If... the Unforgiving Minute

Managed to get myself into the 800m B grade for last night's AIT graded meet. While warming-up I watched John Coghlan push the limits and almost make a sub4 mile indoors. The crowd was small but the place was buzzing. I knew the competition would be tough in my race as the leaders were being paced to sub 2 mins. My plan was to hang with the pack and see if they could pull me around. For my 2:05, two weeks ago, I lead from the front and I was looking forward to not doing all the work this time. Feidhlim Kelly was the reliable pace-maker - I think he paced 4 different races last night, fair play to him.

I started in lane 5, sharing it with a young Craughwell lad. I reckoned most of the rest of the runners were half my age, no matter. I felt my blood pressure rise as I waited for the gun. Boom. I let the other lad lead out my lane. Down the straight, I got on the inside quickly enough. Two lads went with the pace-maker, followed by 3 Craughwell runners. They bumped off each other on the bend, I stayed out of trouble. One guy was behind me.

The clocks were all in place so I could see 30s as I crossed the line for the first time. Ahead of plan but feeling ok. I knew not to let the leaders get more than 20m ahead. They went through 400 in about 58s. I was at the back of the pack in 60s, holding a tight inside line. Someone in the crowd was calling my name and splits. Even though I could see it myself, it helped to hear the support.

I knew the 3rd lap was the critical one, concentrate. There was no real change in postions since the first 100m. The clock just turned 1:31 as I went through the bell. I almost relaxed. No, kick into the bend, it's only 200m. I considered trying to overtake down the back straight but was afraid of getting stuck in an outside lane so I waited. I think it was here that the back-marker came past. Down the finishing straight, I dug in, lifting the knees. I passed one guy. Three green and white Craughwell shirts in front of me. A space opened on the inside but the finish line came too soon. The winner went just under 2 mins, the rest of us in a close group behind. Surely I had done enough.

Although I was in a hurry to get home, I hung around for the results, watching a great women's 800m with Rose-Ann Galligan getting the Euro qualifier time and a 60m where they missed out - the highs and the lows of running. Finally the times got posted, I was first up to see them. Yes, 2:02.45 - almost 3s faster than 2 weeks ago and well inside the National Masters M45 800m Indoor Record. Alright it's a bit of a niche record and a mouthful but it's stood for 15 years so I'll take it.

I made sure to thank the meet organiser afterwards for putting me in that field. The C-race was won in 2:05 and I would never have got the record time without the even pace and close competition in the last lap. I still plan to run another indoor 800m next week but with no guarantee of electronic timing and my target time already in the bag, I have no expectations. In the next few days I will figure out my plans for the outdoor season ahead but for today there are no limits.

I ran 800m at the Connacht Indoor Championships in Athlone. I was down for the senior event but the day was mostly about the juveniles. I went in with no expectations and came away with nothing so I should be satisfied. But we all like to get something for nothing.

The work was done weeks ago and I had two good races in February but I hoped for one more. Probably it was one race too many but also lots of little things went wrong. To run a perfect race, like I did last week, you need all the little things to go right. This week they did not.

I had a bit of stiffness in my back from the day before, probably from bad posture at work. It did not help when before my race I sat down missing the seat and scrapped my lower back . Race nutrition is not usually important for an 800m race but I fecked it up yesterday. I also mis-timed my warm-up and my knee was getting stiff while I waited. The night before, I had slept badly. Again my own fault, there was something on my mind that I should have got up and sorted.

We left home at 8am as my two boys were also running yesterday. One of them was in both the first (10am) and last events (7pm) of the day - that's a long day for him too with races over nine hours apart. Provincial championships are more like a ultra-marathon, except you never know exactly when you will be running during that time. I ate a snack shortly after I arrived. The 600's and 800's were due to start at 2:30pm and I decided to wait until after my race to eat properly, about 3pm I thought. Wrong, although they started them pretty much to schedule, I completely misjudged how long it takes to run 1.5 million 12 year-olds around an indoor track. I did my warm-up when they started - way too early, then felt hungry, picked at some food. By the time my race came up it was close to 5pm and I was feeling light-headed.

For my race, first they were going to run seniors with the juniors (U19) then they decided to run us separately, then they called us all up together. Fine. I think there were 9 of us lined up - one of the guys was a guest master runner (RM) that I had just beaten three weeks previously. The rest I did not know. I was sharing lane 4 with a junior.

From the start, the two guys outside me went off hard. I found out later that they were both guests and one of them was pacing the other to somewhere well under 2 mins. Off the bend I cut across to the inside line, thinking of Brian Gregan's fall in Gotenberg as I did. Although the two guys were well ahead they pulled me along to a first lap of 28s - too fast. There were now two separate races I was leading the second one and a group hung in behind me. It was 59s at 400m and I had not shaken them off. This was not in the race plan (what plan?) but maybe I had another good race in me. I could see the red vest of RM on my shoulder and with 300 to go, he moved past me along with two others. He told me afterwards that had been his plan - at least he had a plan. I did not hear the next split time (I never do) but tried to stay with the group. I passed out RM on the back straight and got a good line around the bend. I tried to kick off it but there was nothing there - at least I did not go backwards.

No results were posted on the day. I think I finished 4th overall, probably 3rd senior and 2nd if you don't count guests. I did not get my time but it felt like 2:05, though the guy behind me thought it was slower.

Lessons learnt:
Preparation, preparation, preparation - it's the small stuff that matters;
It's hard to race well two weeks in a row;
When my boys are running, it's better to focus on their events and leave my races to another day.

My next post will focus on where I go next, season over, time to move on.

