Clontarf Half Marathon - Winter edition!

Saturday, 23rd November, 2013 - Clontarf Half Marathon.

Today was to be my last long run before Lanzarote in two weeks time so I combined the Clontarf HM with some miles before and afterwards to meet this goal.

Warm-up:

I arrived to Clontarf around 9am and jogged to the reg tent where I picked up my number before returning to the car to pin on the number and properly prepare for my warm-up. From there I ran at an easy pace along the start of the course before turning back near the wooden bridge. By the time I had returned to the start I had completed 6km and there was 20mins to race start.

Race:

I met Jamie (pacing partner) and several other familiar faces as we sorted out the balloons. In no time we were in position awaiting the first wave to set sail. A gap of 90 seconds was allowed for the start of the second wave of which we were at the front. A large gang ran with us for the first 5km including Peter who was in Chicago with us. There was plenty of chat for the first few km but that slowly died off after the first beach segment when we had to put the head down and work as we ran into the wind rolling down from Raheny. Thankfully as we turned for Sutton it eased off again and the next few km were more comfortable running.

Jamie on the far left and myself in the black top.

By this stage the group had thinned out somewhat but there was still about 20 runners or so with us. The race director had laid on a 10km pacing mat which was a novel idea (designed so that if there was a particularly strong wind you could at least get a good 10km time - if it was a South Westerly!). I had been running at steady 4:40/km pace but the sand sapped a little time from that so I was keen to check if I was on for my 46:40 split. However, we went through in 47:08 instead and this showed us to be running at 4:43/km which was quite close to the bone. I therefore decided to push it a little bit more to gain a factor of safety as we would likely lose more time through the sand on the return.

We turned for home 600m later and were up by 15 seconds so it was now where we wanted to be. After the turn though a gap of about 50m appeared between myself and Jamie with most of the crew sticking with Jamie. I was a bit apprehensive about the time so I maintained my pace til the beach where as expected things slowed down a bit again. This time on the beach the wind was blowing straight into our faces and it was a bit off putting being so cold if not particularly strong. By half way along the beach Jamie and the gang had caught up again and around here I started flagging a little. 

As we turned right at the end of the beach we had about 200m of rough sand to cross and combined with the wind this was a tough section. Much of my reserve strength was sapped along here and when we got back onto the road again, with just 3.5km to go, I was having to tuck in behind Jamie for a bit of drafting. Unfortunately around this spot Jamie mentioned that he was getting a little worried about the pace dropping slightly and began to kick on. I was now in the awkward position of waning and yet most of the pacees stayed with me! I was seriously considering giving Jamie a shout to drop back the 5-10m again and bring the group with him. Bad memories of pacing the same time in the Phoenix Park in September came flooding back! I couldn't fail at this a second time!

As we got back onto the main seafront promenade the pacees filtered into the space between myself and Jamie and we were now directing matters as an aggressive 1:40 (Jamie) and a conservative 1:40 (me). This actually worked well and with everyone in between on target for the goal time. As we covered the final couple of kms we struck upon a few that were struggling mentally and when they saw us they managed to up their game by joining us all the way to the finish. The last km was pretty tough for me and by the time I crossed the line there was a decent gap to the next runner so I feel we brought everyone in under their time, so job done! 

After the line I had to take a few moments to get myself together again. This had been a tough run but I factored in a few things afterwards, specifically:

• 1:40 pacing off a 1:32:41 PB is too tight!
• The Stook 10 miler was still in my legs.
• The wind (and baloon resistance) sapped a little into my factor of safety.
• The 6km warm-up was denying the pacing job the respect it deserved.
• I didn't eat enough of a breakfast for the job in hand (one buttered scone and a cup of tea).

After another close call today I think I'll give the pacing gigs a miss for the next while until they are not forming part of a training cycle and I really am doing them at an easy pace and for the craic.

Recovery run:

Afterwards I enjoyed a bit of chat with Olwyn, Joe (x2), Jamie, Niall and Peter. Before too long I was getting cold(er) and we decided to head down to Howth to support the Filipino fundraising EOI marathon. The guys had a great spread laid on outside the OCI offices and with a great turnout they managed to raise approximately €1,700 which will all go towards the Red Cross relief effort. Nice when people come together like this.

Unfortunately though my business was not finished for the day. I still had to tack on a few miles to get the distance up. So I hopped in my car, returned home, changed my clothes and did some stretchng before heading out for a local 5km run. I still hadn't eaten more than a morsel of food so halfway through the 5km I was a broken man! I had run out of energy and was working on fumes. Eventually I made it home after 6km bringing the distance for the day to over 33km so not bad at all when 21km was at marathon pace. When I look at the HM data though it is clear that it was continuously rising over the final few kms and going by my new Daniels training regime it would suggest I was running at 10km effort for the last 20mins or more. I think this was where a lack of fuel was to blame and therefore not surprising I struggled so much on the 6km loop later.

Anyways, that's a good days work in the bank now so just try and keep ticking over for the next couple of weeks before my deserved xmas break!

Sunday, 24th November, 2013 - 7.4km Recovery Run (5:48/km)

Got out this evening for a gentle recovery run. Slow pace but probably about right considering yesterday. Felt pretty decent all things considered. Nice evening out there again.

Week 46 Summary:

RTW: 4 from 6 days

DTW: 60.0 km

DTY: 3,581.0 km

Well that weekend didn't go according to plan!

Saturday, 21st September, 2013 – 3.0km Warm Up (5:15/km) and 13.1km DCM Series HM - Aborted run (4:40/km)

Pacing crew before the run

Bit of a disaster today with the Half Marathon. Ended up having to drop out after 8 miles for reasons I’m still struggling to comprehend. 

