Micilín's Mucky Miles

Training:
My training for this marathon could hardly have gone better. In essence the cycle started three weeks after my 3:56-Connemarathon and lasted 27 weeks in total – nine weeks of loosely following P&D 33-55 followed by eighteen weeks of sticking rigidly to P&D 55-70. All injury-free and one week of a head-cold in week 27.

In hindsight the nine weeks of base building were instrumental, not only in building up the mileage, but in developing a hunger for racing by taking part in the IMRA Summer League. Before this I was very passive in races, only pushing myself to what I thought were my own boundaries. After a few IMRA races I started comparing myself to different runners week after week and became encouraged by my progress as the League went on. It was also a chance for me to concentrate on swimming in the hope that I wouldn’t become bored of focusing solely on running for nearly seven months. I lost around 7kg in fat, so running faster became a lot easier without the extra weight to carry.

Despite finding difficulty in the first week of the eighteen-week P&D 55-70, I was well-set up going into this phase of the training – I had done a 15-mile run with 12 miles at 3:30-marathon-PMP, plus an 18-miler and a 20-miler over the Dublin Mountains. The first real sign of my progress was the Dublin Mountain Plod which I finished just under the 2-hour mark – you know you’re doing well when you finish just ahead of an ultra runner like Grahamor, fresh from a double-marathon mountain ultra! Midweek long runs became a regular thing, a good few during which Vagga and I became more and more impressed with our fitness.

My only regret I have about training was that I didn’t realise my potential sooner than I did. By the time the Race Series Half came about, I hadn’t a clue how capable I was of sub-1:35. I would say that P&D should prescribe another race sooner in the plan (not that I’m blaming them for anything!) It was only 5 weeks before DCM that I started training for a 3:20-marathon in light of my 1:35-Half. I do believe I was in danger of burning out back then, but the Half, Rathfarnham 5km and Conamara 10km kept me keen.


Prerace
The days before DCM I ate and drank well and had two good nights’ sleep. DCM-day I woke up on the wrong side of the bed – literally! I got out of bed in the middle of the night and got in the other side, much to the amusement of my OH! My stomach was very dodgy that morning and had a bit of a Sonia. The nerves calmed once I reached the starting area. I waved to Menoscemo at the start of his wave, made my way up halfway between the 3:15 and 3:30 pacers and met RunningKing by chance. I may have been a bit rude in how I told him I preferred to run on my own for a while despite both of us having the same target I thought it was important to start off doing my own thing before settling in with someone else – even if the pace was the same.

The Race
After the gun, the first km was slow as we rounded on to Leeson Street. By Kildare Street I was up to marathon pace (4:42min/km) and it felt like an easy jog. The splits were all marginally faster up to the 10km mark in the Phoenix Park. I took one or two water bottles at the first two stations.

10-20km
Just before this I noticed RunningKing jog by. I believe he was behind me all the way and tried to sneak by so as not to upset me! I was delighted to catch up with him and we stayed together for about 22kms I had my first gel just before leaving the Phoenix Park. We banked a few seconds coming out of the Park in preparation for the hill at Ballyfermot. It was all pretty uneventful up to Crumlin where I saw my OH who had walked up there from Baggot Street. A nice little boost.

20km-30km
I started to feel sore just before the halfway mark in Walkinstown, probably due to the long uphill drag into the wind up Crumlin. I think both of us were quite surprised at how soon we reached it. I picked up a water bottle off my cousins at 14 miles, just where my stomach started cramping last year. For some reason I don’t like running Fortfield Road, probably because of the surface. I met my Dad at the corner with Bushy Park and he had a few other spectators cheering for me too :-)

RunningKing and I had a good laugh with the other runners as we were coming down towards Terenure, especially ‘Steve’ who was getting all the attention from the spectators! A few IMRA runners were cheering in Rathgar and another few friends spotted me around the corner. Through Dartry and Milltown was grand - I don’t think RK noticed there was a hill there, despite him saying he doesn’t like hills! I met my OH for a second time at Milltown :-)

30-40km
I started to struggle a bit at Clonskeagh as I had predicted – we lost a few seconds on the hill just after the Dodder bridge. I think I took my second and final gel here, but am not really sure where! Another friend spotted me on Clonskeagh Road.

