Last of the Summer Wine

London Calling (Week -9)

Really getting into it now this week - a big session and the longest long run in a long time, so plenty to look forward to. Hoping to feel the strength that I think is beginning to build.

Mon 19 Feb

45 mins easy with 6x20s strides. Creaky enough, the 'easy' was more at recovery pace. Enjoyed the strides.

Tue 20 Feb

60 mins easy - exploring the estates of Maynooth - housing estates this time, as opposed to the usual Carton estate. 😜 I'd like to have left them behind but you run out of footpath fairly quickly in Maynooth and the roads beyond are not very runnable..

Wed 21 Feb

Session: 5 x (2k@4:40, 1k@5:05)

One of the trademark sessions - think I did this one in Killybegs last year. I went out with mindset that it's easier to think of it as a single 15k variable pace run, because I never find the floats to feel much easier than the fast bits so you don't really look forward to them like a slow recovery. Out the coast with what felt like a breeze in my face, feeling pretty good. Waved at some clubmates doing the Weds seafront session - thought, we really should have a track by now, everyone else seems to have cracked this nut. Even though I've been running the coast now for 13 years it still fools me, and once again I turned into a freshening breeze at Sutton, and the second half of the session was quite the challenge. Unfortunately I didn't have the HRM on tonight so not sure exactly how hard I was working, probably a bit too hard, as the pace inevitably dropped. I did manage to dig in though and finish well, but this session reminded me that there is plenty of work to do.

Thu 22 Feb

Rest.

Fri 23 Feb

60 mins easy. Discovered some new territory out past Artane.

Sat 24 Feb

56 mins inc Malahide parkrun @ 24:55.

Joined the Sanctuary Runners for an outing to Malahide. The plan was an easy run, and when G tagged along looking to put in a 25:30 shift, I found myself in pacer mode and helped her lay down a good sub-25 benchmark for some upcoming 5k work. Highly enjoyable and always good to see someone right up close digging in and pulling off an excellent performance. Finished the morning with an extra few kms, putting in the strides that were also on the menu for today.

Sun 25 Feb

195 mins / 34 kms

3 hours easy long run on the menu today. The rain was coming down when I got up but it was nice and dry by the time I got out of the house, laden down with a soft flask and five Precision Fuel gels in my belt. Testing them would be a big part of today's run, one every 30 mins to simulate marathon day consumption levels. Had a decent enough breakfast on board too so I certainly wouldn't be hungry. Headed through town and out via Terenure and Templeogue to Dodder Valley Park and along the river to Firhouse. The gels were going down well - liked the texture and relative lack of taste. Got the turnaround point wrong which led to this run being about 15 mins longer than planned, heading back to town via the Dodder. But for a long LR this felt as good as you'd hope for. Gel no 4 made me a tiny bit queasy, but the final one felt fine, so maybe I was fully acclimatised by the end of this run. Decision made anyway, Precision it is!

Another decent week. Eight to go.

• This week: 93 kms (58 mi) 8h 46m
• This month: 308 (191)
• This year: 552(343)

London Calling (Week -6)

Fewer aches and pains this week. I haven't been lighting the place up in this block, but it's starting to feel like I'm approaching a corner, if not quite around it yet.

Mon 4 Mar

No running - there was a rest day scheduled for tomorrow but switched it to today, as I was still feeling the Sunday long run.

Tue 5 Mar

55 mins easy on the Royal Canal. Don't remember a lot about it, but I think it felt OK.

Wed 6 Mar

60 mins easy with 8 x 20s strides. On the Clontarf seafront. Strides felt good.

Thu 7 Mar

5 x (3k@ 7:30, 1k@8:10) + WU/CD

Well, after a gentle few days I was looking forward to this, a monster of a session that I've struggled with in the past although I've usually had M for company to drag me through it. Solo this time, and it was blowing a gale as I finally got out, well after dark around 7:45pm after a long day at work. A look at my weather app suggested a lot of it would be side wind, but the Clontarf coast never seems to match the maps, and there was a howling gale in my face for the first two reps, with no chance of hitting the suggested paces. I just tried to forget about that and try to modulate the effort as best I could. I badly wanted to stop, or at least turn around, but knew if I made it to Sutton there would be a bit of relief in rep 3 through some residential roads before turning back and finally getting some tailwind. So I resisted the temptation to cut things short or reroute. Very strong tailwind for rep 4, was trying to minimise ground contact time as I could feel myself being blown forward while in the air. 🤣 More or less hit the numbers for this, and tried to run the final rep without the watch, ending up a bit on the slow side but delighted to have completed the prescribed mileage even if the paces were all over the place. 25k for the evening, not far off 16 miles.

