A little bit of everything, just faster

Before I forget

Thursday 11km with 25 minutes uphill treadmill.

Got this advice from T Runner re climb training on a treadmill. Will try and do this weekly and measure the results. In theory, the distance the treadmill records should reduce and the speed should go up.

3km warm up before a lot of faffing around on treadmill. Couldn’t figure out the speed, whether it was km or miles etc so pace all over the shop.

Put slope on 10%. Started off slow enough before upping the pace after 5 mins after I figured out the speed was in kmph and not mph. Last 7 mins or so legs began to tire and could start feeling the burn.

Upped the pace for the last two minutes to finish. The machine gave me a distance of 4.1km. Should comfortably beat that next week given the amount of faffing around. Will then have a target each time. Next week, will set the speed higher from the start.

Interestingly, the garmin 220 gave me a pace of around 4.55min/km and seems to have made a good attempt at predicting the workout based on the built-in accelerometer. Accurately recorded me upping the pace.

Apparently, the accelerometer works based on the data it records when you use the GPS and refines that data each time you run outside.

Tuesday 30 min tempo

3.54 km/min pace (6.17 mile)

Good session between avoiding commuters/paths etc. Did 27 mins rather than the planned 30 as simply ran out of road and wasn't pushed doubling back on myself. Last 2 km was 3.50 which I reckon is what I should be doing. Comfortable enough finishing besides creaky knee.

11.75km total.

Wednesday 6.5km recovery
Did this before the great wind came. 4.55 pace. Nice "fresh" run. Knee was ok.

Thursday treadmill climb 25 mins
3km warm up outside. Set the slope to 10 degrees and set off at 11kmph. Bit too hot, so did 10 mins at 10.5kmph and the last 15 mins at 10kmph.

Good hard session, with the distance reading 4.28, an improvement on last week of 4.1. Probably try and reverse it next week. No pain from the knee.

11.21km total.

Tuesday easy 5 miles

Legs still wrecked, easy recovery

Wednesday 36km bike

Easy spin, decided to take a day off running. Up Howth head so bit of a climb.

Thursday treadmill session

25 mins at 10 degree slope.

Plan was 25 mins at 10.5 km/hour. But that wasn't happened. Ended up doing 16 mins at 10.3. Two min rest and 10 mins at 10km/hour. Still trying to get a feel for this session, a case of fine tuning the session. Wrecked afterwards, Will go for 20 mins at 10.3 next week.

Total treadmill distance reading 4.32km. 3km WU, KM WD.

Sunday 16km
Lovely jaunt around the trails of the Phoenix park. Slowing increasing distance and knee felt fine.

19km mountain run
Plan to reccee one of the long IMRA races, up by St Kevin's Way, up to Camaderry and onto Turlough Power station and back to Glendalough.

Pretty scary run in the end. Felt fine for most of the run but suddenly got light headed on top of the mountain, between two peaks in boggy ground. Would describe it as a huge sugar crash, head got foggy etc. Went from feeling great to feeling wobbly on the legs and needing to sit down. Was mildly panicked due to the location, which made it worse. Eventually managed to walk to Turlough power station which took about 20 mins and started to feel better once I was on the access road. Was a long 7km back to the car. Felt better an hour later after chocolate etc.

53km for the week, 36km bike

Micilin Muc wrote: »

Did you bring a map and compass on that recce? Any idea what brought on the sugar crash?

Not sure what happened. I had all the kit, GPS and survival bag. Left my route with the gf with a rough time. I've been googling it and it may be down to a hectic weekend of beer and wine which (alcohol) can cause hypoglycemia. Scary stuff. I had gels with me too so I reckon if i took one of them I would've been fine.

Tuesday 10km recovery 4.44km/min

Easy run in the sun. Legs were dead but great for the head.

Wednesday 2 * 2 miles, 11km total

Headed to the paths near the Kyber in the park for the reps. Plan said 3 reps but decided to ease myself back in.

Initial target pace was 3.50 min/km but felt good and kept it at 3.40 ish.

First 2 miles came in at 11.52.

