Last of the Summer Wine

Cheers, M and a very good result from yourself, was it a PB? It's amazing how we always seem to bump into each other at crowded Munster races alright - Ballycotton, Charleville, Dungarvan, any others? You looked strong when you pulled ahead, I was wondering would I see you in the latter stages but you pushed on well. Yep absolutely perfect conditions as you say, it's good to be able to make them count.

Thu 9 Feb

40 mins easy around Marino.

Fri 10 Feb

No running. Put it off earlier and then it became too late.

Sat 11 Feb

50 mins easy.

Arrived in London with my nephew for his/my/our first premiership experience. Managed to get out for a few miles before heading to The Emirates. Run was less controversial than the game and probably had more highlights. But the lad enjoyed the drama. 😀

Sun 12 Feb

Out early for 11 miles or so along both banks of the Thames. Tricky in places, a lot of ups and downs around bridges etc, and not great running surfaces a lot of the time but a most enjoyable run. Gives a taster for London 2024.

• WTD: 54 kms (34 mi)
• MTD: 107 (67)
• YTD: 371 (230)

Thu 16 Feb

44 mins very easy on a loop up to Collins Ave.

Fri 17 Feb

Just 40 mins very easy, anticipating tomorrow's BHAA cross country race...

Sat 18 Feb

... which I ended up not doing, life getting in the way again! Took a rest day in the end.

Sun 19 Feb

Not racing yesterday was probably a good thing, as I've been neglecting the base building really. So I combined today's long run with a session, doing 60 mins at sub-threshold (70-75% HR reserve, or 161-168 for me). Headed up the Royal Canal, a while since I'd been up there. Lots of activity with Canoe Polo going on at Cross Guns and plenty of walkers enjoying the balmy weather. Started the steady stuff at Phibsboro, turning at Castleknock train station. I've only done a couple of these runs in recent months, both around 30 mins, so I was prepared to back off if necessary but felt fine throughout, although I noticed myself losing concentration from time to time with the effort levels dropping as a result. You have to wake yourself up every so often! Wore earphones on this run and listened to music, first time I've done that in years, which I quite enjoyed.

Garmin tells me I'm overreaching, however. Hopefully that's not correct!

• WTD - 62 kms (39 mi)
• MTD - 169 (105)
• YTD - 433 (269)

Thu 23 Feb

89 mins with 60 @ steady. Another hour at sub-T, out the coast this time. This one felt good, managed to average very close to MP on a calm and cool evening.

Fri 24 Feb

45 mins recovery. Legs very tired, a touch of DOMS from the Weds gym session making things very sluggish indeed.

Sat 25 Feb

Volunteering at parkrun then didn't get out running until late afternoon - looped out through St. Anne's for an hour easy.

Sun 26 Feb

MLR 94 mins. Set out on one of my 'Where will I go today' runs, heading towards town then deciding to head out along the Liffey to the Phoenix Park and back via the Royal Canal, where I bumped into mister Paul near Broombridge for a short chat. Feeling the ramp up in mileage this week, but all well in the end.

• WTD: 80 kms (50 mi) - 456 mins
• MTD: 249 (155)
• YTD: 513 (319)

Hi E,

That Lydiardesque 'steady' (aka sub-threshold) run is done at between 75%-80% of heart rate reserve so (for me) it's a good 7-14 beats below lactate threshold. The HR target is taken from Keith Livingstone's Healthy Intelligent Training, which is a version of the Lydiard ideas, adapted to take in contemporary approaches and technology (such as HR monitors, which were not widely available during Lydiard's time).

As DD put it to me when explaining the approach - 'Not killing yourself, but you're definitely working'. Last year I built up to about about 90 mins (starting from 30) for the longer of these (aiming to do two per week during the base phase). It's kind of the bread and butter Lydiard run.

As my LT is around 85% of HRR (which I think is fairly typical), it doesn't feel anything like as difficult as the likes of a P&D 'tempo' or LT session - but by definition it is at the outer limits of 'Easy'. The very top of the 'aerobic' range essentially. You have to be careful not to stray into the threshold zone.

