Last of the Summer Wine

Donadea 50k
(4:24:55, 74th of 231, 13th M50 of 38)

Second time doing this race, not counting last year when I just went down for four laps. First time out I aimed for 4:15 and did 4:18 – a reasonably successful debut for someone with a recent 3:28 marathon PB at the time. This time I aimed little higher – I’d go out at 4:10 pace, allow for the inevitable fade over the last three laps (even GOH slows down in this race). Hopefully I’d clock something under 4:15. The unknown was my endurance – I’d finished DCM 2019 strongly but had possibly not been ambitious enough with the target. To train, I followed the Fitzgerald 80/20 marathon plan reasonably closely. Some of the longer runs, however, had been a struggle – not very confidence inspiring going into a race of longer than marathon distance. I hadn’t adjusted the plan for the extra distance – partly an experiment, partly based on T. Bubendorfer’s theory that 50k is not different enough from the marathon distance to justify a different approach. (This was a change from my first 50k attempt, when I used a Pfitzinger schedule juiced up with a few back to back long runs at the weekend.) There was also a niggling doubt about the wisdom of running the Trim 10-mile race, at 50k pace, only six days before. Hmm.

Pre-race

Singer kindly offered a lift, picking me up nice and early, and we got to the park in plenty of time for a relaxed t-shirt/beanie collection and some hellos to various fellow runners. A race briefing just before 10, and we lined up in front of the castle for the run up to the course proper. This ‘extra bit’ is supposed to be 320m, but seemed a good bit shorter than that. I chose a spot in the middle and seconds later we were off.

The first half

Splits 1-5
25:14 24:35 24:39 25:04 25:20

The congestion eases out after about a mile, as the hill is negotiated for the first time. As I settle into the 5:00/km pace, it immediately occurs to me that this pace doesn’t feel as fantastically easy as it did last week in Trim. Hmm. I put it down to race day jitters and continue to work my way around people until the field settles. I’m on my own already. There’s a group ahead, maybe it will come back. Lap one ends and I discard my long sleeved shirt, down now to the singlet, buff and arm warmers. A lot of base layers and long sleeves and jackets still around me (many of them for the entire 50k), but I like to feel unrestricted and the temperature isn’t bad at all. I don’t take on any water at this stage. About a third of the way around lap 2 I catch the group ahead and slot in for a bit. Two Waterstown Warriors in vaporflys are leading the group, and there’s plenty of chat. The next couple of km splits click in around 4:50 though, and I decide to ease back. There’s a long way to go. I’ll probably see some of these lads later. Maybe this is a mistake. I run the rest of the race pretty much on my own, save for brief moments when I’m passing or being passed. Gel one at end of lap two. Handed a water cup at start of lap three but I drop it. The next person hands me a cup of sports drink. I walk through the station, sip and discard in the bin. Seconds later, I’m lapped by Gary O’Hanlon for the first time, paced at this stage by a former Cru clubmate. Looks incredibly fast. Settling in now, there’s good support for the singlet from a couple of gnarly coach types and the various photographers around the course. Lap 4 I’m in the groove, but the pace still feels a bit forced for a race this long. Get a shout and high five from FBOT who has come out to support. More leaders pass. No sign anywhere of G, who said he’d be aiming at 4:20. (What a sandbagger - he eventually clocks 4:08.) Gel two after four laps, followed by another walk through the water station. Lapped again by GOH at the lake. Halfway at around 2:04:55, on target.