The day started off well with an easy jog across to the gathering point where I met my fellow pacers. After a few photos and general chat myself and Johnny went off for a couple more kilometres with the main aim to expand the HM out into an overall Long Run. Before long we were back in the starting positions for the race.

Myself and Joe and Dominic were positioned at the start of Wave two where I was briefly joined by my Brother. Damien played it smart however and retreated back a few rows as we were about to start as he felt 1:40 would be too fast for him. A couple of minutes after the first wave was set off we were moved up to the starting line and a few seconds later we were off.

Almost immediately Dominic lost his flag off his pole even though Eugene had gone round to most/all pacers and duct taped them together. The first few miles went well with the run down Khyber being nice and handy way to start and the pull up to wellington being the first little challenge of the day. Before long we were out the back of the Zoo and running on the North Rd. By mile 3 we were on target but we all felt mile 2 had been a little long and mile 3 a little short so we were going to have to keep a close eye on things. Around this time a pacee almost went flying to the ground alongside me – another victim of unintentional tripping in such a close knit group.

We continued on to the Castleknock gate before doubling back and then going through Farmleigh. I had been keeping a close eye on 4:40/km on my watch and was happy that we were well on target. Around here I noticed my HR was higher than I’d have expected it to be but thought little of it. After a brief spell outside the Park we returned in through Knockmarroon Gate and almost all of a sudden I started to feel like things were getting tough. Hoping it was just a temporary blip I continued on silently in the hope things would get easier. They didn’t. It was getting progressively tougher throughout mile 7 and by the time we were on the Ordnance Survey Road I was a few metres behind the other guys. The breeze was on our backs around here but I was finding the temperatures pretty warm and the lack of cooling air to be an issue. I stuck at it though as I hoped things would get easier again when we hit Chesterfield Avenue where it opens up and hopefully the side breeze would act as a cooler. Unfortunately though about 500m along that road I was now struggling to keep within 10m of the other two guys and felt things were just getting worse. I knew that on a normal day I could just ease off and jog it home to the finish but that wasn’t an option today with the pacing responsibility. There was nothing left to do but notify the guys I was cooked and had to pull out. First though ihad to make up the 10m to tell them that which was a fair old struggle on its own! I felt like a right dick having to pull out of the pacing job, that’s just not supposed to happen! The guys were very understanding in fairness to them and they looked like they had it covered anyways so just after the 8 mile marker I pulled in to the side of the road, so annoyed with myself.

HR data for Dublin HM - I would have expected it to be around 152bpm average

In the immediate aftermath I tried to work out why this had happened. Probably a few contributing factors – Poor nutrition the day before, warm temperatures, I had two t-shirts on (to avoid chafing mostly), the backpack was giving me serious issues for the opening miles and even after that it was still a little uncomfortable, and finally the MLR on Thursday combined with the Yasso’s on Wednesday and the Athlone HM last weekend were probably just too much too soon before the race.

Sunday, 22nd September, 2013 – Rest Day.
To make a miserable weekend even worse Mayo fell to the Dubs! In fairness Dublin deserved it but can't help thinking that if COC was quicker taking the two straightforward frees or the Ref played the 30 secs he promised (the Dublin cynicism demanded another play be allowed!) then perhaps we might have been able to tag on another point and come back another day. Oh well, c'est la vie! 63 years now...!

Week 38 Summary:
RTW: 6 from 7 days
DTW: 72.0 km
DTY: 3,033.8 km
Chicago - 21 days (3 weeks, 0 days)

Monday, 23rd September, 2013 – Rest Day.
My post match funk had not yet cleared so tacked on another rest day.

Tuesday, 24th September, 2013 – 32.0km LSR with 2 x progressions (5:14/km)
I had yesterday and today off work so this afternoon I went for an LSR as my last long run before Chicago. The first 8km were done at a leisurely pace, approximately 5:25/km. As I turned on to the royal Canal however I found myself getting a little bored so decided to throw in a progression type segment whereby I ramped up the effort a little extra at the start of every new km. By the time I turned around at 12th Lock I had ran 15km so I threw in another similar progression segment on my return to Phibsboro. The remainder of the run was back down to 5:20/km pace and i managed to append an extra 2km to bring the overall distance up to 32km by the end. Pretty knackered by then and not really enjoying the abdominal wall issues...think I may have tweaked something in that region but probably actually all connected to the same niggle I've had the past few weeks with the hamstring/glute/adductor/abdomen now. Feels like the injury is just floating around the place! If it was just in a localised area I'd have gone to the physio by now but can't think how such a vague injury could be diagnosed that easily.
The progression data shows the following Max HR vs Pace graph:

I hope to build this up over a few more runs and races to see if the correlation bears resemblance to the theoretical HR ranges for speed zones. We shall see.
Week 39 Summary (so far):
RTW: 1 from 2 days
DTW: 32.0 km
DTY: 3,065.8 km
Chicago - 18 days (3 weeks, 4 days)

Nice MP progress within a week

Thursday, 5th September, 2013 – 19.0km with 16km @ MP (4:36/km)

Once again I was dreading the MP session as I had failed miserably with it last time out. However one week on I was hopeful that I’d managed to improve enough and with favourable weather conditions (i.e. little or no wind!) I’d manage to up the MP segment to 15km.

My target MP is somewhere between 4:30-4:37/km. I’ll confirm the target after the Athlone HM but even if I ‘settle’ for 4:37 pace then it’ll still be a big ask. And so, I set off the same as last week with a 1.5km easy run to the start point at Ashtown Station. Today I decided to get the longer Eastern section out of the way first so that if I began to wane I’d have only the shorter, more manageable Western section to close out the session.

