Back home this week, back to work and back on the road. After a nice week of not running I went back on the road today. I ran a nice route from work out towards Oak Park, which is a crop research centre. It is a nice place to run through as the scenery changes with the seasons. From there I turned around and headed back towards town. On the way back I ran past the local athletics club, which was packed full of children running. It is true what they say, they really know how to run. Since I hurt my knee at Christmas I've been reading a lot about running form, barefoot running, etc. They seem to really have the correct running form, forward lean, mid foot landing, etc. I need to work on my running form.
As a round up this was a good month for me. I ran 105.73km this month, a new best. The goal I set myself at the beginning of the year was 1,500km in 2011. To do this I would need to average 125km a month, getting closer. So far I'm down a month already, but still think it is possible to catch by the end of the year, especially with a marathon in October. Hopefully that training will help me reach my goal.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
I'm Registered
I've just gone and done it. I went through the terror and signed up for my very first marathon. I've been humming and hawing about it for over a month now and could never bring myself to actually do it, but it's done now. I'm going to run and finish the Dublin City Marathon on the 31st October 2011.
I've decided that while I'm doing this I'm going to try and raise some money for a very deserving charity, the Irish Cancer Society. The Irish Cancer Society is financed entirely by voluntary contributions from the public and receives no government funding. Cancer is one illness that doesn't discriminate. It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor, fit or unfit and everyone has been touched by cancer in some way, either directly or indirectly. In my family one of my uncles died of bowel cancer at the age of 50, one of my cousins has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and I have a very good friend who has just been diagnosed with leukemia.
To help me raise some money for the Irish Cancer Society I've set up an online fundraising page. Any support would be very much appreciated.
I've decided that while I'm doing this I'm going to try and raise some money for a very deserving charity, the Irish Cancer Society. The Irish Cancer Society is financed entirely by voluntary contributions from the public and receives no government funding. Cancer is one illness that doesn't discriminate. It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor, fit or unfit and everyone has been touched by cancer in some way, either directly or indirectly. In my family one of my uncles died of bowel cancer at the age of 50, one of my cousins has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and I have a very good friend who has just been diagnosed with leukemia.
To help me raise some money for the Irish Cancer Society I've set up an online fundraising page. Any support would be very much appreciated.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Short Run
We travelled up to the centre of Portugal today. My brother in law is celebrating his 30th birthday on Saturday so there will be a big party. Of course I brought my running gear with me and when things had settled down a bit I went out for a run, not my best one this year but OK.
It was getting late and the sun was about to go down but I still went out the door. In Pinhel there are not really any footpaths and running from there to Autoguia again no paths. I ran about 750m when I decided to look at the Garmin to see how I was going. My first thought was "oh, that's strange". My second thought was, "I forgot to turn it on". I hit start and after 250m stopped to stretch. After the stretch was a big hill. Half way up I began to think that I didn't remember this hill being this tough. Three quarters of the way up I was contemplating walking and it took all my energy to keep going. Once at the top there is a nice straight road with a little place on each side that the cars won't knock you down when passing and a full loop is about 1km. Running in this small space didn't stop a car from trying to hit me though. A car decided to park and thought I looked like a good location to drop the car on. OK I probably should have been wearing some reflective gear and with the sun going down I decided the safest option would be to go back to the house.
On the way back I got the run down the nice hill hitting some good speeds along the way. Coming around the corner another car decided it might try to aid my run by giving me a lift on the bonnet. I swerved and declined. I then sprinted out the final little stretch and home. 3.75km on the Garmin, 4.5km in reality. Hopefully I can get out tomorrow again to make up for the short one today.
It was getting late and the sun was about to go down but I still went out the door. In Pinhel there are not really any footpaths and running from there to Autoguia again no paths. I ran about 750m when I decided to look at the Garmin to see how I was going. My first thought was "oh, that's strange". My second thought was, "I forgot to turn it on". I hit start and after 250m stopped to stretch. After the stretch was a big hill. Half way up I began to think that I didn't remember this hill being this tough. Three quarters of the way up I was contemplating walking and it took all my energy to keep going. Once at the top there is a nice straight road with a little place on each side that the cars won't knock you down when passing and a full loop is about 1km. Running in this small space didn't stop a car from trying to hit me though. A car decided to park and thought I looked like a good location to drop the car on. OK I probably should have been wearing some reflective gear and with the sun going down I decided the safest option would be to go back to the house.