The second half

Splits 5-10:
26:17 27:30 28:32 28:58 28:43

I’m still feeling fine but the pace has never felt truly comfortable and I know it’s not sustainable. I decide to ease off a little and try to put together the next few laps at 26 min pace. Be realistic. Keep the wheels on. Still another two hours plus of running to get through. Middle third of the race – concentrate, keep it together. The GPS has dropped and the watch becomes even more useless for tracking pace. Gel three halfway around lap six. It’s horrible. By now I’m regularly lapping the back markers, and there’s often words of encouragement, which I try to reciprocate. By lap seven the 26 min strategy is out the window and I realise I’m hanging on for dear life. Lapped for the third time by GOH, now storming through the last lap for a new record. Yes, he’s wearing ‘the shoes’ too, as are most of the leaders who pass. A lad in a grey shirt bounds out of the trees and races ahead. I’d noticed him earlier. Strong but doesn’t look like he has the endurance. We’ll meet again. Pass a Naas AC runner I’d been tracking for a good few laps. Fourth gel at end of lap seven. The wrapper goes in my pocket (No fookin littering!) I’m slowing rapidly but not yet going backwards through the field . That starts to happen regularly in lap eight, but I limit the damage by going by a few runners myself (I think – it can be hard to distinguish between people coming back at you and people you’re lapping. A good few are stopping to walk occasionally and I resolve, yet again, that I will not be one of them. Singer startles me by drawing alongside, way ahead of the four hour target I’d envisaged for him. (Well done again on a great run, B.) He’s kind enough to stay with me and chat for a bit before easing on. It helps pass some time, a welcome distraction. I even test the pace to see if I can pick up but it’s a bad idea. At least by now the missus has arrived to take over from FBOT and the encouragement is much needed. I walk through the finish area again and take a sports drink from my stash on the tables, because I can’t stomach any more gels. Still 10k to go! Lap nine is just horrible, a blur of pain when you know you are leaking even more time and still have another circuit to go. Grey guy is there again, walking. I pass but he goes by me again on the hill. I reject this and decide I will stay ahead of him. By contrast, lap 10, while endless, is a kind of celebration that it’s almost over. Grey guy is close behind but eventually the footsteps fade. I’ve never felt a more powerful compulsion to abandon a race, but the feeling passes in this final lap. It seems like forever until I arrive at the 4k marker (like B, I didn’t notice any others). Then I can’t believe how long it feels before the final turn onto the dirt road ‘finish straight’. At least there’s no one in the vicinity threatening me for a place so I don’t have to produce a ‘sprint’ finish. And it’s over.


I’ll save the reflections for another post. Hopefully I can learn something from this race and put it to use later in the year. It’s a bad performance – a paltry 41.5 VDOT and an AG of 67.8, well below the 70 percent I use as the minimum acceptable racing benchmark these days. OK, a 50k race is a different kind of beast, but nevertheless questions must be asked. Preparation? Performance? Mindset? Plenty to ponder.

OOnegative wrote: »

Ah excellent, great to see your return D!! Compo, Clegg or Foggy, which is it?

Well, like I say I didn't watch it much. Maybe I'm all three.

Singer wrote: »

Delighted you're back! Loved the words you wrote even though the run itself didn't go to plan. You did well to slog it out, 50ks are a lot crueler than puny marathons

Yeah, the latter stages were certainly a slog, as you well know, and there were a few times I wondered would I quit. I was highly motivated to keep the no-DNF record intact for now, though, that definitely helped. It was good too that the watch splits were so unreliable during the later stages!

Your comment on your log about the race being a boards rite of passage was interesting - hadn't really thought of it that way but I see what you mean, it does seem to have a fairly unique place in the hearts and minds of some very prominent current and former posters from around here. Think I'm over it myself now though - but it's a great event and I'd recommend it to anyone, a unique test that puts you through something pretty intense without having to stray too far from the marathon mindset. As someone who has always trained pretty well for the marathon distance, it does give me a better idea of the hell that people who don't train well (for any number of good and bad reasons) go through in the latter stages of the marathon.

Wubble Wubble wrote: »

Great to see the new log up and running. Sorry Donadea didn't go to plan, but even the mental side of it (10 laps!) is surely tricky to manage. What's next on the plan, or is it all to be confirmed?

Thanks J. Am signed up for Cobh 10m on April 5. I think I’ll concentrate on building endurance between now and then. Just not sure yet of the details.

I found the Fitzgerald marathon plan a bit monotonous to be honest. You don’t get the same sense of progression that you do with Hanson, for instance (one of the things I really like about it). Some of the Fitzgerald long runs are fun to do all the same.

