Building up to Great Ireland Run

Just a normal training week this week but with the Great Ireland Run at the end of it. Normally I would let up a bit in training the week of a race but not for this race.

Monday:

5.95 Miles
Avg Pace: 9:01

Few loops around Gormanston on a windy Monday evening. Not really feeling the love for it and legs tired enough. Bit of tightness in left calf going on at the moment.

Tuesday:

10.04 Miles
Avg Pace: 8:38

Long run for the week. Headed from Gormanston through Stamullen and out for a hilly loop and back to Stamullen. Quick enough pace for the terrain but a good test for the legs. Did a loop of the college to bring up the 10 miles. Upped the pace to around 7:30 pace for the last mile and felt fine. Lovely loop and ideal for a longer midweek.

Thursday:

4.40 Miles
Avg Pace: 8:38

Got the legs worked on Tuesday night which normally leaves them tired for a couple of days. Just a few loops around the college tonight.

Friday:

2 miles warm up @ 8:39 pace
6 mins tempo @ 7:07 pace
.81 mile w/d @ 9:52 pace

3.65 miles total

This was out speed session with Gary. Those of us racing the weekend got let off with just a 6 minute tempo at around 10K pace. Felt grand and was really just a blowout to get the legs turning over. Couple of laps warm down outside the track while those not racing continued with their session.


Summary: Happy enough to get out 4 times so far. A lot going on with work at the moment so good to get out in the fresh air. Meant to be windy tomorrow for the race but the aim at the moment it not to go out too quickly. The first 1/2 of the course is quick but plenty will be needed for the second half. Hopefully will pace it right to be able to pass plenty of people in the 2nd half. Easier said than done ......

Another visit to Malahide Parkrun

Thursday 5th April

6.7 Miles
Avg Pace: 8:25

This turned out to be my longest run of the week. Usual Thursday night club run but with a bit more light we were out onto the outer loop for the first time this year and onto some grass. Turned out to be a really good progression run doing the last 2 loops with Rosemary bringing the pace down from around 8:40 on the first loop to 8:20 odd on the second loop to 8:00 even on the last loop. We hadn't planned this but noticed at one point the pace was picking up as we went on so we just continued like that.

Friday 6th April

Rest Day - Had planned to get out for a few miles but a disaster of a day at work had me working much later than planned so running had to take a back seat to family time & Libero's pizza.

Saturday 7th April

Mooted the idea to Emma on Friday night about heading to Malahide on Saturday morning, me doing the Parkrun and then heading to Avoca for breakfast. Got the thumbs up as it was a win/win situation for both of us. Charlie decided to sleep an hour longer than normal so there was a bit of chaos getting ready but got there in time without any breakfast or even a sip of water. Did a mile warm up after bumping into Ken who was also doing the race, getting down to the start and then having to dash back to use the loo.

5K in 21:14
Avg Pace: 6:49
Avg HR: 153

Plan was to run this as a second speed session for the week. Started off a bit quickly but with 400+ runners you need to get a good start. Settled into a good rhythm and tried to maintain a good even effort as the race progressed. Field was well spread out in front of me with about a mile to go but I just tried to concentrate on bridging gaps and passed a few people as I kept a fairly even effort and they were maybe slowing down a bit. Took another 2 on the last incline and put in a bit of a sprint to keep them off on the last downhill section. Pace splits for the race were (6:44, 7:06, 7:04, 5:49). Part of the course is tree lined so hard to know how accurate they are but probably not far off. A good run and as it turned out only 2 seconds outside my PB!!

Finished off with a scone in Avoca before working in the afternoon.

Sunday 7th April

4 Miles
Avg Pace: 9:17

Had an arrangement to play Golf on Sunday morning so missed out on any sort of long run. Did manage to get out around 8pm for a couple of loops of the college with Ailish though. This was one where I had to force myself to get out but as usual enjoyed it and the company.


Summary: Good week with 6 days running and weekly mileage over 30 miles again. Two good quality sessions but the absence of a longer run. Will try to get a longer one in early this week. 

Training Update - Take 2

Having spent a good bit of time writing a training update last night only to lose it trying to save and publish it hopefully this attempt will be more successful. I can't say the content will be any better though :-( but it will be shorter.

Training has slacked off a bit since Bohermeen due to some recovery time, other races and not having another specific target to work towards other than to keep things ticking over. Next race will be the Great Ireland Run on Sun 14th. Don't really like this race or the course but there a lot of people from work doing it so that is the main reason for doing it. I'll race it alright but won't be tapering up for it. Should give a good indication of where I am and what time I should be looking to target or work towards for Boyne 10K or Dunshaughlin 10K in May/June.

