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2013; Eat my dust Meno!
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Saturday morning – too early for a Saturday morning - the alarm went off and I managed to get up despite having been out for the fifth and final installment of my Come Dine With Me experience the night before. The Doubting Thomases of you will be happy to hear that I abstained apart from one teeny tiny teeny mouthful of white wine with my main. I got awful grief for leaving early but as had Digger reminded me before heading out, I had bigger fish to fry last weekend, such that not ending up in Leggs at 5am wouldn’t be the end of the world! I had two slices of toast with butter and jam after a bit of a nightmare run on a large bowl of porridge a couple of months ago. My stomach was in knots and I really thought I was going to be sick. In hindsight, it was most likely nerves, and not an inability to digest simple carbs and sugars!
My gratitude to my number one supporter / chauffeur / bag holder / personal water station / cheerleader / photographer / radiator (I could go on!) should be flagged at the outset – so thanks Digdig; I really did appreciate everything
I got the royal treatment on every lap with cereal bars, flat coke, water, lucozade etc at the ready to grab and go. (I must think about, and write a list of, what I actually consumed throughout).
We arrived down around 9am in perfect crisp and bright running conditions. Picked up my number and listened to a bit of chatter that was going on around me; I can’t remember much and think I must have been away with the fairies panicking about what I was about to do. I was looking at all the boxes and preparation and real runners around me and really feeling way out of my depth. But sure there was nothing that could be done about it at that stage!
Headed off to start line with the group still completely strategy-less, despite it having consumed me in the week previous. Originally I had thought I’d tip around at a 9.45 average pace and come in just under the cut-off point with my longest run ever and good Connemara training under my belt. That was until Meno informed my mathematically challenged brain that 9.45 pace wouldn’t actually make the 5 hour cut off. Whoops. Chatting the lads (John, Philip, Tom, ?? - I’m sorry if I’ve forgotten people) who were going for 4:40/45 hours at a pace of around 9m/m scared me a little, so after a few words with Marthastew we decided to hold back and leave them to it. We had a common goal – finish the race within 5 hours feeling that we could do the extra 8 miles that will be rolled out after 50k in Connemara in 6 weeks from now. So we decided to just chug away and play it all by ear. Despite this, we quickly happened to fall into a 9ish minute mile pace. Had I been paying proper attention to the pace, I may have worried about blowing up before finishing but we just ran to feel and said we’d take every lap as it came. We tipped around the first lap nice and handy trying to warm up. I needed to use the toilet and took the sensible advice to just go and get it out of the way before it got painful and annoying. It was great to have the facility – quick in and out, grabbed a mouthful of lucozade from Digdig and off to catch me buddies. Caught up with Marthastew and we kept on comfortably behind the 4:45 lads. We were happy to have them in our sights and figured that the longer we could maintain that, the better. We joined them after a wee while and I think we were with them for 5/6 laps on and off; but I could be completely wrong on that. To be honest, the race itself is a bit of a blur. It’s hard to differentiate what happened where, or how I felt at a certain point because of the laps. I could say that I got hungry at mile 9 but that could easily have bee 19. Plus all the banter with the group was a good distraction. Myself and Marthstew played very convincing supermodels (though that may have been the glycogen depletion because I’m sure I looked at Belcarra at one stage and he was wearing a Big Mac box!).
Myself and MS pushed on from the group in the second last loop feeling very confident and happy with our performance to date (and rightly so I think!). We went through the marathon at 4.57:20 absolutely chuffed with ourselves – marathon number 3 for me, and number 8 for MS. I was in my CL bubble at this stage – a few bits of chatter but superfluous manners and happiness out the window. We had agreed no chatting for the last lap and to just go for it according to how we each felt. I couldn’t really believe how good I was feeling at this point so I just put the head down and went for it. Didn’t know how much, if any, ground I was making or losing on anyone else. It was all just about me! Selfish wagon… I’d say kilometre 48 was the longest one of the route but it wasn’t overly painful. When I came around the finishing straight and say sub 4:40 was in the bag I nearly died. It was such a good feeling and I finished feeling really good. The last lap was my fastest by far – 24:53 – and not far off a 5k PB!! Crazy!
We had been warned that lap 6 and 7 were tough so we prepared for that but that God that didn’t materialise. We had also been told that we’d know every lump, bump, tree and stone on the route by the end – I didn’t. I was obviously too busy gas bagging to pay attention. I hope I didn’t ruin the beautiful serene setting with the trash talk! Anyway, suffice to say the company was wonderful. It would have been a different day out altogether without it.
In general, the run was very comfortable. I didn’t have the mental demons telling to me to give up at any stage. The physical demons were pretty well behaved too. The ‘lovely pain’ as some people liked to put it was definitely there – as in, my body knew it had run 25 miles but it wasn’t screaming at me. This is all very reassuring and good for the confidence in advance of Connemara.