MP run pace and HR

Things went pretty well with me maintaining pace adequately and the HR around where it should be. The pace was a bit off with the watch in a couple of places where there were sharp turns, like when I turned around at the 12th Lock – the peak at 11km in the graph and the much faster 12th km afterwards when both were done at the same intensity!

By the time I got back to Ashtown I was almost done so seeing as I was still feeling good I threw in an extra bonus split to bring it up to 16km @ 4:36/km av pace. Much improved performance on last time out.

Friday, 6th September, 2013 – 7.4km Recovery Run (5:20/km)

Just a very relaxed recovery run after yesterday. Left hammy still not gone away!

Saturday, 7th September, 2013 – 8.6km Recovery run (5:27/km)

I intended to join a couple of others in the PP for this as an LSR but ended up going in to town to watch the Ireland match on Friday evening so had to change plans for the LSR. So, I found myself going for a run at 5:30pm with the intention of doing the LSR. The wind was blowing a little more than I’d like and the freezing rain wasn’t adding any appeal. Unsurprisingly my mood changed over the first few kms and as the run felt more miserable by the kilometre I was becoming aware of a couple of twinges. I guess sub consciously I threw in the towel and decided to jog home for 8.6km in total.

Sunday, 8th September, 2013 – 32.0km LSR (5:22/km)

After yesterday’s aborted LSR attempt this run was hanging over my head for a long time. I eventually went out around the same time as yesterday (after the Hurling final finished – what an ending!) but this time drove to the PP. The weather was ideal today and I was happy that I’d truncated yesterdays run.

I took this handy the whole way, just wanted to ensure I got the required distance in the legs. A loop of the park was followed by a retrace of the MP run from Thursday. By the time I returned to the car but had 200m to rack up for my 32km total, so it was a case of just getting the few metres in before coming to a halt. The av pace was 5:22/km (+/- 5 secs). which was pretty consistent for most of the run. Next LSR will have to be a little bit faster though as that is still almost a minute slower than MP!

Only 5 weeks to go now!

Week 36 Summary:

RTW: 6 from 7 days

DTW: 91.6 km

DTY: 2,904.7 km

Chicago - 35 days (5 weeks, 0 days)

August Summary

Thursday, 29th August, 2013 – 16.1km MLR with 11.4km @ MP (4:36/km)

MP kms

I called to the Phoenix Park for this run on the way home from work. Plan was 20km MLR with 15km @ MP. My first few steps were a repeat of last night's limp-run so I stopped and did a few gentle stretches. Once I got going again the pain eased off pretty quickly and I ran the first 1.5km at recovery pace. I had reached the canal at Ashtown by this time so I started in to my MP kms.

Immediately I was kicking myself for having chosen an East-West route as the breeze was in my face as I headed towards Blanchardstown. I kept the head down until I got to the 12th Lock gate and found it a bit easier on the return to Ashtown. However, after about 5km I started to feel the effort. I think I might have ran this a bit too close to the LT session on Tuesday. 

My form was getting progressively worse as I got closer to Phibsboro and by the time I got there my hamstrings were getting a bit tighter. So, I decided to pause and do a few stretches before turning around into the breeze again. When I got going I tried another km at MP but the pace was 4:44 - about 10 seconds down on target - so I eased back to recovery pace and decided to jog the canal back to Ashtown. 

As I returned to the car in the Park I unintentionally upped the pace to close to MP again as I must have found the lack of a headwind allowed me to go faster. Ended up with a bonus 1.4km at MP before I reached the car after 16.1km. I debated tacking on another 4km but with my new mindset I figured these would just be junk miles as they would be no quicker than recovery pace, so instead I went home.

Even though I failed to hit target distances for the session I'm still happy enough with what I did. I'll aim to throw in a few more MP kms towards the end of my LSR on Sat morning. I'm still progressing anyways and feel myself getting stronger week by week, so staying positive in that respect!

Friday, 30th August, 2013 –  11.9km Easy Run (4:56/km)

I managed to dodge a real downpour just as I was about to go out for this evening's run and luckily I managed to dodge it for the next hour. Easy run today and I was prepared for a bit of a struggle but as things turned out I felt good the whole way and was running at that enjoyably hard but not tough pace so was very happy with it by the time I returned home. Hamstring still niggling me but not enough to affect me too much. I'd rate it at 4/10 at the moment. If it gets to 6/10 I'll visit a physio.

Saturday, 31st August, 2013 –  31.8km LSR (5:27/km)
Big step up in distance required for today's LSR. Nothing really suitable in the organised runs in the park so I decided to run a route from home to the Coast Road and then run the seafront before returning via Raheny. It's one of those routes that doesn't seem like 32km but by the end of it today it certainly felt it!

Nice gentle breeze on my back as far as the Coast but then I was facing into it as I ran towards Clontarf with a bit of respite until I got to St. Anne's Park on the way home. Most of the final 11km back was into a wind that was getting stronger by the kilometre. Luckily I was on the last 300m when it really kicked up and started raining to boot. Even happier to be home at that stage! Tough run for the last bit but glad I got it done.

Sunday, 1st Spetember, 2013 –  10.1km Recovery Run (5:31/km)
Met up with Anto for a short run this evening. Kept it short and easy paced. 

August Summary
So, August is over and the last 3 weeks saw me return to normal mileage. In total 305km and 25 runs for the month (after a slow start!). Happy to have a 20 miler under my belt by this stage and a few LT & MP runs also. I still appear to be on track for the Athlone HM on the 14th Sept. but need to keep it consistent between now and then.

August summary

Week 35 Summary:

RTW: 6 from 7 days

DTW: 91.1 km

DTY: 2,813.1 km
Chicago - 42 days (6 weeks)

Game 5 of 6...