An hour to 90 mins is not an easy session by any means at this effort level but two runs per week are definitely doable when you build up incrementally.

While I run these by HR effort it usually equates to a bit slower than marathon pace - sometimes a good bit slower, depending on how you feel on the day.

I think I've asked you this before (sorry if so, search was much better on the old forum) but are you sure about that max HR? LT at 90% seems unlikely. Unless you are talking about 90% of max HR rather than 90% of HRR?

Very nice work on the resting HR, would love to get down to that! Sounds like your numbers are close enough - but as long as you have an accurate HR reading for your LT you can confidently do the kind of steady runs we're talking about by HR - in your case I reckon 156-161 is the appropriate range.

Fri 3 Mar

60 mins easy. The problem with taking a Monday rest day is you feel pressure to run on all the other weekdays. Or maybe that's not a problem. Dragged myself along the coast and over the wooden bridge. The wind has been blowing the 'wrong' way all week so at least it was behind on the way home.

Sat 4 Mar

80 mins easy including St. Anne's parkrun. Forgot my barcode - using spare watch, which doesn't have the barcode widget installed - so no credit. Realised then I had phone with me, but I'd already returned the finish token. Oh well. Good morning's work. Ran the first 45 mins with M and C, then joined them for coffee afterwards.

Sun 5 Mar

LR - 103 mins. Drove over to the Phoenix Park and headed up the North Road then followed the marathon route through Castleknock, Tower Road, the Park and Chapelizod then took the Liffey Path to Memorial Park. It's a few years since I've been on the Liffey and the path is less overgrown than it used to be, so I really enjoyed the feeling that you're almost on the water. Lots of boat club people out rowing. Back into the Park then for the rest of the run. Varied the pace a bit on this run, with two sections of 30 and 20 mins at the faster end of the easy range, something like Hanson 'LR' pace. Lovely morning. Good to have another 50-mile week in the bag, which is helping my annual mileage target come back to where it should be.

• WTD: 81 kms (50 mi), 440 mins
• MTD: 64 (39)
• YTD: 594 (369)

So this week I wanted to keep something for Sunday's 10k race, without totally writing off the week from a base-building point of view. So just the one curtailed sub-threshold session and a few strides in advance of raceday.

Mon 6 Mar

One hour easy in Killykeen Forest Park on the way up to Donegal for a couple of nights. I've stopped off at this park before - lovely route through forest in the Cavan lakelands. Didn't feel great though - tired legs, but at my age it's hard to get out of the car after a couple of hours and shake off the stiffness.

Tue 7 Mar

61 mins easy - a loop around Killybegs and environs, featuring a couple of unexpectedly steep hills.

Wed 8 Mar

70 mins with 40 at sub-threshold.

Around the local Donegal loop on a nice crisp but sunny afternoon. It's a bumpy route so the steady run is always a challenge. Went well enough if maybe a little harder than expected for a relatively short session.

Thu 9 Mar

Back in Dublin, what a dismal day. Not one to be put off by bad weather but very happy to chalk this one up as a rest day.

Fri 10 Mar

51 mins easy with drills and strides. Met up in St. Anne's with C and D for this, strategy session as we are all doing Sunday's Dublin 10k championship race.

Sat 11 Mar

34 mins inc. Fairview parkrun @ easy (26:57). Straight out of bed and down to the local park - so handy!

Sun 12 Mar

Garristown Windmill Run 10k (43:34, 4th M60, M50 team gold)

As this race has become the Dublin 10k road championships since last year, the club has been encouraging us to sign up, and once again we had a successful 'raid' into the rolling hills of north County Dublin. While it's not a flat course by any means, apparently it's not as bad as previous years (and if the hill I completed my cooldown on was formerly on the course, I salute anyone who had a good run in previous years).