Am going to start posting more regular training updates to keep myself honest. Feel free to give me feedback good or bad and ask any questions if you have them. Summary of mileage up till the end of March is below.

Month        Mileage       No. of Runs 

January      123.1         21
February     135.49        17
March        98.61         15


Training so far for April:

Monday 1st

5.71 Miles
Avg Pace: 9:10

Nice run on "Colm's hilly route" with Colm, Deirdre, Ailish & Mel. Good to blow off the cobwebs after Easter Sunday in advance of speed session on Tuesday.

Tuesday 2nd

1.53 mile warm up

Drills & Plyometrics(stretching and stuff trying not to fall over).

1 min hard @ 6:28 pace
2 min hard @ 6:26 pace
3 min hard @ 6:47 pace
4 min hard @ 6:38 pace
3 min hard @ 6:52 pace
2 min hard @ 6:50 pace
1 min hard @ 6:11 pace

45 sec recovery jog after each of the above.

1.47 miles warm down to complete the session.
5.88 miles total.

Speed session tonight. Second week for us training as a group with Gary O'Hanlon. Really enjoyed this session although it was quite tough at times with the recovery seeming to get shorter as we progressed. Tried to run them all at an even enough pace/effort without paying too much attention to the watch. Drills & Plyometrics were interesting to say the least and thought I did my hamstring at one stage. Flexibility is crap. Talk of heading to Ardgillan for the next session was not what I wanted to hear :-) He wouldn't be that cruel would he?

Wednesday 3rd

5 miles
Avg Pace: 9:12

Recovery run after the speed session night before. Focus for this was on keeping the HR below 130 to ensure it was a recovery run. Legs a bit tired/stiff from the drills and speed the previous night but as Gary said the previous night if you want to improve you need to get used to running on tired legs !!!


Thanks for reading this far. I'm gonna stop annoying my facebook friends by posting updates there so if you want to check back bookmark the site Peter's Blog or subscribe by e-mail below and you should get an update when there is a new post.

Become a better Athlete with Rob Denmead

On Friday 22nd March our club Star of the Sea put on a talk with full time athletics coach Rob Denmead, which Rob had titled 'Become a better Athlete'. I wasn't sure what to expect in advance but in a talk that lasted over 3 hours we certainly got great value for our €10 along with a hell of a lot of knowledge shared with us.

Below are some of the topics covered and also some information given to us as handouts. I'll warn you now there is a lot of information, hence the time it has taken me to do up this post but I think most of it is relevant for athletes at any level:

Goals/Plans:

• Every runner should have an annual plan so they know what they are training towards. This should contain goal races (maybe only one big goal race) and also other races that they will run but maybe prepare slightly differently for (no taper etc.).
• Your training plan should include 1 rest day per week minimum.
• A runner should do no more than 2/3 sessions per week and each session should be followed up with a recovery run the day after the session.
• Every 4th week should be a step back week where the mileage is reduced to give the body a chance to recover.
• Be sensible when resuming training after illness. Your tendons and ligaments get weaker when you are ill.
• Generally Rob will begin a training plan specific to a goal race with an Athlete up to 10 months beforehand.

Training Phases:

• Base Period - Phase 1
• Easy Running
• Progressive Runs (e.g. 2 miles easy, 2 miles steady, 2 miles threshold).
• Long Runs
• Hilly Runs
• Strengthen Legs & Core
• Some strides/sprints
• Transition - Phase 2
• Transition to faster paces over 2-4 weeks
• Fartlek runs
• Long runs with last 20 mins at steady pace
• Hilly runs & hilly reps
• Phase 3 (may last 6-8 months)
• Specific sessions for goal race.
• 10K early in phase
• HM or Marathon late in phase
• 10-14 day taper before goal race
• Specific session, time trial or shorter race 7 days before goal race.
• Plan your races with aim to peak at goal race.