Just remembered, passing a bus stop in Sutton, a fella asked me was I any good at tying laces. I probably would have stopped if I hadn't been mid-session. Unusual request all the same, from a grown adult, but better than being asked for a smoke, which has happened a few times.

Fri 8 Mar

45 mins very slow recovery around the D9 vicinity.

Sat 9 Mar

61 mins easy around St. Anne's with M and D. Good to see D back after a bit of enforced layoff. Broke off near the end to do some strides, 8 x 20s, noticing later it should have been 10. Details, man, details.

Sun 10 Mar

Steady LR - 16 miles @ 8:10

Up to the attic to get the Alphflys I bought last November out of storage. Alphafly 2, not the greatest model according to C over coffee yesterday. Loaded up the bat-belt with 4 Precision gels, and took one before starting. A wet morning so I rubbed on some anti-chafe cream I'd picked up somewhere - can't remember where, possibly Decathlon. The rain was starting to clear as I headed down the road in the direction of Glasnevin, Tolka Valley and the Phoenix Park.

I was on this from the start, delighted with the bounce from the shoes, reining back the pace for a lot of the run, which had a few nice drags so an honest track for a Sunday LR. Gels were going down well - took one of the caffeinated ones for the first time, no issues. Definitely the race day fuel, especially as I've just spent a fair few quid on a big batch to fuel the LRs and sessions for the duration of the schedule. The two and a quarter hours seemed to go by in a flash. A good way to end a tricky enough few days.

Six weeks to go.

• This week: 86 kms (53 mi) 7h 50m
• This month: 128 (79)
• This year: 709 (441)

Hey D, good to hear things are improving!

Precision comes direct from the company - as far as I know it's the only way to get them.

https://www.precisionhydration.com/eu/en/

Yep, they are definitely on the expensive side, although when you're accustomed to Maurten prices it seems normal enough. Delivery charge and unit prices can be reduced somewhat with bulk buying.

London Calling (Week -4)

This week had a race at the end of it, but keeping an eye on the main event.

Mon 18 Mar

45 mins easy/recovery around the local Dublin 9 roads. Went the opposite way to the usual. Shakin' it up.

Tue 19 Mar

60 mins easy with 10x20s strides. Down to Dublin Port hoping to do the strides on the still not open greenway, which I occasionally sneak onto, but the builders were around and blocking my usual access route. No matter, plenty of room on the roadside footpaths, but not nearly as pleasant. 

Wed 20 Mar

4 x (2k@4:40, 1k @ 5:05) with warmup/cooldown.

A setback session, much less daunting than the 5x(3k/1k) equivalent.This went well, feeling in control. Buzzing after it. 18k total, over 92 mins.

Thu 21 Mar

8k easy around Maynooth and Carton House in the early afternoon. Never really enjoy these runs for some reason, possibly because I have to go back to work afterwards. Plus it was hard enough anyway after last night's session.

Fri 22 Mar

45 mins easy, hooking up with C for a few miles on the seafront. It was windy and I felt tired. A shite run really, no joy in it, although it was good to see C back in the runners after a bit of a break.

Sat 23 Mar

Rest. Spent the day rearranging furniture and buying a new TV and then learning how to use it. 🙄

Sun 24 Mar

Race: Dunboyne 10k (43:32), 9th M60 (of 27)

The national championships came to Dunboyne this year. I wouldn't be in the medals but it would be good to run well. M picked me up and down we went, plenty of time to walk around, take in the atmosphere and then warm up between the car park and the start line, a mile away.

