Speed or distance?

Better get some recent race reports in before I start logging again.

Banna 10K - 31st July

This was going to be a PB attempt and as PBs go it was low hanging fruit. The 10k is not a distance I run frequently and, for various reasons, I hadn't had a good run at the distance previously (pun somewhat intended).

I arrived in Banna over an hour early and briefly said hello to @diego_b of this parish who was well stuck in with getting the show on the road. Weather was a bit dull and overcast but the clouds magically disappeared by the start and we had a nice sunny day.

Since I was early I killled a bit of time working out the split times I would need to go sub 46 and sub 45 and wrote them on my hand. Naturally I only used those once during the race.

I shot out from the start at 5k pace and kept that going for the first two km. The 5k runners had set out with us but they did a 180 at the 2.5k mark so it was a bit of a distraction seeing their placings coming back against us. After 2.5k I was in my own pocket for a bit as those ahead had stretched out and I couldn't hear anyone close behind. Coming up to 5k was the only "climb" on the course. I got passed here and shortly after it was time to turn left at Ardfert village. There was a nice slight decline coming out of the village but this was where we met whatever wind was there. The decline turned into a slight incline further on which probably wouldn't be noticeable on another day but by now I was paying for the fast start and suffering and it was still only at about 7k. 

The 7 to 8k was definitely the toughest part of the course for me and I was glad to turn out of the wind as we turned left back towards Banna at about the 8k mark. I had a quick look at the HR and it was too high with 2k still to go so I backed off slightly to recover and at least ensure the sub 46. A St Brendan's runner passed me here with a lovely running style and the appearance of someone out for a leisurely jog - hate those guys :p.

Passed the 9k marker and picked it up a little for the last km. Happy to see the end point a little closer than expected. Passed again by a Tralee parkrunner who seemed to say "good effort, young lad". The cheeky bugger - I'd say he's no more than 5 years older than me. :p Turned into the last bend and saw the clock saying 44.30 or something. Pushed the last bit to get in under 45 and for once the second seemed to tick by slower than normal rather than the other way around. 

Made it in at 44.52 and, a first for me, had a split second impulse to vomit after crossing the line. That passed as quickly as it came and I collapsed on the grass. That took 1min 18s off my 10k PB from the Adare 10k in February (bad headwind that day) and brought my 10k time more in line with my other distance results. Still a little more to be shaved off when I figure out how to properly run 10ks but happy with the day's efforts. Overall though a great event which ran very smoothly and I'll be back next year.

Result: 44:52 (Chip Time) (PB)

Cork City 10 Miler - August 20th

There's nothing quite like high mileage weeks (relatively speaking) to kill off the urge to race flat out. 

I knew I wasn't up for a PB attempt but was taken with the idea of a "controlled run" which, for me, was to pick a time and try to come as close to that as possible. I also was thinking of maybe just running the 10 at marathon pace but decided in the end to go with a 75 minute run. Of course it helped to have 75 minute pacers on hand for this. I was up in Cork early in the day and had done the Tramore Valley parkrun followed by a fair bit of faffing about town until the 5pm race start. 

The day was sunny and warm and, if anything, got warmer closer to the start time. I lined up with the pacers and as usual the first couple of miles were quite tight trying to avoid clipping other runners and being clipped in return. I thought the first couple of miles were faster than 75min pace although a couple or runners beside me were agreeing that the pacing was spot on. The miles ticked off on to Pairc Ui Chaoimh and then the flat circuit around Monahan Road. We heading out towards Blackrock and onto the coastal walking route to Mahon. By this time I'd settled into the pace and was feeling reasonably ok and was running ever so slightly ahead of the pacers. At around mile 7 we faced into a stiff enough headwind. 

My friend R was maybe 100m ahead of us. Neither of us had shelter from the wind and I had a brainfart that if I bridged across then at least one of us would have shelter. This was a mistake because as soon as I made it across I ran out of puff and immediately started drifting backwards again. Worse, the pacers caught up with me and shot past. We now headed for the ramp up onto the Old Railway line and I figured I'd take it easy climbing up and catch them on the other side. 