Training Paces:

Rob is an advocate of training a lot by heart rate and giving his athletes a session based on time and not miles. He feels if you tell someone to run x number of miles they may run them at too quick a pace just to get them done but if you tell them to run for an hour they will run at the prescribed effort. Below are the different training paces and reason behind them:

• Easy Pace: Should be no more than 75% of your Max HR and you should be able to hold a full conversation at this pace. Recovery runs should be run at this pace, as well as Warm Ups & Cool downs & Long Easy runs. Running at this pace teaches the body to burn fat as a fuel and strengthens the heart.
• Steady Pace: This pace is approx 5-10 seconds per mile slower than Marathon pace. Good pace for clearing lactic acid from the muscles and it is a good idea to run the last 20 minutes of some of your long runs at this pace.
• Anaerobic Threshold: This is a pace you should be able to hold in a race for 60-70 mins. Below this pace and the lactic acid produced is very low. When you go faster than AT pace there is a big increase in the lactic acid produced in the blood. Training at AT pace trains the athlete to be able to sustain a fast cruising pace and is great for 10K, Half Marathon & Marathon. Example training sessions for this include 30 mins at this pace or a session of 15 mins, 10 mins, 6 mins with 1 minute recovery between each interval.
• Vo2 Max: This is the pace you would be expect to be able to hold for 10-12 minutes race pace (approx 3-4K). Doing intervals at a range of paces from 3K - 10K race pace helps to improve your Vo2 max over time.

The important thing with any of these paces is that your  training paces should be based on your current times and not a time you aspire to do. These can generally be found by putting a recent race into something like the McMillan Calculator but Rob also had a spreadsheet giving details based on 10K time. The below paces are relevant for someone with a 10K time of 45:28 mins (my PB) & 44 mins just for comparison.

10K time    Vo2 Max     AT Pace     Easy Pace

45:28       6:46        7:43        9:33
44:00       6:33        7:29        9:16

For me that 10K time was from last June and not really relevant as I ran a HM at below the suggested AT pace since then but the times suggested by McMillan are along the lines of the above.

The important thing I took from the discussion on paces was that it was more beneficial to train at the actual pace than at a quicker pace (some very good examples give on athletes making greater levels of improvement compared to when doing sessions too fast). It is also important that everyone does sessions at their own paces/effort level and doesn't try to speed up/slow down to match someone else.

Sessions to improve your Vo2 Max (Oxygen Uptake):

10-12 x 400m @ 3K race pace
8 x 600m @ 3K race pace
5-6 x 800m @ 3K race pace
5 x 1000m @ 5K race pace
4 x 1200m @ 5K race pace
4 x 1 mile @ 6K race pace
3 x 2 miles @ 10K race pace
Down the clock session of 1 mile, 1200m, 1000m, 800m, 600m, 400m, 200m, 100m

Recoveries for the above should range from 75 seconds for the shorter intervals up to 2 mins for longer.

Specific Marathon Sessions:

800m @ 5K pace going straight into 1 mile cruise @ marathon pace.
Long Run with last 20 mins at Marathon pace or faster.
Fartlek sessions with cruise recoveries.
Strong Hilly runs for 30 to 60 mins.

Hill Sessions:

The below sessions should all be done at approx 85% effort.

4-5 x 3 minute hills.
Hilly run of 30 - 40 mins.
10 x 60 second hills.
6 x 2 minute hills.
20-40 second hills x 20.


9 Things you need to know when you are a runner:

1. A lack of Iron will have a detrimental effect on your performance. Ferritin stores important to be > 40. Haemoglobin Males 14-16; Females 13-15 per 100ml of blood. Too much Iron in the body is a medical condition called haemochromatosis.
2. Teeth - A tooth infection will poison the body.
3. Sleep - Human Growth Hormone is released during sleep & naps. Makes you stronger.
4. Fuel up - Carbohydrates straight after training. Drinks, bananas, raisins after hard sessions. A meal (potato's, pasta, rice, bread, vegetables, red meat, liver, chicken, fish) within 90 mins of finishing training will help you replenish the muscles and aid recovery. Porridge for breakfast. Eat less carbs when you are not fuelling up. Carbo drinks during hard sessions will help you sustain pace. Home made "Carbo Drink" 500ml bottle, 2 soup spoons of glucose, pinch of salt, fruit juice & water.
5. Hydration - water, carbo drinks, milk (protein), fruit juice, beetroot juice all aid recovery and keep the body working properly. Water binds to carbohydrate. Dehydration will severely hamper your performance - 4% dehydration leads to a 2 minute 48 secs dis-improvement in a 35 min 10K athlete. 4% = 4.5lbs in an 8 stone athlete. Drink 1kg of fluid for each kg of weight lost. Tea, coffee, alcohol and coca cola can cause dehydration. Sip water on the morning of a race. Urine should be pale colour.
6. Dynamic warm-up is done prior to a race or fast training session. Static stretching done after you have showered and eaten. Static stretch should not be held for too long, usually 3 secs.
7. Upper body tightness will have an effect on your legs and stride length.
8. Replace worn out shoes, runners, spikes, racers. Niggles - treat them immediately with ICE. Pulled muscles should be iced for 2-3 days, left settle and then massaged gently after 3 days. Cross train if possible when injured to maintain fitness.
9. Head colds, runny nose etc. Use Neil Med sinus rinse to clear sinus congestion. You won't beat illness so respect it and give it time to recover. Check your mornings HR's (lying and standing) when you are ready to resume training.    Antibiotics - Take acidophilus tablets (probiotic) or natural yogurt to replace the good bacteria in your gut.

