Anyone got a spare ticket...

Oh the Green and Red of Mayo
I can see it still
It's soft and craggy bogland
It's tall majestic hills
Where the ocean kisses Ireland
And the waves carress it's shore
Oh the feeling it came over me
To stay forever more
Forever more

Monday, 16th September, 2013 – Rest Day
Really tired all day so gave into a second successive rest day. :-(

Tuesday, 17th September, 2013 – 11.9km Easy Run (4:58/km)
Almost became a third rest day(!) but just about managed to rescue a run very late in the evening. Fairly miserable out there and I went with the gloves for the first time since Spring.

Wednesday, 18th September, 2013 – 13.1km Yasso Session 8 x 800m (3:12/split)
Decided I’d use the Yasso’s as VO2 training on the run in to the big day. They serve the purpose of speed training but also according to theory, the pace you manage to sustain over 10 x 800m 10 days out from the marathon should approximately equate to the hrs & mins you’ll run the marathon in. So, I was aiming for 3:10 per split in this session which should equate to a 3hr10min marathon.

The evening itself was very blustery, so hardly ideal for this session. I was on my usual stomping ground of the Furze Road for this becaue of it’s flatness. The first two splits were with the wind and came in at 3:15 & 3:14. Not a great start as I was sure things would only get worse. The third split was back into the wind and came in at 3:12 which was a huge surprise! This gave me confidence for the next few which were with the wind again and resulted in 3:07, 3:10 & 3:09. Very happy with these so with just two left I was confident I’d see them all out. Last two were 3:15 & 3:12. So all in all I completed the whole session (Which looked dodgy after the first split!) and averaged out at 3:12. A little outside what I was aiming at from the beginning but if I managed a 3:12 marathon in Chicago I’d be more than happy! The last couple of splits I lost focus for parts of them and that was the reason for the slightly slower times. I’m sure if I was accompanied doing these I’d have maintained pace on them but c’est la vie! A great speed session overall.

Thursday, 19th September, 2013 – 6.4km Recovery Run (5:34/km)
I sneaked in a short recovery run in this morning as I wanted to loosen out the legs in advance of a MLR this evening with Philip. Seriously miserable weather but the nice stuff is on it’s way!

Thursday, 19th September, 2013 – 17.1km Easy MLR Run (5:08/km)
Met Philip in Celbridge for this one. He let me choose the pace but once we got into our stride we ended up going about 15 secs per km faster than planned. It still worked out though and we were able to hold a chat the whole way, so nothing too strenuous. We ran along the Royal canal until 45mins before turning around. We got back in 42mins thanks to the aid of the wind!

One thing of note from the run is that my hip flexors appear to be quite sore and stiff for the first couple of kms so this damn injury seems to be floating around theplace the past few weeks. May need to get a check up by a physio soon…

Friday, 20th September, 2013 – 7.4km Recovery Run (5:36/km)
Very relaxed 6.5km in advance of pacing 1:40 in the Dublin HM tomorrow morning.

So, now that I'm up to date, how about that spare ticket??

Week 38 Summary (so far):
RTW: 5 from 5 days
DTW: 55.9 km
DTY: 3,017.7 km
Chicago - 23 days (3 weeks, 2 days)

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

Finding my level!

Wednesday 22^nd May 2013 – 12.0km Mtn Race # 5 – Glasnamullen and lap of Djouce.

About halfway up to Djouce

Race number 5 in the Leinster League and I was feeling a bit jaded after last nights 5km PB. So, I decided to take it handy enough early on and see how I felt once I started the downhill and take it from there. We started with a lap of the car park field across the main road from the trailhead. This was intended to string out the field before hitting the trail but I’m not quite sure how effective it was as we still seemed pretty well grouped when crossing the road and I was content to sit-in somewhere around 75th place I reckoned.

Sub 20min 5k at last!

Tuesday 21st May 2013 – 10.0km Bob Heffernan 5km.

Back into the swing of things this evening with a 5km race that comes very highly recommended by anyone I know that’s ever ran it. I was a bit apprehensive about this as I hadn’t even managed a slow recovery run since the 29km of fast running on Saturday. So it was that on my warm-up I realised just how sore and tight my quads were. This really left me half thinking about should I really run or not but given that I very rarely pull muscles I figured I should be ok for this.

Racing and pacing!

Friday, 3rd May 2013 – 11.8km Easy Run (5:19/km)
A very easy run again today in advance of another 5km parkrun and then the Limerick marathon pacing gig on Sunday. Not much else to report. 

Saturday, 4th May 2013 – 10.0km Malahide Parkrun 
2.4km Warm Up
5.0km Malahide Parkrun 
2.6km Cool Down
Another Saturday another Parkrun!

McMillan 10k Plan - Week 2 session

Thursday, 25th April 2013 – 12.3km Recovery Run (5:23/km)
Despite intending to take it easy last night on the IMRA run I still pushed it hard enough to have sore quads today! So, a nice easy recovery run was called for. I ran the usual block but towards home I detoured through the park. Due to ill timing though I had to double-back on my tracks to find an exit gate that was still open so managed to add an extra 500m to the run. Nothing much else to report!

Pacing Wexford Half Marathon

Thursday, 18th April - 21.6km Easy Run with 6 x 1mile @ 10km pace
My endurance fitness is pretty good at this moment in time and should tick along nicely as during May I have two marathons to pace (4:30 in Limerick & 4:15 in Kildare) and one to run freely (Killarney, but not a goal race!) so that should continue to take care of itself.

Sharpening up

Monday, 25th March – 8.9km Easy Run (4:49/km)
Started off the week with a bit of a fartlek run, but this was too undisciplined to be even termed a proper fartlek!! A few MP kms and some slightly slower, faster-easy stuff! See, I can’t even properly describe the run so I think it’s best to simply say it was a good honest effort and move on!

Back to the grind

Monday, 4^th March – 14.5km Easy Run

The legs were a bit DOMSy for this one with the quads in particular being regretful of the faster stuff yesterday! Nothing too bad though and managed to get a good distance run in this evening.

Managed to get a hold of a few pics from the HM yesterday:

Some things good, some things not so good...

Thursday, 21st February – 11.8km Easy run
Another cold evening to put the dread in me before braving leaving the apartment but once out and about I was well insulated with cap and gloves and, as ever, the reality was nowhere near what I had imagined.

Scraping away the rust.

Wednesday, 2nd January  - 8.0km recovery run.
I failed to get out on New Year's Day due to being tired and a little hungover from the night before in Galway. So my 2013 running started back on the 2nd - still a day earlier than last year so already I'm up! Just managed a recovery paced run as I wanted to ease gently back into it. For some unknown reason the run failed to save onto the Garmin correctly...not a good omen for the new year!