Lined up on the narrow road and listened to Feidhlim Kelly haranguing everyone for being in the wrong place etc etc. Everyone moved back a few steps and the siren eventually sounded. Pretty congested - my heels were clipped a couple of times in the first half mile, but I stayed on my feet. The idea was to settle into a 4:12-4:15/k type of pace for the first half of the race and try to push on in the second half. I found it hard to settle into a rhythm. The first couple of kms were within a few seconds of that target, I was passing a few familiar faces who'd pushed up towards the front even more audaciously than myself, getting passed myself, comfortable enough though and trying to take it in and feel the pace. Some headwind, but the course was pretty flat, the odd drag. I glanced at the watch at 4k and noticed I was falling a bit off that target pace and not feeling like it was something I could much about at this stage, effort levels seemed high and I'd already had a couple of retchy phases. The halfway point came and I saw 21:45 on the watch, but the course now seemed to have a few pleasant gently drops and mostly tail breeze. Didn't look at the watch from that point to the finish, trying to up the effort levels and race some of the people around me. This seemed mostly successful and I made some progress through the field. DD had encouraged me to try and feel the pain and I had this in mind, telling myself the hurt levels are probably not high enough. Still, I passed plenty and finished well, helped by a good contingent of club brass and supporters on the road before the turn into the track, where I enjoyed the bounce but didn't manage to pass any more runners, losing a place on the closing 100m. The number on the clock at the line was disappointingly high as I crossed the line and had a bit of a lie down on the side of the track before recovering and joining the crowd for some al fresco tea and cakes and sambos.

Couple of miles to cool down.

Didn't rate my performance, a grind but not grinding enough. A disappointing outcome for the huff and puff expended. But nice to be racing again and say hello to a few of the stalwarts, including AMK. Great performance from M to score on the M50 team and looks like getting a medal at last!

Some sort of blowout anyway. Four weeks to go.

• This week: 71 kms (44 mi) 6h 27m
• This month: 284 (177)
• This year: 866 (538)

London Calling (Week -2)

Yikes. April already. This thing is creeping up on me. It's been an odd training block from a motivation point of view, but this week I did feel that it might be coming together at last.

Mon 1 Apr

45 mins recovery up and down Griffith Avenue. Good to stretch after the drive back from Donegal.

Tue 2 Apr

45 mins easy/strides, the latter in Fairview Park, which is looking increasingly good as it emerges from the roadworks that feel like they've been going on forever at this point.

Wed 3 Apr

2 mi WU + 4 x (5k@4:40, 1k E) +2 mi CD.

A monster session. Took this one very seriously beforehand, trying to be as well hydrated and nourished as possible. Hoped the wind wouldn't be too tricky as I warmed up out towards Clontarf, getting going on the first 5k set near the Clontarf baths. The wind was slightly behind and across for this section, which took me as far as Kilbarrack. After the recovery the second set out towards the Baldoyle greenway was more challenging, with a fresh headwind making things tough after the turn at Sutton. The barriers were down at the level crossing and rather than stop, I was able to loop around through a nearby housing estate back to Sutton before retracing my steps on the Baldoyle road, finishing the second set just short of the greenway. Really needed the recovery here, pretty gassed after that headwind. Passed an elderly woman I used to see running regularly in Clontarf, delighted to see she is still going strong. The third 5k set took me back to Sutton, handy enough with a bit of tailwind, but I knew the final set along the Sutton to Raheny wind tunnel would be rough going, and sure enough it was. With a few seconds banked, however, I was able to keep the pace numbers respectable, and I was delighted to finish this one out unscathed. Very encouraging, as good a long session as I've ever done.

Thu 4 Apr

33 mins recovery. Very slow - no need for any heroics today, felt a bit light headed on this one.

Fri 5 Apr

Supposed to be an easy hour but I was still feeling the aftermath of the other night's work, and capped this at 40 mins. The email from London arrived with starting pen assignments. Blue start, wave 3 for me, so should be getting underway about 10:10am on the day, hopefully avoiding the worst of the expected congestion.

Sat 6 Apr

45 mins easy with M and D in St. Anne's. Chatty and fun. Broke off after 25 mins or so do 10 x 20s strides. These again felt better than the easier stuff.

Sun 7 Apr

16 miles @ 8:10

A few days into taper now, believe it or not, so the Sunday LR is actually shorter than the midweek session. The couple of days recovery seemed to do the trick - I plotted out a loop out to the Phoenix Park and Islandbridge and the Liffey towpath, and had no trouble really modulating the pace to average it out to just under what was requested. Very happy with this one too, felt strong and comfortable. Almost certain Laura Muir ran past me in the Phoenix Park, happened too fast for me to organise a high five. 😀

A good week - 92 kms is a lot for me.