Second rep was obviously tougher. Pace was still roughly 3.42, last 1km I was hanging on. Second 2 miles came in at 11.47. Briefly toyed with the idea of going another 2 miles but decided not to. I swung from thinking it was the sensible choice to thinking it I was wussing out.

Thursday 7km recovery
Sensible choice as it turned out as legs were battered with a sore thigh. Did plan for 8km but legs went from loosening out a bit to tying up around the 6km mark.

Sunday 14.63 (9 miles) 4.27 min/km
Great run this. Didn't get a chance to get out on Fri/Sat. All on roads/paths and felt strong for the whole run. Most of the kms were under 4.30 pace without ever pushing it, pace naturally rose to 4.16 min/km towards the end and finished with a 4.11 split feeling handy.

Monday 22.5km 940 metres of climb
Pretty sure I got a bit of a tan running today. Out for 2 and half hours on the hills. Did the first 8km or so of the Wicklow Way Trail race, along shoulder of Djouce and across the river. towards Crone Wood. Picked up the Maulin walking trail that goes from Ride Rock. Did a loop around Maulin and retraced my route back along the boardwalks. Tired legs towards the end.

65km for week
An increase of 3km for the week. Was aiming for 70km.

I’ll try this one more time.
Main races entered are the Beast of Ballyhoura in 12 weeks’ time and Lake District 50 mile ultra. The ultra is looking like 50/50 whether I run it given lack of long runs and it’s the week before the Beast.

So more or less out for 7 weeks since a grade 2 calf tear in March. Been slowly building the miles up and messing about on the bike.

Last week was the first decent week I had.

Monday Howth Head cycle 36.5km
A soggy cycle but some spectacular views of the cloud bursts in Dublin bay. Last 10km were a bit of grind.

Tuesday 5km and core/leg exercises 4.35 min/km
Easy 5km followed by some leg exercises and core work in the park.

Wednesday IMRA Djoure Race DNF 8km 550 metre climb
First IMRA race since the injury so a mixture of excitement and trepidation.
A downhill start meant for a face 1st km and I could feel I was a bit off the pace. However, once the trail went uphill, I was going well all things considered. It’s a tough course, very steep in places, tricky terrain with lots of tree roots that require stepping over and in between. It’s 6km straight up.

Started to flag on some of the steeper sections about 25 mins in but recovered once on the open mountain and held the gap on runners ahead. Probably in around 24th or so hitting the summit.

On the descent I took a really good line down main peak and caught two people within a few hundred metres on the difficult section. Once on the easier terrain, I was confident of finding a few more places and then BANG. I was running and then I was on the ground. Elbow appeared to be cut pretty deep with lots of blood streaming down.

Knee had a few cuts. Panicked a bit given the amount of blood but turns out it was just a small puncture wound that looked much worse than it was.

Thursday 6.44km run
Weather was nice. That’s the only reason why I tried this run. Everything was fairly tender after the fall but it was still enjoyable. Took a while to loosen up.

Friday 4.82km run
Similar to Thursday, nice weather. Upper body was more sore today than the legs. Keen to get the runs in when I can.

Saturday 56.6km road cycle 727 metre of climb

Had great plans of doing 100km around Wicklow. Started off well, first 18km are all uphill towards Sally Gap. When I got to the open mountain, the wind was pretty strong and I was cycling into a headwind no matter what direction I was heading. It was bizarre. Made for a tough few hours. Even the downhill was tricky with the wind. So decided to do a shorter route and head back down after hitting the Sally Gap.

Sunday 21.1km run, 4.44 min/km pace
Legs felt pretty good on this. All done on trails in the park at a relaxed pace.


Week totals: run 44.km bike: 93km.

Good week all things considered and pretty happy with the long run on Sunday.

Tuesday 5km run 25km bike

Handy run at lunch time with a few strength exercises.

Fast 25km on the bike. Wanted to hold 30km for an hour but ran out of road and wanted to get home to watch the Giro. Settled for 28.6km for 25 mins with a few stops at traffic lights etc.

