Send in the Clowns - BAC 10K Challenge

myflipflops wrote: »

Any chance you can give us (well, me) an example of your typical days diet? I'm interested to see the intake. My diet is something I'm working hard on at the moment.

Yeah, sure, but it's nothing terribly impressive I'm afraid.

Typical long run or session day:

Morning:
Porridge with banana, honey and cinnamon and a slice of bread with peanut butter, steaming mug of coffee

Mid-morning:
One or two pieces of fruit. Maybe another slice of breat and p. butter if it's a 15 mile run.

Lunch: (we have nowhere to buy food at work, so I make my lunch in the morning)
2 x pitta (or a bagel), and one of:
Hummus, tuna, chopped salad, couple of medium potatoes (microwaved), guacamole, etc. Try to keep variety in there. Once or twice a month, I'll grab a Subway.

Afternoon:
Two pieces of fruit. Occasionally I'll rob a bar of chocolate from my work-buddy, but that's on the back-burner for the time being.

Dinner:
I used to do 70% of the cooking, but these days, with long work hours, the OH is doing 70% and I'm doing 30%. We both cook pretty healthy though. Probably something like:
Pasta with salmon
Meatballs with couscous
Indian curry with brown rice
Chinese with noodles
My portion size tends to be quite large (big appetite with the high mileage). My youngest had a wheat allergy for a while, so we got into the habit of cooking everything from scratch (no jars or boxes), and thankfully it stuck. Lots of veg with every meal. We tend to buy leaner types of meat, so pork-fillet, chicken breasts, etc. Once a month we'll get an Indian takeaway. I tend to go for the healthier option (fruit rather than cream based-sauces).

Evening: Some biscuits (a weakness). Less now.

Throughout the day: Lots of water. If I'm at home, fruit juice and water. No sports drinks (except I'm trying out Gatorade at the moment, in the build-up to Boston).

Post marathon:
Won't change too much, just quantity size will be reduced. Looking forward to going back to more regular beer consumption. I keep up around 50-70 mpw year-round, so weight tends not to be a huge issue. I find if i'm more proactive about finding healthy snacks, I'm less likely to eat crap. I read the compositions on the sides of the packets, and look for a good carb/fat ratio.

Today: 20 Mile Long run with stuff!
Didn't want to run a standard P&D long run, and T-runner was kind enough to suggest a long run session, so I figured I'd adopt and adapt it a little. Plan was:
10 miles easy
3 miles repeats: alternating between 2 minutes fast/2minutes easy
6 Miles @pmp
1.5 Miles easy
1.5 miles hard
Or some variant of the above.

I set up the workout in Training Centre and transferred it to the watch. Unfortunately the watch interpreted the 3 miles of two minute repeats as 'do it twice in total', but I didn't figure that out until much later.

Met up with TheRoadRunner, who was on the back of a second place finish in yesterday's urban trail race, and we set off on the easy miles. Good banter, comfortable pace, definitely the most enjoyable section of today's run. It was bloody hot out there, but thankfully TRR had the forethought of leaving water scattered in his many caches around the park, otherwise I'd have shriveled up within a couple of miles. At the end of the 10 miles, the watch beeped the start of the two minute intervals. Unfortunately, we found ourselves at the bottom of a hill, so nothing for it but to run the two minutes uphill. It was about this time that we decided that T-runner was a masochist. The next one was easier, but along Chesterfield avenue the heat was stifling.

We were running the third interval, when I realized that the watch was indicating that we had 5.8 miles left rather than the expected 90 seconds. Sh1teballs. Something had screwed up. I figured it was easier to just stick with it, rather than stopping and fiddling with the watch. TRR didn't fancy it (he'd done the same distance but faster the previous day) so I headed on with the pmp goal, while he went off hunting his hidden water. Not sure if it was the heat, but the PMP miles were a real struggle (starting out a 5:51/mile pace definitely didn't help). Thankfully after 3.5 miles TRR showed-up in the opposite direction toting a bottle of water. Frickin life-saver and just in time for the hill climb too. Struggled on, with thoughts of packing it in, but eventually got the 6 miles done.

I couldn't remember where I'd agreed to meet up with TRR, so I clocked up an easy mile or two, before meeting him back at his club-house, with 20 miles in the bag. Not quite the session I'd initially planned, but still so much more than P&D had asked of me. Not a perfect session, but a good session and another reminder that in the heat I tend to be in a bit of a heap. Weight was down half a stone afterwards, so lots of liquids to catch-up on. Fingers crossed for cool weather in Boston and a few more TheRoadRunners to hand out bottles of water when the going gets tough.

Summary: 20.28 miles in 2:18, @6:51/mile

ManFromAtlantis wrote: »

although i think this great thread/log has sunk so low theres no coming back.

and so to bring it back up a notch...