Two weeks to go.

• This week: 92 kms (57 mi) 8h 14m
• This month: 92 (57)
• This year: 1,037 (644)

Thanks V. Well, the thick end of the taper didn't feel that different, as usual, and the intensity stays to the end, just in smaller doses, But it will definitely start to kick in from now til Sunday week.

Good question - to be blunt, I have not enjoyed it as much as last year, or the year before. As the coach pointed out, London will be the fourth marathon in just over 18 months, and I'm feeling a bit marathon jaded, to be honest. That said, the training has been solid enough - DD has been keeping a close eye on me, adjusting things here and there, building around the couple of races over the past while. But the base is different to what it normally is for an autumn gig, and things have felt somewhat more 'bitty' than previously. The long recovery from the Berlin/Dublin double didn't help, or the lingering soreness after those races. I've asked everyone not to let me do that again. I was also sick for a while in January, which threw things back just when I was starting to feel some strength. Also, the tune-up races were not spectacular so didn't get the confidence boost from them that I would have liked, although I do realise they were worth doing for putting in some more intensity and they have a significant training effect in themselves.

So I don't enjoy winter/spring training as much as summer/autumn training, I think. The other thing is the gels - I've been stuffing them in on every session and long run over the past couple of months, and they really take a lot of the fun out of running. It’s a necessary evil - I want to train my gut to tolerate more in-race carbs than I've previously used, and the Precision Fuel stuff goes down easily enough - but I just hate the whole fiddly, sugary process.

But don't take all that whining the wrong way - I'm feeling positive!

Thanks for asking.

London Marathon 2024

… The ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in

Meltdown expected, the wheat’s growing thin

Engines stop running but I have no fear

'Cause London is drowning and I…

There's a point on the London marathon course, a long tunnel or underpass. Not the famous one near the end where you emerge, blinking, onto the Embankment and its chaos and noise. In the post-marathon haze I'd thought this one was maybe 10 miles in, but I watched a course video this morning and found it at the 15 mile mark in Canary Wharf. For some reason it’s the most memorable part of the course for me, although the whole route is a blurred streak of unfamiliar streets. You enter this tunnel and you're plunged into darkness. I had to remove my photosensitive glasses because suddenly I could hardly see. There were portaloos to the left, a line of runners stretching ahead in the gloom, bending around to the left. I was told later - two weeks later - that there was also an incongruous band of drummers. And a steady thud of footsteps echoing off the tiled roof and walls. I don’t know why I remember this moment more than any other – I was struggling and in retrospect it’s near the point in the race where, if I was to achieve my 3:20 target, it was a last chance to buckle up and claw back the lost time. The point of no return.

I’d made the trip to London with clubmate M – our fifth ‘major'. We’d qualified for this one in Chicago 2022, where I’d run a race so perfect from start to finish that it would always be a tall order to come close to the high of that performance. So far, like Berlin and the American majors, London had been an intense experience, although definitely less glitzy and a bit more austere than the others. I was fortunate to be in an early wave, and the journey out to the start area was painless. I'd heeded the race instructions and got the train from Charing Cross, easily finding a seat for the short and efficient ride to Blackheath. Went through the preliminaries: hanging about; snoozing on the grass in the shelter of the baggage trucks; assembling the fuel belt; donning the arm warmers, buff, gloves, binbag; dropping the kitbag; queuing for the urinals. I was on autopilot for all of this. The starting pens opened a few minutes early and there was plenty of room. A gate opened and there was a short walk/jog around a bend and suddenly you are on the start line. A lot less pizazz than the other majors, where you stand there in the masses for ages, counting down, gawking at the helicopters and the skyscrapers, the awesome Alan Parsons Project power chords echoing in your ears. This one starts in leafy London suburbs with hardly any fuss at all. Suddenly I was on my way, clicking the watch into gear as I stepped over some unfortunate runner's entire stash of gels, heaped on the ground a metre short of the timing mats. I patted my own belt – eight gels in place, and a soft flask of water/electrolyte mix. Locked and loaded. But how would it go?