However I'd forgotten about the humpback bridge over the south link which was the next climb and this knocked the stuffing out of me. As I flopped down the other side I could see the pacers had made a significant gap. I recovered a little and set about chasing them down. There was about 3 or 4 who had been spat out of the pacing group and I reeled them in over the remaining couple of miles. One however made another spurt towards the finish that I could not match. I didn't quite catch the pacers who finished bang on time but happy to finish strong and take a decent chunk out of the gap they had opened up. I was slightly disappointed not to catch up but happy enough with the outing given no taper and no supershoes. Some lessons learned too on what not to do in a race. It was a bit disappointing that there was no grub laid on afterwards like previous years as it meant most of the runners dispersed. Hopefully that will return when Covid recedes fully. The new Marina Market is grand but it's not the same thing.

Result: 1.15:26 (Chip Time) (Fastest Effort for this course)

Dingle Half Marathon - September 3rd

I think I signed up for this one pre-Covid which obviously got quite delayed. It's not a PB course anyway for sure and the plan was to run it at marathon pace. I had done it back in May (it's been run twice this year) as an easy run so knew the course. The forecast was not great and sure enough the rain started just a couple of minutes before the start. 

I didn't start off well. The first mile came in slower than marathon pace and I started wondering if it would be a long day. However after that things started to improve and the miles ticked over a bit faster. I was moving nearly 10 seconds per mile faster than PMP but figured I'd need to build up a bit of a buffer for when we hit the hillier sections later on. We were a few miles in when we could hear thunder to accompany the rain and the odd flash of lightning. Fortunately there was a long gap between the lightning and thunder so it couldn't have been very close. I didn't mind the conditions as they didn't really affect me in any negative way. You can only get so wet and the rain had a cooling effect. The rain finally stopped somewhere around mile 8 and the day cleared up pretty nicely from there. The hills were taking a bit of a toll but I seemed to keep going and was still slightly faster than marathon pace. There was a couple of other lads around me and we were exchanging places depending on the undulations and how we were feeling. I'd gotten slightly ahead but they reeled me back in as we came to the steeper sections. The biggest hill was on mile 12 and there was an annoying wind coming from the side. I watched both of them pull ahead of me up to the crest. However after that there was a nice downhill to the finish and I was able to push for a fast finish sweeping past both. It was only afterwards I realised that they were probably doing the full marathon. Oops.

I was pretty happy with how that went. I was thinking I'd come home in around 1.45 so happy to take a chunk out of that and to do the 13.1 in slightly under marathon pace on a hilly course which makes me think that the marathon training is going well. Had a chat with a few of our regular parkrunners doing the course and met @diego_b again. Then it was onto the bus and back to Dingle where I changed out of the rest of my wet running gear and cheered in some of the marathon runners. Fair play to them as they had a really tough course.

Result: 1.41:11 (Chip Time) (Fastest Effort for this course) 

Hanson's Marathon Method - Week 6 of 18

Sep 5th - 11th

Mon 5th

6mi Easy - A noticeable drop in temperature this morning and quite blustery. Avg 8.47/mi on flat terrain with avg HR of 136. Feeling quite tight on the tops of the calves after the previous day's HM. Never really felt that before.

Tue 6th

6mi Easy - Decided to bring forward another of the plan's easy days instead of doing the interval session. Calves were still tight so figured it might be better to give them a little more recovery. Avg of 9.19/mi on hillier terrain with HR avg of 140.

Wed 7th

10mi Intervals - 1200x4 @5k pace with 400m recovery

Interval time target was 5.12. Splits came in at 5.16, 5.09, 5.15 and 5.17. Not the disaster that last week's interval session was but it would be preferable if they were a bit more on point. Overall avg pace of 8.25/mi with avg HR of 146.

Thu 8th

Rest day

Fri 9th

7mi Tempo - I took the full 3mi warmup before starting the marathon pace efforts. Stopped briefly during the WU to chat to a clubmate and somehow talked myself into joining the club team for cross country! The marathon miles were all coming in either on pace or very slightly faster except the last one came in approx 20s slower. I don't know why as I was following the workout set on my watch and indicated pace stayed bang in the middle. The only thing I can think of is that I did a 180 turn during the last mile and maybe the GPS didn't record it properly? It's curious how these paces feel harder during training than they do in a race. 11.4 miles for the session with 8.13/mi avg and 149 avg bpm. Edged past 1000 miles for the year on this run.

Sat 10th

10mi Easy - An afternoon amble around Muckross lake which is rolling terrain with some trail elevation as well. 9.2/mi with 139 avg HR. It felt warm, and sticky and humid and I was glad when it was done. Treated myself to a '99 on the way home.

