Tired But Happy

Last Sunday I went out for my long run.  This according to the ever changing marathon training plan would be my last long, long run before the marathon.  I arrive up at the clubhouse and the lovely 1km track and started of with 25km in mind and a bit hopeful that my legs would last the distance considering the difficulties they have been having recently.

The first 5km went off well and I stopped for a water stop and a quick stretch.  5km more and it was a water and energy gel stop with a quick stretch.  Another 5km, another water stop and 5km more with a stop for a gel and water.  20km done and I was still felling good.

DCM Week 15: Long

Yesterday's run was a nice 15km on a lovely day.  When I woke up the sun was shining.  It's been a while since that has happened in the wet country of ours.  The weather has been pretty miserable in June and July, more like winter than summer, but yesterday was a glorious day.

A nice easy 500m warm up, a stretch and I was on my way.  I had put the IT band strap on my right knee as it was giving me a bit of trouble on Thursday's run and I had put a Nuun hydration tab in my water.  I had read about Nuun tabs on blogs and some bloggers swear by them so I thought I'd give them a go.  I had the orange flavoured ones.  The taste is like lightly flavoured water but there is a slight fizz also.  I'm not sure if I'm mad about the taste or the fact that as I run they bubble up so when getting near the bottom of the drink you get foam but they did seem to do the job they are meant to, in that they kept me hydrated on a warm day.  I'll stick with them until the end of the tube and see how I go.

The run itself was non-eventful except that my right leg must be getting too much work.  The IT band is currently fine but my Achilles tendon is very tender today.  I was supposed to run a 5km recovery run today but on account of the Achilles I've decided to rest up.  Next run is on Tuesday.  14 weeks and counting to the Dublin City Marathon.  Here's hoping the tendon will be in better shape by Tuesday.  If anyone has any tips on taking care of your Achilles tendon I'd love to hear it.

DCM Week 15: Speed

So there is only 15 weeks left to the Dublin City Marathon and so far my training has not gone to plan.  Last week was a complete write off.  I woke up on Monday with a head cold, which had me totally bunged up and miserable.  I had no energy to run and probably would not have been able to breath had I run.  The cold started to clear on Friday afternoon, which was good timing as I was supposed to run a 5 mile race on Saturday morning.  So my only run of the week was that 5 mile race on Saturday, race report to follow in the next few days.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, work wise, so I moved Tuesday's run to today.  The plan called for an 8km run so I programmed the Garmin for an 8km pyramid speed workout.  It was tough but doable and the legs are getting a good workout.  I never look forward to speed workouts but I'm glad I've done them when they are over as I can feel the benefits of them.  I calculated a bit wrong and ended up running the cool down fast as I though I had another 400m fast to come.  For a perfect pyramid I should have run another 400m fast, so I wasn't wrong but that would have put me well over the 8km target for today.  I was a bit surprised when the watch said workout finished and I thought I still had 900m to go.  A small jog back to the car was my cool down, a nice round of stretching and then home.

3 more runs left this week, a 6.5km, a 15km and a 6km run.  I need to be focused for the remainder of the plan.  Bring it on.

Juneathon - Day 14: Speed Workout

Today I didn't really know what I was going to do running wise.  I wanted to run at least 6km but how was still to be decided.  I was working until 9pm and when I got changed I decided to do a speed workout.  It had been a while since my last one.

The goal was a 1km warm up, stretching, then 500m fast followed by a 1 minute walk 8 times and then a 1km cool down followed by stretching.  In my head I said I wanted the target time for all 8 500m to be under 2:30 but as close to 2:00 as possible.  When the first 500m started I went off too fast and was unsure how I would mange 8 at that pace.  When I reached 4 reps I felt 6 is enough I'll stop after 6.  When I hit 6 I told myself there was only 2 more to go I had this.  Meanwhile I think my Garmin was playing tricks on me.  I could swear that the 1 minute walk was getting shorter and shorter.  Rep 7 came and went and then on rep 8 I decided to go for broke as the rain began to bucket down.