A few times during the race RK and I got separated at water stations etc, but found each other again. Going around the corner to go up Roebuck Road, I took the corner tightly expecting RK to be right behind me. After about a minute I was concerned he wasn’t with me. I looked around and he was about 30 metres behind and gave him a thumbs up. I still expected him to catch up soon but once I got to ‘Heartbreak Hill’ I knew I was a little bit too far ahead of him. I ploughed up the hill and was delighted to see some of my friends here. At the top of Fosters Avenue, I looked at my Garmin and saw that I had actually banked time going up the hill.

I flew down the other side of Heartbreak Speedbump and at the bottom of Fosters Avenue I met my brother (the 14-hr Ironman from last year) who ran with me for a few hundred metres. He told me I looked in good form, and I felt it. At the UCD flyover I met my other cousin and their kids – gave a high 5 and motored on. By the bottom of Nutley Lane, I knew sub-3:20 was a realistic possibility if I ran a few a faster kms. Unfortunately all of them were a few seconds too slow and I was desperate to find a consistent runner to stick to. All of them were too slow. Coming around on to Shelbourne Road, my OH was standing there again with some water which I didn’t take.

40km-end
The bridge over the canal was buzzing with spectators who were really getting in the runners’ faces pushing them on! My splits weren’t good enough and at this stage I knew I had a great PB, but not good enough for 3:20. I also felt my left calf getting very tight here. My feet were really hurting now.

Pearse Street was alive, especially starting at the Garda station. I met a colleague here who was great with giving motivation. Some runner zoomed past me here and it gave me such a buzz seeing somebody run so strongly at such a late stage. I can’t remember anybody passing me in the final 5km apart from him.

I started picking up the speed and was getting really excited with the fantastic support. I know it was loud but the street was just a blur! At the bottom of Kildare Street I looked at my Garmin and it read 3:18!! This gave me a massive boost and I kept picking up the speed. I saw the clock with about 300 metres to go and I was much less sure I was going to break 3:20. I didn’t care and kept pushing the pace and finished the final 430 metres in 4:03min/km pace (slightly slower than my 5km race pace!). Over the line in 3:20:22 chip time for a PB of 36 minutes.


Garmin Link
The first feeling was thank God that’s over, not a feeling of euphoria. It’s not that I was disappointed or anything, I genuinely think my body was just in shock. It took me a while to warm up. I was a little bit disappointed at not being able to go to McGrattan’s, but my 3-year-old god-daughter’s birthday party beckoned.

I pushed myself very very hard which was clear from how slow I walked around Merrion Square immediately after the finish line. My lips were blue after 20 minutes and was lucky to have my OH there to give me warm dry clothes (by the way, she walked a total of 10 miles to see me at three different points during the marathon offering me water, even though I didn’t take any. Dedication or what!).Two days later and I’m much sorer than I was after the Connemarathon. I have an appointment with my physio on Friday afternoon to have a look at things – my left glute, left calf and left heel.

I know this will sound like a ridiculous Oscar speech but there are a lot of boardsies I would really like to thank for their advice, support and company over the past while. RunningKing for the great company during 20kms of the marathon and a key PMP long run a good few weeks back. Belcarra for pushing me to go for race times I thought were a bit of a stretch. Vagga for his company and advice during 5am midweek long runs. Cambogueno whose zinc oxide tape stopped me from becoming anaemic through nipple bloodloss! Also, I learned a lot from other boardsies’ training logs – theboyblunder, KielyUnusual, irfrm, Krusty, neilc, beeduybe, Marthastew, Claralara and more. There’s a mine of information on this forum thanks to the great training logs and advice given.

Next up – winter hill training in preparation for the Art O’Neill ultra on January 12th

My training plan for the AON Ultra is based on P&D's 10-week multimarathon plan with an extra week peaking at 70 miles. My deviations from the plan include:

• back-to-back long and medium-long runs on Monday and Tuesday evenings, rather than during midweek and at the weekend. I will run to the hills as often as possible.
• Shorter races when I feel like it.
• I may do a longer run (ie 25-30 miles) if advised by others!

I'm also planning:

• not to do a running commute to or from work, unless I can run a mountain or a semi-serious hill on the way! That means Cruagh, Three Rock and Fairy Castle.
• Reconnaissance runs on all sections from Kippure to Glenmalure. The first one is this Saturday morning, and the next is next Monday night.
• Doing gear and navigation entries in my log. Isn't that what a log is for?

Tuesday

Walking: 750 metres in 45 minutes flat. In other words, I was very stiff, sore and tired from the marathon yesterday. A lot more tired than I was after the Connemarathon. A sign that I truly pushed myself as hard as I could!

Wednesday

Cycling: 10km around the city doing a few jobs.