Today: 5 x 600m @ 5k pace
Nice and hot, but I was headed into the badlands, so I left the thong at home, and opted for a t-shirt and shorts. Felt a bit wrecked after the three mile warm-up, but my intervals seem to go a lot better on those days when I seem least 'up for it'. Arrived out in Belgard and standing on the tarmac which was reflecting the heat back up at me, I was brought back 6 months to my 12 days of running in during a Californian summer. First interval had a mild head-wind, and the second interval (back the way I had come) felt like a furnace without the cool head-wind. In general though, I was finding them as comfortable as you can find 600m intervals at 5k pace.

For the sixth and final interval I picked up the pace, and decided to keep it at around 5 min/mile, but after around 650m, the watch hadn't beeped to signal the end of the interval. Gah! I was only supposed to do 5! Doesn't matter how good the technology is, as long as their is an idiot at the helm. On the 4th interval, I had passed someone who looked suspiciously like ecoli, but clearly I was running too quick for him to focus on such a fast-moving object, so despite my big thumbs up, the man with the shades didn't recognize me.

Intervals: 2:01/1:58/2:02/2:00/2:00/2:01 (649m).
Pace: 5:19/5:11/5:22/5:16/5:18/5:04
HR: 145/153/157/155/158:159

Finished up with an hot but easy three miles back to work.
Summary: 9 miles with fast stuff

Mr Slow wrote: »

Mr Slow driving with shirt and tie in sauna of a car passed Mr Krusty running in the Naas rd in the open air and sunshine looking very happy with himself.

It was very warm though. I nearly broke out into a sweat!

Today: 12 mile medium long run
12 miles is the new 15 miles, so I headed off with work-buddy on a loop around Belgard, and we parted ways after 5 miles at Newlands Cross, where I headed down the aforementioned Naas Road. Not the greatest choice of route, as I was choking on the car fumes of all those shirt and tie wearing sauna car drivers. Headed over the Luas bridge to the quiet and solitude of Clondalkin, before hitting the canal, where the air was filled with the buzz of men and horses (isn't that a TV station?) swimming in the waters of the canal. Through the Pfeizer industrial Park around the lake (I betcha that child is going to fall into the water; splash!) and back to base.

Summary: 12 miles in 1:28:44, @7:20/mile.

ultraman1 wrote: »

u doin half or ultra on sunday..

There is a third option you know!

But I'm doing the half. Will be sitting on the grass supping on pints, while you fellas are slogging it out around the hills!

ultraman1 wrote: »

u advertising ballycotton or donadea:p.....best of luck,....if i see u, either ur walkin ,i got my EPO in the post or im on the bus of shame....

Haha. This time I'll be advertising Sli Cualann or Bray Runners (I'm having a bit of an identity crisis). I might run back to the bottom of the hill to give you some moral support. Or I might just stay on the grass sipping those pints. Choices, choices.

Me on the grass sipping pints -> :cool:

average_runner wrote: »

Hi;

You can now avoid the Nass Road by running on the link road that goes up by lidl in belgard(where luas runs) and goes up to Pfizer. Not much really traffic that way either and tarmac all the way.

Hi average_runner, I'd say 60% of my runs involve those roads (do all of my intervals in Belgard alongside the LUAS, and have to run the link road to get pretty much anywhere). I'm just one of those people who has to constantly find new places to run, so my runs bring me further and further afield. I'm running out of locations to run around Clondalkin, but my work office may be moving to shortly, which will hopefully open up a whole new avenue of roads and trails to run. Thanks for the tip though.

average_runner wrote: »

Should maybe look at the Domain in Lucan, its down in the village by McDonalds. Its a big park place with nice big hills, running beside the liffey etc. Our club runs there on Sunday mornings alot. If you need maps of the area i will get one off my garmin on monday for you.

Had a nice run out there a few weeks back. It is indeed a lovely spot. It's about 4 miles to get there from where I work, so I can only run it on longer runs (13+ miles). I reckon I've run around 1,800+ miles in this area over the last 12 months, so there are very few spots I haven't seen, but if you have any more suggestions, keep 'em coming!

Morning: 6 mile recovery with strides
Busy day with work and I'm hitting the road for Connemara later, so took advantage of the fact that I'm still waking up early after the clock change, to head out for an early morning recovery run. Body still stiff and tired. That I am currently in taper mode has clearly not been communicated to my legs, who are holding true to their tired and weary mantle. Still, always good to get the run done nice and early, so I can have a restful day. Another 6 miles tomorrow should see some suggestions of recovery, before their next thrashing on Sunday.

Summary: 6.17 miles in 47:39, @7:43/mile, HR=123

Izoard wrote: »

Great running Gary - fantastic result!

Thanks, but it wasn't no ultra! Congrats on popping the Connemara ultra cherry, and in a damn fine time too!