Finished and into a 1km cool down then stretching.  I felt great afterwards.  Good workout.  Here are my times:

500m:
1: 1:54.59
2: 2:06.45
3: 2:05.29
4: 2:09.38
5: 2:07.95
6: 2:05.34
7: 2:01.25
8: 1:53.63

Two of the 500m under 2 minutes.  Delighted

Juneathon - Day 12: Running

This morning the weather was horrible and I was not looking forward to my run.  It was dark, wet, cold and miserable.  I needed to run as it had been a few days since I did and I knew I would have to go out in this.  I can't believe this is June.

When the time came to run the temperature had risen a little and rain had stopped.  I didn't bring the gloves that I was contemplating in the morning.  When I got to my starting point I left my jacket in the car, the weather had improved some more, and set off at a nice pace.  The idea for today was to try and hit 15km.  I'm supposed to run a half marathon in two weeks and I haven't run further than 12km in almost two months.

The first 10km were nice but then the dreaded IT band, on my left leg this time, began to play up.  At 11km I stopped to stretch it out and again at 13km.  At 13.1km I stopped and walked the short distance back to the car.  I didn't want to push the knee too hard.  I did this in December and it resulted in one month trying to get past 2km without my knee giving in.  I'm hoping the problem is related to Juneathon and daily exercise and that my body is a little tired.  I'll know next week how I'm feeling when I run my long run if the half is doable or if it is better I sit this one out.  I hope next weekend is better.

Juneathon - Day 8: Running

Again time was short today to get in some exercising so I decided to go out for a 6km run and to try to complete it a good bit quicker than Mondays 6km, which was run in 35:40.  I also needed to be done quick as I was going back to college and tonight was orientation so I had to be home, showered, changed and out the door within 90 minutes of leaving to go on this run.

I started comfortably and ran for 1km.  Here I stopped and stretched a bit before hitting the road again.  I decided to push it the 2nd km and slow down the 3rd.  Push it again the 4th km and then take it easier for the final two.  I was hoping to get as close as I could to 30 minutes and that would fulfil my goal of at least 30 minutes exercise every day in June.

1km: 4:58
2km: 4:30
3km: 5:24
4km: 4:28
5km: 5:11
6km: 4:51

This, surprisingly, gave me a total of 29:24.  I actually had to run a further 36 seconds to hit my 30 minute target.  As soon as I got back to the car the rain poured down so I stretched quickly the areas that have been sore lately and drove home to stretch out properly.

Everything worked out well and I was out the door on time.  Great workout.

Juneathon - Day 3: Yoga

Third day of Juneathon and my third fitness activity.  This evening I did a 36 minute yoga workout.  The aim I'm setting myself during Juneathon is to exercise everyday for at least 30 minutes each time... so far so good.

This evenings exercise was a little sore.  I know it was a short session but stretching is not a skill of mine, I happen to be one of the most inflexible people around.  I'm lucky to touch my knees, let alone my toes but hopefully yoga, if I keep it up, will start to change that.  I really found three of the exercises today difficult, well more difficult that what would be normal for me.  The sun salutation, downward facing dog and especially the half-moon poses hurt.  I guess after the core workout yesterday my stomach muscles were still a little tender and those poses gave them a nice going over, again.  I guess the tenderness must mean I working these muscles for the first time in a long time and maybe that I'm doing something right.

Tomorrow is a running day.  I hope to get out early in the morning and run 10km.  Bring on day 4.

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.

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.

Ponte 25 de Abril - The Race Start

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.

The Discoverer's Monument

Torre de Belém

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.

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 :-)

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.

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.

Feeling Good

The Tuesday run was postponed as I went to Tai Chi again and felt that a run after an hour of Tai Chi was a little too much.  Last week the knee was sore after doing both so I postponed the run until Wednesday.  The idea was to run 5km without the IT band strap on Wednesday and another 5km on Thursday.

