24hrs

Ed......

martyboy48 wrote: »

Well Ed, congrats again.....

Any chance of a few words on the build up and race???

Be grand if you dont want to, just here in hope

Thanks Marty,
I might put something together, thanks for the interest. Hope your trainings going well

Ed......

Singer wrote: »

Amazing result Ed! Hope you're happy with how things went.

Thanks, the race went absolutely perfectly which is extremely rare for 24hrs. Bar trying to make up 300metres somewhere I wouldn't change a thing. But that just give me the next goal nowðŸ˜

Ed......

AuldManKing wrote: »

I seen that on fastrunning and was thinking, theres a Boardsie on fastrunning with an Irish record.!!

loved the line about "perfectly coiffured hair"

https://www.fastrunning.com/running-athletics-news/ireland/seaward-runs-210-marathon-in-spain-irish-round-up/29136

I was using a water soaked buff throughout the entire race to keep my head temp down but Robbie Britton said it was only an excuse to keep fixing my hair 😂

KSU

Ed...... wrote: »

I was using a water soaked buff throughout the entire race to keep my head temp down but Robbie Britton said it was only an excuse to keep fixing my hair ��

Crew Dialogue throughout the race

6 hrs
Crew "your on pace, sitting in 10th"
Ed "Yeah but how does my hair look?!"

10 hrs
Crew "Need anything? Water? Gels?"
Ed "A comb"

12 hrs
Crew "half way mark, still well on for record"
Ed "Yeah but how does my hair look?!"

18 hrs
Crew "That's it your leading, 2k gap on second"
Ed "Yeah but how does his hair look compared to mine?"

23hrs
Crew "Last hr, the record is in sight"
Ed "Should I stop to fix my hair for the photos?"

Ed......

Every time the leader passed me in the last 3 hrs I thought "when is this lad ever gonna stop....and fix his hair😂.

Murph_D

Many congrats, Ed.

Ed......

Race report Espoo Finland 24hr indoor event

(excuse my spelling and grammar)

The build up to this race was a long one. I had raced Belfast 24 in June 2019 falling short of a pb by a couple of kms. This was my first 24 race with my coach Luke Coleman but I think although we hadn’t pb’d, the endurance was there even though the approach was more quality over quantity. Something that was new to me having been self trained up til now.
The next goal was to race the Dublin Marathon in October 19. Training was going really well for this and there was lots of speed in the legs. I generally bounce back very quickly from races and recover very well. About 2 weeks out from Dublin I was contacted by John O’Regan asking if I would be a guide runner for Sinead Kane. Sinead had qualified for the world championship 24hr but wasn’t been allowed to compete due to her visual disability. Things where very up in the air but John had asked myself and Gillian Connolly to be on stand by in the hopes Sinead would win her courtcase.

So with my own race 2 weeks out I told luke(my coach) about the situation. I was very keen to help Sinead if I could even though I’d never met her and flattered John had asked me. Luke adjusted my training in a way that catered for both outcomes.
Sinead won her case and we travelled to France where she did exceptionally well scoring for the Irish womens team securing them a top 10 result.

So I now had a very good marathon training block in my legs and probably ran about 90km in total over the weekend (I didn’t wear a watch during the worlds).
Since I hadn’t raced I could almost immediately start back into taining. Up to this point I had been running about 65 miles a week . oct’19

The goal now was Finland feb’20. I’d raced there in 2017 but pulled out after 19.5 hours. My quads were screaming at me and I found even walking difficult. I put it down to the hard surface and lack of sufficient cushioning in my runners, asics nimbus. I was going well at the time running in 2nd place and on for a 240km finish although if I’d stayed in the race both of those would have slipped away anyway.

I really enjoy training and don’t mind if I don’t race at the end of it so mentally it didn’t phase me starting another block. But this block was going to be different. I discussed with my wife that with her support I was planning on putting everything into my training this time. I’d decided that if I didn’t get the return I believed I could, a 240km international A standard and hopefully an Irish team selection then I’d take a step back from racing. Theres a big sacrifice involved in my training and I wanted something to show for it.
The training ramped up to around 80-85 miles a week of solid consistent training. Week in and week out of 85 miles. One mid week session, some strides and a long run session. Lots of mixed paces. Long runs where between 18-22 miles but loads of quality. No back to backs and no long slow running.

But what was different about this block?

I had about 1 to 2 hours training a day and the rest of the day to mess it up. So I focused on training 24hrs a day instead. Almost all the food I was eating had a purpose beneficial to my training. I would get to bed early every night, a massive aid to recovery, and gave up alcohol almost entirely.