On the way back I got the run down the nice hill hitting some good speeds along the way. Coming around the corner another car decided it might try to aid my run by giving me a lift on the bonnet. I swerved and declined. I then sprinted out the final little stretch and home. 3.75km on the Garmin, 4.5km in reality. Hopefully I can get out tomorrow again to make up for the short one today.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Lisbon Half - Recovery Run
With my legs still a bit shook from Sunday I went out for a run. I probably should have done this run on Monday but decided a family day out walking Lisbon Zoo was a better option that day. I had forgotten to cut my toe nails before the half and some toes were not in great shape, but on the mend. The legs were complaining that they didn't want this but I knew they really needed it.
The weather was great. A cool 16ºC with a lovely breeze. The idea was to try for 6km but if the legs were still too tender to cut that short. I ran 1km and stopped to stretch and legs felt much better after that. 5km later I was back at the house and after a bit more stretching was finished a nice slow, easy run. Feeling better today.
I've a 10km race in Dublin in just under 3 weeks time. I learned my lesson after the last half where I had no races planned when it finished. As a result I got lazy and ran only four times in the following 3 months. That won't be happening this time around.
The weather was great. A cool 16ºC with a lovely breeze. The idea was to try for 6km but if the legs were still too tender to cut that short. I ran 1km and stopped to stretch and legs felt much better after that. 5km later I was back at the house and after a bit more stretching was finished a nice slow, easy run. Feeling better today.
I've a 10km race in Dublin in just under 3 weeks time. I learned my lesson after the last half where I had no races planned when it finished. As a result I got lazy and ran only four times in the following 3 months. That won't be happening this time around.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Race Report - Lisbon Half Marathon 2011
It's all over now and my legs are in recovery but here is how it all played out.
I woke up at 7:30am and had my breakfast of porridge, honey and banana, drank about 500ml of water, put on some suncream and waited to be collected. My wife's brother João was also running the half and arrived just after 9am to bring me to the train station. João's girlfriend Ana was taking part in the mini marathon, a 7km track on mostly the same route. We got the train at 9:34am and had only one stop to go. Anyone with a race number could use the public transport system free of charge to get to and from the race, which was great. It was nice to be staying so close to the start of a race so there wasn't much travel time involved. This, however, didn't prevent me from being late for the start.
I'm going to complain a bit here so apologies in advance for this. We arrived at Pragal station and I left the group in search of a toilet. I had hopes that this would be a well organised event but the toilet facilites were definetly lacking. On paper there were a lot of toilet locations at the start, on the race route and and at the finish, unfortunatley at those locations there were not a lot of toilets, and each toilet had it's own queue, so you could be stuck a long time waiting. I tried three toilets, all with no toilet paper, poor organisation. Losing a lot of time at this point I decided to jog to the start as part of a warm up. There were two large roads leading to the start and lots of space to jog until both came together in a bottleneck with a huge crowd trying to get past. At this point I knew I would miss the start but felt that I would still have time to reach the gate I was looking to start in. When I finally got through the bottleneck (there was a nice group standing in the bottleneck making it smaller having a group meeting with two organisors watching them, not moving them on) it was on to the start.
The race starting point was at the beginning of the bridge on the way into Lisbon and the race had already started. My stretching was quick and brief, not really what I wanted but I was in a hurry. I had assumed that one side of the bridge would be for the half and the other for the mini, but I was wrong. I also assumed that they would start the race in waves with the faster wave first and so on, it seems I was wrong again. I asked which side was for the half and was told both, it doesn't matter. It also seemed that they started everyone together, I was 8 minutes late for the start, but I think if it was started in waves I wouldn't have had to wade through lots of people walking. As a result I spent the first 1km run/walking as the majoity of people were walking, stopping, taking photos, meaning I had to weave between people and stop abruptly on a regular basis, more bad organisation.
