Chicago Marathon

Monday, 7th October, 2013 – 11.9km Dublin (1:01:45 – 5:10/km)

Wednesday, 9th October, 2013 – 7.9km Dublin (42:02 – 5:18/km)

Thursday, 10th October, 2013 – 7.1km Dublin (36:54 – 5:10/km)

I can’t really remember anything about these runs but they were done at easy/recovery pace and I was just biding my time til the main event!

Friday morning, I got back from work with little time to spare before heading for the airport in the afternoon. The rest of my fellow travellers had flown out on the morning flight and had pre-clearance in Dublin but, due to the timing of my flight, I had to do the immigration clearance the far side in O’Hare airport.

All this meant that I landed at just after 5pm local time and I even managed to get through Immigration before my bags had arrived out onto the carousel – nice one! When I went for the train there was a huge queue waiting to purchase tickets so I decided to get a day pass instead because there was no queue there. Cost about $10 as opposed to $5 as a result but it was more than worth it.

By the time I arrived to the hostel I was starving so caught up with Stephen and Sarah (who had flown from Philly) in a restaurant for some grub. By 9pm I was back at the hostel and hitting the hay. Jet lag works brilliantly like that when you are travelling to do a US marathon!

Saturday, 12th October, 2013 – 3.9km Chicago (22:34 – 5:48/km)

Myself and Johnny went for an easy jog to the Expo to pick up our numbers. It was such lovely weather that we were getting a bit nervous it might be too nice tomorrow morning for fast times! Picked up a few things at the expo so instead of jogging home we reckoned we had walked enough to simply get the free bus home instead.

At midday everybody met up and went on the Chicago Architecture Cruise which was just the job. It allowed us to see lots of the city’s great architecture without having to spend time on our feet. Afterwards we went for food and made our way home for a rest up. Later in the evening we went out for dinner and once more we were all ready for the sack by 9pm!

Sunday, 13th October, 2013 – 43.0km Chicago Marathon (4:40/km)

Race Morning:

Thanks to the jet lag there was no issues waking up early for the race. A few nervous heads about the place worrying that they may not make the start in time due to increased security since Boston. Strangely Stephen wasn't the worst in the regard. Instead Johnny was the most worried and so much so that he left early with Aonghus and Kieran to make his way to the baggage area. Myself Stephen and Sarah weren’t long after them though. 

It was still dark as we made the short walk (only a few blocks) to the baggage area. There were fairly stringent security checks on the way in but a few people with wheelchairs managed to avoid most of the searches so it was a bit half hearted to be honest. More a show of security than anything.

After searching around in the dark we eventually came across the boyos who had managed to add two lads from Castleblayney to their numbers. We sat on the ground in nervous anticipation for the next hour. We got to see the sun rising though and set against the Chicago skyline it was pretty cool! Around this time I saw an Irish shirt passing by a few yards from us. It later turned out to be Peter who was the final member of our Boards.ie team and we’d get to meet him properly later.

Starting line:

Eventually it was time to make our way to the start. I was in Corral B but the rest of the lads were in Corral A so it was time to go solo. I managed to get into the corral about halfway to the front. I was positioned between the 3:20 and 3:25 pacers and with my race strategy being to start easy I felt this was ideal. While awaiting the start we were treated to an invisible flyover by a jet and a dodgy PA system messing up the National anthem. Hopefully there would be no more disappointment today though! Just before race start I ditched my old jumper which I’d been using to keep me warm and almost spot-on time we were away. 

Miles 0 - 6:

So, my plan was to take it nice and easy as far as 15km and then step it up a little before maintaining a solid second half to the race. My target pace was 4:44 for the first 15km but immediately there were issues with this. The 300m of a tunnel and the high buildings of downtown started messing up my GPS data so I wasn’t sure what pace I was travelling at. Thankfully I had a pace band on me so I was able to track my progress off the mile markers. I gave up running by pace in the early stages and instead kept an eye on effort through my HR. Thankfully it was well under control and as the early miles passed by I was well within my limits as I started to hit my goal pace through the mile markers. I even heard the earliest “You’re almost there!” shoutout ever after just 4.5 miles!

