Race Week -5.5 Catchup & Wrap

With my tail firmly between my legs after the disappointing performance last night it was time to have a look at things and address my training priorities.

I had been tinkering with my diet and training purposes. I was brought to ground very quickly last night on account of these factors and woke to the realisation this morning that I need to focus on the marathon first. I will explain what I'd been up to in another post.

For now, on with the week.

Trouble? (27th September)

Tempo run planned for this morning.


Set off nice and easy, usual 15minute warm up followed by a step up in pace for 12 minutes and a steady 28 minutes in Zone 3.


The problem was I developed a pain in my right knee. I've been pretty religious with my rolling with The Grid but had a high volume week last week (relative to my normal running) so I put it down to wear and tear.


I haven't really been troubled with the muscle soreness or joint pain you hear all the horror stories about, so far. Bar a little discomfort in the afternoon after a long run handling the stairs I've been pretty good.


This pain is something new to me. It's like ITBS but it's not. I've had not ITB problems since I learned how painful it is to release the band, so I look after it.

I ended up walking in the last bit of the run and there's no clicking. Just a sharp pain. A bit of rest and ice should do it.


Ah, maybe it's just my old age.

Sunday Slog (25th September)

 Its so easy to break the habit of regular updates on this blog.

This is the first Sunday LSR with my training partner as we get into the final push of the build to Dublin Marathon. Our plan is to gradually increase the Sunday run from 26/27k to 32k over the next 4 weeks before starting to ease back on the final fortnight run in to the event.

At this stage I have started to leave the Endurance running program as designed by www.polarpersonaltrainer.com behind in regard the long runs. The program is not specifically tailored for the marathon and is a general program for developing endurance.


The long runs are being done as empty as possible. Starting without food and only bringing water or electrolyte drinks to ease the thirst. We each have a couple of gels along for the 'just-in-case' senario.


The run out to the main road is grand. There is nothing really to say about it other than its nearly 3 hours of running along the side of a road. We were being conscious of the camber and the possible effects on the body as the result of excessive angles.


Over all the run was steady, I again was using the stride sensor and the figures are slightly out with the actual measurements, about a km short when compared to the Garmin measurements.

Fridays Retribution (23rd September)

After the disaster that was Thursday's interval non-happening I had to get out and bring the mileage up for the week.

BTW what do you call the increase in mileage when you measure in kilometers?


 This is a straight forward run, nothing fancy. Keep it in the Zones and throw down the distances. Aim is to run for an hour and get 10k under the shoes. It's all accumulating exercise and getting used to being on my feet for extended periods of pounding

HRM Data

I find my recovery is getting easier and easier. There is little or no stiffness in my muscles after the long runs. The knees are a little tender but having built up the distances slowly, the pain eases with no lasting effects. It's a good sort of pain!


The Training Summary is showing the issue I'm having with the footpod, the actual run distance is 10.3km where the pod tracked it as 9.91km.

Its just skews the data enough to be annoying. My average pace for this kind of run should be around 5:45min/km and retain a mid Zone heart rate averaging 139 / 140bpm.

It's interesting how the footpod did pick up the very end of the Cool-down where I did a short stretch of quick feet with high knees and kicking my butt.

Interupted Interval (22nd Spetember)

Not a chance of waking me.

Well the planned session didn't start the way it was meant to.


At 7:40am I woke up after cocking one eye at the alarm clock to discover that I was 40mins past the alarm time and10 mins late for an agreed start time for our Interval session, never mind not getting a coffee!


Out of the bed check outside the window, no sign of Conor. 

"Ah!", methinks, "He must have slept in himself, no harm, I'll go down and ring him to find out where he is."


Missed calls, missed texts, missed Tweets, I think he got there before me. 

Now I feel bad. Dragging him across the city for a run and there I am having a lie in.


A change of clothes that would make Superman jealous and I was off out the door hoping that he was sticking to the plan.

After a 15min Warmup we'd agreed to do repeats of 4mins down to the gate at Clarinbridge with 6mins recovery back to the church followed by a Cool-down.

Sure enough there he was, parked in Kilcornan, and running laps of the avenue.
I did catch up with him and the inevitable slagging commenced.  

A fairly dismal day out and we got drenched.The session didn't last long. I was tired having had a very poor night with the kids back in our bed again, a couple of little niggles became an excuse and we headed back to the house for coffee.

The lack of results speak for themselves, I'll have to make up for this tomorrow.

Tempo Tuesday (20th September)

Back to a tempo session again. The program is moving on a little each week, 5 minutes are added to the tempo run over last weeks planned session. The time in Tempo is increased slightly.


The plan for today is an hour, covering a distance of 10.5km. Starting a little later than I would normally like meant I knew I would be getting tight for time on the back end of the session.


Out from the house for the phased Warm up of 15 mins followed immediately with a step up of pace for 11 minutes.