OK, further complaining about the organsition of the event can wait a little... The Race. I had said in my previous post that thoughts of a PR were shelved due to the weather, of course I was just saying that but still harbouring hopes it might be possible. This half is considered the fastest in the world as it is almost totally flat with probably 100m uphill and 1km downhill outside of that flat, a great opportunity for a PR. At the 3.5km mark we came off the bridge completed our little bit of uphill and then began winding our way downhill to the lower river level. At 5km the mini marathon went to the right and the half to the left. At this point there was lots of space. It was also the first water stop and bit of live music. With the temperatures at 23ºC it was great that there were so many water stations on the route, good organisation :-) and the live music along the route also was a welcoming factor.
Songs I heard sung live along the route:
Michael Jackson's Don't Stop Til You Get Enough
Phil Collin's Easy Lover
Katy Perry's Hot N Cold
Britney Spear's Toxic
Wham's Wake Me Up Before You Go Go
Chuck Berry's Johnny B Goode
Around the 8km mark we past the main square of Lisbon's downtown, Praça do Comércio. Up to this point my race was going quite well and my pace was well on for a sub 2 hour half. We turned around and ran back the direction we came from. As soon as the turn was made the lovely breeze that had been in my face on the way up completely disappeared, replaced by a dead heat. At the next water station I poured a bottle of water over me to cool down, a slight mistake as my t-shirt became really heavy, at least in the heat it didn't stay heavy for long. At 10km I passed Hennessy's Irish Pub for the second time and I'm sure I could hear it whisper "Come in for a cool drink". At this point my heart rate was also suggesting a break. Shaking this from my head I plodded on. At 13km we passed the point again where the mini and half orignally seperated and went the other direction. We continued down this new stretch of road along the river towards Belém. Along this route there are some great views.
At 15km I was gone. I stopped and walked each time I took a drink. At 17km we ran by and past the finish line and it was tempting to jump the barrier and run towards it. At 19km we reached the end of this long stretch of road turned around and ran back along the other lane. Just over 2km left and the breeze had returned. At 19.5km banana's and orange slices were handed out and the next 1km was spend making sure you didn't step and slip on any of the peels. I pushed and pushed myself over this last stretch as a sub 2 hour was still possible but it was going to be close. I ran through the finished line, tired, glad to be finished, with nothing left to give and collected my medal and finish pack in front of Jeronimo's Monastery. In my opinion the toughest race I've ever run. My son, my wife and her dad were there at the finish line to great me. The finishing pack had two bottles of water, one energy drink, a carton of milk and a small museli bar. I was so happy that my wife brought lots of sugary jellies for me to snack on at the end of the race.
I later got my offical chip time off the website 1:59:31 a new PR.
The classification gave me a finish of 4128 out of 6331 which is based on the offical time but on chip time I finished 3577, not bad, and out of the 23 Irish people who entered the race I placed 8th. Out of the 2752 in my age category I placed 1663.
The trip home was an adventure. We decided to get the boat back across the river. The queue was long as there was no change in the public transport timetables. At the weekends in Lisbon the public transport service is reduced and the day of the race was no different. With 36,000 people decending on Lisbon, over 6000 for the half and the rest for the mini all with the right to free access on public transport you would think that the service would have been increased even just for the time of the race and two hours after but no. Agression levels were high and two men had to be physically pulled apart while waiting for the boat amongst aqusations of skipping the queue. I've been told a few times before that queue skipping is a big no no in Portugal and I saw evidence of that first hand.
We got home, showered, changed and the it was out on the tiles for the night. We went for dinnner to an all you can eat Brazillian Restaurant called Chimarrão and ate until we were about to burst. A couple of drinks later and a fun day ended.
Despite some of the organisational hiccups it was a great day, a great race, great spirit around the place and wonderful sceanery. I'd do it again, but hopefully on a cooler day. If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed it, I did.