IMRA Glasnamullen/Djouce Loop 10.4km 463 metres

Superb new route. Open mountain, trails, fast technical downhills over a nice loop.

Hard to judge the race as you hit the top of Djouce after 4km with 6km left of running.

Not a fan of the start of this race as it’s a bit too fast for what is to come, lots of jostling for positions.

Still a bit off from where I was earlier this year and was finding the climb tough from early on. Lost one or two places but eventually go into a nice battle with 2 other lads of similar pace. A bit like cycling, the lead runner dragged me up the first half of the climb. Started to relax into the climb once the ‘racing’ was finished.

Legs were burning at the flat section which skirts around the mountain with the main ramp of Djouce still to come I sort of recovered quickly though and started to perhaps close the gap on those ahead thanks to the steady pace.
Djouce as always is murder on the legs and the cloudy summit when it came was a welcome sight.

No time to recover as it was straight into the downhill. I was hoping to take it easy going down but the stampede of feet behind me were gaining. Got to the front of your group and onto the Wicklow Way boardwalks. Again, no let-up in pace. Boardwalk is tricky and my lack of speed was holding up the chasers but lack of passing opportunities meant I held them off. We came off the boardwalks and turned onto a trail witha slight climb and then onto fantastic, rocky descent.

Was moving well and started to catch runners over the next 2km of steep downhill. Small moment of panic when we turned left to cover 800 metres of boggy/tricky flat terrain and thought I went too early. But survived that for the last 1km of downhill and caught another runner before the last corner which is always nice. Killer when it happens to you. Top 15 finish and seem to be back running well with no niggles etc.

Was a bit disappointed last week to be so far off the pace but this race was only a min or less back.

Saturday 16 miles, 4.50min km pace
Legs were fairly hammered after race so took it easy.

Sunday 100km bike 1200 metres climbing

Up over Sally Gap and Wicklow Gap with Laragh in between.
First 30km were horrible, felt awful, weather was closing in and stuck in no-mans land between Sally Gap and Laragh. Stopped for coffee and cake and then up Wicklow Gap. Felt better at this point and the last 25km were fine. Avg speed of 24km.

Tues 10km 4.30km pace
Steady run.

Wednesday 5km
Quick 5km before heading out.

Thursday 12.5km 380 metres
Lovely run around Ticknock with some nice climbs.

Saturday 10km 300 metres
Another run up at Ticknock

Sunday 24km (15 miles) 4.36min/km

Decent run. Legs felt pretty good throughout. Very warm and humid day which resulted in a bit of dehydration and a headache. Quick pit stop for a bottle of water after 13 miles.

61km total running last week

Yeah think I'm planning on doing it as part of training for the Beast. It's perfect timing, three weeks out.

What are the costs like? I was half thinking you could just show up, pitch a tent somewhere for the weekend? I just read there that you can add on extra €30 for some accom package. Which doesn't look like a bad deal given dinner and breakfast is included, along with massages.

Monday 8km recovery.

Planned to do a short bike session but I forgot I cycled to work that morning and had left work without it!
Legs felt pretty good after the 15 miles the day before so delighted with that.

Tuesday 41km road bike

Good ride and set a few PBs on Howth Head. Legs didn’t feel tired at all.

Wednesday IMRA Sorrell Hill 9.5km 365metre of climb.

Usual rush to make it to the start line. Strange race. I convinced myself that I was just going to enjoy the run, the views and the beautiful weather, rather than flog myself.

Started off conservatively and was feeling pretty good getting onto the open mountain after 2km. Was surprised to see I wasn’t that far behind the leading group. There’s about 2km of relatively flat/downhill section between first climb and second climb. It’s a bit boggy in places and I picked a few decent lines to avoid the worst of it.

Starting the final climb, I was feeling good and caught a few people and was gaining on others. At the summit, we turned and headed back the way we came. The first descent is very steep and a bit tricky. Took it easy here.

Unlike most out and back routes, there’s a bit of climbing still left that catches people out. Add some boggy terrain and it’s a struggle. I was chasing two in front and they started come back to me with about 3km to go.