We were greeted by fantastic running conditions, perfect for a bit of heat acclimatisation, and an opportunity to top-up the tan. Arrived in Leenane at around 10:30am, which left plenty time to catch up with the Lecheile gang and various other familiar faces lining up for the half marathon. A couple of easy warm-up miles, and then I lined up at the front of the race. There were a couple of rows of club runners interspersed with the usual iPod wearing GAA supporters, but it looked like quite a few 'skinnies' had turned up too. My plan was to run the race at marathon pace (6:11/mile), but I hadn't given my strategy much thought before the race, I just didn't want to do anything stupid that would hamper Boston marathon race prep (it'll all be over bar the celebrating two weeks from now). So the plan was to run 1:21 as easy as possible, a time that would have me in the top 10 in the results over the last couple of years, but looking at the skinny whippets lined-up at the start, I didn't figure I'd be featuring in the top ten this year.

Ray bipped the air-horn and we were off. So immediately after the start of the race we hit the first hill, and I was in around 25th position. I figured I wouldn't worry about hitting pmp just yet, but the watch was showing 5:50/mile pace from the intial down-hill, so I figured if I took it easy on the climb, I'd be back at target pace soon after cresting the hill. Half way up the hill we had the usual tell-tale beep-beep of a few runners heart rate monitors warning them that they were working too hard (s'funny, as soon as you hear those tell-tale beeps you just know you're not going to see those runners again). I joined two other runners to form a group of three as we worked up the hill, passing a couple of runners. At the mile mark, my pace was 6:15, which was pretty good, given the hill. We crested the hill together, and picked up the pace, finishing the second mile in 6:11. Mile 3, the pace had picked up sufficiently that the watch was showing an average pace of 6:05/mile, which was too hot for this run, so with some reluctance, I gradually eased back and let the two other runners forge ahead. Mile 3: 5:53.

On my own for the next few miles, the pace was comfortable enough, with a few undulating hills to break the terrain. I settled in and enjoyed the views and the weather, and the odd bit of encouragement from the occasional walker or spectator. Miles passed in 6:04, 6:12, and 6:15. After 7 miles, I hadn't passed any other runners, but I was passing lots of walkers, so I'd give them a holler, and they'd give me a shout. It's great having the three races plus the walkers going together. Makes for a really friendly relaxed race experience. Eventually I caught up with an Athenry singlet, which I correctly guessed must be Mick Rice, running the ultra. A quick word, and I was passed him (phenomenal running after 33 miles). Eventually I caught up with another runner (one of the guys I had run up the initial hill with) and we had a quick chat about goal races (he is headed to London in a couple of weeks), before he started to drop off the pace (Mile 8: 6:05). I passed another ultra runner who I recognized from Donadea 50 a few weeks back, but he wasn't in as good shape as he was for his Donadea run, and was walking, which didn't bode well (he went on to finish 4th). I grabbed a gel to give myself a lift for the big hill, and checked the watch, which told me my average pace was 6:08, and gave me a bit of a cushion for the climb. Fantastic support at the cross-roads heading over the bridge, which signalled the lead-up to the hill and I passed a couple of runners who couldn't maintain their race pace. Then another runner emerged from a portaloo, and tried to jump in behind me, but I was shifting along (mile 9: 6:10), so he rapidly dropped off too. Then the hill.

I've run a lot of hills over the last six months, so I don't generally mind them, but at marathon pace on a hot day, it's a slightly different prospect. I remember what that hill was like two years ago during a similarly hot day towards the end of the ultra, so those guys had my sympathies as I started working my way up the climb. I could see two runners ahead of me on the hill, but they were easily out of reach. But as I worked my way up (miles 10 and 11: 6:20 and 6:24) I noticed that the gap between us was narrowing. I was happy to maintan the effort levels as there was a target ahead. They crested the hill around 150m ahead of me. I took a break to recover, before building up a bit of speed and legging it past the two runners (one of whom was the runner I'd encountered on the very first hill). One runner was spent, but the other jumped into my wake. I figured it was worth picking up the pace to shake him off, so mile 12 was a rather fast (but downhill) 5:32. I passed Keith White (2nd in the Ultra) and had a quick word, before pushing on (the only way I can over-take himself and Mick in a race, is if I take a 26 mile short-cut!). The crowds spread over the final mile were amazing (it probably didn't hurt that only a handful of runners from the three races crossed the line ahead of me) so even though the other runners had dropped off my pace, I kept it ticking over to the finish line (mile 13: 5:46 (faster than 10 mile pace?!) and finished with 1:20:30 showing on the clock. Job done.

I was a little faster than expected, but that was largely down to the fast two miles at the end. Otherwise, the race went perfectly to plan. Chatting to race organizer Ray, I found out that I'd finished in 5th place (and most likely M40 title too) so happy enough with that. Most important, I didn't lose the head and race to my limts, but instead got a solid training stimulus out of the experience. Another two miles back along the course to look out for the missus, and warm-down properly and wrap-up a 71 mile week. Only one more hard session to go before the big day, and lots of easy runs.

Summary: 13.1 miles in 1:20:30, @6:09, HR=161