5km – 23:44 (4:45/km)

10km – 23:07 (4:37/km)

Mile 6 - 13.1:

Things were going well. We were passing through nice areas of the city now including Lincoln Park, Old City and River North. Several Irish flags on the course but anytime I gave them a shoutout they seemed too engrossed in trying to locate their own runners. After about 7 miles we turned back Southwards and around this point I ended up pushing on a little and upping the pace slightly. The crowds were great around here and a couple of the streets here reminded me of the streets of Rathgar in DCM - lots of leaves on the ground with red brick period buildings lining the streets.

By about 11 miles we were back in the heart of the city and again the crowd support increased. These miles felt almost effortless and I passed the 3:20 pacers somewhere around here. As I approached them I briefly considered slowing down and running with them but realised I was moving freely and also I simply preferred to run my own race anyways, so I just went right by them over the course of 200m.

We eventually headed out West through Greektown and towards the United Centre, home of the Chicago Bulls. I didn’t quite get to see the building itself unfortunately but we’d be back there later in the week anyways! The Halfway mark appeared just before this point and for the first time in the race I was beginning to feel the strain. My first half was 1:38:05 so I had been looking at getting home in sub 3:15 if I could keep the pace constant from here til the end of the race. Overall I was really happy with my pacing so far.

15km – 22:57 (4:35/km)

20km – 23:09 (4:37/km)

HM – 1:38:05 (Av Pace – 4:38/km)

Miles 13.1 - 20:

The landscape was not quite as attractive now as we passed by close to a Freeway and also went through a few more industrial type areas. The crowd support was waning a little around here but to be honest I was happy enough to give my head a little peace! We passed through Pilsen around here and this was home to many different ethnic groups such as Italians, Mexicans and other Latin Americans. Each area’s main street had it’s own type of distinct carnival atmosphere.

Some times it was easy to lose focus by getting caught up in the crowd and so it happened around here. The pace slipped a little bit but I suppose I was finding it tougher now also. I managed to reign in the pace a little bit from km25 – km30 but the 3:15 target was slipping away from me again!

25km – 23:36 (4:43/km)

30km – 23:27 (4:41/km)

Miles 20 - Finish:

I was now into the final quarter of the race and things were becoming much more difficult now. I began thinking back to my training and the fact that I’d only managed 3 x 20 mile runs but nothing longer. I was paying for that now.

We turned the corner into Chinatown but to be honest I was working so hard now that I barely noticed what neighbourhood we were in! There was a little bit of a quiet spot after Chinatown with another section similar to the bit after halfway. Except this time I could really have used the support. 

Apparently the home of the Chicago White Sox was just South of us now but it may as well have been in another State for all I cared as my focus was now firmly trained on the City centre to the North. 3 miles to go and I was doing my utmost to simply keep going. I could sense the pace dropping all the time. The final 2 miles are pretty straight and I was looking over my shoulder a couple of times before the inevitable happened – Bloody 3:20 pacers passed me out again around 2km before the finish. I briefly tried to stick with them but just couldn’t keep the pace.

I tried keeping the pacers in view for the remainder but with about 600m to go there is a 90degree right followed by 300m of a climb over a bridge and then a 90degree left before the final 300m to the finish. We joked beforehand about Olwyn’s tip-off regarding the little bridge. Nobody gave it too much attention but knew it may be different on the day. And so it was! Felt like I was running in treacle for the duration of the incline but eventually I beat it and thankfully there was a slight downhill to the finish and at last it was all over!

I finished in 3:21:12 so even though I managed to haemorrhage about 4-5 mins over the last 5 miles I was still extremely happy with my race. All things considered, my tactic to go out slow was the correct one for sure. It was my lack of long runs that prevented me from keeping pace til the end but I could do nothing about that on the day. Instead I finished with a 5:35 PB and given how badly September went I am more than happy with that.

25km – 24:02 (4:48/km)

30km – 25:44 (5:08/km)

Finish – 3:21:12 (Av Pace – 4:46/km)

Aftermath / reaction:

The usual death march took place immediately after the finish line but soon the light at the end of the tunnel appeared in the form of a free Goose Island 312 beer! I got hold of several other ‘goodies’ before returning to the meeting point to discover that it was a day of PBs with Aonghus, Stephen, Johnny and Kieran all recording PBs. Time for another beer to celebrate that (We would later discover that our team entry – Pi$$ Artists – would place third in our competition. So, I can now officially say I was 3rd in the 2013 Chicago Marathon!!).