I woke up at 7:30am and had my breakfast of porridge, honey and banana, drank about 500ml of water, put on some suncream and waited to be collected. My wife's brother João was also running the half and arrived just after 9am to bring me to the train station. João's girlfriend Ana was taking part in the mini marathon, a 7km track on mostly the same route. We got the train at 9:34am and had only one stop to go. Anyone with a race number could use the public transport system free of charge to get to and from the race, which was great. It was nice to be staying so close to the start of a race so there wasn't much travel time involved. This, however, didn't prevent me from being late for the start.
I'm going to complain a bit here so apologies in advance for this. We arrived at Pragal station and I left the group in search of a toilet. I had hopes that this would be a well organised event but the toilet facilites were definetly lacking. On paper there were a lot of toilet locations at the start, on the race route and and at the finish, unfortunatley at those locations there were not a lot of toilets, and each toilet had it's own queue, so you could be stuck a long time waiting. I tried three toilets, all with no toilet paper, poor organisation. Losing a lot of time at this point I decided to jog to the start as part of a warm up. There were two large roads leading to the start and lots of space to jog until both came together in a bottleneck with a huge crowd trying to get past. At this point I knew I would miss the start but felt that I would still have time to reach the gate I was looking to start in. When I finally got through the bottleneck (there was a nice group standing in the bottleneck making it smaller having a group meeting with two organisors watching them, not moving them on) it was on to the start.
The race starting point was at the beginning of the bridge on the way into Lisbon and the race had already started. My stretching was quick and brief, not really what I wanted but I was in a hurry. I had assumed that one side of the bridge would be for the half and the other for the mini, but I was wrong. I also assumed that they would start the race in waves with the faster wave first and so on, it seems I was wrong again. I asked which side was for the half and was told both, it doesn't matter. It also seemed that they started everyone together, I was 8 minutes late for the start, but I think if it was started in waves I wouldn't have had to wade through lots of people walking. As a result I spent the first 1km run/walking as the majoity of people were walking, stopping, taking photos, meaning I had to weave between people and stop abruptly on a regular basis, more bad organisation.
 |
| Ponte 25 de Abril - The Race Start |
Songs I heard sung live along the route:
Michael Jackson's Don't Stop Til You Get Enough
Phil Collin's Easy Lover
Katy Perry's Hot N Cold
Britney Spear's Toxic
Wham's Wake Me Up Before You Go Go
Chuck Berry's Johnny B Goode
Around the 8km mark we past the main square of Lisbon's downtown, Praça do Comércio. Up to this point my race was going quite well and my pace was well on for a sub 2 hour half. We turned around and ran back the direction we came from. As soon as the turn was made the lovely breeze that had been in my face on the way up completely disappeared, replaced by a dead heat. At the next water station I poured a bottle of water over me to cool down, a slight mistake as my t-shirt became really heavy, at least in the heat it didn't stay heavy for long. At 10km I passed Hennessy's Irish Pub for the second time and I'm sure I could hear it whisper "Come in for a cool drink". At this point my heart rate was also suggesting a break. Shaking this from my head I plodded on. At 13km we passed the point again where the mini and half orignally seperated and went the other direction. We continued down this new stretch of road along the river towards Belém. Along this route there are some great views.
 |
| The Discoverer's Monument |
 |
| Torre de Belém |
 |
| Jeronimo's Monastery |
 |
| At the end of the race with my free Chocolate Cornetto (I love Ice-cream, Wonderful Organisation) |
 |
| Me and James celebrate the end of the race |
 |
| Me and my wife Ana who gratefully brought jellies for me to eat. |
 |
| Look what I won |
I later got my offical chip time off the website 1:59:31 a new PR.
The classification gave me a finish of 4128 out of 6331 which is based on the offical time but on chip time I finished 3577, not bad, and out of the 23 Irish people who entered the race I placed 8th. Out of the 2752 in my age category I placed 1663.
The trip home was an adventure. We decided to get the boat back across the river. The queue was long as there was no change in the public transport timetables. At the weekends in Lisbon the public transport service is reduced and the day of the race was no different. With 36,000 people decending on Lisbon, over 6000 for the half and the rest for the mini all with the right to free access on public transport you would think that the service would have been increased even just for the time of the race and two hours after but no. Agression levels were high and two men had to be physically pulled apart while waiting for the boat amongst aqusations of skipping the queue. I've been told a few times before that queue skipping is a big no no in Portugal and I saw evidence of that first hand.