Not a great race report as I know I’ve left loads out– I’ll need to record as I run the next time!
Lap splits:- 29:10 (first lap slightly longer than 5k) / 27:09 / 27:41 / 27:27 / 27:46 / 28:24 / 28:25 / 28:37 / 27:50 / 24:53
Marathon: 3.57:20
Official Chip Time: 4.37:23
Garmin: 31.11 miles @ 8:55 average pace
Thanks to all who came out to support and marshal – it was awesome. Everything. Just awesome. To everyone to took part – well done and congratulations. To the lads – thank you for talking me into running. To Anto – thank you for a savage event! To RQ – the cake – thank you!!
And a final special thanks to Marthastew for her company - two chatterboxes with a common goal and potentially 5 hours to fill was always going to be a good combo. (And I was delighted with my doggy bag of rice crispie squares and banana bread treats).
I really hope to be back next year!0 -
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Marthastew wrote: »
......Oh, and Hello magazine called, they want to do a photoshoot with us:D:D
I told them to speak to our agents.
I spoke with them today, you misheard, they want to Photshop the two of you:D 0 -
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I spoke with them today, you misheard, they want to Photshop the two of you:D
Well done Digs, you were doing 6 jobs on Saturday from the report and as the agent (i guess), that makes 7. CL was only running so my question is: have you recovered from your busy day?:p
But seriously, well done CL, great going. You should really go back and read your log from this time last year and see how far you've progressed, its would be interesting.0 -
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Sunday 19th February
5 @ 9:34
Rounded off the week with a handy recovery with Digdig and Meno. I could very easily have wimped out of this had Meno not landed on the doorstep. I suppose I was also keen to hit my highest mileage week ever. It was fine - nothing more, nothing less. Legs were a bit tired and tender after Saturday but nothing like I would have expected. I had absolutely no desire to run one step over the planned 5 miles. So I didn't!
The Ultra Runner and that guy who wears ultra running t-shirts spent a wee while trying to teach me how to spit like an Ultra Runner. I'm nowhere near it. Not that I believe that to be a problem in the greater scheme of things?!!
That brought me up to just over 71 miles for the week. Delighted with that. Can't believe I've finally hit it! 0 -
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Hello log, it’s been a while! There's been a lot going on recently with work stress and ill family members, 2 of whom passed away within very close proximity a couple of weeks ago. I was ticking over running-wise but wasn’t overly enthused by it all. So my skiing holiday to Austria came just at the right time. Had a great week away from it all and managed to re-charge the batteries (well as much as one can when skiing all day and river-dancing in ski boots at après all night!!). Despite best intentions, I only got one 4 mile run in while away but I wasn’t overly concerned because it was a pretty physical and tiring week anyway. The thoughts of running the day after we got home were dreadful - a week on burgers, chips, milka chocolate, Weiss bier and endless shots of jaegermeister is not an ideal way to treat your body, and then expect it to perform to a decent standard! However, I did manage to haul a*s out for an LSR (or a medium LSR in terms of Ultra training!) on Sunday. Did 12 miles with Digdig to try get his poor broken body back into running and then did 3 quicker miles on my todge. Running this week has felt very strange - I don’t feel fluid in my movement; it all just feels a bit strange and creaky. It's been running for the sake of mileage and training plans, and not running for the love of it. I expect it'll take a week to shake the tiredness and ski legs though and hopefully that strangeness will pass. So a mileage update since the last one!
Thursday 23rd February
6.56 @ 8:40
Friday 24th February
Rest
Saturday 25th February
Travelling & Half day skiing
Sunday 26th February - Friday 2nd March
6 days skiing
Wednesday 28th February
4 @ 9:04
Saturday 3rd March
Travelling & Rest
Sunday 4th March
15.1 @ 9:20
Monday 5th March
Rest
Tuesday 6th March
AM 6.1 @ 8:12
PM 6.9 @ 9:29
Wednesday 7th March
AM 5.1 @ 9:27
PM 5 @ 8:24
Thursday 8th March
AM 5 @ 8:38
Planning a recovery 5 miles into work in the morning and then a attempt at an LLSR on Saturday. No exact plans for this as yet as will just be playing it by ear as to how Digdig feels, and having regard to all the other important things on this weekend such as beers for the match on Saturday afternoon! Ideally I'd like to get up bright and early on Saturday morning, hit the road and just keep going for as long as possible - but this will all depend on how things work out over the next 24 hours. It could end up being a 30 mile run at midnight on Sunday for all I know!
Am on 434.39 miles for the year right now! Not bad going Am afraid to go near the 1000 mile challenge table in case I mess it up though… I suppose I should make a brave attempt.