I caught one of them and sat in, not wanting to risk blowing up. We had two fences to climb over before the end so put in a bit of surge to get ahead before the second last fence. That worked and gapped him and caught the other lad. Again, I sat on his shoulder and thought about putting a dig in to get ahead of him before the last fence as I knew it would be hard to overtake once over.

I decided against it and sure enough, was unable to get past him on the last descent and he hung on. Looking back, I should’ve made a move.
Good race, finding a bit of form.

Thursday 8km.
Felt a bit fluey heading out but nice run. Legs were very tired from the race. Full blown flu later that night.

Saturday European Marathon Championships – mountain bike 75km 1900 metre climbing Ballyhoura.


Decided to do this at the last minute as part of training for Beast of Ballyhoura.
I entered on the last day of entry on Thursday and later that day I was in bits with the flu. Undeterred, I had a few pints watching Spain and Holland on Fri night. That was mistake 1.

Preparation was less than ideal, a cheesy toasty in a garage and two cereal bars was my carb loading for the day. Mistake 2.

At sign in I realised I forgot my camelbak so had to use a bigger backpack which immediately marked me out as a newbie, the rest of the racers stuck everything in their race jerseys. Mistake 3.

Mistake 4 was thinking you could get food at the feed zones. You couldn’t. And all I had was 2 gels about two years out of date for the entire race. Luckily I bumped into shotgunmcos and got some figrolls from him which I ate straight away.

I decided to rent a bike rather than use my own one which was wise as the rental bike was pretty nifty and more or less brand new. Rented it at Ballyhoura for €30 odd quid. My confidence wasn’t helped when the guy renting me the bike assumed I was doing the ‘fun’ race and not the full 75km.
Somehow I made it on time to the start line and wisely started from the back.
The start was relatively relaxed and I settled in with a few other lads who were there just for the craic. I was mightily relieved that I wasn’t left for dust and my confidence grew when I actually began to pass people on the first climb.

The first single track section was a bit hectic. Riders were still bunched together so it was a bit hairy trying to keep up and not block those behind you.

Plan was to just get around so wasn’t going to push. The first serious climb was an eye-opener. You could see the whole field strung out, climbing this huge hill. Head down and I was spinning up the climb without too much effort, passing a few riders as I went. Eventually got to a stage where the hill was too steep and rough for anyone to cycle so had to push the bike up for the last few hundred metres.

Over the top and hurtling down the other side, rocks bouncing either side of me, dust everywhere.

The next few hours are a blur of climbing, tricky descents, more climbing and superb single track. The odd near miss/awful race line. It was a beautiful day and the legs felt good for most of the day. Caught up to shotgun around 40km in and we cycled together for a bit before he suffered a bit of cramp.

Took one gel at 20km and was rationing my last gel for emergency. It got tough around the 55km mark. The legs were feeling strong but everything else was in bits. Took second and last gel around 4 hours into the race. My hands were killing me. Had no gloves which left friction burns all over my palms making every descent v painful. Arms were sore from the punishing downhills, backside was battered and still had another 90 minutes left.

The worst part was I had to come through the start finish area for the last 20km so could hear and see that a fair few people had already finished!

Luckily, at the last food stop, someone had kindly left a spare powerbar so ate half of that and there was also some coke to drink.

Last hour was just a sufferfest of endless undulating trails I found difficult to ride. Every rock slowed me down. With 3km to go, I saw one guy almost passed out on the side of the trail, lying down and asking for food. I gave him the last half of the powerbar.

It was a sign of how fecked I was that I was concerned that I needed the half of the powerbar more than him to finish the last 3km. A marshal armed with a bar of chocolate was running up to reach the other rider so he must’ve been there a while!

I got passed by two people in the last 1km but couldn’t care less. Eventually finished in just over 5 hours and 15 minutes.
Next 20 mins were a blur. Had a burger, then a pizza, then a huge ice cream before I felt somewhat normal. Those MTB lads are made of strong stuff. The average rider was around 4 hours 20 or so. Didn’t come last so that was a bonus!

Great experience though, loved the first 55km. Superb organisation.