We later made our way to Kitty O'Shea’s bar in the Hilton (Official Chicago Marathon event Hotel) to meet a few others including Peter who also claimed a PB. Stephen T also managed to make it around in comfortably sub 4hrs even though he was unable to do much training at all due to injury, so everyone was delighted with how the day went. Unfortunately Sarah didn’t manage to make the start line herself due to her injury problems so hopefully she didn’t mind us all going on about things too much!

We had a couple of beers in Kitty’s before returning the short distance home for a shower and then out for food and more celebrations for the evening. Well deserved all round methinks!

Week 41 Summary:

RTW: 5 from 7 days

DTW: 73.8 km

DTY: 3,256.6 km

Taper boredom

I came across a few photos on Facebook of last weeks Parkrun (photos courtesy of Peter Veale/Flickr)

 

Monday, 30th September, 2013 – 11.9km Easy/MP run (4:49/km)

I was feeling remarkably fresh after yesterdays run so when I went out this evening the plan was to run at easy pace, 5:00/km +/- a few seconds. However, by the end of the first warm-up km I decided to push it on a little faster and before I knew it I was effortlessly running around 4:50/km. Very pleasantly surprised at this so maintained it for most of the remainder of the run. The legs were feeling fine and the HR averaged at 142bpm so that was very positive. Noticeably, the temperature out there felt perfect for me so no doubt that aided the relaxed HR. 

Nice to string two positive runs together after a bit of a crap few weeks. On that note, with September now completed, I ran 333.4km (207 miles) for the month. I also seem to have finally dealt with the niggly, floating injury. I was doing a bit of foam rolling on the hamstring last week when I decided to do a bit on my left calf also. It was only then I realised how tight and sore it was to roll it, something that I'd not noticed while running or walking. After a few evenings of just 5 mins work on the calves to loosen them up I seem to have become much more flexible all over! I suppose it goes to show a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link...

Tuesday, 1st October, 2013 – 7.4km Recovery run (5:21/km)
I still felt pretty fresh going out for this run so I'm beginning to get a little more optimistic about Chicago at last. The evening was nice and mild but the rain was still quite heavy through parts of the run. Nothing much more to report really apart from I got back in time to savour Arsenal's excellent win against Napoli. It's funny how £42million can be a steal, yet it's true! 
Mesut Ö-zil, Mesut Ö-zil,  olé, olé, olé!

Wednesday, 2nd October, 2013 – Rest Day
Tonight was crappy weather so decided to log this as a rest day!

Thursday, 3rd October, 2013 – Rest Day
Busy day with work and when I got home I was a bit jaded so took the guilty step of a second rest day in a row!

Friday, 4th October, 2013 – 11.9km Easy run with 10 x Strides (5:04/km)
This should probably really be described as Fartlek given I started with a recovery 2km, followed by an 'easy-to-MP' 3km before I threw in 10 sets of strides for the next few km. Finished off with 4km @ recovery pace.

Saturday, 5th October, 2013 – 18.6km MLR run with 9km @ MP (4:42/km)
I was planning on getting up for the second St. Anne's parkrun this morning but when i hit the snooze button for the fifth time in a row I gave in to the fact I was far too tired to get up so three hours later I actually got up properly! 

With my initial plans now up in smoke I decided to watch a bit of footie and then go for a MLR in the evening. The day was absolutely perfect for running and the first 5km of easy running was getting faster all the time (helped in no small part by the descending profile but really easy regardless. Once I turned on to the Royal Canal my plan was to up the pace to MP while away from road traffic. By the time I got to my turnaround point in Ashtown I had about 4.2km @ MP completed and the return was a little easier given the slight breeze was now on my back. I added a little extra on when I got back onto the Finglas Road to bring it up to 9km @ an average of 4:42/km. The effort was spot on though as my average HR ranged from 148-150bpm with it never going above 153bpm. The legs however felt a bit jaded and slightly niggly which was a little cause for concern. Hopefully the next week will leave them totally fresh.