Thursday, 22nd August, 2013 – 12.1km Mountain Run - Slieve Foye, Carlingford

Met Felim after work in Malahide and droveonwards to Carlingford for a go at Slieve foye - Co. Louth's highest peak. No huge reason we choase this apart from getting a peak that wasn't in the usual Wicklow Mountains. En route the weather was perfect but when we got to Dundalk we could see low cloud over our mountain. By the time we got to Carlingford 10 mins later the cloud was almost on the floor!

Regardless, we decided to forge onwards. Felim had an idea of the route and after a couple of wee misdirections by us we were on the trail heading up the mountain. A brief moment of clear views allowed us a glimpse of Carlingford Lough and some of the Mourne Mountains across the way.

As we got closer to the top the cloud had really gathered in so we had a quick double-check off the map and compass and 300m later we were at the peak. There were brief views of the countryside but mainly we were looking down on a blanket of cloud for miles around us. I'm pretty sure this would be a great viewpoint on a clear day so I'm sure I'll be back but this evening failed to deliver on the vistas!

Trig point atop Slieve Foye (Highest point in Co. Louth).
(Try not to think of "I'm a little teapot"!!)

We continued on after a while and after we noticed the dark evening was beginning to close in we dropped down along the gully from Eagle's Rock to the former forest. A dodgy fence crossing eventually got us out onto the trail proper and an easy 3km run back down to the village under the guidance of my head torch. All done it was 12km but a bit stop-start and really shouldn't have taken the almost 2hrs we racked up! Enjoyable evening out and the plan is Slieve Gullion in Armagh next up.

Friday, 23rd August, 2013 – 7.4km Recovery Run (5:40/km)

I was a little bit stiff after the trail run last night so just a slow recovery run this evening. Still looking to keep the recovery days very relaxed.

Saturday, 23rd August, 2013 – 26.5km LSR (5:07/km)

I met up with Philip in the Phoenix Park at 8:30am for this run. Plan was to get a decent run in before Philip called over to the start of the Frank Duffy 10 miler on Chesterfield Avenue. This portion of the run lasted 10 miles and was done at approx 5:00/km which was a good decent pace for me but a very easy pace for Philip!

After catching the start of the race I continued on my way for a few more miles. I stopped off for a few minutes to catch the race leaders pass through mile 8 and then ran to the finish line to catch the rest of the crowd coming home. All done it amounted to 26.5km. I was hoping to rattle a few more off to get to 30km but the rigor mortis had kicked in by the time I restarted so I just jogged it back to the car. Pretty confident about this weekends LSR though where I'll be aiming for 30-32km @ 5:00/km.

Sunday, 24th August, 2013 – 7.1km Recovery Run (5:23/km)

This was just a short run to get the legs moving as I had to be in Croker in time to watch the Mayo Minors beat Monaghan. The day was completed with the Seniors beating Tyrone so onwards to 'Game 6'! Big loss with Co'C dislocating his shoulder again but Freeman stood up to the mark in his absence. Over to you Dublin to set up the match everyone's been waiting for!

The Eircom 'Were you there?' app question answered!

Week 34 Summary:

RTW: 7 from 7 days

DTW: 91.0km

DTY: 2,722.0km
Chicago - 49 days (7wks, 0days)

Sixmilebridge and Wicklow Way

Monday, 1st July, 2013 – 11.9km Easy Run (4:59/km)
First couple of kms were just loosening out the legs and then managed a decent clip afterwards.

Tuesday, 2nd July, 2013 – 17.8km Medium Slow Run (5:25/km)
Probably a little too fast last night as on tonight’s run the legs felt a little heavy again. Kept the pace around 5:27/km all the way and the HR in the 120’s.

Wednesday, 3rd July, 2013 – Rest Day
The big mileage caught up with me and I was knackered so I gave tonight a miss.

Thursday, 4th July, 2013 – 11.9km Recovery Run (5:23/km)
A gentle enough recovery run in advance of a couple of big days…

Friday, 5th July, 2013 – 42.6km Sixmilebridge Marathon (5:19/km)
It only entered my head during the week that I could do with a back to back long run this weekend, that I was free Friday afternoon and that Day 2 of the 10 in 10 was starting at 5pm. Everything came together so perfectly that I had registered for the marathon before I really knew what was happening!

I drove straight to Sixmilebridge from work and arrived into the village about 30mins before the race start. After a little bit of adventuring I eventually located the registration centre. 8 people had gone out for an early start at 3pm in a bid to be home safely before darkness. That left me among about 25 people to start at 5pm. The race started with a small lap of the village before tackling the main loop. After the first mile a group of five had broken away from the rest of us and I was leading the charge of the peleton (It would evolve into a tussle to the finish between Thomas, Stu and Rik for the win). I inched away from the rest of my group over the next few miles so it was strange when I heard another runner approaching after 5 miles. After a little chat it emerges it was John Chapman whom I had ran close to in both Le Cheile marathons two weeks previously. I fully expected that he would continue on past me but after a mile or so we fell into the same pace. I was now moving slightly faster than I’d aimed for but the company was allowing the time to tick by faster so I made the decision to maintain speed alongside John.

Myself and the other JC
crossing the finish line

The water stations were well manned by locals and appeared every three miles. This was a warm day so hydration was essential, although luckily the temperature dropped a few degreees after the first hour. There was also a couple of road crossings that the marshalls handled really well from a safety point of view so good performance all round!

After 10 miles we were met by a long drag. Barely noticeable at this stage it would seem much steeper just 2 hours later. We were back in the village in what felt like no time (actually – 1:53!) and here we managed to catch up to Denis Looney who had kept a solid 200m gap on us ever since John joined me 8 miles previous. Unfortunately Denis seemed to take it a bit easier from here though and he dropped back from us when we left the village for the second time. 

