Cool runnings

Monday 28th

Longish easy.

9.43 @8.41

HR 124/140

Tuesday 29th

Easy run.

8.34 @8.40

HR 121/149

Wednesday 30th

Brisk run with club colleagues. If you really need to run slow? Run on your own. "Lads, we're too fast". "Alright, we'll slow down" - (pretend to slow down but really speed up). "Lads..." "Ah, jaysus was that really a 7.45 mile?"

8.02 @8.10

HR 131/141

Monday 4th September

Easy run.

8.01 @8.26

HR AV 123

Tuesday 5th

10-12 miles Steady. Steady is MP plus 30-40 seconds. Arrived at club to discover that people were up to all sorts: easy runs, track, etc. The one person who did want to run with me, needed me more than I needed him. A running legend, in his early 60's but still capable of amazing feats. He's currently aiming to run 3.10 in DCM, for instance.

A complication is the fact that he is, quite literally, blind in one eye, and can barely see out of the other. It's the set-up for an old joke, I know. He wears special glasses, because he sometimes mistakes shadows for solid objects. Last week he cannoned into a bus stop - painted bright yellow - on the Airton Rd while running with the group. He's fine when he has someone to run with, and one chap has been doing this service for him, but he was away. I was wondering which route to take, and worrying about J's safety, when I had a brainwave.

We warmed up for a mile up Old Bawn road, then ran the mile loop at Ahern's pub for ten miles, before cooling down back to the club, for a total of 12 miles. Excellent session, and J was delighted with it.

10@7.37 (7.39, 7.33, 7.29, 7.57, 7.37, 7.38, 7.36, 7.41, 7.37, 7.25)

HR 135/152

Wednesday 6th

Easy recovery.

7.07 @8.58

HR 115/131

Thursday 7th

Under orders, an easy run rather than a session.

7.21 @8.44

HR AV 123

Friday 8th

Short easy run.

4.35 @8.33

HR 121/135

Saturday 9th

Wicklow Kilomarathon. Two aims here. One, get 20 miles in in total, and Two, run 16 of them at MP. A slow out and back 4 mile warm-up gave no clue as to the real weather conditions, as it seemed pretty calm. For the first few miles, all was well, and I had no trouble hitting and maintaining my pace. The pre-race description had described how we followed the old N-11 down to Jack White's, and turned left for a small loop on, I quote: "a quiet country road". A clubmate had also supplied a description, and he mentioned "hills at 10, 12, 14. But apart from that nice course*".

So I was completely unprepared for the short, steepish little climbs on this 'quiet country road', and also the severity of the wind. It had been at my back all the way down, but of course you never notice that. Also, I had Beep Beep and his gang of 3.15 pacees behind me, and their presence, sometimes audible, began to bother me more than it should. On one of the hills I was sure they were catching me quite quickly, and I'm not sure if I picked up my pace or not, but they did seem to drop back a bit. This hilly loop, meanwhile, was seeming a bit endless, and also I could swear there was much more uphill than down in it, considering we were rejoining the same road we had come down, if that makes sense.

But end it did, finally, and that brought more trouble, as the wind hit me full on, particularly on the exposed sections. A group of Beep Beep's outliers passed me, and then, so abruptly that I almost surprised myself, i stopped. A few people passed, and I roused myself to go again. Then my knee started to hurt on every stride. I have been struggling a little with it, in truth. I stopped again. Then Beep Beep passed, urging me to latch onto them, but I couldn't. I was quite dispirited, but eventually I forced myself onward. This time the knee was fine, and I managed a decent-enough pace, even passing a couple of people.

Because it was a training run, and not a race, I had stopped my watch both times, so I had an accurate idea of my pace. In the end I struggled across the line in a 7.23 average. More 3.15 pace than 3.10 - lots of work to be done if I'm going to achieve my objective in October.

* got a whatsapp from clubmate after. He was talking about a different course.

16.03 @7.23

HR 153/167

Monday 11th

Recovery run. Bumping into clubmates and running with them is a painless way of ramping up the mileage.

10.08 @8.51

HR 121/136

Tuesday 12th

Easy-ish run. Under orders not to do a session, but most others were doing some sort of tempo, so ran to club and joined in for a couple of sub-8 miles before peeling off for home.

7.51 @8.21

HR Av 128

Wednesday 13th

Easy run. Met clubmate early for part of his long run.

8.02 @8.31

HR Av 128

Thursday 14th

5x1m@10k pace, 3 min jog rec. Instructions were 'not to be redlining. Just for leg turnover'. I wish. Haven't done mile reps for a while, and it showed.