We got home, showered, changed and the it was out on the tiles for the night. We went for dinnner to an all you can eat Brazillian Restaurant called Chimarrão and ate until we were about to burst. A couple of drinks later and a fun day ended.
 |
| Portuguese beer "Super Bock" in a Guinness glass, nice :-) |
Friday, March 18, 2011
Rising Temperatures
A few days ago I was contemplating a PR in the Lisbon half on Sunday. I had checked the long term weather forcast which said sunny, blue skies and 18ºC. Perfect for an attempt at a PR, or so I thought. Three days ago the weather forecast stated 20ºC, two days ago it was giving 22ºC and yesterday on arrival in Portugal the weather forecast said 24ºC for Sunday.
This morning I ran a small 4km as my last outing before the half. It was 16ºC out. The past few runs I been doing at home have been in temperatures between 4ºC and 8ºC, granted I was well wrapped up. Today was the first run done this year without a jacket and I could still feel the heat difference as I was out. Sunday will be 8ºC warmer. I've since revised my goal of a PR and will just go out and run it and see what happens. I hope there will be a lot of water stations on the route.
I'm going into the city today to collect my race pack and my wife's family are cooking pasta for dinner tonight and tomorrow night. I'll be making sure I get enough water in today and tomorrow and during the race. I've even brought porridge from Ireland for breakfast the mornign of the race. I'm also not having any wine until after the race. I think yesterday was the first St. Patrick's Day in a long time that was a dry one for me, but I'll celebrate Sunday night instead.
This morning I ran a small 4km as my last outing before the half. It was 16ºC out. The past few runs I been doing at home have been in temperatures between 4ºC and 8ºC, granted I was well wrapped up. Today was the first run done this year without a jacket and I could still feel the heat difference as I was out. Sunday will be 8ºC warmer. I've since revised my goal of a PR and will just go out and run it and see what happens. I hope there will be a lot of water stations on the route.
I'm going into the city today to collect my race pack and my wife's family are cooking pasta for dinner tonight and tomorrow night. I'll be making sure I get enough water in today and tomorrow and during the race. I've even brought porridge from Ireland for breakfast the mornign of the race. I'm also not having any wine until after the race. I think yesterday was the first St. Patrick's Day in a long time that was a dry one for me, but I'll celebrate Sunday night instead.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Last Stretch
Long day in work today and I wasn't sure if I would get out for a run. I was hoping to get in three short runs before Sunday's race. I got home starving and had some food and then lounged around for about two hours until finally I left the house.
I don't like running so close after eating and I needed food, but also needed the run. I did a bit of gardening on Sunday and my legs have been sore since so I needed to get out and stretch. I guess gardening uses different muscles than running.
A nice 5km stretch in the cold and I was back home to begin the packing for Lisbon.
I don't like running so close after eating and I needed food, but also needed the run. I did a bit of gardening on Sunday and my legs have been sore since so I needed to get out and stretch. I guess gardening uses different muscles than running.
A nice 5km stretch in the cold and I was back home to begin the packing for Lisbon.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
A Week To Go
On Saturday, with just a week to go to the half, I went out for my last weekend run. The plan was to run 12km at a comfortable pace and not to goo to fast. Again I drove to work as the road options are great from there, lots of twists and turns so you can make any road run longer or shorter quite easily.
I ran out the gate up a slight hill, down another and at the 1km mark stopped to stretch out. After stretching it was back on the road and I continued the 5km loop. The legs were very sluggish and I felt very slow. I began thinking maybe 10km will be enough, I can stop if I get to ten.
As I came back to work and the end of my 5km loop I turned around and ran the loop backwards. I had read that when runners get used to running a certain direction they find it harder to run the opposite direction at the same pace. It was nice to change it up. As I got to 9km I decided that I would continue to 11km, maybe. At 9.75km my legs seemed to wake up and I felt better. I completed the 12km and felt very comfortable at the end. Breathing was good, legs felt good and I still have life left in the body. I stretched out and drove home.