It had been a long week in London, and while I'm reluctant to make any excuses I was toeing the start line after possibly the worst six consecutive sleep nights of my life. A combination of being away, work-related stuff to think about, and a natural tendency towards insomnia anyway. I was rested physically but the brain had been having a tough week of it, refusing to switch off. So while the first few miles felt OK, and I knew the body and the legs were in good shape, I wasn’t as mentally sharp as I like to be at the start of a momentous event like this, taking it all in, visualising the strategy, enjoying the buzz. The conditions were cool, with a little breeze that made it even cooler. I should have been hopping with excitement and controlled energy, but the world felt somehow colourless and flat. That said, I enjoyed the early miles in the perfect conditions, through the quiet streets, a park, and a long hill down to the first 5k mat. I hit that mat a few seconds early, reminding myself not to get carried away as the course turned left through some fairly drab and nondescript neighbourhoods.

I don't know London at all, but I knew the Cutty Sark would the first major landmark, just after the 10k point. I was checking my splits against the mile markers and my 3:20 pace band. Most were a couple of seconds slow, but I wasn't worried at this stage - I wanted to run even splits, hopefully a slight negative, and that meant not worrying if I got to half way a few seconds behind schedule. The streets around the Cutty Sark were electric, a fantastic atmosphere in the narrow, crowded streets, and lots of noise. I exchanged a virtual fist bump with a guy waving a Palestinian flag out an upstairs window. Soaked up the atmosphere and thought, maybe it can be a good day, just keep plugging away to the next landmark, Tower Bridge, and you'll be nearly half way through already. Easy, right? But after ten miles I could feel the brain getting foggier than you want it to be this early in the race. Hopefully the legs could keep going on autopilot. I was taking on a gel every 24 mins, roughly equivalent to the 5k mats. I hate them by now after months of gut training but they were going down without any drama. Sipping the electrolytes every now and again.

A 3:15 pace group came through. It didn’t faze me – there are a lot of pace groups starting in different waves and this one had obviously started well behind me. The water stations were well managed and my fellow runners were behaving themselves - it was all going smoothly enough. One street blurred into the next. It felt a lot like Chapelizod and Ballyfermot and Inchicore in places. The odd drag. I’d discarded the gloves after about five miles, the buff went after maybe ten, the arm warmers rolled around my wrists soon after. Then around a corner and there’s the famous Tower Bridge ahead, a long drag but you come down the other side. The BBC coverage of this part always annoys me, the commentators droning on about the fun runners and the charidee. Most people around me looked pretty serious, the fun would wait til long after the race was over. I’d been running near a Gemma for a good few miles now and was astounded by the number of the name checks she was getting.

Gemma had drifted ahead by the halfway point soon after the bridge, where I went over the mat about 40 seconds behind schedule. I'd noticed the drift had been getting worse vis-a-vis the pace band - I was running a fairly good line but you can never get it perfect in these huge events, and lots of people crowd the blue line anyway. But I noticed I was finding it harder than usual to do the simple maths that would help get me back on track. I'd heeded DD’s advice to concentrate and dig in for the middle third. But that 40 seconds was more than I'd reckoned and I knew things were a little off, mentally. As the 5k splits later showed, I was running consistently, but consistently slow and the seconds were mounting up. We then hit a part of the course (the Highway) where the elites are on the other side of the road at the business end of the race. I'd missed the leaders but spotted Scullion and gave him a shout (not a huge fan in general but he did look pretty impressive and I thought a shout would gee me up more than him). I noticed he was passing the 35k mark and hoped I'd be in some sort of shape when I tracked back to that point myself.

First though, there was the Isle of Dogs and Canary Wharf to worry about. One of the 3:20 groups had caught up around halfway and I tagged along for a while. You can't be sure about these groups unless you've been with them all the way, because they start at different parts of the course. The pace felt a bit hot. It hadn't been part of the plan to use the pacers, and I hadn't researched the strategy. The pacer (just the one guy) had his head down, no talking, no banter, no encouragement. I decided he was probably banking a bit of time. The GPS started to go nuts, beeping a sub-3 minute km at one point, so the only stat on the watch of any use now was the elapsed time. I let the small pace group go somewhere among the skyscrapers. Probably a mistake considering how I was feeling, because I know that one advantage of being paced is you don't have to rely on your own brain as much as usual. I could have thought this through a bit better, but the fog was thickening fast.