Thursday

I was going to straight back into running today. 7 hours of babysitting put a stop to that!

Friday

Appointment with my physio. I wanted him to have a look at my left leg as I have had pains in my glute, calf, heel and ankle in the past few months.

• The ankle pain is a bit of tendonitis on the outside of my left foot, just below the ankle bone - due to running in straight lines, ie marathon running.
• The heel pain is likely to be plantar fasciitis.
• The glute pain is actually the top of my hamstring.

So he poked and prodded and gave me electrotherapy to reduce the inflammation. Followed by a 4.5-hour train and bus journey to Galway. I will need an x-ray soon to check any discrepancy in leg lengths.



Saturday


Running: just under 8km at recovery pace up the bog road in Spiddal. Great to be running again. No major pains or niggles, except for a mild tightness in the hamstring.


Sunday


Running: just under 8km at recovery pace again, on the same route as yesterday. No hailstones this time!


Monday


Had a dentist's appointment today. My first time in 19 years, so I have a few months of treatment ahead of me with some extractions and possibly a root canal. My primary concern was how this was going to affect my training - not much thank God!


Running: just under 10km at recovery pace, up Edmondstown Road to Mount Venus, across to Stocking Lane and back home again. I remember when this felt like a hill run, but tonight it may as well have been a running track it felt so easy

Gear

• Gloves - I tried out my cycling gloves tonight. They weren't really needed, but I wanted to see how they fared anyway. They were nice and warm, but they were hard to slip back on once I took them off for a second. They were also a little bit too big for me to handle my Garmin. Maybe inner gloves would be a good idea.
• Headtorch - My headtorch (Petzl MYO RXP) was OK. Maybe a little bit too tight as I think it gave me a headache. If I loosen it, it will slip down over my ears as it is heavy - three AA batteries. This is also hard on the neck muscles as I have learned in the past. This will be a lot worse over the course of a night-time ultra marathon!

Navigation

• Today I bought the Wicklow Mountains West map published by East-West. The top of the map has Kippure Adventure Centre and the very bottom has Glenmalure - a perfect map for the AON! Each centimetre on the map covers 30,000 centimetres (300 metres) on the ground (1:30,000), much more detailed than the OSI Discovery 56 map which is 1:50,000.

Distance|Current PB|Current VDOT|Goal PB
5km|00:19:54 (23.09.12)|50|00:19:36
5 miles|00:36:20 (15.09.12)||00:33:00
10km|00:42:09 (13.10.12)|49|00:41:20
10 miles|01:12:02 (15.09.12)||01:09:30
Half Marathon|01:34:55 (15.09.12)|48|01:33:12
Marathon|03:56:09 (01.04.12)|38|03:20:00

Distance|Current PB|Current VDOT|Goal PB
5km|00:19:54 (23.09.12)|50|00:18:40
5 miles|00:36:20 (15.09.12)||00:31:59
10km|00:42:09 (13.10.12)|49|00:38:59
10 miles|01:12:02 (15.09.12)||01:04:59
Half Marathon|01:34:55 (15.09.12)|48|01:24:59
Marathon|03:20:22 (29.10.12)|47|02:59:59

I revised my goals too. They're all ambitious!

KielyUnusual wrote: »

Fair play Mr. Muc, I wouldn't say those targets are too ambitious for you but they're tough and that's what you want. There's no point setting a target that you know you can achieve. Where's the fun in that.

Thanks Kiely. Yes, that's exactly my reasoning. I won't achieve them in my next races, but I will most likely get a few PBs along the way.

The plan is for the next 12 months to be high-mileage, looking at moving up to 85+ miles/week from May to September (I'm registered for Dingle Ultra in September :eek:)

I wouldn't mind achieving your PBs, even if it take 2 times your mileage!

snailsong wrote: »

Well done on the progress this year. Started reading your log recently as we have similar times.

I like the look of those targets, will be looking at something like those myself next year. Is the 5 mile a bit soft compared with the 10k and 5k?

Speaking of 5 milers are you going to leenane on sunday week? If I'm not mistaken you're from this part of the world.

Oops, you're right. That's a typo and should be 30:59. I was basing the 5km, 10km, HM and Marathon goals on the 54 Vdot, and using McMillan to calculate the 5-mile and 10-mile goals based on the 5km goal.

I would love to do the Leenane 5-mile but I don't know if I can make it yet. The 2010 race was my first race since I took up running two years ago. I'm from Dublin but will be moving to Spiddal in two years' time, hopefully.

I'll give you a shout if I'm going! What kind of time are you going for?