We were now coming across some of the 3pm starters who were walking including Tom who organised this whole event through the local Bridge Milers Olympic Harriers (BMOH) club. Unfortunately Tom had done his ankle the evening before and that resulted in him having to walk the entire course today. Around this point we caught up to Graham Whitaker also who had been in fourth place but like Denis he too was now easing back (full entitled to do so with a 3:35 yesterday!). Graham ran with us for a half a mile or so but let us off after that.

Marathon results

We passed a couple of more walkers soon afterwards but then it was just the pair of us til the end. Things got a little tougher (and quieter!) over the last few miles and that damn drag from the first lap now appeared neverending! Thankfully John was very familiar with the route so he could tell me just where the landmarks along the route were. We passed under the finish gantry together in 3:46:57 for joint 4th spot. Considering I was planning to run about 4:00-4:10 I was very happy with the time and how I felt (my HR was in the recovery zone throughout until the final few miles when a little effort was required). However, I was wary that I now had to drive back to Dublin and run a very hilly marathon distance tomorrow so I wasn’t sure if I’d regret this evening’s faster pace …

Saturday, 6th July, 2013 – 40.6km Wicklow Way LSR

Starting point

I parked up in the Lidl on Grange Road and immediately ran into Johnny. A short walk to the meeting spot and we ran into Pat and Sean while watching the winners first finishers of the Parkrun. After a few mins we noticed another group of backpak-clad runner-type people and on closer inspection confirmed it was the rest of our group. There was 12 in total and we’d be meeting a 13th - Felim - at Curtlestown Wood later. A plan which had developed in a pub after the Cork marathon between myself and Johnny had snowballed to this! People travelled from Cork (x3), Kilkenny and Laois for this so I’m sure they were happy with the glorious weather we laid on for them! And so it was that at 10:05am we set sail for the Wicklow Way.

The gang (minus Felim) at the start

The first couple of kms are through Marlay Park and out onto College Road before we turned undeer the M50 and the start of the first of three big climbs of the day. Kilmashogue Lane was steep in places and we were happy when it turned off road onto the mountain itself as the incline eased off a bit from here. Before long we were most of the way to the top and the first photo opp of the day looking back over a sun laden Dublin. Just a little while later we were cresting the mountain and stopped for a brief break at the junction of the Dublin Mountain Way trail. Everyone was in good spirirts and really enjoying the scenery and best news of all was that the next few miles were downhill!

Traffic jam on the trail!

The trail across towards Tibradden is quite technical and very easy to trip yourself up (as I did on the DMW a few months back!). Thankfully though no such accidents to report this time. The section where it diverges from the DMW down to the Ballybrack Road was very steep and a couple of times I could feel the grip from the runners begin to slide. Great fun! We regrouped again at the man road and it was here that the flies and midges first became unbearable. 

View from Kilmashogue
back over the city

Next up was Prince William’s Seat. The group was now beginning to splinter a little bit with the faster guys like Michael, Paul, Kevin and Jeff all bouncing lightly up the mountain! No shame in being droppped by that gang though as they all have impressive marathon pbs. Another brilliant if slightly hazy vista welcomed us at the top of this climb where we were now looking down over Bray, Dalkey and the Irish Sea. The descent from here included a section of large boulders which had to be carefully negotiated before we were back onto fireroad and before we knew it were at the gates of Curtlestown Woods. 

Drop down to the
Dargle from Maulin

Felim was waiting for us here with two x 2 litre bottles of water which was perfect timing as most of us were running pretty low. After a top-up we were on our way again. I could see that the faster guys were eager to get going and probably a little too much waiting around for their liking but in fairness they never complained. Well at least not while we were in earshot!! After a few miles on road, fireroad and through fields we arrived at Crone Woods. This was the start of the final large climb – but the toughest was kept for last! I’ve ran this climb a few times now and new what lay ahead so I made sure to take it handy. I’d arrived at the start without having refueled sufficiently from yesterday’s efforts so I was very conscious of not over cooking things too far from the finish. The group now broke into a band of four towards the back with the 9 others travelling at varying speeds in front. Another great photo opp presented itself just in front of Powerscourt waterfall and the first decent view of Djouce. 

Water refill at the crossing of the Dargle

Myself and Felim

We marched onwards and regrouped once more as we crossed the Dargle and stopped for a water refill. We weren’t too sure of the water quality but Pat promised he’d drank from it before so we gave it a taste. Just as good as from a tap so we refilled for the remainder of the run. From here to the top of Djouce was to prove to be a killer for me. Totally lacking in energy I just hiked to the high point before jogging around the peak and by the time we were on the far side of the mountain it was time for another photo opp so I decided to take on some food. This stop lasted about 5 mins and once we got going again it was mainly downhill to the finish. So, refreshed, reenergised and refocused the funk lifted and I was back to enjoying my adventure. 

Myself and John at Lough Tay.

Finito!

There had been talk (mainly by me I admit!) of continuing onwards to Laragh but one-by-one people were making up their mind to call it quits in Roundwood instead. The faster guys kicked on (subsequently taking a shortcut to the village!) while myself Felim, Johnny and Kate stuck to our pace and route to arrive into the Coach House about 25 mins after them. A short while later the remainder of the bunch dropped in too so there was planty of craic as we waited for our lift back to Marlay.

Thankfully I’d made it through two very long runs in decent nick and that gives me a nice confident boost for Friday week in Belfast. The past few weeks have reinstilled in me the old running mantra that ‘pace kills, not distance!’. Today’s run was really enjoyable again and before we’d left the pub Bertie was already working on plans for a follow-up run down in Kerry!

Note: Thanks to Kate, Bertie, John, Paul and Ger for all the pics!

Sunday, 7th July, 2013 – 7.4km Recovery Run (5:27/km)
Just got out and ran a leg loosener to keep the legs ticking over. No pain thankfully, just a bit of tiredness but that’s to be expected.