I jumped in with the distance group for yesterday's session. They were doing 6x1K with 200m recovery in 3:52, 3:53, 3:52, 3:54, 3:50 off about 90s. One of the guys wanted to push it out for the last one so I went with him in 3:30. One of the other lads was doing mile repeats so I finished with 1600m in 5:39 which is about the same pace as the last km.

Made for a nice change from speedwork.

Sunday's run was about hills and time-on-my-feet. There was one nice hill, followed by a long hill and lots of little ones as I ran along the Sligo Way at Union Wood. The cold wind was in my face as I went upwards. I turned back shortly after Lough Lummen and held myself back on the downhill. Total time was over 90 mins and xy kms at tt pace.

My last tempo run was early December when I did 3 miles at about 5:53 mile pace on an over and back mile course in windy conditions. That time I used my HRM to keep an even effort of about 166 bpm.

I was not looking forward to this one but knew it had to be done. I debated different routes in my head yesterday until I settled on a Riverside loop which was just under 2K. The evenings have just about got bright enough to run along an unlit path. I considered a hillier route but did not think I could hold a steady effort without pushing too hard on the downhills. I thought about doing it on the track or a similar short loop (as I read on Krusty's log) but that would be just too mind numbing. In the end a 2K loop is about the right balance for me.

I fired up the HRM for the warm-up and it quickly settled into a steady 164 bpm. Cr@p this was only the warm-up and no matter what I did I could not get it to drop below 160. Finally I figured it was banjaxed and after the warm-up, threw it back in the car.

So after slipping on the racing flats, I was running by feel - supposed to be "comfortably hard" or the pace I could hold for 1 hour. It was cool and a light wind seemed to be permanently in my face but it was a good evening for running. The first km is on an even gravel path and I tried to hold myself back and imagine my pace as slower than a 10K race but I still hit 3:22 for the first km - closer to 5K pace. The second section has a few ups and downs on tarmac and I finished the lap in just under 7 mins, better.

I got into a rhythm now and the next lap was more even in 7:12. The third one was tougher but it's always easier knowing you are nearly done and finished it in 7:06.

When I measured the loop on mapmyrun, it gave me 1.93km. Those 70m short of 2K on each loop all add up to give only 5.79 km in total (not the 6K in my head). So average pace was 3:41 /km or 5:55 /mile which is almost bang on what McMillan or JD would have me doing my tempos based on recent 5K time. In the end I almost enjoyed it.

That was one tough session. 4x 2K at T pace off 1 min was always going to make me work and I have felt tired this week anyway but the wind..., man that was some breeze.

I was back at the Riverside loop I used last week, this time I added on the extra 70m to make an even 2K. The first part of the loop was with the wind but it never seemed to give back as much as it took out on the return leg. The first rep was bang on 7 min but that was unsustainable. I paid for it on the second lap at 7:14 - which is about where I should be - 5:50 mile pace. I held another 7:14 for the 3rd one but the fourth was a struggle. I would like to blame the wind but I was already 4-5 secs down in the first half. On the way back, I get some shelter from the trees for a while but on the open ground it felt like I was dragging a parachute behind me. That lap finished in 7:22.

Not the most consistent set of numbers (7:00, 7:14, 7:14, 7:22) but actually the effort felt pretty even. The average lap time of 7:12 is 5:48 /mile which is fine. The recoveries were a bit longer than planned as I jogged back to my start point in 66-67s. The wind was stronger than anything I remember in over a year. My legs are tired now and glad of today's rest day. Hopefully the wind blows over before I head out again.

I have not done hill repeats this year, so it was about time I started. I headed to the racecourse so it was also my first time on grass in a while. The underfoot conditions were better than I expected. I had forgotten how much nicer a firm grass surface can be on the joints - I'll be back.

I went for one long hill to start - I paced it out afterwards at about 200m, though it felt longer, slope was moderate, whatever that means. Each rep took about 47s with two over 48s and one 46s. Recovery was a jog down in 1:20 to 1:30. I tried to bound up the hills, but I have never really got the hang of uphill bounding.

After 10 reps I jogged around to another hill and paced out about 100m. This one had a short run-in with a steep bit in the middle. The effort here was higher, more of a sprint. The first few were low 19s. the middle ones drifted over 20s, before I pulled them back with a few under 19s. I did another set of 10 with recoveries around 1 min.

Overall a good tough session for the legs. A 20 min cool-down helped the recovery.

I must have rediscovered my mojo because it looks like I am heading towards my biggest week ever in both time and mileage this week, mainly by tagging on some extra cool-down and recovery miles - not that I count that sort of thing. Anyway there is still a busy weekend to get through and I should not count my Easter eggs before they are hatched.

pconn062 wrote: »

I'm curious as to what sort of mileage you do on an average week DL? I am looking to start focusing on track work in the next few weeks and wanted to set a target. I know the top 800m runners in my club can get up to 60-80 miles on their peak weeks (1.50 runners).

PConn,

As you will have noticed I don't focus on mileage and deliberately don't record it here. I do record training time in my offline log and have a good idea of mileage.

This week I should go over 50 miles, usually it is well under.
During competition that can drop to less than 30 miles per week.
Average is somewhere in between.

I know there is a school of thought (especially around here) that more miles are always better. I don't fully subscribe to that. On my easy days, I get most benefit from a recovery run and some core work. When I increase volume, the quality can suffer and instead of "hard days hard, easy days easy", it becomes "moderate days moderate". Also I have a number of old injuries that I need to manage and lower mileage works for me.

That being said, all the evidence is that the better middle-distance runners run bigger mileage - that might be 60-80 or over 100. My advice (for what it's worth) is not to set a mileage target. Plan your training week around your key sessions, then add in what mileage you can that supports but does not hamper those sessions.