Maintaining an average pace just below 5min / km and keeping within the prescribed Zone 4 is where I need to be at this stage, sticking to the HR training program. The weather however was atrocious and the last couple of minutes where my HR spiked out of Zone 4 and into Zone 5 is as much a reaction to the bitter cold of the rain water as an increased effort needed to 'puddle jump'.


It almost became interval training trying to run between puddles and dodging cars, trucks and buses. The road is always quiet and I reckon these vehicles were trawling based on the following formula:

puddles + runners = great craic for arsehole drivers

As I expected, I did have to cut the cool-down short. Not just because of the time but I was also freezing, being soaked through and a cold wind coming across from the West is not pleasant. You'd think I would be better prepared for the weather.

 I finished up 4 minutes early and 800m short of the plan. So not bad. If I can I would like to stay slightly ahead of the time and distances, but otherwise I know that the plan has now merged pretty accurately with my current abilities.


Training Result 20.09.2011 08:22

Sunday Slog (18th September)

HRM Output for the LSR

Its been a while since I've done a proper Long Slow Run. 

The run at the end of the 70.3 was an LSR by default and doesn't count.

Thursday's Interval Run (15th September)

Thursday morning bright & early, time for an interval session.


Conor was over for this so off we went into Kilcornan to warm up before taking a speed session in through the woods. There is a nice 1000m loop which varies a little underfoot with a few twists and turns and a couple of little 'rampy' sections to throw a wobble into tired legs.

The Interval plan was 15mins Warm-up (Zone 2), 4mins 'On' (Zone 4/5) followed immediately by 4mins 'Off' (Zone 3), repeat this x3 times and then a 5min Cool-Down. 


What do Interval runs do?

Interval runs develop speed, aerobic and anaerobic capacity, and resistance to fatigue at 3-10 km race speeds. Keeping short recovery periods between the sprints allows more training at high speeds. The sprint periods are recommended to be done in zones 4 and 5, and the recovery periods in zone 3. Zone 3 is usually low enough to remove lactate, but note that you should also use the low end of zone 3 during the recovery periods. In particular, if your target is to develop maximal speed for short endurance distances, it can be beneficial to lower your heart rate even to zone 2. 


The main aim behind our use of interval sessions is to help with maintaining speed (hopefully develop some!) and to also keep the body system triggered for burning fat. Both of us could do with trimming some body weight before the marathon and hopefully keep it off over the winter.


The session went well, with us covering 8k during the program. We tacked on a 3km easy pace to the end in order to add some distance to tired legs leaving a total of 11k.

Now time for some recovery & breakfast!

Interval Training File

Tempo Tuesday (13th September)

Between jigs, reels and Loughrea Triathlon on Sunday I missed my opportunities at getting out for several runs since last week.


Today was the first planned Tempo run of the program and I knew if I missed starting this week I would not be disciplined enough to pull back the plan.


The day started pear shaped when I missed my chance to get out before breakfast meaning I would be stuck for time getting into the shop for 9.30. I would have to try and stuff a session in some time between closing the shop, getting home, helping with settling the children and darkness.


The tempo run was programmed as a 15min Warm-up (Zone 2), 10min at race pace (Zone 4), 25min recovery running (Zone 3) followed by a 5min Cool-down. 55 minutes total and 9.2km predicted.



What is the benefit of a Tempo run? 

Tempo runs develop aerobic capacity and resistance to fatigue at 10 km marathon race speeds. The tempo parts are recommended to be run in zone 4 in order to build resistance to fatigue at marathon and half marathon speeds and to improve speed in the lactate threshold.

I managed to squeeze my run in during the evening just after one of the kids slipped off to sleep. It meant that I could get the initial phases of warm-up and tempo done on the road before ducking into the woods at Kilcornan for the return leg home.

Siju headlamp available from Amphibian King

I had my little Siju headlamp from Silva with me. I used this on the road in the flash setting to ensure that cars could see me in the twilight. Despite wearing high vizibility wear with 360  reflectibility you can't take chances on back roads. 


There are different light settings on the Siju - high beam, low beam and flashing. The high beam is great in the woods and it was lovely running in the dark with a hint of 'spookiness' to urge you on.

Tempo run done for this week, slightly short on distance and time but hit the nail with the calories burnt and training load. Still on plan.

Tempo Training File

Thursday (8th September)

The leg loosener.


Conor was calling to the house to have a debrief after the 70.3 and at the same time we would knock out a 8km trot to test everything is working fine after the weekend, nothing too serious and to be kept Zone 2 (60-70%). The odd transgression into Zone 3 is allowed to factor in headwind or hills.


My programmed run was to be a 10min Warmup  in Zone 2 followed by 30mins in Zone 3 and a 5min Cooldown, 45mins over all and projected 7.40k


A nice easy morning loop down through the Brothers of Charity in Kilcornan, out onto the main road and back up from Kilcolgan along 'Millionaires Row'.


In total we did 9k (I need to calibrate the footpod properly) in 47 mins at a really easy pace keeping conversation all the way round.

Training File