Sun 11th

8mi Easy - The forecast was for rain all day so I decided to head straight back out after volunteering at the junior parkrun. While we only had a quarter of the usual turnout it was amusing to see the kids having no bother with the rain while senior races were being cancelled on the day. The rain wasn't as heavy when I got out myself although by the end I was drenched which would have happened anyway with the humidity of late. 9.02/mi pace with 136 bpm HR avg. 

52 miles for the week which is probably my longest week since lockdown #1. 

Oddly enough my "Fitness and Freshness" score is falling like a rock on strava down to half what it was at the Cork Half. Another metric probably best ignored :)

Hanson's Marathon Method - Week 7 of 18

Sep 12th - 18th

Mon 12th

6mi Easy - The usual Monday easy 6 miler. I don't remember too much about this except that it felt a little sluggish. Pace was on the slower side of easy (can't remember if that was intentional or not) at 9.12/mi with HR avg of 138.

Tue 13th

Interval day or at least was meant to be. Right achilles tendon felt a bit too tight or maybe it was psychosomatic as I tried to procrastinate on the intervals. In any case an unplanned rest day ensued.

Wed 14th

10.5mi Ladder Intervals - 400, 800, 1200, 1600, 1200, 800 @5k pace with 400m recovery

Split targets: 1:43, 3:24, 5:05, 6:50, 5:05, 3:24

Actual: 1:42, 3.32, 5:09, 6:58, 5:18, 3:25

Only noticed afterward that there was an extra 400m at the end of the ladder that's omitted on the program table (table 4.4) but included in the speed workouts. Reasonably ok with that as my 5k speed is probably somewhere in the 21 - 21:30 range at the moment and suffers with high volume. Got out near to dusk for this and with a lot of tree cover on the route it was pretty dark for a lot of it. Pace averaged overall at 8:25/mi with avg HR of 148.

Thu 15th

7mi Easy - Brought forward this easy run to samdwich it in between the two sessions. With an eye on the fact that it was between sessions I'd planned to run very much on the easy side but got into a rhythm where it seemed easier to keep going so ended up doing it on the fast side of easy at 8:41/mi with an avg HR of 141. The cooler temps of late and lower humidity certainly make these runs that bit easier. 

Fri 16th

11mi with 7mi Tempo - After a two and a half mile warm up I got stuck into the marathon paced miles. 7:49 was the target

Actual: 7:43, 7:42, 7:48, 7:41, 7:42, 7:59 and 7:36

The second last mile was due to a drop in concentration which was over-corrected in the last mile. I have a tendency when I notice that I've got a bit of a buffer over the target early on that I try to hold that buffer. Which is probably fine for 7 miles but probably likely to be detrimental over 26 miles. An avg pace of 8:02/mi and avg HR of 146

Sat 17th

8mi Easy - Had planned to get these done early before doing setup at parkrun but the venue was still locked up when I arrived. Went off and did 5 mile, did the setup and did the remaining 3 in the parkrun. Started off easy but, as usual, couldn't resist the temptation to chase so each lap got progessively faster. Nice morning for it but it was pretty chilly at the start. The car temp read 3 degrees on the way in. Garmin stats got messed up with a long pause and restarting the watch a few hundred metres away from where it was paused.

Sun 18th

14mi Long - I've raced twice in this plan and they both co-incided with the days long runs were prescribed so this is actually my first long run on this plan. I somehow got all the way through (sort of) the Hanson's Half Marathon plan without noticing that there was as a distinction in terms of pace for the weekend runs. I simply didn't notice that some were labelled long and some labelled easy. I've always treated the long run as an easy run.........just longer.

8:29 per mile was the target.

Actual: 8:29, 8:25, 8:23, 7:54, 8:20, 8:15, 8:15, 8:09, 8:24, 8:24, 8:37, 8:16, 8:08, 8:14

I tried to drink water while running on mile 11 and it didn't go well. Probably coughed up half a lung. Feeling the miles catching up on me for the last few there but still could probably have run a couple more if I had to. Just as happy that I didn't need to though. Avg pace ended up a 8:19 with avg HR of 148.

Reasonably happy with how things are progressing at the moment.

58 miles for the week

Yes, and I was wondering why I hadn't noticed that distinction when I did the Hanson Half Marathon version. However Hanson copied and pasted the pace chart from the Hanson Marathon book into the Hanson Half Marathon book (table 3.5). The tempo paces in the pace chart table is definitely wrong as they are for the full marathon so that places some doubt on whether the rest of the table is half marathon specific.