My 10k PB (43:19) is due an update, but it wouldn't be easy on this course, which features a mostly downhill first half and a mostly uphill second, naturally enough. About 280 runners lined up, and I had a decent position in the fifth row, getting off to a decent start on the drag up through Garristown village before making a left turn and heading down and out into the country. It was a cool and damp morning, a bit of a breeze but otherwise nice conditions. With the downhill first half the thinking was you had to roll with the terrain and bank a bit of time. The field around my part of the pack became fairly strung out pretty quickly. I found myself latching onto small groups of two or three runners and pushing on to the next fairly soon, as no group seemed to maintain the kind of tempo pace effort I was looking for at this stage of the proceedings. Not that I was looking at the watch - I checked pace at 1k (4:14) and only once more during the race, at halfway.

I focused on a clubmate, M, who was moving well although I know he tends to go out a little hard. Passed him somewhere in the fourth km, probably, uttering some encouragement and he did tag along for a while. The race was well signposted and I noticed all of the markers, going through 5k in about 20:40 according to the watch. Happy enough with that, time to knuckle down now and deal with the hills, although the downhill seemed to continue a little longer than expected (which of course would only make the drags harder).

Still moving from group to group. I'd only been passed once since things had settled, a strong looking lad with impressive mud splashes up the back of his legs, but he hadn't pushed on much and I found myself tracking him and passing maybe in the seventh km, and a little later I was passed again by a yellow-shirted runner who'd be the last runner to go by. Tried to distract myself from the drag by picking off runners. One made it easy by stopping right in front of me, most of the others took a bit longer to track down. The drags continued but to be honest it wasn't as bad as I had been expecting, which was probably because of the tailwind helping at this stage. Started passing walkers at the back of the 5k race that had gone off around a mostly different course. I felt pretty strong here actually - more than expected - but alas this was probably because I wasn't pushing it enough. Through 9k with a few runners in my sights, and in no time at all there was the final right turn and to my surprise I could see the turn to the short finish straight a bit closer than I expected (even though we'd run this part of the course during the warmup). I'd started to sense a stealthy presence behind and luckily a supporter gave the game away on the turn, saying 'Come on LSA, you can catch that Raheny fella'. Between that and spotting Dick Hooper roaring encouragement on the roadside just ahead, I was able to turn on the afterburners - too much in the tank - and pass one or two more in the last 250m. Turning onto the finish straight I was disappointed to see the clock well over 43 mins as I'd felt I'd been running a bit faster than that. Maybe I should look at the watch more! However one of the main aims today was to forget about time and concentrate on the race. Over the line in 43:34 official.

I'd felt OK for most of this run and raced the people in front of me reasonably well, but overall I feel I didn't get the effort levels right overall. I ended up 4th in my age category, two places behind 3rd and only four places (and 37 seconds) behind 2nd. Maybe a more aggressive opening salvo would have put me in contention with these lads. But happy enough overall - and delighted to be second scorer on our M50 team, which took the gold. It appeared we were the only M50 team left, as some other M50 club runners (including a few of our own) had scored on M35 teams, but a medal is a medal and it's always good to score. A decent outcome and well worth the trip!

(Great results in Bohermeen and Den Haag today, well done to all concerned.)

Previous PB: 43:19 (BHAA K-Club 2018)

Target: 43:1x

Actual: 43:34

56th place (of 279)

4th M60 (of 11)

M50+ team (2nd scorer) - 1st

VDOT: 47.0

AG: 76.7%

Verdict: Can do more

WTD: 64 kms (40 mi)

MTD: 128 (80)

YTD: 658 (409)

Yet another post-race recovery week, although one with a club Winter League one-miler in it, which I can’t afford to miss if I am to complete the minimum seven races to ‘score’ in the WL - a relatively meaningless achievement in itself, but I’ve started so I’ll finish… 

Mon 13 Mar

42 mins recovery on the seafront. I don’t recall much about this, just a typical day-after-the-race plod.  

