Send in the Clowns - BAC 10K Challenge

Ecoenergy wrote: »

I switched to the Kinvara 2's back in Feb and found them so good that I used them for all my runs. Soon afterwards I developed an achilles problem in both legs which may or may not be attributable to the new shoes but I can't help wonder if the lower heel put extra strain on the calves/achilles. It didn't stop me from buying another pair as I think they feel great and I currently have 580 miles on the first pair which I still use for short runs. 18 miles is the farthest I've gone and I'll be running my first DCM in them but if I had my time over I'd have transitioned into them much slower.

Thanks for the advice Ecoenergy, but no fear on that front. I haven't been able to lay a finger on my achilles for years for all the pain, so any new pain will just blend in with the old pain. But will definitely take it easy breaking them in. I am itching to give them a proper run pretty soon, and with just 6.5 weeks to go, I'll have to slip them on for a session or two pretty soon.

menoscemo wrote: »

BTW which colour did you get? Anything flashy?

I must confess, when it comes to running shoes, I must be colour blind, cos I really don't give a toss what colours they are. I do find it handy when they are available in a range of colours, as I can distinguish one pair from the next (I had three pairs of Precision12s in orange, so had to write numbers on them to tell them apart). They're some kind of yellow, if that helps!

Yesterday: 13.1 mile steady run pacing the Dublin Half Marathon sub-90 group

Third outing in the Phoenix Park, pacing the 90 minute group and every year the organization gets better and the pacing gets easier. Met up with my fellow pacers beforehand and a better set of bedfellows you couldn't find. Met up with ecoli, who thankfully had opted to race instead of pacing (didn't want him vomiting on my marathon shoes ) and great to see Beepbeep returning to full flight. The pacing group was given an air of sophistication by the arrival of the glamourous couple, but that was soon cancelled out when Chinguetti and Ultraman1 showed up. Menoscemo was at a loose end until Ryan's opened it's doors, so was pacing under the watchful gaze of liamo123, while Mr Marthastew and Kurt added an air of seniority to the proceedings, making myself and Surewhynot feel positively youthful. That's me off a lot of christmas card lists.

Backpacks and flags replaced the weather balloons from previous years, in a trial run for the marathon. Backpack/flag combo was very light and were certainly far easier to maneuver than the balloons. Lined-up in the first pen, and it was great to meet a number of boards runners and other runners targeting the 90 minutes. One runner in particular really struck a chord. He told me I had paced him in the half marathon last year. A few weeks later, he suffered a heart attack while running Dublin City Marathon at around mile 12, and was whisked off to hospital, where he had a shunt fitted. Yesterday, he was back for another go, albeit at a more relaxed level. Gas!

The actual pacing went really well. I hadn't bothered with a warm-up or warm-down, in order to try and reduce the overall mileage (how dumb can you be?). By mile 4 my left calf muscle started to form a knot, and it got worse and worse as the race went on. Really not a smart move. After the second mile, were were 12 seconds down on our target pace because of the hill and stupid runners starting in the wrong corral, but SureWhyNot and I had made it back over the ensuing miles, and by mile 10 we were 11 seconds ahead of plan. As is to be expected, we lost a chunk of runners on the hills but also had a surprisingly large group once we crested the final hill. At 12.5 miles many of the runners took the proffered advice and headed for home, many with big beaming smiles and a final lease of renewed energy as they struck for home. Others needed a bit of hollering to keep 'em ticking over, but holler we did and many answered the call.

We crossed the finish line after slowing for a bit to grab some stragglers, in 1:29:44 (1:30:09 gun time), so bang on the money. Delighted for all the lads at the top of the field who had fantastic results, including Tunguska, Kiwirunner, TRR, ecoli, cwgatling and Ray, as well as the folks from the other waves, who seemed to have hit their targets admirably. Nice to meet up with some of the folks in Ryan's afterwards, where I called 'tax' on my abstinence and enjoyed a lovely Galway Hooker or two, before having to head home to rescue my princess from gymnastics.

Summary: 13.1 miles in 1:29:46

Today: 16 miles with 12 miles @PMP

Right, I'm a dumb-ass. I should have listened to the voice of reason (theboyblunder) and either put this one off, or shortened/adapted it based on doing the previous day's 13 mile steady run and the sore calf muscle. But I didn't. Instead, I decided to go for the heroics and forged ahead. Plotted a 5 mile loop that started 2 miles away, seemed to have a scattering of hills, drags and a nice downhill towards the end of the loop. Plan was 19 miles, with 15 of them at planned marathon pace (6:09 - 6:13/mile). Looking out the window, the wind seemed calm, but yr.no was reporting 8m/s. Grabbed a bottle of Powerade and headed for the start of the loop.

The first 2.5 miles were along the N11, and it was only when I started that I realized I'd be facing the brunt of that 18km wind head-on. Lost a few seconds/mile into that wind, and then had a short hill climb, before another drag which still seemed into the wind. A brief downhill/respite and a 30 second stop for a quick drink, and it was onto the second loop and another 2/5 miles along the N11 into the headwind. All the time, the knot in my calf was getting more and more painful and I started to develop a headache, which over the next couple of miles got worse and worse.

After 12 PMP miles (14 miles in total) I was fooked. My gait had a pronounced limp, my head was killing me, and I was shagged. I managed another .4 of a mile into that head-wind for the third time, before I thought about it and realized the futility of trying to push on any further. I was really going to screw up my calf and there was something else wrong (I never get headaches). I jogged the two miles back to the house, a little disgusted. I don't recall the last time I didn't managed to complete a session, but it's been more than a year. Frustrating, but not the reason for my disappointment. It's more the need to have everything go exactly to plan. You have a few good races, a few good training sessions, and you get lulled into a sense of indestructibility, while common sense gets neatly folded and put away in a drawer. Well, a few lessons learned.

The outcome was still good (longest PMP run I ever completed (by a whopping 0.4 miles!) and my calf is still knotted, rather than torn (but needs some work). I drank a couple of liters of water on my return and stood on the scales, and I had lost 7 pounds, so the headache was caused by dehydration. Not quite sure how I can manage a PMP training session of 15 miles while getting a lot more water into the system without taking big breaks (to get more liquids) but I'll have to think of something for the next PMP run in a few weeks time.

Summary: 16 miles in 1:45@6:35/mile, with 12.4 PMP miles @6:13/mile

Today: 10 mile easy run
Calf muscle is getting better with every run, but I'll probably undo all that repair with tomorrow's session, but for today, it felt pretty good. Needed to pay a trip to the post office (there was a time not so long ago I would have driven), so I wrapped my parcel in plastic (to avoid shredding the packaging with sweaty friction) and headed off along the canal. Another roll of the dice day, as the weather shifted from freezing and wet to sunny and hot in mere seconds and my mood shifted just as rapidly, as I went from cold despair to sunny outlook. Still, I managed another 10 miler, which takes the pressure off for this evening, where an easy 5 miles will do the job.

Summary: 10 miles in ~1:15, @~7:31 (had Garmin issues)