Fat Burning Strategies:

Half a lemon in a glass or warm water will kick start your metabolism in the morning (not too often as it is very hard on tooth enamel). Use a straw.

Green tea in the morning before a slow run will kick start the process of utilising fat as a fuel.

Mental Preparation & Race Preparation:

Visualise your race and various scenarios during the week of the race. In the race itself, try to stay relaxed and focused. Don't go off too hard (20 secs gain in first mile could turn into a 60 secs loss over the rest of the race). In training practice getting faster as you go on.

Dunboyne 4 Mile Race

Another week, another race, this time in Dunboyne over 4 miles which was a distance I had never raced before. Training was light enough this week with 3 runs between 5/6 miles midweek with the legs pretty much ok after the race last Sunday. As is the norm now most of these runs were in horrible conditions but with good company.

Was out with Emma on Sat night for something to eat and had a few drinks, not good preparation but with a 3pm race plenty of time to recover. Travelled to Dunboyne with some of the gang and we eventually got there via Navan and nearly Cavan (don't ask). Registration was quick and we reluctantly took off a few layers and left it late enough to make our way to the start. It was still bloody freezing and windy. Far from ideal conditions.

I had no real plan but reckoned it would be a good test to try run 7 min pace. Started promptly and after passing the usual walkers that start at the front things settled down quick enough. Down through the town and seemed plenty of support around and then the only real slight uphill past Dunboyne castle. First mile was around here and went through in 6:54. Was just trying to maintain an even effort as we swung onto the dual carriageway which was quite exposed and a strong crosswind greeting us. Effort was getting more difficult along this long stretch and felt I slowed a lot along here. Was glad to reach the end of it and as we turned back into the town the second mile passed in 7:05. It felt slower but had definitely taken a lot out of me. 

We were now heading back into Dunboyne and into the wind mainly. Passed Brendan who was there supporting us and a slight loop before coming back into the square again. I glanced across at the finishing chute as I passed it and the winner of the race John Coughlan was just coming in to the finish in a little over 19 minutes.

By now I had given up a bit mentally but soon we turned a corner out of the wind and reached the 3 mile marker having taken 7:18 for the 3rd mile. So slowly but surely I was dying out on the course and cursing myself and everything else I could think of. Passed through a couple of housing estates and eventually appeared back where the race started. Got passed here by a fella with a Santa Claus type beard which summed it up really. Dug in as best I could to the finish and crossed the line in 28:34 chip time with the last mile covered in 7:11.

So while initially disappointed with the result you get out what you put in to these things and my preparation was far from ideal. Despite this I guess I wasn't too far off and comparing to Raheny my pace was slightly quicker overall although for a mile less. 

So time to knuckle down again and get the mileage back up. Looking forward to starting training with Gary O'Hanlon tomorrow night as he starts some coaching with Star of the Sea. No more shirking speed work :-( Also time to try and drop a few lbs before my next race, he says after just eating a snickers bar. Oops.

Time to catch up

It's been a few weeks since an update but that's because there hasn't been a whole lot going on. took a couple of days off after Bohermeen and got back into it with a couple of 5 miler's and a horrible 13.5 miler on the Sunday morning.

Last week was just a couple of easy runs with the club gang on Tuesday & Thursday followed by a wedding on Friday which set me up well for the Balbriggan Cancer Support group 10K on the Sunday morning.

This was actually the first time I have ever raced in Balbriggan and the omens were not good when I woke up and it was snowing out. Abandoned plans to run down to the start as part of a warm up with Ken but thankfully as we drove down the weather cleared. Got a bit of a warm up in and we were underway around 5 minutes after the 1/2 marathon.