Sunday, 6th October, 2013 – 7.4km Recovery run (5:26/km)
Just a nice short recovery run tonight on another beautiful evening. Could easily have gone bare-chested around the place it was that mild (plus in the dark my pasty white skin would be more reflective than any man made material!!). Initially contemplated doing a 12km instead but I soon realised I was in the middle of taper and that an extra 5km of slow running would do me no good now!

Week 40 Summary:

RTW: 5 from 7 days

DTW: 57.2 km

DTY: 3,182.8 km

Chicago - 6 days

So, with 1,977 miles it looks as if I'll pass through 2,000 miles for the year in or around the start of Chicago on Sunday. A PB would be a nice way of marking the occasion!

As an aside, my hopes for the end of October for 2 marathons (MCM + DCM) in 24 hours are up in smoke as I worked out this afternoon that our clocks change a week before USA's so therefore 25 hours will have passed between me starting off in DC and finishing (If I manage it!) DCM in 3h55m at 12:55pm. Oh well!

Eco2Run 10 miler (@ MP)

Sunday, 29th September, 2013 – 21.1km including 10 mile Eco2Run Race (4:28/km)

Parked up in East Point Business Park in plenty of time for our race start and as luck would have it I just managed to catch the start of the 20 mile race which was running 15 mins late. Went for a couple of km warm-up run before confirming that our start time was delayed by about 20 mins also so soaked up the leaders coming through in the 20 mile race. Lead guy passed through in 28mins and was flying! On the second lap though he had to stop for a toilet break and the second place guy passed through into the lead (but he would later regain the lead and win the race!). 

It was then our turn to start. I lined up a couple of rows back and as we got to the first corner I counted that I was in 15th position of about 70-80 runners. Sticking to my MP plan though I had to hold myself back from charging away with the others. This sort of worked in that I held back somewhat but I was a bit faster than MP. Kept pretty much the same effort level on the first outward stretch and a few people passed me along here. There was a breeze against us along here and although it wasn't too strong it was still costing me about 15 secs/km as I found out on my run back to the halfway point. It was only on the way back that I realised how humid and warm it was without the cooling breeze.

I was full sure I had a beaming smile all the way to the finish...obviously not!
Photo: Action Photography

Crossed the start/finish line in 37:05 and things were still going well. The second lap seemed to pass even quicker and by the time I was on the run back I was catching a few people in my own race (There were now 5 mile and 20 mile runners also on the course) and with 3km to go  decided I'd up the effort levels a bit as I was still feeling good. Final 3km were 4:22, 4:15 and 4:10 for the final 750m. Second lap was 37:33 for an overall time of 1:14:39. Not bothered about the time considering I wasn't racing it and it was 16.75km on my Garmin.

Comparison between last week and this week -
Much better numbers this week off an easier effort too!

Very happy with the outcome and when compared to my aborted HM last weekend it's much improved speed for less HR - the way things should be! Proof if ever it was needed (again!) that going off a bit too fast/high effort kills in the longer run.
Now, at last it's Taper Time!
Eco2Run 10 mile - 1:14:39, 16th/70

Week 39 Summary:

RTW: 7 from 7 days

DTW: 90.8 km

DTY: 3,124.6 km

Chicago - 14 days (2 weeks)

St Anne's Parkrun is launched... and it's very flat!

Wednesday, 25th September, 2013 – 7.4km Recovery Run (5:46/km)

Yesterday’s run appears to have taken a lot out of me. Not sure if it was the distance (just realised it’s only my 3rd 20 miler and I have not gone any further since Belfast!) or the two progression segments in the middle but I found myself with a tight left hammy and the by-now usual abdomen strain. Thankfully this was just to be a recovery run and boy did I need it. The first few kms were coming in around the 5:50’s when I thought they were around 5:30’s. Glad to get it over in the end and did a bit of foam rolling afterwards. Planned to get to bed early too but that fell by the wayside with TV and a few chores to blame!