I certainly wouldn’t blame the plan for my Donadea show - in my case more work was needed, on the lifestyle end of things as much as anything else. Not sure how good I will be at making that kind of change. I am also embracing vegetarianism since the new year which may or may not (I suspect not) have anything to do with it.

MrSkinny wrote: »

I was just looking at this myself as I may be in Cork that weekend. Did you see they've had to change the course this year and taken out most of the hills? I haven't run it before but I gather the hills were a feature of the race and the change has left many disappointed.

First time running it so I am not too disappointed about the fewer hills! My last 10 mile was The Stook so as long as it’s flatter than that I’ll be happy enough.

But it’s not a goal race, just a bit of fun and a weekend away, so all good.

Not much to report. Just ticking over and trying to get out when I can.

Wed 19 Feb

6.7k @ 5:48

Weary enough recovery run around the Collins Ave vicinity. Calves still sore!

Thu 20 Feb

8.2k @ 5:27

Another easy one around the seafront and Clontarf. Not particularly enjoyable, just trying to get in the mileage, really.

Fri 21 Feb

No running. Finishing up some work stuff as my current contract comes to an end.

Sat 22 Feb

8.1k inc. St. Anne's parkrun @ T+

Ferris was trying to persuade me to join him and give it a lash, but I'd had a kind of late night and wasn't feeling too fresh. Opted for a tempo-ish 22 mins instead. All good for lap one but started feeling it towards the end and, having had the cheek to pass a club mate on the home stretch, soon found myself battling the dry heaves with about 400 to go. Decent enough workout I suppose. Another couple of kms with C and F to cool down before the coffee. Enjoyable morning as always. It's hard to imagine a running life without parkrun.

Sunday 23 Feb

16.7k @ 5:38

More parkrun. Junior volunteering this time, before packing up the gear and heading around St. Anne's for a couple of laps, joined for one of them by a clubmate I bumped into. Homewards then via Howth Road. A nice morning, but not much zip in the legs.

This week: 65k (40 miles)
This year: 460 (286)

This week is about being ready to run Bohermeen at the end of it. No more, no less!

Mon 2 Mar

8.5k easy with FBOT in St. Anne’s. Breaking in a new pair of Nike Zoom Fly 3. Felt pretty good - I’ve been wearing mostly Saucony Omni the past seven or eight years but the cushioning is no longer as comfortable as it used to be. Coffee afterwards and I haven’t seen my Donadea woolly hat since. Either M robbed it or maybe I left it in the coffee shop.

Tue 3 Mar

11.3k inc 4x strides, 2m @ MP

A session from the final week of the FRR HM plan, just to get a feel for MP. (From memory it’s the only actual HMP session in the whole schedule.) Obviously I haven’t been doing the plan because this felt pretty good - the one time I followed this plan I found that session very tough indeed, although the outcome was a success. The strides served to wake me up and the 3.2k at pace ticked along nicely, even when turning into the breeze. Felt good to be doing a session again at last.

Wed 4 Mar

7.3k easy

A few miles around the Docklands while one of the boys was GAA training in Cathal Brugha St. Bumped into DD on his nighshift lunchbreak and joined him on the campshires. Big toe a little sore - I have several damaged toenails dating back to NYC marathon 2018, believe it or not, and a couple of them are finally starting to fall off.

Terrible news later about that runner killed on the seafront past the causeway, a spot I know very well and where you'd think you'd be safe from traffic. RIP.

AuldManKing wrote: »

Love this!!
Verdict: Nonplussed.

In all seriousness, you ran well - I think its a very misleading course.
I checked strava of a lot of people and they found mile 10-11 equally tough.

A lot of them found it tough alright, but most people who got a result managed to grind out far more consistent splits than I. I see you a tough couple of miles there yourself, relatively speaking, so at least I was in good company!

I’ll take any victory I can at this stage.

