 miles in 77 minutes, Wednesday 3 mile walk, Thursday 8 miles with 3 X 10 minutes, Saturday 15.5 miles with 13.1 miles at 7.37 pace

Step on

8^th July

Last Christmas I purchased my wife a smart phone thingy as part of the yuletide celebrations. I don’t have much interest in such technological machinations happy to make do with my functional brick. Truth be known I don’t see much value in a lot of it at all- after all how much internet/information access does one need? Anyway what is interesting is the pedometer app on it. (I like the real feel weather thing too) The target stepcounter calls for a minimum of 5,000 steps a day. A soft walking target but it does work out as a solid 3 miles a day. Anyway I have got into asking her "How many steps have you done today ?" which given my mildly obsessive compulsive nature is probably driving her nuts. Best to stop now...

My “how many steps have we done today” reached new levels of interest last week during a 5 day trip to London. I think we walked around on average 8,000 to 9,000 steps a day which was pretty good going , around 8K to 9K a day, going from one sightseeing opportunity to another and also from one eatery to another. The trip to London was as always a good one coinciding with the big smoke hitting 2 of it’s hottest days in decades. We stopped at Hampton Court Flower show, the National Portrait gallery, Tate modern, the Imperial War Museum and a few other delights. Running wise I managed to stretch the legs for 2 X 1 hour jogs around Hyde park, where as Blur once said “All you runners go around and around and around”. Not far wrong either. Nice spot though. Enjoyed buying a buckletload of CD's in HMV in Oxford St.

Sunday I was back on terra firma for a cutback 10 mile long run. 2 races coming up by the end of the week.

Week ending 5^th July 28 miles and lots of walking.

Monday 4 mile light jog, Wednesday 7 miles with 7 X 30 second sprints, Friday 7 miles, Sunday 10 miles @ 8.16 pace