The mrs was out, along with M's mrs and a group of stalwart supporters from the club. They were popping up at various points around the course giving some terrific shouts, much needed and appreciated. Through that tunnel I mentioned earlier and at last the course loops back to the Highway. I tried to take comfort from being as far in front of the runners on the other side of the road as Scullion had been in front of me. Plenty of them seemed to be running well enough, maybe I wasn't doing as badly as I’d started to feel.

It’s a slow deterioration when your marathon unwinds. There's a point where it doesn't matter what the plan was, you’re either on it or not and you have to survive and try to get the job done as best you can, trusting that all those months and years of work will get you through. Some days you're passing people, sometimes you're just hanging on. With the perfect conditions, I should have been doing the former but it wasn’t going to be one of those rare and wonderful days.

Where was that transition to the Embankment and its chaos and noise? And there it was. M was having a worse day than me and I discovered later I'd passed him here in the gloom of the short underpass. I tried to pick things up on the Embankment, scanning for Big Ben, Westminster, Birdcage Walk - all those bits you've seen the elites destroying on the telly. There was the odd photographer and I tried to work up the odd smile. That reminded me I should have been smiling more during the meat of the race. But too late now. I glanced at the watch and noticed the 3:20 target ticking by in the leafy shade of Birdcage Walk. At least I was within striking distance and could smell the finish. I tried to 'enjoy' the last yards, acknowledging the crowd as the turn onto the Mall finally arrived. A ‘400m to go’ sign, and there’s the finish line, right where you hoped it would be, except three minutes and twenty one seconds earlier.

That cruel fourth dimension, time.

5k splits (target 23:40):

23:33 24:07 23:54 23:51 23:29 24:06 24:35 24:52 (10:53)

But as always, the immediate feeling is one of relief, gratitude, respect for the runners beside you. I thanked the smiling volunteer who put the medal around my neck, then the usual few high fives with the runners around me, we’re an honest bunch. Bottle of water - no bananas, no chocolate or snacks. An austere kind of race, as mentioned earlier, maybe it's a Brexit thing. Got my bag in jig time from the truck – the volunteers are really brilliant. I stepped carefully over the fence into St. James Park, joining scores of other runners changing into the post-race togs. The left hip cramped up and I yelped as I tried to put on my tracksuit bottoms and socks - a comical sight no doubt, but I wasn’t alone. And I took it all in then and really enjoyed the slow walk through the finish area to the meet-up spot to join M. He should have been long dressed by now, so I realised he'd had a lot worse a day than I had. I was disappointed for him - we've soldiered through five majors now, and that final box will be checked in due course. But Tokyo will most likely be a high five marathon for me. Met up with the clubmates afterwards for a pint in the Coal Hole and a nice afternoon of pizza and pasta and beer. We all agreed that London is special and overall the atmosphere was excellent.

Running 26.2 miles is always tough. As DD had pointed out, this was the fourth in 18 months, three in the last 7 months. That's too many. So I'm marathon-jaded at this point. Time to step away and do other things.

And relearn how to sleep!

• Target: 3:19:59
• Actual: 3:23:20
• Position: 8,120 (of 53,000?)
• 112th M60 (of 1,262)
• Age grade: 76.1%
• VDOT: 46.3
• Verdict: Not the best, not the worst - a solid grind and a bit of a fade. That’s the marathon!

I realise that much of this account reads a little negatively, which doesn’t reflect the whole picture. I’m slightly disappointed but not disheartened. It’s up there in my top five marathon times, I’m extremely grateful to be able to say that. I’m fortunate to be able to do these races. The whole Abbot majors thing is a bit of a racket, it has to be said. But I can’t be a hypocrite – I drink the kool-aid and queue up and buy the merchandise like all the others. I try to remember that at the centre of it all there’s a race. The expectations for that aspect are always high.

So I think that’s the last of the ‘competitive’ marathons for me. it’s been a long road, with plenty of turns. I’ve enjoyed every mile, and there are plenty of other highlights to come, no doubt.

Thanks for reading this far, and see you on the road.

Now get this…

London calling, yes, I was there too

And you know what they said? Well, some of it was true

London calling at the top of the dial

And after all this, won't you give me a smile?