So, a week of over 132km, easily the biggest week of running I’ve ever managed AND I had a Rest Day in there to boot - gotta be pleased with that!


Week 27 Summary:
RTW: 6 from 7 days
DTW: 132.2km
DTY: 2224.7km

Croagh Patrick Heritage Trail...Take 2!

Friday, 28th June, 2013 – 7.5km St Coca's 5km race + 2.5km wu/cd (3:59/km)
I had planned to do this all week but after feeling a bit knackered yesterday I changed my mind and thought I’d give it a miss. Then on Friday morning an email from Philip suggested that the €12 was great value and that I’d probably have that value in food and goodies afterwards! Also, the race was en route to the West so I once more changed my mind and booked the race. For only €12 it really was a great value race. I arrived by 7:30 and after a quick regsitration, short chat with Niall and brief warm up with Philip we went to the start line. Niall had offered to pace me to sub 20mins but I wasn’t too bothered so told him to run his own race, rather than waste his time on mine.

There were lots of fast looking people at the race start and I found myself about 1/3rd of the way back the field. The race started without much congestion and after 200m I found myself on the shoulder of Niall! Eased back from this unsustainable pace and made it over the first bridge without major difficulty. Things settled down pretty quickly and before we knew it we were flying past the ‘kms to go’ signs. The course was very flat with the only two inclines being slight enough. With 1.5km to go things started to get a little tough. My legs weren’t moving at the required rate and the high mileage was catching up with me. I kept the effort up regardless and soon found myself passing the ‘1km to go’ sign. I was running on fumes at this stage and a few people started going past me in the final 500m but I managed to rally to stem the bleeding somewhat. I heard Niall shouting out as I was approaching the line with the countdown to 20mins ticking away. 20:00 as I passed through! This time I didn’t ‘split’ my watch at the real start line so I only have the gun time to go by. Probably the same time in reality as Enfield 6 weeks ago but without any faster training since, so happy enough all things considered. At some stage I will focus on the shorter stuff and aim to make serious inroads on the 5km/10km times but that will all have to wait for the moment! 

Approaching the finish line. Photo courtesy of Peter Mooney.

Saturday, 29th June, 2013 – 62.9km Croagh Patrick Heritage Trail
Back in February I attempted this trail run but called it short at 42km in Aghagower. Unfinished business meant I returned for another attempt on Saturday. The PB equalling 5km run last night probably didn’t help matters but I reckoned it was short enough and that the trail run would be nice and easy paced so there should be little enough overlap of tired muscles.

I started at 8:45am on Saturday morning from Balla Square. The weather was overcast and showery. The wind was pretty weak but I knew it was to get a bit stronger later on. The first 42km to Aghagower was quite similar as last time. Some sections were drier which was a help but then other fields were full of meadow so that took a little longer. It all balanced out to mean that I arrived in Aghagower in approximately the same time (4hrs55mins) as last time but I was definitely in a much better state - the hill just before Aghagower felt nowhere near as tough as last time out.

After a refuelling break in Aghagower I continued onwards past the ruins and the graveyard. Here I was looking for a turn to the left but knew it would be a bit difficult to find. After missing it initially and then asking a farmer in the field next to it I eventually discovered the track. This section was very overgrown and close to unrunnable with briars and nettles and low hanging branches to contend with. After about 800m I emerged out onto the main road again. This I was to later find out was the beginning of the second major hill on the trail. There was a walking group around here so it was good to have some company for a brief while. After a little longer than I’d expected I arrived at the top of the hill. Still I couldn’t view the Reek though as there was quite a bit of low hanging cloud around. 

By this stage my feet were getting sore, especially my little toes. They had been taking the slack for all the uneven off-road terrain to help keep me balanced. By now they were well blistered on top of lots of grit aggravating them. The average pace was beginning to fall back around now as I took a couple of wallking breaks for the uphills. Soon, I was on the downhill section to the Westport-Leenane road. As I crossed over to Brackloon Woods I really felt the worst was behind me and that I was definitely less than 10km from the finish. The next two kms were up through the woods on a nice tree-covered path. It was good to be sheltered from the wind as it had been quite exposed on parts of the last 5 miles and the wind was now quite strong. A couple of kms of back roads followed Brackloon Woods and soon I was at the base of the Skelp. This is where the beginning of the end occurred.

The first 1.5 miles are uphill with an elevation gain of over 150m along laneways and mountain trail. The next mile was further uphill but also had very thick heather which had to be negotiated. This section really broke me and when I eventually got to the end of this section I had to have a sit-down and clean out my shoes and socks! I figured the rest should be easy as it meant dropping height and then contouring around the mountain. The reality however meant the descent was too steep to run and then when contouring there was no trail at all. Instead a few waymarkers dotted along the mountainside gave you the general direction to follow but there was now a very strong wind in my face and the terrain brought an endless amount of downhill streams which made the ground saturated all the way to the end of the trail 2 miles away! 

Eventually I reached the terminal sign, just 100m above St. Patrick’s statue and a further 500m to the main road. 7hrs 55mins after starting out in Balla I reached Campbell’s bar. Happy to be sitting down and no longer having to deal with the unreasonable mountain terrain I ordered and savoured one of the tastiest pints of Guinness I’ve ever experienced!

Sunday, 30th June, 2013 – Rest Day
Small toes on both feet still very tender so no point in going out for a run to compound the matter – rest day instead.

Week 26 Summary:
RTW: 4 from 7 days
DTW: 88.8km
DTY: 2092.5km

Two marathons in one day!