This week we have decamped to Donegal, as we'll be working from home for the foreseeable future, and it’s easier to isolate the ‘vectors’ (although hard to keep their granny away from them). Hills, here we come.

Mon 16 Mar

No running.

Tue 17 Mar

8.8k on the local loop. Passed a few walkers, and an old woman on a bike. All keeping their distance. Actually very impressed with Donegal’s embrace of social distancing. The shops are very well organised too.

Wed 18 Mar

11.3k easy

Another circuit on the local loop. Spiced it up by reversing direction and extending down the Killaghtee road, site of many’s the session of 200s way back in the summer of ’18.

Thu 19 Mar

11.4k easy

Same as yesterday, but in the normal direction.

Fri 20 Mar

No running. A bit of gutter cleaning instead!

Sat 21 Mar

18k easy

Headed down to St. John’s Point, doing most of the route of the local 10k race that I hardly ever get to do. Sunny but cold.

Sun 22 Mar

17k easy

A stunning spring afternoon, belying the armageddon to come. A bit of garden work then out over the hills. Legs a bit tired from this week's rolling hills, but still moving. Run ’em when you can, I say.

Maybe a couple of sessions next week.

This week: 67 kms (41 miles)
This year: 707 (439)

Sun 29 Mar

15.5k MLR

Another stunning sunny spring afternoon, although a bit colder than last week. I explored the Eastern extremes of the 2k radius, which allowed a nice hilly run along tertiary roads, with plenty of forest and some terrific views. Passed a total 5 people (one on a quad), and not a single car, which was quite unusual.

Great to see so many new posters around the forum. Some awful shyte on that Social Distancing thread though. :rolleyes:

This week: 66 kms (41 miles)
This year: 773 (481)

Thu 2 Apr

9.2k with 5 x 4 mins @ MP

Another session from the Claw’s playbook. He actually specified 4 reps but I felt I could handle a little more. Challenging enough on the local undulating 5 mile loop, which is a great little route for daily training, it must e said, although I like variety and am getting a bit bored with it. I’m also missing my HRM which I’d lost in Bohermeen - it was posted back to me by the kind Bohermeen AC people, but not til after I’d headed for the hills. So I did this session purely by pace, aiming for 4:44/k, which is an easy number to remember at least. Managed to hit those numbers without a huge amount of difficulty but the effort level was quite high - higher certainly than sustainable marathon effort.

Fri 3 Apr

Rest.

Sat 4 Apr

13.2k easy

There’s some forestry in front of the house here - there’s a decent path in the middle of it that I’ve run before, but always accessing from the main access gate, which is a good 5k away by road. So I took the shortcut, scrambling through the dense woods, which seem to have been abandoned by Coillte or whoever planted them. Could hear some beasts nearby - deer perhaps, or maybe the feral cattle that have been mooching around, eating our free grass. Scratched myself on some briars but once through I had an excellent run on very quiet roads, meeting only one walker and not a single car in the 76 minutes I was out.

Sun 5 Apr

18.8k LR (1 hr 45 mins)

Another beautiful Sunday - the weather has really been excellent here over the past few weeks. I went to the limits of the 2k radius in the Southern, Western and Northern directions, which involved several out and backs along the local roads. Quiet again, although I did encounter one runner (a genuine rarity), a cyclist and an elderly woman walking three dogs. Both greeted me warmly as we passed - the tetchiness that seems to be abroad in other parts of the country hasn’t been a feature here.

With all of the flak that’s going around about running and social distance - on boards, but also in traditional and social media, I’ve been keeping a rough count of the encounters I’ve had over the past week - we are not far from civilisation up here but the roads are very quiet. If anything though, the lockdown has been encouraging more walkers as people try to get out of the house for a bit, understandably. But over 44 miles of running this week I’ve encountered only about 30 vehicles, six walkers and one runner.

Another decent week, and good to have another couple of sessions done. Although for what purpose - that’s the question! Sunday was when the Cobh 10 that I’d signed up for was supposed to take place. Would have been a nice weekend with a good group of runners from the club. It’s hard to see things changing soon - I think we could have a long way to go before we get out of the metaphorical woods. Been thinking about what it all means (posted this on another thread the other day). Maybe some things will change as a result of all this - I certainly hope so.