When taper came around I was 100% physically trained and in the very best shape of my life. I decided that if my physical training was now decreasing during taper I could still train my mental side. I set about reading self help books , mindfullnes and practicing techniques to overcome the many barriers we come up against in 24hr running.
I brought a crew with me to Finland consisting of my wife Louise and Angela McConnell. Both have been crewing me for a number of years and have become an excellent team and invaluable part of my races.

The logistics where very handy as we’d been here before and knew our way around. The race is indoors on a 390metre track across 4 lanes. My goal was 240km which works out as a 2:20 min lap. But I was willing to run a faster lap if it meant finding a more comfortable stride and pace as to begin with this would be a 10min mile. A pace I hadn’t practised in training.
The atmosphere was really friendly before hand and I got chatting to some of the other competitors, and we’re off.

I was running along in a small group and the pace was about spot on so I shut off mentally and just rode the wave for about 4hrs I’d say. The others were chatting away but I limited my replys to one or two words having learned early in my 24hr experience that you’re only wasting energy by talking. The pace would slip a little now and again so I picked it up and the guys followed. Eventually as happens people stop for the toilet or change something or stop to get some nutrition etc.

My plan was to only stop for the toilet and nothing else. So I found myself on my own and the pace picked up a little without any extra effort.

After 4hrs running non stop I was in 19th position and 40.564km

After about 6 hrs I remember feeling a little discomfort in my left quad. Luke was following through the online live stream and connected to my wife louise through whatsapp, part of the crew but from a distance. Patience and control where a big part of the strategy. I let louise know straight away and luke suggested a couple of strides to relieve the muscles and use a slightly different set for a while. Worked a treat and was back feeling 100%.

Nutrition was going in well. We decided on about 30g of solid charbohydrate per hour along with around 300ml water. Mainly bars or some banana. I would say we got to about 6hrs in when I started to find it difficult to get the solid food in. I never take anything in during training and hadn’t practiced much for it so found it a little uncomfortable. I was suffering from a stich around 9hrs in and was using some breathing techniques and fist clenching to relieve the energy from that area. A technique relayed to me from Luke through whatsapp.
Added a few more strides during the first half to alleviate some muscle tension. I think I took a toilet break in the first half consisting of 1 minute.

After 12hrs and 1 minute off the track, the rest non stop running. 124.423km 4th place

Im now well on track for my 240km finish running comfortably and banked 4km.
The first half is all about the physical and to me the second half is all about the mental. The body was starting to feel a little fatigue so I had to focus on getting the nutrition in. As the solid food was now a bit of a problem I was mainly taking in gels, about 1 every hour and tailwind, about 250ml of around 25g carbohydrate. I was forgetting when Id taken them so had to rely on my crew to remind me to take them on.
Id been off caffeine for around 10 days prior to the race and started using it around 18hrs in. Definitely got a major boost from it and continued using it throughout the rest of the race. Mainly in the form of gels and coke.

After 18hrs 188.999km and 1st place.
Id moved into 1st around 17.5 hrs in and held it until I was overtaken at 22.5 hrs. it was a finnish runner who went on to run 254km and a new finnish national record.

At this stage id taken another 2 toilet breaks a further 2 minutes off the track.
Now a total of 3 mins off track and the rest non stop running.

At 21hrs 20 minutes I had beaten my old pb and we were now starting to aim for a list of goals I had written down for my crew along with all the corresponding splits id need to hit to achieve them.

Next goal was the indoor irish record set by Tony Mangan in 2007 of 223.779km. Tony had set this record as a split time during a 48hr race so it was an achieavable target for a mortal like myself, if he’d been running a 24hr that day the record would have been much higher. Less than 10 mins later at 21hrs 29 mins we had broken the indoor record.

Next stop was Eddie Gallens Donegal record of 230.136km. It wasn’t for the accolade I was aiming for these goals but a source of motivation and some mini type goals to aim for as the race progressed, looking at the next few km rather than the race as a whole. I went through Eddies record at 22hrs 10mins. Eddie is a friend of mine and guy I admire very much and it gave me no pleasure to break his record.

Next up the Irish international A standard of 240km. My goal in all of this and one I’d been aiming for for close to 3 years. I went through this goal at 23hrs and 8 mins. I can relax now goal achieved, just jog around, basking in my own glory, enjoy the moment, maybe walk a bit chat to the other runners check out the aid station take a long sit down toilet break without my crew waiting outside making sure I’m not messing around in there.

But my crew had very different ideas!