Friday (10:00pm), 21st June, 2013 - 18.1km cycle to Lucan
Saturday (Midnight), 22nd June, 2013 - 44.3km Le Cheile Midnight Marathon (5:24/km)
Saturday (1:00pm), 22nd June, 2013 - 42.5km Le Cheile Royal Canal Marathon (6:26/km)
This was an unexpectedly very busy weekend for me. I had planned to do the Le Cheile track marathon in Leixlip and had my eye on doing the canal marathon the following day but that was very much dependant on how I felt after the first. This only paints half the picture however. For the full story, the tale begins on Friday afternoon...

I ran into car trouble after going to the shops to buy a few supplies for the marathon(s). When I returned to my car it simply wouldn't budge - not even a peep out of it. I subsequently learned that it was the electronic steering wheel lock that was jarred. I spent the next two hours trying to work out how to get it fixed and eventually when I knew what was required I was told it was too late on a Friday afternoon and that I'd have to wait til Monday to have it towed to the garage! Cost of tow = €50. Cost of repair = either €120 (80% chance) or €1,000 (20% chance). Not a good start to the weekend!

Friday night
I returned home by foot and decided I would need a few hours sleep in advance of running through the night. I ended up sleeping for about two hours and then it was time to pack my stuff and hit off on the bike to Leixlip. It was now 10pm when I left Santry and even though there was a bit of rain en route things were going well. Then I was passing Lucan when I got a puncture on my rear wheel - just great! A quick Google Maps search and I was informed it'd take over an hour to walk the remaining 6km to the Le Cheile track. As I was walking I texted Anto and Eamonn who were both doing the event also. Luckily Anto was still with his phone and offered to call out and collect me. I was so lucky because if I had to walk the rest of the way I'd have missed the start of the marathon as well as having the extra mileage in my legs when starting out. Thankfully Anto had me at the track with half an hour to spare to race start. After what was a stressful day all I had to do now was run a marathon around a 400m lap through the night...and this was supposed to be the easy bit??!

Waiting for the off...

Marathon One
With ten minutes to go before midnight the organisers made a few short announcements and then introduced all the runners to their lap counters - poor unfortunate souls who volunteered to stay up through the night just to count how many laps we were doing! Each counter had 5 runners to tally for and my assigned lap counter was David. A quick hello and then we were lined up at the start.

We should be in Coppers by now!

About 6 minutes after midnight we were set off. Not knowing how I'd be feeling in the afternoon I decided to run the first few laps with Eamonn. Using my new 310XT I set the AutoLap function to 'By Position - Start' which meant every-time I passed the start line it automatically lapped. This was my first time using this function and it proved to be very useful. There was to be 95 laps in total as we were starting in Lane 6.5! Every one of those 95 laps would entail the following conversation being repeated as I passed the start/finish line:
        Me: David?
        David: Got ya John.
And that was it! I'm pretty sure there weren't many times when our brief lines overlapped as in fairness to him he was on the ball every-time. 

The early laps saw a lot of people pass us out as the excited energy was used up. I had no target in mind apart from leaving myself in a position to be ready to go again 11 hours later. After about 10 laps (4km) I found myself pushing on a little bit. I was careful to keep the HR in a very relaxed 'recovery' zone but thankfully the pace was increasing at the same time. By now I was lapping around sub 5:20/km and this lasted for 50 more laps. I briefly flirted with the idea of aiming for a 3:45 finish time but soon dismissed this thought and refocused on the main goal of finishing strong.

That's what 95 laps of a track does to your Garmin profile!

Halfway came and went without any issues. The constant passing and being passed was helping to keep me distracted from the monotony of doing laps. Also, every so often short conversations struck up between runners but as the race wore on this too faded away. The early front running was being driven by Rory Mooney who seemed to be cruising around the place. Unfortunately for Rory though he succumbed to an injury/illness around halfway. He wasn't the only one to do so and there were some notable DNF's during the night, most of whom had raced in Portumna the previous week. The high effort & mileage combined with the grass track and doing laps meant that there was a a particularly high rate of attrition during this marathon.

Overtaking on the inside 

I was probably one of the few people who actually enjoyed the lap aspect of this run. Apart from a few times during the race when I paused for water at the aid station I kept a reasonably consistent effort going. Then with about 9 laps to go I knew I'd be grand to finish so I started doing a little arithmetic in my head and discovered that I would be close to the 4hr mark if I pushed it a little over the remainder. I upped the effort slowly over the next few kms and managed to finish pretty strongly on the last couple of laps. Unfortunately though by the time I finished my last lap the time read as 4:01:11 so just missed out. When I looked at the total distance though I found that the 95 laps actually measured 44.3km - 2.1km long! I didn't care one jot about what the actual distance was (GPS watches have a certain amount of inaccuracy in a straight line but when you introduce the curvature of each lap then the inaccuracy is going to be further increased) but I was happy to know that this was effectively a sub 4hr marathon done at an average HR of 137 bpm - Recovery zone! 

Very happy with this my only issue now was how to get home, or at least get a bit of kip somewhere. Luckily I managed to get a couple of hours on a couch and then a lift home to my place. By the time I got home it was almost 7am so after fixing the puncture on my bike I hit the hay but knowing that I'd have to be up again so soon I couldn't fall asleep. This all meant that I was up out of bed again by 10am - 6hrs after the marathon finish and with just two hours sleep on a couch - and managed to arrange a lift from a friend to Leixlip for round two at 1pm!

Marathon Two
My lift to Leixlip was running a bit late so we drove straight to the race start itself at Furey's of Moyvalley. Soon after the bus load of fellow marathoners arrived. There was 12 of us who ran through the night and three newbies. I was in good spirits as I was waiting and, apart from a little stiffness in the muscles, generally I was still quite fresh all things considered.

We ran a little to the left, turned and then a lot to the right!