5x1m (6.34, 6.45, 6.30, 6.35, 6.24) Av 6:33.5

HR 133/160

Monday 18th

Easy recovery.

7.02 @8.47

HR 123/138

Tuesday 19th

4x1m@10k, 3 min rec.

6:34, 6:36, 6:26, 6:23

HR 138/165

Wednesday 20th

No running

Thursday 21st

Easy recovery. A couple of laps of UCD.

7.22 @8.54

HR 119/140

Friday 22nd

No running

Saturday 23rd

I was supposed to be doing the RS Half, but without going into too much detail, as it has been exhaustively discussed elsewhere, I lost patience with the whole situation, drove to the next exit on the M1, turned around and went home without a backwards glance. Then I ran a 22 miler, and felt much better about it than I would have after the fraught and anxious experience that would have ensued, judging by all the comments I've read and heard. Arguably an MP-pace run would have been beneficial, but I honestly feel better with the distance run. The only worry I had was choosing the right route. If I just headed off to the park, with only a vague notion of my movements, it would be a surefire recipe for a serious loss of gumption and a disastrous abort.

Then I had a brainwave. Run to Walkinstown roundabout. Follow course to Clonskeagh. Do lap of UCD. Exit to Clonskeagh and follow Dodder home. Worked like a charm and minimised the dave/traffic interactions.

22.01 @8.18 (3.02.46)

HR 130/154

Sunday 24th

Recovery on local loops.

5.54 @8.39

HR 123/135

Week's mileage 50


Monday 25th

Easy recovery.

8.28 @9.14

HR 112/131

Tuesday 26th

3x2m @HMP, 3 min rec. Except I got confused and started out at closer to 10k pace. Wasn't able to hold it, unsurprisingly, so I think the eventual average pace was almost HMP, albeit a very fast HMP.

6:36/6:41 - 6:42/7:02 - 6:35/6:59

HR 141/163

Wednesday 27th

No running

Thursday 28th

6m @MP. Did this with club legend Jack Tyrell, who's going for 3:10 in Dublin at the age of 61, and despite being so blind he needs a running 'minder'. No fuss about it, though, unlike some. Great session.

7:13, 7:09, 7:05, 7:05, 7:08, 7:03

HR 142/160

Friday 29th

Recovery. In UCD.

4.44 @9.12

HR 119

Saturday 30th

Tymon parkrun. Hadn't done a parkrun in ages, but I've gotten into the habit of doing one just before a marathon, as the mileage gives you great strength even over the relatively short distance. Wasn't disappointed as I recorded 19.37 for a Tymon 'new course' pb.

3.1 @6.19

HR 158/173

Sunday 1st October

Long run of 22 miles, or 3 hours. As it turned out, 4 sessions in a week was unsurprisingly pushing it a bit, and I struggled later on, and was only too glad to take the latter option. I won't be doing a parkrun next week, safe to say.

21.49 @8.23 (3:00:02)

HR 133/153

Week's mileage 61

Friday 6th

Easy recovery.

6.01 @9.20

HR 115

Saturday 7th

Easy jog. Split in two either side of a volunteer stint at Tymon parkrun. Was put on timer/stopwatch duty for the first time, and duly made a pig's ear of keeping count. It's very easy to 'double-click' on the machine I was given, evidently, so I ended up with three extra phantom runners. Just as well there's two of us, really. It was absolutely baltic down there, too, even with my base layer on. Hands were still tingling even after I showered at home.

7.64 @8.50

HR 124

Sunday 8th

Long run. The last 20+ mile run, and my fourth of at least 3 hours duration. Not much room left for hay in this barn. Taper doesn't officially start until the end of the week, but I will be scaling things back this week too. I've put in a lot of mileage over the last 3 months, and I want to reap maximum benefit on the 29th.

21.22 @8.32

HR 127/151

Week's mileage 73

Final week of taper

Monday 24th

Rest on the plan, but there's a fine line to be treaded between the sluggishness (and paranoia) that too much downtime can cause, and the alertness and confidence brought about by a regular training regime. There was a Rest option on the plan, but went with a few really easy miles. Mini-session tomorrow.

4.25 @9.06

HR 118/137

Tuesday 25th

3m@HMP. Only one other running at my pace for this, aiming for 6.50-ish. Felt really good, and hopefully the 3@MP on Thursday will be a breeze by comparison.

3@HMP (6.47, 6.45, 6.46)

HR 134/161

Saturday 28th

Got my dates right wrong again, innit. 25 minute pre-marathon jog, dead slow. Blowy today, hopefully things calm down by tomorrow, as is predicted. The weather looks likely to be ideal, so there's no excuses. Training has gone well, there are no injury issues. So I'm quietly confident.

2.68 @9.51