At 9.30pm I left the house and drove to where I work.  The route around the block where I work is about 2.45km long and there is a small up and downhill.  I got to work and the weather was still good.  For the first time this year I didn't run with a hat and gloves.

I ran the first 1km as a warm up, stretched and then continued my run with the aim of completing a total of 5km without any knee pain.  As I was running I was feeling good.  I passed 4km, my previous best without the strap, and kept going.  At 5km I was still feeling good so I decided to keep going.  At 7km still feeling good I was zig zagging around to make sure I was close to the car should I have to stop while continuing the run.  I got the 10km and decided to stop so as to not strain the knee, but I felt I could have run the half marathon that night.

I love those runs where you enjoy every minute of it and it feels steady, at a good pace and you could just keep going on and on and on.  It's been a while since I enjoyed a run so much.  Looking forward to Lisbon now.

A Little Bit Further

Saturday's long run got postponed until today as I was at a wedding on Friday and thought that a long run after a night of drinking might not be the best idea in the world.  As a result my Sunday recovery run got knocked off the plan again.

Today was a 13km run where I was looking to run each kilometre between 5:40 and 6:10.  The best I've managed this year is 10km and with my knee still not the best I was a little worried about this run, hoping for the best.

The day was horrible, I should have run yesterday, the weather was better.  The wind and rain were constant the whole run and the wind was in my face all the way.  I ran the first kilometre as a warm up and then spent some time stretching.  After another 6kms I stopped for another stretch and then changed direction to support the knee.  The change of direction made no difference with the wind that seemed to change direction with me and was in my face the whole way.  The end of the run was tough and my knee started to twinge again.  Lisbon is only 4 weeks away now, hopefully I'll be ready.

Despite the rain and the tough end of the run I was happy as I did hit my goal and all kilometres were in the target zone.

1km: 5:57
2km: 5:46
3km: 5:55
4km: 5:58
5km: 5:55
6km: 5:58
7km: 6:04
8km: 5:52
9km: 5:52
10km: 5:58
11km: 5:56
12km: 6:07
13km: 5:58

First 10km of 2011

Today I didn't want to get out of bed.  It was another miserable day outside with constant rain.  Saturday is my morning to lie in as my wife looks after our son, her lie in is on a Sunday, so I really wanted to stay in bed.  I knew I had to get up and do the run as I needed to get more kilometres in if I was to attempt to finish the Lisbon half, which is now only 6 weeks away.  I also told myself that once I started running I would be happy to be out and it was only 8km.  I got up at 9am got my running gear together, had a glass of water and a banana and then left the house.

It was up to the Éire Óg clubhouse again.  I had set the workout on my Garmin Forerunner 305 to make sure that I didn't go at too fast a pace, set it for 10km just in case I felt I was happy to do a little more and off I went.  1km into the run I stopped to stretch as I usually do.  Since I hurt the IT band, stretching has become a really important part of my routine and I don't fly through it as I did before.  I begin at the head and stretch down until I reach the feet, making sure that I stretch properly.  Then it was back into the run.

What I told myself earlier "You'll be happy to be out once you start" didn't materialise.  The day was horrible and the track was waterlogged.  I spent a lot of the time trying, unsuccessfully to avoid all the puddles.  After 8km had been run I stretched a little again and thought I can go a little longer.  So after the stretch off I went again and clocked another 2km, my first 10km of the year in 1 hour and 15 seconds.  It wasn't my fastest pace and I did find it tough but I happy the knee was able for it.  Another full stretch and off home.  I'm getting there.

Wind and Rain

The weather was terrible today rain, rain, rain and then more rain.  I will admit I don't mind the rain too much, after a while running in it you tend to forget it's there.  Granted afterwards when you go to the car soaked you realise you were running in the rain. 

No the rain didn't bother me today but the wind did.  There were times I actually thought I was going to fly away.  I was running on a 1km track today and the 400m with the wind behind me was nice but when the wind hit me in the face I did question why I was out there.  At the end though it felt great to be out and to get the run in.  Saturday I hope to reach 8km.  We'll see.