Thursday, 26th September, 2013 – 7.4km Recovery Run (5:16/km)

Again it was later than planned by the time I got out for this run. Legs felt a fair bit better and after a relaxed first km I upped the effort to around 5:1x/km pace. Probably slightly tougher than it should have been but close to normal.

It was during this run that I had a moment of clarity in relation to my bad runs this year. All of Rotterdam marathon, Portumna marathon, Athlone HM and Dublin HM were in warm conditions. It was probably at least 21-22 degrees for them all so I think the underlying issue is that I perform poorly in warm weather. Certainly the elevated temperatures could well be responsible for an extra 3-5bpm which would be enough to scupper a long distance run. There were probably other mitigating circumstances (like the blisters in Rotterdam and poor nutrition choices for the HMs) but the heat is the one common denominator. Even last year in Valencia in similar temps I faded in the final 10km, albeit I still got my PB there but according to my Athlone ¾ marathon a few weeks before I should have been on for 3:20 or thereabouts. Definitely something to think about for the future!

Friday, 27th September, 2013 – 7.4km Easy Run (5:00/km)

I got up early this morning to fit in an easy run before work. This went well and feel I’m almost back to normal now.

7.4km Recovery Run (5:33/km)

Got back out for another recovery paced run in the evening. Was gonna do a 12km loop but decided to just keep it to 7.4km to prevent and lag in the legs.

Saturday, 28th September, 2013 – 8.1km including 5km St. Anne’s Parkrun (4:10/km)

I ventured down to St. Anne’s Park in Raheny for their first Parkrun. It consisted of a 2 lap course on an extremely flat course with the only thing to slow you down being a couple of tight corners. After a 2km warmup I ran into Mick K. at the starting area and had a bit of a chat. Within a few minutes we were walked to the start and were away.

St Annes Parkrun - two laps, very flat!

I wasn’t exactly clear-minded about how I was going to run this. My thoughts veered between trying for a sub 20 before pushing that out of my mind and deciding to take it at 4:10/min pace instead. Without having my mind firmly made up I spent the first km taking it handy and avoiding racing too many about me. As we got to the playing pitches I started to move up a few places as some people began to fade/ease off already. There were some kids training on the corner of the football pitch where we were due to turn the corner so we had no choice but to cut the apex a little. Before long we were out on the main avenue which runs all the way to the finish on the second lap. Things were going well still and while I am pretty sure I’d have struggled with 4:00/km pace if I had gone for it, the first 2km both came in at 4:10/km and I felt I was putting in a very decent effort without redlining it too much.

As we started the second lap we went through/under a load of trees and so I wasn’t too surprised when the garmin started to suggest my pace was slipping to 4:17 for the 3rd km. I just maintained position as those ahead of me were about 50m down the road at this stage. The next 1,500m were a tad boring for me as it was simply more of the same. The final km began just as we turned back out onto the main avenue for the second time and being able to see the finish in front of you makes for a long kilometre! About 600m to go a local runner called Jim went past me but I was happy to simply maintain pace than try to enter a race with him… perhaps on another day! 

Eventually I reached the finishing chute and stopped the watch in 20:47 which I was neither happy or disappointed with. It just is what it is! Time wasn’t the target today, more a good VO2 session while holding back a little for the 10 miler tomorrow. During today’s run though I made up my mind to run that at marathon pace instead of racing for a 10 mile PB time. Therefore I’ll be aiming to carry a steady 4:40/km (Which I failed at after 8 miles last week!!) all the way to the finish and if the opportunity arises I will allow myself to race the final 2-3 km but not before that. Well, that’s the theory anyways!!

Week 39 Summary (so far):

RTW: 6 from 6 days

DTW: 69.7 km

DTY: 3,103.5 km

Chicago - 15 days (3 weeks, 1 day)

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)

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)

Athlone Half Marathon - the wheels come off!

Thursday, 12th September, 2013 – 7.4km Recovery Run (MP ave: 5:33//km)

As promised nice and easy recovery run in advance of Saturday. Legs were a little stiff/tired after last night's faster stuff but nothing serious.

Friday, 13th September, 2013 – Rest Day

Had intended to do about 10km today but after chatting to Philip about the race I decided to take today as a rest day instead in order to give myself every chance in Athlone.