This week: 70 kms (44 miles)
This year: 843 (524)

Fri 10 Apr

10 x 1min on, 2 mins off

For session 2 this week I decided to favour the speedwork, what with the 5k TT starting to loom larger with every passing piece of Itziger banter.

Chose this workout very scientifically, by clicking through the workouts already loaded into the watch until I found one I liked, and added a rep to make it a round number. 10 mins warmup then jumped in, trying to hit 3:34 - 4:00/k pace. Or rather effort, as I was on the usual up and down route. Another fine day with lots of agriculture going on, so had to dodge a good few tractors / quads. They're starting to get used to "The German" and his running affliction.

Spits: (paces)

3:48 4:02 3:44 3:38 4:08
4:01 3:44 4:10 4:06 4:20

(Avg: 3:58)

It felt a bit harder than the paces suggest, although going with the terrain some were easier than others. Happy enough! 9.7k total with the warmup/cooldown.

This week: 52 kms (32 miles)
This year: 895 (556)

Week FIVE in Donegal. This is the longest I’ve been away from Dublin in 18 years. When we headed up here, we hadn’t any set plans but I didn’t really see beyond a couple of weeks. Didn’t bring enough clothes or running gear - have a few things being sent up shortly. When we arrived it was all long sleeves, hat and gloves but that’s been out the window for a while now. Must say I’m enjoying it here, although I miss the capital and in some ways I feel I’m abandoning my city in its hour of need.

Mon 13 Apr

Rest. Plenty of work around the place to make up for it. Spotted a stoat - very unusual.

Tue 14 Apr

10k recovery

Took it very easy today - legs still tired from last week’s mileage. Took a short detour to check out a local megalithic site just off the usual loop. Hadn’t visited in years and the sign had been taken down, so I went up a new forest path before doubling back and spotting a second little trail near the road. A couple of hundred metres and there it was - a complex of three wedge tombs in a stone circle. Very intact. Worth a look if you’re ever around these parts. Came across a runner later on in route. Wearing jeans! Maybe he was just out for a walk and had to hurry home.

Wed 15 Apr

4x 1k (3 mins j/r), 5x 200m (45 secs s/r)

I’m taking a stepback week and this will probably be the only session. Decided on a whim to try 5 x 1k at around 10k pace, so 4:15ish efforts on the undulating loop. First one was downhill, no problem there. Passed two of the neighbour farmers chatting across the road, they told me I better hurry up to catch the other lad, and sure enough I spotted another runner up ahead, a very rare sight. I crossed to the opposite side and passed him during the second rep, exchanging some pleasantries, mostly to do with the warmth of the day. This rep was more up and down and I had to work to put some distance between us before the recovery. My friend didn’t pass even though I was practically walking. Rep three had a good bit of uphill and I was gassed at the end. Some waves to distancing visitors spread around the road during the recovery. Started four which I knew was going to be very uphill but wasn’t feeling it and wimped out after a couple of hundred metres and decided it wasn’t going to be useful to complete. Didn’t scold myself about this - you have to go with the biofeedback and it wasn’t good. I jogged out the km and the 3 min recovery period and decided to get back on the horse for one more. This one had pretty favourable terrain and didn’t feel too taxing, so I decided to tack on some 200s to finish it out. Ran these pretty hard and salvaged something out of the session.

Out later for a walk. We took a dirt road route over a nearby hill. It’s one I’ve run and is usually very muddy but well dried out now. I felt for the tadpoles in the dwindling puddles - if it doesn’t rain soon they’re all toast. Near the end of the road was annoyed to see the route cut off by one of the locals, with a double gate across the road. Not hard to get over but this sort of thing seems to go on a lot around here - found something similar last week on another route.

