Swashbuckler's Marathon Debut?

Luke put together a plan for me as a once off but its not coached, meaning first and foremost, it takes the pressure off me feeling like I need to do the plan to the letter, or be successful or run well or all that added personal baggage that I bring as a coachee. haha . His style of training/coaching is perfect for me - whether thats intentional because he adjusted to my needs or thats just his training philosophy in general, or both..I guess it doesnt really matter. But no book plan or other coaches plan even comes near. Just the right amount of stress and rarely too much.

As you mentioned in your log , way too much fun supporting. Twice now I've done that and it's such a fun experience.

Plus I didn't send you off to the bag drop! 😆

I'm happy to deal with training questions on all media 🤣. WhatsApp, Garmin Connect, Facebook, Boards 🤣

In a heartbeat

Border Half Marathon 2022

Prelude

I have been neglecting the log lately which is usually a good indicator that stuff elsewhere in life has picked up….and it sure has…Between the new role at work really taking off and an inundation of germs in the house over the past month or so – wife, me, youngest, middle (twice) and eldest (twice) sick in October/November its all been a bit mad. So following my usual rule of trying not to have everything ramp at once I needed to make some minor adjustments. This meant the running kinda took a bit of a back seat. I still trained but needed to come off plan and to be honest the enthusiasm for running (or at least sessions/hurting) was very very low. I was tired, cranky, drained for a while but managed to get back on an even keel eventually. I have found that sleep has a massive impact on me, maybe moreso than most. Tiredness really affects my mood lately. I’m still a lovely Dad and husband (lol) but the internal mindset becomes pretty negative. Anyway, nobody wants to be hearing about all my woes…lol…One thing I am really proud of is how I have been able to bounce back from the rough patches which really has made a difference at home.

So in terms scoring the past few months;

The plan itself: 9.5/10 (I loved it and will use it again – no such thing as a 10/10 plan – sorry Luke 😉)

Execution of the plan: 7/10

Sleep, Health and Nutrition: 6/10

Average work stress: 8/10 (10 being most stressful)

Average home stress: 8/10

Average running stress: 7/10

I like to use the last three as guidelines. If all are 24 or higher then I hit trouble. And they were until running stress was pulled back.

So that’s the build-up. One last comment on the plan. Easily the best plan I have done in terms of enjoyment and tailored exactly to the type of running I enjoy. I feel blue in the face from singling L’s praises at this stage but his style is perfectly matched to my needs as a runner. By the way this was not a coached block. It was a hands off , one-off plan. There was a lovely mix of CV, Tempo, Progression and Mixed long runs. Ideal for me.

Race Day

Despite loving the plan, as I said earlier, enthusiasm for hurting was just not there. I really wasn’t feeling excitement for this race. The running in the couple of weeks leading up to this was just complete meh. I genuinely feared I would stop mid-race and step off. But 1% of me was holding out hope that some inspiration would come on the day.

I arrived at Seanchoill complex in plenty of time – just before 10am, to collect my tshirt. Very very very chilly morning but ideal for running. Nice and calm. A gentle breeze but nothing crazy. Went back to the car and chilled for a bit with some tunes. It was lovely actually to get some time to myself and just relax. After a few trips to the loo I got kitted out into my gear. The alphafly would get their first big outing today. As always, I felt about ten feet tall wearing them. Headed off for a warmup, some strides, leg swings etc. It was approaching start time and I headed to the start line around 10.55am. Met a few clubmates and it wasn’t long before we lined up. Gave myself a pep talk. Not much fuss, countdown from 10 and off we went.

Immediately the front pack established themselves and they were gone. I was at the front of the second group. I didn’t have a race plan for today. My thought process was don’t go off crazy, don’t pay too much attention to the watch and feel the race. This is not a flat route so silliness would be punished and I have a lot of faith in my ability to run on feel. Early into the race I switched the watch face to heart rate to avoid temptation to watch pace. Anyway, I was in a nice smooth flow in mile 1. Was in a little group but they were a little slow for my liking so I pushed ahead with a view to hopefully latching on to some of the overeager stragglers that would inevitably fall off the lead group, and they did.

Mile 1: 6.05

I wont go through this mile by mile as a lot of it was purely trying to run relaxed and not let the negative thoughts creep there way in too much. They dis. They always do. But as always its just a case of negotiating with them and I think I’ve done a really good job of doing that.

End of mile 2 is the first of the many drags on the route and it rolls into mile 3 aswell. It was here that I passed a couple of lads and had one lad just ahead of me that was running well so he just became my main focus for the bulk of the race. The alphaflys felt great in the early goings.