Saturday, 14th September, 2013 – 21.3km Recovery Run (MP ave: 4:25//km)

The plan for today was to stay with the 1:30 pacers and try and nip just below the 90 min mark. This would mean running at 4:16/km pace according to the caluclators but when you factor in the inevitable couple of hundred extra metres then the pace would need to be approx 4:13/km. I was thinking about this briefly before I set off from Dublin and a quick moment of realisation pointed out that this was faster than my training LT pace. Suddenly things became a bit too real so I decided to push that thought out of my head and just hang with the pacers as long as I could and hope for the best really. At the very least I expected to get a new PB (1:32:49), so anything better than that but not sub 90mins wasn't hugely appealing. It was an all or bust mentality and i guess that's what I got!

I arrived in plenty of time to register, meet lots of familiar faces and go for a 3.5km warm-up. This was the longest warm up I've ever done but at the same time it was nice and handy and I felt great after it. After a little more socialising i made my way to the start line and fell in with a few more familiar faces (Joe, Kate and a couple of others) in the 1:30 pace group. Before long we were off. A few twists in the first 400m and then we were out on the straight. Even by this stage Joe had moved just in front of the pacers which was a clever idea as there was a large group on a narrow road and so it was no surprise really when I heard somebody appear to take a tumble about 2km into the race. By this stage I was in the thick of the bunch and it felt a bit claustrophobic. Around here I ran into Sean who commented '1:30 will be no bother'. I muttered back something about the first km always feeling easy and they were the last words I spoke all race. I managed to keep with the pace group for the first 8km but I had been keeping track of my HR and was a bit spooked that it was in the 160's the whole time when it should be in the mid 150's. I didn't think about it too much though as I was now struggling to keep with the group and I knew if I fell off the back of it that my race was done.

The run-in to the finish

I usually like it when I'm proved correct but in this instance it was not very enjoyable! A gap of 100m opened up over the next few kms and I found myself running solo just when I needed shielding from the breeze. As the gap drifted wider I began to unintentionally ease back to an effort that I should have started off with and the pace and HR slowed a little. By the time we appeared out onto the Ballinasloe Road I was over cooked and it was now just a matter of making my way home. The HR was still in the mid 150's but the pace had slowed back to marathon pace. There was nothing to be done really as I was now paying for redlining over the opening section. I'm sure the body was struggling big time with lactic acid and I just wasn't able to get the desired output from the high effort input. I tried consoling myself with the fact that I was getting a MP session out of it anyways so it wasn't a total waste of time. As I was slowing people were passing me and that compounded my misery. On the main road though I managed to get going again at a faster pace through a combination of sharing the pacing with another guy and the better road surface. Unfortunately, as soon as we turned off the main road again my pacing partner fell away and I slowed back down again due in some part to the poorer surface. Eventually I set my focus on the last mile and as I turned the corner for the 200m run-in to the line I gave it my all but still only just managed to get a pace of 4:06/km. I had nothing left but was glad to be finished.

HR & pace data

In fairness to the organisers the event really is excellent value and a great run. I think I may have fallen into a trap though (like quite a few others I spoke to) in thinking that because the course had no hills that it was ok to go off that bit faster. A handful of people that I spoke to afterwards seemed to have a similar tale of falling away after 8km or thereabouts. It has certainly re-instilled in me the value of starting steady and settling into a race as opposed to going out gung-ho. Hopefully I just remember that lesson in Chicago! 

Speaking of Chicago, I had been debating whether to aim for either 3:10 or 3:15 over there and was going to let Athlone's result decide the matter. Unfortunately that target is now going to be sub 3:20 instead! I will keep training at approx 3:12 pace but in reality I just need to bite off less than I'd been targeting.  It's annoying really that I've been running an average of 50 miles per week this year (a decent increase on last year) and yet the marathon form has failed to improve much at all since.

Athlone Half Marathon - 1:34:16

Sunday, 15th September, 2013 – Rest Day

I continued on to Mayo after the race and it was late enough getting back to Dublin so treated myself to a Rest Day.

Week 37 Summary:

RTW: 5 from 7 days

DTW: 57.1 km

DTY: 2,961.8 km

Chicago - 28 days (4 weeks, 0 days)