Tue 14 Mar

65 mins easy. Sneaked onto the not-yet-completed Dublin Port greenway again. Christened it with a Strava segment. I seem to have the leaderboard to myself for now. :D 

Wed 15 Mar 

Winter League Round 8

The first of three one-mile races to finish up the series. Always a bit of a shock to the system. I arrived early and got in a three mile warmup with some drills and strides, even though I wasn’t going to race this at 100%. Shouted at by an angry motorist at one point, ‘Get off the f@*king road’ (side road, hardly any other traffic). Eejit. 44 runners started, including a bunch of kids from one of the junior training groups, which was nice to see. The countdown happens and we are off. I thought I’d taken the opening 400m handy enough but discovered afterwards this was the fastest quarter by some distance. What I love (and also dislike) about racing the mile is how you have to make decisions very quickly and trust your instinct. About 500m in I could feel myself stepping off a bit and maybe making an easy decision to let the group ahead go, but I quickly changed my mind and stuck myself among them. A good decision as it contained plenty of runners who finished behind me in the end. At 600m and the left turn onto All Saints Road I started picking off the runners in front. Passed a few mini-rivals in the process before concentrating on some of these unfamiliar kids, a few of whom predictably started to flag around 1km around the course. Passed one or two of the Division 2 rivals and held on until the final turn with about 300m to go (although it always feels much further). I took at least one more runner in this ‘home straight’ and had the luxury of a slight coast over the final 50m, just keeping the runners behind at bay. 6 mins flat. Great fun. Couple of laps of the circuit with clubmates to cool down, so about 60 mins and 6+ miles for the day.

While I didn’t go all-out on this one, it was definitely a hard effort, and I consider it an adequate session for the first half of the week. 

Thu 16 Mar

40 mins easy, in St. Anne’s with DD, who will also be doing Berlin this year. Time to start thinking about that more specifically, soon.  

Fri 17 Mar

Back in Donegal for the holiday weekend. 97 mins easy out along St. John’s point. There used to be a 10k race out here, and I did it the route in reverse. Got pleasantly soaked towards the end of the run. Possible punishment pass toward the end also from a careless van driver. Maybe I'm getting paranoid, but there seems to be some terrible driving going on out there.

• This week: 52k (32 mi)
• This month: 180 (112)
• This year: 710 (441)

Haha, it's like a very short film playing at fast forward in your head. But there's always a couple of moments that stand out and from there you just fill in the gaps!

Edit: Plus, everyone should race the mile, it's probably the purest distance of them all. You need speed, endurance, discipline and courage to pull off a good one, and when you do it feels amazing.

Another race this week. Thick and fast, they’re coming. (OK, maybe not always that fast.) In fact, counting the couple of Winter League events I’ve given a lash, Dunboyne on Sunday will be the eighth race of the year.

Mon 20 Mar

Rest day. Glad of it after last week’s mileage, and I was feeling quite tired after a nightmare trip home from Donegal after being locked out of the car for four hours waiting for a locksmith to break into it.

Tue 21 Mar

50 mins easy up to Artaine Castle and back via Beaumont.

Wed 22 Mar 

Track session: 2x800, 2x500, 2x800

I’ve had an open invitation to DD’s weekly office track session for some time and I finally took it up. Glad I did - it’s been a couple of years since I ran regular short reps and even longer since doing them on the track. I aimed to do these at 5k effort and did glance at the watch a few times but really just tried to go by feel and really enjoyed the session, jumping in with a couple of lads of similar ability. Averaged about 3:15 for the 800s and 1:58 for the 500s. Jog back to the office to total about 10k for the day.

This week: 18k (11 mi)

This month: 229 (142)

This year: 759 (472)

Check the tide - as long as you don't have a high tide too close to 9:30 - I'd say at least an hour before or after - it wouldn't be too bad. But depending on where you are, Dungloe is another option, a little exposed if it's blowy but a nice course over three laps. Might well be there myself on Easter Saturday. Falcarragh is probably my favourite Donegal parkrun to date - lovely course through woods and a walled garden - but very far away from SW Donegal. Either way, enjoy!

Ah well if it’s walking distance you have to do it, tide or no tide. Either way it’s a lovely tourist run. And yes, good coffee facilities! Enjoy it.