Miles 2 to 5: 6.12/6.21/6.10/6.16/

A couple of notables here. The mile markers were way off. I had seen previous years this race was definitely short. Not just by gps (which I take with a pinch of salt) but people running times that looked far faster than their training suggested. I was adamant I would run the extra distance if that was the case near the end. Thankfully they had fixed it this year and it was a non issue although mile 12 was actually 1.1 miles. The organiser asked me afterwards which told me they knew it was an issue previously. Anyway , back to the race.

Miles 6-8 it gets a little rough in terms of drags but one thing I will say about the route is that there are very few monster hills and there are rewarding downhills scattered amongst the various drags and hills.

Miles 6 to 10: 6.17/6.18/6.14/5.57/6.09

Very steady so far – plenty of doubts but wasn’t falling off a cliff. Still latched on to the guy ahead with another guy not far behind.

The guy ahead had put some surges on me to try shake me off but I was doggedly hanging in there. I didn’t respond to the surges but he just kept coming back to me. I thought during the race I must be a pain in the ass to try and shake off as I’m stubborn as hell when racing. So I was just keeping it steady. If he pushed on I didn’t really care at this point – there wasny much ability or will to push on myself.

Into the business end now. The lad behind went passed me around mile 11. He looked very solid. I just left him go. In the end he finished about 40 seconds ahead of me so he was in very decent nick in the last couple of miles. It was around here that the lad ahead of me seemed to come back to me and I passed him. That move got me into ninth overall.

By now the legs are feeling it. I’m nowhere near as dying as I have done in the past but for sure I’m at the right effort. Hard enough to get me to the end but not too hard where I’d end up in the ditch. The mile markers are still way off. Watch beeping about 40 seconds after the mile marker on the road. Very nasty pull in Mile 12 that really sucked it out of the legs. No sign of the lad behind me catching up. If anything his steps are getting quieter.

Miles 11 and 12: 6.07/6.17.

Last mile. I know I wont drop out at this stage but man oh man the effort is up after that mile 12. Breathing is heavy, legs are super super heavy. Knee lift is a conscious effort at this stage! In normal circumstances I would recover after a pull like that but now is not the time for that. Last mile in a half marathon is time to get right to the edge. I had a decent mile 13. No major battles. Places had pretty much established themselves at this point. It was here that the mile marker corrected itself so I would guess this mile was technically long.

Mile 13: 6.07

I had been looking forward to this part of the race since about mile 2..lol

There was a good chance the family were going to be at the finish if the missus was able to co-ordinate the gang and get them out the door in time. And there they were up ahead…I gave it that little extra push when I saw them. Happy days and lovely to see them again. Last time was the marathon in Limerick.

At this stage I had actually no idea what time I was on for. I hadn’t checked the watch all race. Seeing the clock and it was ticking past 1.20.51 which prompted me to give all I could to get over the line sub 1.21. I managed it by a couple of seconds. Delighted. Sub 5min/mile pace for the last 0.1.

I had been semi mentally prepared to run an extra 0.1 after crossing the line but thankfully I didn’t have to. Dropped on my butt and took a minute to recover before a wise old man came over and told me to get up and walk around…he was right. Went over to the family and got some big hugs. It was lovely. Really nice spread of choccie bars at the finish so I loaded up for the kids. Spent some time mingling with the club lads. One of them finished second in something like 71mins. Had a nice chat with the lads I was competing with during the race. Race organiser came over and gave medals to the kiddies. We spent some time in the playground there and then popped to the coffee shop and I had some lovely banoffi after being off sweets and chocolate for a month! All in all a great day.

Afterlude

I rate that as one of my best performances racewise. Charleville was a better result although that was while I was coached, had one child, flat route, paced by a pace group. In Charleville I cramped like mad in the last few miles. Today I wasn’t near to cramping and was able to put in a strong finish. Possibly the alphafly helped. My race management was very good – effort level was well handled throughout mostly without the watch. Ennis 10k was one of my better performances but today felt better. Sub 81 given my life circumstances is a very very satisfying result. I didn’t think I had it in me in the lead up to the day. Enthusiasm for hurting was low. Thankfully my competitiveness took over.

Next, I plan on running off plan for the next month and hopefully hit 2600 miles for the year. If a race pops up in December I’ll see if it fits around the family. For now, I’m still glowing in satisfaction from an unexpected good day at the races 😊

26 days to run 185 miles....And hopefully win the AMK/SB challenge.