At home checking the run on my PC I noticed that I ran my fastest ever 10km. From the start of the 2nd km to the end of the 11th km took 53:36, a good pace. Now If I can bring that into the race next week.
I ran out the gate up a slight hill, down another and at the 1km mark stopped to stretch out. After stretching it was back on the road and I continued the 5km loop. The legs were very sluggish and I felt very slow. I began thinking maybe 10km will be enough, I can stop if I get to ten.
As I came back to work and the end of my 5km loop I turned around and ran the loop backwards. I had read that when runners get used to running a certain direction they find it harder to run the opposite direction at the same pace. It was nice to change it up. As I got to 9km I decided that I would continue to 11km, maybe. At 9.75km my legs seemed to wake up and I felt better. I completed the 12km and felt very comfortable at the end. Breathing was good, legs felt good and I still have life left in the body. I stretched out and drove home.
At home checking the run on my PC I noticed that I ran my fastest ever 10km. From the start of the 2nd km to the end of the 11th km took 53:36, a good pace. Now If I can bring that into the race next week.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Nice Run
Race day is getting closer. Another 6km run was planned for today, hoping to hit 5:30 kilometre pace in my taper. I brought my gear with me today and got togged out to run after work. It was nice to run in daylight. The last few runs, leaving out the long runs, have been at night.
The run was comfortable and I managed a 5:29 pace. It was nice to feel comfotable, be able for the pace and to smile most of the way. Saturday will be a 12km and I hope to do it in 5:40 which should be my race pace and then we are a week away from the run.
The run was comfortable and I managed a 5:29 pace. It was nice to feel comfotable, be able for the pace and to smile most of the way. Saturday will be a 12km and I hope to do it in 5:40 which should be my race pace and then we are a week away from the run.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
12 Days To Go
With only 12 days to the Lisbon half I've begun reducing my training. Today was 6km at a pace of 30 seconds slower than last week. Thursday will be another 6km at a pace of 30 seconds slower than today and then Saturday will be 12km, slower still.
I'm so happy to have got to this stage. In January I wasn't really sure that I would end up running this race at all. To have got through the injury enough to be contemplating a PR is great. There is still a niggle in the knee, a small bit of discomfort at times, but it's getting better. I still wear the IT band strap on my Saturday long run but run without it on the other runs during the week. The plan after Lisbon is to try to also run the long runs without it. I have to get through Lisbon first.
I'm so happy to have got to this stage. In January I wasn't really sure that I would end up running this race at all. To have got through the injury enough to be contemplating a PR is great. There is still a niggle in the knee, a small bit of discomfort at times, but it's getting better. I still wear the IT band strap on my Saturday long run but run without it on the other runs during the week. The plan after Lisbon is to try to also run the long runs without it. I have to get through Lisbon first.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Early Morning Run
The idea of today's run was to run slower than last weeks 18km but still at a good pace. This was my last long run before the half, I'll be slowing it down from here on in.
Normally I would run between 10am and 11am on a Saturday morning but as my wife was off to Dublin today I needed to get the run in earlier. I had my porridge and honey for breakfast, which is what I like to eat before embarking on a long run, drove to the shop and bought an energy drink. After a few drinks drove to work where the run would begin. The radio was talking about beautiful weather, blue skies in Dublin but outside in Carlow the fog was everywhere and still hasn't lifted as I write this.
At 8:35am I left the car park with my head fully awake but my legs seemingly still asleep and a little sore. This was going to be a long run. I have four road routes that I like to run around the town and today I decided instead of doing a loop 3.5 times maybe I should run them all and see how far that is. By combining the routes there would only be one stretch of about 750m that I would run twice.
The first 8km were far from comfortable, unlike Thursday's run but I battled through. It wasn't until 14km that my legs started to respond and feel that they were up to the task. I reached the front of my office and the Garmin showed 17.83km, not bad. I ran a little further to hit the 18km and walked back to the car to stretch. I felt the run, although tough, was at a comfortable enough pace, a pace of 05:33 min/km, which would give me a sub 2 hour half, happy days. I was 1 minute and 24 seconds slower than last week, not much.