Thu 16 Apr

9.7k recovery

Another tired plod around the now very familiar loop. Glorious day again. Lots of activity on the farms. The day we arrived, the neighbour showed us the first lamb of the season. Now there are hundreds of the critters, happily prancing around the fields, oblivious to their impending doom! (Did I mention I am mostly vegetarian these days?) :pac:

This week: 30 kms (74 miles)
This year: 960 (597)

eyrie wrote: »

I reckon you made the right (if accidental) choice of lockdown location - most of the benefits of being in a city aren't available at the moment so might as well get the benefits of being in the country! I've gone for a few walks and runs through the city centre (it's within my 2k ) and it does feel quite sad seeing normally buzzing streets looking fairly desolate, with boarded up shops.

How are you finding mostly-vegetarianism?

Cheers, C. I do like those country benefits. The boys are disgusted with the slow internet but working on improving that so their Fortnite sessions are less plagued by ping insecurity. But I do feel solidarity with friends and family and the city itself. Those pictures of deserted streets are deeply affecting and I would like to experience that part of Dublin’s evolving history - not out of idle voyeurism (I hope) but more a genuine interest in the place itself, and of course the people (when they’re not killing each other, like some of my D3 cohabitants the other day).

Vegetarianism, or rather reducitarianism - it’s going fine. I don’t feel any different and am confident that the diet is not lacking anything it would have otherwise (can always do better with sweets, alcohol and other treats!) I do allow myself the odd steak or fish or rasher. Not very often though, because it doesn’t really come up. A is more veggie than I, one of the boys is totally meat-free, and the other is very flexible (as long as, like me, he gets the odd rasher to accompany his egg).

Being vegan would be another story, don’t think I could hack that at the moment. Wouldn’t rule it out though for the future.

career move wrote: »

When we were kids my Dad hit a stoat with the car and he brought it home and stuffed it. He used to run after us with it terrorising us :pac:

Lol! At least the poor creature had an afterlife!

Week Six in Donegal. The weather continues to be a revelation. I miss Dublin but I think I know for sure now that I could live here, as long as there was the odd escape to the capital for cultural pursuits and to socialise on DNS.

Goals this week? Get in a session, go a bit easier on the lockdown beers and show up for the 5k TT event/thread of the year.

Mon 20 Apr

9.9k easy/recovery on the loop. Sunny and warm, with an explosion of yellow (primrose, gorse, dandelion, and several other unidentified flora).

Tue 21 Apr

3x1k @ 5k pace

My mile TT the other day was a reality check - I may be running nearly every day but nowhere near my best game. Mentioned the lockdown beers above - definitely having too many of these in the evenings, which would not be helping. But sure aren’t these extraordinary times? Not sleeping great either - I always seem to end up with the worst pillow in the house. But anyway - an attempt to do three 1k reps at around 5k effort, allowing for the undulating hills. Didn’t do this on the TT route because it has more traffic and I don’t like out and backs as a rule, unless they’re to the wooden bridge or the Royal Canal M50 aqueduct! So the usual loop. The reps were tough, no doubt about it. This time last year I hoovering up the 80/20 sessions on the way to a Bob Heffernan PB. Not quite in the same place at the moment.

Splits:
4:10 4:09 4:18

That suggests to me that I’m no sandbagger anyway.

Total 9.7k for the session. A lizard scuttled across my path on the cooldown. A sure sign of the exceptional weather, especially this early in the year.

Wed 22 Apr

Rest. Plenty of work in the ‘garden’, including some added chainsawing and wood chopping.

Thu 23 Apr

7.9k easy/recovery

Had a look at the TT course, making some small adjustments to shorten the uphill finish. Waved at another runner. As is the case everywhere, I’m sure, the number of road runners has mushroomed, with people unable to go to the gym, GAA training, etc. More walkers too, as people are desperate to get out of the house. The difference up here is really extraordinary, especially on our normally quite deserted local roads.

Fri 24 Apr

No running. More work outside with the boys. The younger one is becoming quite expert with the axe. :eek:

This week: 27 kms (17 miles)
This year: 1,025 (637)