I see there are a raft of race reports and Howth-to-Bray reports going around from last weekend, which I'm looking forward to catching up on. Well done to all
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Marthastew wrote: »Welcome back! I'm sure the Riverdancing will stand to you, in fact I think there is a whole chapter in P&D Advanced MArathoning devoted to the benefits of Riverdancing.
I wonder what Lydiard or indeed Canova's stance on Snowboot Intervals are?:D
Skiing holidays have been linked to improved running performance, greater speed and greater endurance. The reasons for this have yet to be scientifically identified but it is thought that, at the very basic level, the weight of the boots combined with the sheer desperation of wanting to get away from the car-crash that is Digger2d2 performing an Irish jig in ski boots with flailing arm movements along to the sound of the Austrian equivalent of Agadoo, will cause a runner (at any level) to use whatever strength and speed is necessary to get the flock out of the vicinity. Exposure to such activity, with the resultant bursts in energy expenditure, over an intense period of up to 7 days will provide great benefits to an athlete. It may even justify the placing of an amateur athlete as third female in the National Ultra Running Championships...
Friday 9th March
5 @ 9:19
Very handy recovery this morning in the hopes that tomorrow’s adventure ends well.
I’ve been so hungry this week and pigging out on junk food like there’s no tomorrow. I intend to eat my way through the rest of today in order to fuel for tomorrow and then try to reel it back in next week.
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Saturday 10 March
30 Miles @ 9:45
Having missed the second annual Howth to Bray run with the group the weekend before last, the alarm went off at the ungodly hour (for a Saturday morning!) of 6.15am, for the first annual CL & Digdig 30 mile coastal challenge. (It remains to be seen whether there will ever be a second annual one of these…) I had a bad LSR with a tummy full of porridge a couple of months ago and have been afraid to go back since. So the LSR brekkie of choice now is 2 slices of toast with butter and jam, and a cup of tea. We headed off to Bray to catch the 7:54am DART to Howth. The journey made the task we were facing seem pretty daunting as you start to realise the extent of what's in store. An hour on the DART covers some amount of ground! Digdig was feeling particularly nervous, while I chose to ignore both him and the fact that we had a 5 hour run ahead of us. Having run Donadea comfortably, I didn’t find the distance so scary. In any event, I wasn’t thinking about the fact we had to get all the way back to Bray and was just thinking of a mile-by-mile LSR. We arrived in Howth at 9:05 and while Digdig used the local facilities, I forewent the pleasure of using a dirty cigarette ash covered public toilet and set out with a full bladder!
It was a gorgeous morning for our adventure. The sun was out and the temperature was perfect. The pain of having not visited the little girls room kicked in pretty quickly. That, combined with strong headwind into Clontarf for the first hour made for a tough enough start. After 3 miles I thought I was going to have to stop. I knew the first toilet opportunity was just after 7 miles so I tried to forget about it. The pain subsided after another mile or so and I knew I could hold off to have a toilet/gel/drink/delayering stop in one go. Ran into Westwood in Clontarf at 7.3 miles for said stop, after which I was finally able to relax, have a bit of a chat and start to enjoy the run. The next landmark should have been the chimneys at Poolbeg, but we didn’t quite make it because of Digdig's wimpy unwillingness to hop a fence over some derelict industrial wasteland…We managed to get a wee bit of the nature reserve in at Irishtown. Though I really don't know how it acquired the title of 'Nature Reserve'. Textbook Ireland!
From there, we continued on out along the coast - it really was a lovely day for it. There were loads of people around and the views and activity helped those miles go by without too much mental anguish. The next planned stop was the Merrion gates. We were just over 13 miles when we hit the gates, so decided to keep going to 14 to get a bit of a psychological boost. Despite having had lovely scenery up to this point, we hit 14 miles literally on the side of a busy Rock Road, which was not conducive to a relaxing picnic. I was getting peckish and a chocolate chip oaty bar with some isotonic drink did the trick. Digdig horsed into some enormous power bar and a load of drink as he was weak with the hunger at that stage. Looking back, he figured he should have had a gel at this point too but 20/20 hindsight vision and all that eh?!