I had put one more goal on my list for the crew, almost as a joke really. I hadn’t worked out the splits for it or any timings just wrote it down as “furthest distance by an Irish runner 248.436 road.” I didn’t even write Eoins name next to it figuring it was untouchable. Well my crew had been working it out since around 20hrs into the race and they were already pushing me , telling me the splits I’d need to hit pumping in the nutrition. I thought to myself I wish I hadn’t written that down for them now, but luke would have been on the ball anyway seen as he had even a few more goals than I had written down(maybe next time).

I went through Eoins record at 23hrs 53 mins. I wasn’t even claiming it really as I’d run indoors and Eoins record was on road. Then I saw some tweets about breaking Eoins record and wondered would it be official. None of it really mattered to me though unless Eoin said it. And then he messaged me and congratulated me on breaking his record and said some other nice things and that for me made it official. Another guy I really admire and one who makes the sport a great place to be involved in.

I averaged 10.4km per hour for the race but ran about 11.4km average in the last 30mins. I ran a negative split of almost 1km finishing in 249.761km. I ran in Hoka Clifton 6. My average pace was 9:17 mile or 5:46km My crew were still pushing hard to get me to break the 250km barrier. But sure
I need a goal for next time.

shotgunmcos

Awesome! Just awesome. To beat Eoin at anything endurance/distance related puts you into a very special, very elite class for your discipline. Thanks for the report. Simply awesome!

Ed......

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Awesome! Just awesome. To beat Eoin at anything endurance/distance related puts you into a very special, very elite class for your discipline. Thanks for the report. Simply awesome!

Thanks appreciate it

OOnegative

That’s some performance Ed, truly brilliant. Fair play to you.

Ed......

OOnegative wrote: »

That’s some performance Ed, truly brilliant. Fair play to you.

Cheers lad

Swashbuckler

Unbelievable stuff. You've a decent coach fair play man. Incredible performance

Ed......

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Unbelievable stuff. You've a decent coach fair play man. Incredible performance

Ha! Thanks, wouldn't have happened without Luke, fact.

Ed......

Mizen to Malin 20/08/20
(If restrictions are lifted of course)
15 weeks from today.

Like everyone else out there my races for the rest of the year have been cancelled or likely to be. So this is a good opportunity to do a run I've wanted to do for a couple of years but could not fit it in.
I ran for a few miles with Eoin when he did it in 2017 and I suppose that planted the seed with me. I will follow the same route. I've never done a multi day run before and had been looking into 48hr stuff anyway.
I think this style of a run will suit me as I do suffer with race nerves and don't always cope well in competition. Generally because I put a huge amount of pressure on myself to perform at a level I believe I can achieve.
Having said that I'll likely aim for a goal that will add pressure regardless.

The running part of my training is going very well, a few ups and downs but generally good. I haven't been affected by the restrictions as I've always kept to a 2km radius running a 1.2mile loop next to my house, with the odd run outside of that. The rest of my training needs a lot of work hence this log to try get back on track. I haven't been getting enough sleep, my diet has been very poor and I've been drinking to often.

Training will most likely be around the same lines I've been doing but with the addition of some back to backs. I'll update training later today and do weekly updates on a Thursday.

Ed......

Mizen to Malin week 1/15

Fri 1st
9 mile w/8x20sec strides
No info on this as had to reset watch as wasn't uploading. Didn't work and still not uploading.

Sat 2nd
10 mile @ 7:36

Sun 3rd
12.5 @6:39,incl. 7x1 mile off reduced rec 3min-30sec

2 mile w/u

6:04
6:02
6:05
6:03
6:00
5:58
5:54

2c/d

Found this tough but controlled and felt better as the session went on even though the reps got closer together.

Mon 4th
9 mile @ 7:50
felt previous session in the legs during this.

Tue 5th
Planned long run of 22 mile easy but stuff going on in my head and couldn't really focus. Did 10.6 mile @7:46 before pulling the plug.
Not too worried but wouldn't want to make a habit of it.

Wed 6th
9 mile in around 75 min, no watch on this. Was running from work while waiting on a lift home. Just took it very easy and relaxed.

Thurs 7th
12 mile @ 6:32, 5x2 mile off 800's

6:32,6:29
3:41 rec.
6:27,6:25
3:38 rec.
6:23,6:27
3:36 rec.
6:12,6:22
3:32 rec.
6:15,6:18

The pace was prescribed at 6:40 but felt really comfortable throughout and didn't really look at the watch too much. Really enjoyed this session.

So an ok week. Feeling in pretty good shape. Just need to get my head into race training mode. So goals for the week are to get more sleep, knock the drink on the head and lose 2lb.
Current weight 11st. 9lb.

Ed......

Mizen to malin week 2/15

Fri 8th
9 @6:57 w/ 8x20 strides.

Legs really bounced back quick from the previous days session.