With the IT band problem in late December and a half training schedule that was changed almost every week I didn't think I'd be at the stage I'm at now. Looking forward to Lisbon now. Recovery run tomorrow, all going well.
Normally I would run between 10am and 11am on a Saturday morning but as my wife was off to Dublin today I needed to get the run in earlier. I had my porridge and honey for breakfast, which is what I like to eat before embarking on a long run, drove to the shop and bought an energy drink. After a few drinks drove to work where the run would begin. The radio was talking about beautiful weather, blue skies in Dublin but outside in Carlow the fog was everywhere and still hasn't lifted as I write this.
At 8:35am I left the car park with my head fully awake but my legs seemingly still asleep and a little sore. This was going to be a long run. I have four road routes that I like to run around the town and today I decided instead of doing a loop 3.5 times maybe I should run them all and see how far that is. By combining the routes there would only be one stretch of about 750m that I would run twice.
The first 8km were far from comfortable, unlike Thursday's run but I battled through. It wasn't until 14km that my legs started to respond and feel that they were up to the task. I reached the front of my office and the Garmin showed 17.83km, not bad. I ran a little further to hit the 18km and walked back to the car to stretch. I felt the run, although tough, was at a comfortable enough pace, a pace of 05:33 min/km, which would give me a sub 2 hour half, happy days. I was 1 minute and 24 seconds slower than last week, not much.
With the IT band problem in late December and a half training schedule that was changed almost every week I didn't think I'd be at the stage I'm at now. Looking forward to Lisbon now. Recovery run tomorrow, all going well.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Comfortable
Again a late run today. I got out at 9.30pm for a planned 8km. I wasn't too clever today in that I ate my dinner close to the time I ran at. I don't usually do this. I would normally run before eating or about 3 hours after eating and today I know why. For most of the run I could feel the food and it was not very pleasant.
Despite this small bit of annoyance the run was actually very comfortable. I questioned myself afterwards, "When did 8km become comfortable?". 18km again on Saturday and then I begin to reduce in time for Lisbon.
Despite this small bit of annoyance the run was actually very comfortable. I questioned myself afterwards, "When did 8km become comfortable?". 18km again on Saturday and then I begin to reduce in time for Lisbon.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Killer Run
Tonight's run was tough, tough, tough. Granted it was self inflicted torture and in some sick way I enjoyed it. OK maybe I didn't really enjoy the whole of the run but I definitely enjoyed the finish and the finish time. This was my last fast run before the half marathon, with Saturday my last long run. After that it's reducing everything until the race.
I decided as this was the last fast run to put it all out there and see what time I hit. I ran the first 1km fast, not at full throttle, but fast and then stopped to stretch. After the stretch I ran faster, trying to go to the threshold while not pushing too hard that I wouldn't finish the 5km. After 2km my legs began to tire and my heart rate began to explode. After 4km I thought I was going to keel over and began to think I would not finish the 5km. My body wanted to stop but my mind kept pushing me on and on. Finally I reached the 5km and stopped, trying to catch my breath. I had run my heart out. My fastest 5km before this was 24:22. Today I ran the same distance in 23:04, a full 1 minute and 18 seconds faster. No wonder I thought I was going to collapse. At least I'll sleep well tonight.
I decided as this was the last fast run to put it all out there and see what time I hit. I ran the first 1km fast, not at full throttle, but fast and then stopped to stretch. After the stretch I ran faster, trying to go to the threshold while not pushing too hard that I wouldn't finish the 5km. After 2km my legs began to tire and my heart rate began to explode. After 4km I thought I was going to keel over and began to think I would not finish the 5km. My body wanted to stop but my mind kept pushing me on and on. Finally I reached the 5km and stopped, trying to catch my breath. I had run my heart out. My fastest 5km before this was 24:22. Today I ran the same distance in 23:04, a full 1 minute and 18 seconds faster. No wonder I thought I was going to collapse. At least I'll sleep well tonight.
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