We were walked a few hundred metres to the start before a brief overview of the course from Jarlath & Brendan. Essentially it was run 3.5 miles Westwards and then turn before running 22.7 miles Eastwards, all the while beside the Royal Canal! With probably the most low-key start I've ever witnessed we were set off! 

The first few kms to the turnaround point was easy enough going but the wind was primarily in our faces. The gang quickly strung out into a group of 6 of us with a few ahead and a few behind. By the turnaround point I was plodding away quite comfortably so I found myself gently drifting away from the group of six. 

Early days.

Even though I was feeling pretty good the outside of my right knee was beginning to hurt. I was wearing the new Innov8s for this run (wore Kayanos last night on the track marathon) because I was advised so much of it was to be on trail/mud/grass. However, I was finding that most of it was actually gravel so far and the grassy bits were easily firm enough for a pair of road shoes. As a result I had less cushioning for my feet than normal so I was feeling all the pressure points of pebbles and stones coming through the sole and also the sensitive blisters on my feet being impacted upon by the terrain. My knee was still the bigger issue though. I wondered if this was associated with the constant pushing off my right foot for the 4 hours of  anti-clockwise looping last night? The pain was probably only a 4/10 though so while it was annoying it wasn't enough to force me to stop.

Going solo.

I passed Furey's on the return leg where Brendan & Jarlath were waiting for us with bottles of water just as I was contemplating going to my backpack for a sip - perfect timing! Here we had to cross the old N4 road and down the far bank. The grassy section started in earnest here. This single-track also contained lots of protruding roots from the trees which were another obstacle to overcome. The going along here was quite a bit slower as a result. After 14 km I slowed to a walk for this first time so as to take on board some food from my backpack and some more water. It was here that the gang of 5 passed me. All still in good spirits they were sticking to a good consistent pace. Once I got back running I had them in view for another few kms but my next stop was before theirs so they then went out of sight.

I passed through Enfield after 17km where Brendan was present again with bottled water. Then halfway came at Cloncurry Bridge where I met Jarlath with water, jellies and bananas. Really great organisation from the lads! We changed onto the right bank at this crossing and 200m in the distance I saw the G5 who had slowed to a march as they were taking on food. I thought I might be able to catch them up but by the time I was 100m from them they picked it up to a jog and soon the gap started widening again. The second half of my run then became a trade-off between little walking breaks and running. I was now consciously using this as practice for Belfast. It really hit me for the first time around here that even though I was physically in a good state (The knee was still a 4/10 and hadn't gotten any worse) all desire to stop and walk was purely mental. I was allowing myself a walk of 500m or so every 3km. I felt that was a decent trade-off between remaining in good shape and getting to the finish line.

Not long after this I found myself on probably the toughest section of tow path - the grass hadn't been cut low in this location so more care had to be taken in case you stepped on anything in the undergrowth that might twist your ankle. Around here was when the rain first arrived. Torrential downpours which lasted about 15 minutes, there wasn't even a decent tree to take shelter under! By the time it passed my shirt was saturated so I changed it for my jacket as I was also beginning to get cold now. This exchange worked a treat and before long I was snug again.

Finishing times for Marathon #2.

As I passed through Kilcock there was some kind of festival going on with lots of people milling around and several kids playing canoe polo on the canal. No time to stop and soak up the festival I just ploughed on through. I was surprised how far Enfield was from Kilcock but knew Maynooth was now halfway to the finish so I just focused on hitting the Harbour there and then all that was left was the run-in to the finish. I hadn't long passed the entrance to Carton House when I started to wonder if the course would end up measuring long. How far away was the finish line really? I was still in mid-thought when I looked up and noticed a towering modern bridge over the canal. My next reaction was to seek out Intel's building and lo and behold there it was. I knew I was very close to the finish now. I upped the pace for the last 800m but when I rounded the bend I couldn't see any finish line up ahead. Then I thought I'd have to go all the way to Louisa Bridge and then double-back around for the Le Cheile clubhouse, leaving me over a mile left. Briefly my heart sank before I got close enough to see that one of the fishermen was in fact Brendan sitting on the bank of the canal and a small 'Finish' sign in the bushes beside him. This was it! All over at last - in excess of 85km ran inside 18 hours, or 8hrs 42mins running time.

I had a brief chat with Brendan before stumbling the 200m to the clubhouse for a much cherished hot dog and refreshments and a chat with the G5 who had finished about 15 mins earlier. Happy with a good days running under my belt, I got a lift home and all set for an evening of lazing on the couch. Before all that though reality reared it's ugly head again when I discovered that my incapacitated car was now clamped to add to my misery! All that could wait 'til the morning however as this evening was to be a stress-free zone!

Sunday, 23rd June, 2013 - 8.9km Recovery run (5:36/km)
Thought I'd sleep like a log and I suppose I did for a while but by 7am I was awake and couldn't get back to sleep. Again I was feeling remarkably ok and managed to do a few chores around the apartment in the morning, before trying to get the clamping situation sorted out. I won't go into the detail here but if anybody would like to hear me rant about NCPS for a couple of hours giz a call!

I went out for a run in the evening though and the sore knee from yesterday was still prominent for this run. I thought my pace was a little quick but the garmin disagreed and suggested I was actually going around 5:30/km pace. It felt much quicker but I guess my mind was comparing it to the trail run rather than normal speed ranges. From halfway around my 8.9km loop the knee started to get worse and for the final two km it developed into a pronounced limp (6/10) so I was happy to eventually get home. I'll give it a short run-out today but if it is still as sore then a bit of run-free recovery may be required.

For now though, it's back to the real world and dealing with bloody car troubles!

Note: All photos by kind permission of Rory & Peter Mooney.

Week 25 Summary:

RTW: 5 from 7 days
DTW: 112.7km
DTY: 2003.7km