I did however notice the distinction when I started the full marathon plan. I think I prefer the faster long runs but my opinion might change after a few weeks of them 😄

Hanson's Marathon Method - Week 11 of 18

Oct 10th - Oct 16th

Mon 10th

8mi Easy - Another late evening run and with the fading light which finished practically in darkness but I was lit up like a Christmas tree. Avg speed 8:51/mi. Avg GAP 8:13/mi. Avg HR 136bpm, elevation gain 837ft.

Tue 11th

6x1mi - The first of the strength sessions on the plan. Having done the Hanson Half Marathon plan earlier in the year these look very similar at first glance. The required pace is obviously easier but that's compensated for by the reduced recovery.

Target time 7:40

Actual: 7:33, 7:31, 7:36, 7:38, 7:34, 7:35

Not quite on target but nearly all my runs are defaulting to slightly faster than target so may as well roll with it.

Wed 12th

Rest Day. 

Thu 13th

8mi Tempo - I took the new Vaporfly Next% out of the box for this in order to break them in a little before race day.

I hadn't worn a pair previously and tbh I was a bit underwhelmed while running with them. There didn't seem to be anything particularly notable about them - certainly no wow factor.

Target pace for the Tempo miles: 7:49

Actual: 7:44, 7:41, 7:48, 7:44, 7:38, 7:33, 7:44, 7:40

Avg HR for this run was 148bpm which was a few beats lower than the last time I did a PMP run. Perhaps cooler weather or the shoes was the reason. I wore my 2019 DCM top for this which was a bit too warm (or it was too humid) as I was plastered in sweat afterwards. After this session and the strength session my watch was very pleased with me and granted me another couple of vO2 max points and bumped up my predicted race times.

I've a better chance of taking over from Liz Truss as UK PM as I have of getting those predicted times any time soon. 😄

Fri 14th

8mi Easy - I swapped around the 7 and 8 mile easy days these week and got this done circling a local hill. A wee bit of elevation involved but felt pretty comfortable. Avg pace 8.50/mi, avg GAP 8:08/mi, avg HR 138bpm, elevation gain 804ft

Sat 15th

7mi Easy - I split this run in two. First up was the morning parkrun. A lad I know told me on the start line he was looking to break 25 minutes but two pacers he'd lined up didn't turn up due to the horrible weather forecast. I offered to pace him. It didn't quite work out that well as my GPS was jumping around the place. It would have been ideal if he was trying to break 24 minutes!! Anyhow he was 9 seconds out but the day was not PB friendly with a heavy shower with hail. I was soaked by the end so changed out of the wet gear and went for some post parkrun nibbles and chat. Went out later in the afternoon for the latter 4 miles on today's agenda.

Sun 16th

The first of the 16 mile long runs. I haven't taken a gel in this training block yet so figured it was time to start practicing. I took a high 5 caffeine gel about 15 minutes before the start and brought two Kinetica gels with me. I used an 8 mile loop so waited until I was back to the car before taking the second gel and getting some water. Jaysus, they are sweet! I tried ingesting it gradually on the run while drinking from a 250ml bottle. It was a bit fiddly but could be done. I felt good through the first half and thought of extending the run to 18 miles or perhaps even 20 but in the end decided to stick with the plan. Happy with how it went and felt I could have handled the extra mileage (to 18 anyways) if I had to. No point in risking injury by extending though and besides the rain was starting. Avg pace - 8:19/mi, Avg GAP 8:02/mi, Avg HR 141bpm

62 miles for the week.

It turns out Cross Country isn't over yet as the team is heading to the Munster Novices next week.

Thanks @Murph_D, that's very useful advice and a good prod on the gels issue. I wasn't sure how to handle the nutrition as my stomach was in bits at the end my one and only marathon after the high 5 gels which I hadn't practiced taking beforehand.

I think I'll try the Maurten ones this time. Would taking them for the tempo runs and long runs be sufficient practice or should I add a strength or another easy run to the mix too?

I guess I got away with the XC as I didn't need to go all out (it would have made no difference). Dropping two sessions for it is too high a price (marathon is priority) so I'll just do this week and bow out after that. I'll do 9 mile easy tomorrow instead of the tempo run and take Monday very easy and hopefully be back on track for next Tuesday"s strength session.