If I remember correctly, this is where things it started to get tough for Digdig. We headed on out through Blackrock in silence until I happily informed him that we had a few nice miles coming up taking in Monkstown, Seapoint and Dún Laoghaire where the wind should be behind us on a nice flat (slightly downhill) part of the route. I received a grunt in reply to this, and luckily I speak caveman - I think it meant 'that's great, I'm loving this run and have I told you how well you look today?!'...:rolleyes:
It was around Sandycove that we started to wing it route-wise. Neither of us know the area that well, but we knew where we needed to end up so just kept her lit, while keeping as close to the coast as possible. Out towards Dalkey and the hills of Killiney was really nice scenery wise. I was hoping we might spot some celebs but the most we managed was seeing a house that may have been Pat Kenny's neighbour's... Exciting times! The hills in Killiney were quite the killer. I had a feeling we should have been heading further inland, both in order to make up the distance and to taste the 'real' hills. However, I learned not to question a thirsty man and we stayed close to the coast. At 20 miles (and what we thought must have been the top of the last hill - how wrong we were!) we stopped for another snack. We had a nice view for this pitstop. It took everything not to just gulp down the sugary caffeine goodness of the flat coke as were both very thirsty and warm at this stage. Another oaty bar and off we went again. We had a few more climbs before we hit the downhills. Strangely enough these were not welcome downhills. I found them particularly hard on the knees and was quite worried about doing damage. As a result, there was no increase in the average pace and the effort was more on staying upright and in one piece!
As we approached Shankill, it occurred that we must have taken the shorter route as there was no way it was going to take 7ish miles to get to Bray at that point. How right we were, we landed in Bray at 26 miles. I think that broke my poor companion. The thoughts of Bray on a good day can be tough enough, never mind the idea of having to run around it in pain, hunger and exhaustion for 40 minutes! We made up the distance by running up and down the promenade with an extra loop of the back of Bray thrown in for good measure. The smell from Cassoni's did not make this easy for me! However, and at the same time, the smell from Cassoni's and Digdig's complete lack of enthusiasm therefore, signalled danger to me. And then when I indicated he could have a good feed of Guinness in the very near future and that didn't go down well, I knew it was time to shut my mouth and just keep the head down. I am the queen of that pain and I know exactly what it feels like to want to kill everything and everyone around me, just to get to the end of a bad run. A short recovery run - that's what I was saying - 15 more easy minutes, 13, 9… the bloody distance was not ticking over. I haven't run 2 miles as long as those last two miles in a long time. I was absolutely delighted when we hit 30 miles!
I was delighted for Digdig as I know it was a very tough run - more mentally than anything I suspect. On the back of a not-so-perfect training schedule and having been sick etc, it was a brilliant achievement and confidence booster. I've kind of made it sound like I found this to be a breeze and while Digs had an awful time of it - that's not really the case. I struggled at times, 30 miles is some distance and I wouldn’t dare disrespect it - it was just that I knew I could do it having done it before, and making sure Digs got through was a good distraction to how I was feeling myself! And the full Irish, the chocolate biscuit press and the feed of Coronas while watching the Ireland match on the couch for the afternoon were most welcome and pretty deserved me thinks!
I do believe that's the brunt of the Connemara training done and dusted now Three handy enough weeks before the big day and hopefully it'll all go according to plan (such plan yet to be defined!!)
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Sunday 11th March
Rest
Not quite planned but the feed of junk and beer on Saturday and having to go out for more food and drink on Sunday left me no option…
Monday 12th March
Just a walk home from work for a change - about 4.5 miles.
Was supposed to do a 5 mile run but I didn't have gear in work, I wasn't really in the mood and my legs were a bit heavy and achy. So I decided to prove I don’t have an obsessive compulsive habit, and gave it a miss.
Tuesday 13th March
10 @ 8:54
In advance of the 5k race this weekend I decided to run slightly longer than the plan called for this morning, in order to get a bit of distance out of the way early in the week. Really enjoyed this one once I got through the first 3 X 10 minute miles and the legs woke up.
Legs aren't feeling wonderful right now so I will have to get the stick and the roller out a couple of times this week - no excuses. Will probably just keep the runs short this week (c.5milers) and hope for the best on Sunday (for which I need to think about setting a target!). Then I'll be slap bang in the middle of taper. I'm nervous about taper. I feel like a 50 mile week is an average week now. I won't know what to do with myself. And I'll have to stop eating for 50 mile weeks… I could end up rolling through Connemara if I'm not careful...
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Legs aren't feeling wonderful right now so I will have to get the stick and the roller out a couple of times this week - no excuses. Will probably just keep the runs short this week (c.5milers) and hope for the best on Sunday (for which I need to think about setting a target!).
Sub 21 or you'll run the risk of getting O.A.P.'d on the line 0 -
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Wednesday 14th March
5.15 @ 9:15
Handy one into work this morning. Legs weren't full of beans for this one - still feeling heavy - and then I realised I should be running waaaayy slower for recovery and that I shouldn’t feel like I could run a decent 5k until Sunday. (I really hope I feel better on Sunday…!!) Will do some more sticking and foam rolling tonight.
Finally the bright mornings are coming back - it doesn't feel like 6.45am when it's daylight. Time to shake of the Seasonal Affective Disorder for another 6 months The only negative with it is that by 9, it feels like it should be lunchtime!
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