Had no real plan for the race but knew the course was undulating so was just going to run it by feel. My miles splits were 7:01, 7:25, 7:26, 7:42, 7:37, 7:10, 6:57 so a little bit all over the place but that was more to do with the terrain of the course.

That's me on the left well wrapped up

When I checked the garmin after the race it was showing only 6.07 miles where it would normally be over 6.2 for a 10K as you never take the shortest route. So although it was my quickest 10K I won't be claiming a PB. This race was however not about claiming PB's but raising a significant amount of money for a local charity which judging by the turnout they did.

Would love to see this become an annual event and see the crowds grow. All it would need is a few small tweaks to make it very successful.

While I'm figuring out what race I might train for specifically next I'm hoping to do the Dunboyne 4 mile race this Sunday.

Now any chance of anyone sorting out a bit of decent weather?

Bohermeen 1/2 Marathon Report

So as you probably know most of in Star of the Sea have been targeting our early 2013 training towards this race. Training had gone pretty well for me considering the time of year and all that. I was looking to run in and around 1:40 if I could but was conscious despite 250 miles since the start of the year most of these were about endurance and not so much speed or tempo work. In truth if I could have got out of the race in the couple of days before I probably would have (probably not really). I travelled over to Bohermeen with Ken and had a good chat about some things other than running. Getting ready it was hard to believe how many from Star of the Sea were running. Was great to chat with everyone even if the nerves were more evident in some rather than others. Anyway we made our way down to the start and the race went something like the below.

13.17 miles in 1:39:27

Lap Paces:

7:25, 7:29, 7:28, 7:30, 7:29, 7:33, 7:35, 7:33, 7:40, 7:46, 7:36, 7:40, 7:32, 6:46

After the usual clamour at the start where you have to get past the people starting too far forward the first time I checked my watch I was running at 7:30 pace. This was perfect so just tried to maintain this for the first mile and not go off too quick. Spotted Rosemary just ahead of me and I knew she was aiming for the same sort of target as me. Joined up with her after around 1/2 mile and after a bit of a chat we settled into a steady pace. First few miles went ok  and we didn't really have to adjust our effort to match the pace too much. Although we were running side by side there wasn't too much chat as I think we were both pretty much flat out. Even as early as the 4th mile I was having doubts of maintaining the pace for the duration.

I just focused on clocking off each mile one by one as they mostly came in under the target of 7:38. I was conscious though as we'll that you always run further because of not taking exact racing line etc. so although we were banking seconds each lap it was not a whole lot.

Felt strong coming past the clubhouse to end the first loop and7 miles shortly after it. In reality I think this was just the great support giving a bit of a temporary boost. I was definitely in a world of pain at this stage and had a bit of a wobble after 8 miles and lost a bit of ground on Rosemary. Started picking up a bit of a stitch then but worked on the breathing and this passed soon enough from what I remember.

Mile 9 was the first mile outside the target pace in 7:40 and mile 10 slipped to 7:46. Although I was working hard I was definitely flagging and felt like it was going to be a struggle home from here, at the same time Rosemary was maybe 20 metres ahead but the gap didn't seem to be growing hugely or closing at all for that matter.

As I passed the 10 mile marker I heard this voice from behind me telling me 3 sub 8 miles and I'd be grand. I recognised the voice as a friend of mine Matt who was running the race coming back from injury. I think I was barely able to acknowledge him as he came up on my shoulder. What he did do though was get me going again as I tried to match his pace. Slowly but surely the pace began to drop again and mile 11 & 12 were 7:36 & 7:40 which was more than acceptable as it included the hill on the course. We had joined up with Rosemary again at this stage and all that was left was the long straight road that seemed to go on forever.

Still though there is something about knowing the suffering is nearly over and I was just trying to keep the pace consistent which I knew should be enough to get me under 1:40. Got to the last mile marker and there was a bit of a crowd now and then turned down the finishing chute and tried to put in some sort of quicker finish. Stopped the watch bent over in 2 and was happy to see 1:39:27 showing. My next thought was to look behind me and was thrilled Rosemary had come in just behind me and also within the 1:40 time. I know without her and Matt during the race I probably wouldn't have gotten under 1:40.

Was great to catch up with everyone after the race and hear of all the wonderful times & PB's especially from Karen Lavelle who came 4th and the ladies team who came 2nd overall as well. Well done ladies.

So that was the day that was. It was a tough one and the body is sore after it and despite vowing to never race again during the race I'm sure that won't last.... 

Now where are those golf clubs.