Sat 9th
10 @7:34

Sun 10th
16.2 @6:32
Incl: 15x1km off 2min.

The 1km's were done at 6min pace. Was able to keep the pace but found the whole session really rough and longer than I expected it to be. The pace shouldn't really have felt particular hard so I'm putting it down to work and a bad nights sleep.

Mon 11th
9 @7:17
Felt great on this run and the pace felt easy.

Tue 12th
18 @7:10 progression
7:45 -6:40

Ironically I've been getting a bit meh on the long easy runs lately but always enjoy a long run broken into parts. So didn't mind taking the first few miles of this very easy knowing I could start picking up the pace as it went on.

Wed 13th
9 @7:40

Wasn't too pushed on running this but just turned the head off and ticked off the miles.

Thurs 14th
12 @6:32
5x2 off 800's

6:30/6:23
3:44
6:30/6/24
3:39
6:27/6/24
3:48
6:16/6:21
3:39
6:01/6:10

Was planning 6:40 for this. But just let the pace evolve. Felt very controlled throughout.

Hit the 2lb weight loss this week but need to work on the rest of my lifestyle. The fitness is there for the taking just need the focus and determination to kick in.
83 miles for the week.
Goals for the coming week to drop another 2lb and get more sleep and do 2 easy runs before work.

OOnegative

15x1km!!!!! That coach of yours is sadistic!!

Ed......

OOnegative wrote: »

15x1km!!!!! That coach of yours is sadistic!!

Haha! I was actually questioning weather I'd read the plan right during this and generally cursing him.

Ed......

Mizen to Malin 3/15

Fri 15th
9@7:12

Sat 16th
9@7:00

Sun 17th
12@6:42

Mon 18th
9 @7:14

Tue 19th
20 @6:48

3up
2x1@ 6:10 off 90sec
3min
8@6:45
3min
2x1@6:10 off 90sec

Felt great during this and the mixed paces really helped pass the time.

Wed 19th
9@7:46
Was tired after previous days run. Just ploughed through this.

Thurs 20th
Run took the back seat as family stuff needed priority.

Fri 21st
No running again. The form wasn't great but in my defence the wind was raging here and the plan was for some faster miles and hill repeats so put it off for the next day.

Ed......

Sat 23rd
10.4 @7:49

3up
3@6:15
5min
8x1 off 2 min hill reps.
1.2 c/d

Wasn't sure how id feel after the 3@6:15 going into hill reps but wasn't to bad. The effort level during the reps was very high and the legs and chest haven't felt that way for a while. Managed to get around the same distance uphill each time and the last rep was probably the best but I was proper wrecked after.

Sun 24th
13 @8

Wasn't to pushed running 13 easy miles around my usual loop so headed for something more scenic. After the previous days hill reps felt I'd like a few more hills and some race specific terrain. Did a big loop of Raphoe up Mongorry hill and around some fire road. Around 1500ft elev. Nice and easy pace.

Mon 25th
9 @7:42

Was a bit tired doing this and although I had a day off it took till after 6 before I could get out. Went swiftly though.

Tue 26th
20 @7:15

10 easy/10 progression

Long runs are every Tuesday at the moment as covid has me working every weekend. I try to get up when the wife's off to work and have it finished shortly after the kids have woken up. Otherwise I'm putting it off all day and generally feeling guilty about leaving them on my day off rather than doing stuff with them. So was glad to have this finished by 10am.
Went well, was a bit sluggish to begin and not entirely confident in the progressive section. But as always the pace came good doing 7:30 down to 6:15 for the second 10 mile having averaged 7:40 for the first 10.

Ed......

Wed 27th
9 @7:43
Tired during this, very warm.

Thurs 28th
9 @7:40

Fri 29th
Planned session was dropped. Hurt my back in work. I'm prone to back problems. Couldn't get out of work so got a painkilker into me. Once it kicked in the pain eased alot but still alot of discomfort. Figured I'd be off running for a few days.

Sat 30th
Woke still in some pain but eased throughout the day and felt up to a run after work. Did 3 mile warm up and attempted Friday's sessions but knew straight off it wasn't going to happen.
10 @7:26 incl strides.

Sun 31st
Back felt fine but between one Thing and another took the day off.

Mon 1st
9 @8min.
Very warm, felt fairly tired throughout.

Tue 2nd
20.7 @6:36
2up
1,2,3,4,3,2,1 @6:20 off 2 min.
1 down
Started this around 9am but it was already warm out. There's a well/spring on my loop so stopped there regularly to drench my hat and buff and get a drink. Worked a treat but my singlet was so wet my nipples bled. Small price to pay for staying cool. Legs felt great throughout but shortenened the cool down as I'd had enough of the heat at that stage.