Last of the Summer Wine

Project Berlin - Week 10/13

Into the final four weeks of the programme. Part of the challenge now will be to maintain a healthy weight, as I have a tendency to lose a few pounds more than necessary in the final build-up. There'll be a few more high-calorie shakes and post-run pancakes in my immediate future. Everything else is holding up quite well for now. 

Mon 28 Aug

41 mins easy with strides (10 x 20 secs). I’ve been better about not forgetting the strides this year, although technically I suppose I should have done these yesterday as last week’s LR was a day early.

Tue 29 Aug

12 miles progressive (3x4M @ 8:10, 7:40, 7:20).

Yikes - four miles feels like a long set, and there’s no respite before the next one. I left the supershoes at home as I believe it’s important not to rely on them for all the tough runs. Brooks Ghost clodhoppers instead. I have to say the first four felt harder than they should have, especially with M for company again, which usually means the miles tick by almost unnoticed. I was working quite hard during the middle four, even though not quite at marathon pace. The final four were into the wind, with the last two absolutely head on and the breeze was definitely a factor today.

Approx splits per 4-mile (target)

32:38 (32:40)

30:37 (30:40)

30:28 (29:20)

As the numbers suggest, I really struggled, physically and psychologically, during those final two miles into the gale, but effort levels were high and done is better than perfect, as someone once said wisely.

A bit disorganised today - watch not fully charged, pressing too many buttons and messing up the workout. M was a huge help - I would probably have jogged in the last mile or two if he wasn’t there to keep me honest.

• This week: 31 kms (19 mi)
• This month: 379 (235)
• This year: 2,512 (1,561)

Project Berlin - Week 11/13

With only a few weeks left, the main thing now is to just avoid any disasters in the run-in. The week began with me confined to the couch and the bed all day Monday feeling pukey. One of the boys had a similar thing a few days previously so I’m assuming it’s a typical back-to-school bug, and maybe best to get it out of the way now. It did have an impact this week though.

Mon 4 Sep

No running (see above). Had woken in middle of the night feeling very queasy. Duvet day. At least this was an opportunity to catch up on some sleep. 

Tue 5 Sep

48 mins easy with 6 x 20s strides.

Feeling much better today but appetite (and gut) still a bit off. Headed across to Howth Road and ducked into Mount Temple for a few laps. Strides around the pitches. I can’t say I felt great in the muggy late afternoon heat. 

Wed 6 Sep

Plan: 4 x 5k @ 4:35/4:40 alternating (1k rec)

Actual: 2x5k @ 4:35/4:40 (1 km rec) 

I had to be over in Sandycove for an afternoon appointment and decided to run home. Before I left I’d told myself it’s probably a good idea to postpone the session to early morning tomorrow when it might be a little cooler. But as I warmed up, heading up ‘The Metals’ towards Dalkey Quarry, I thought I might take a stab at the it, as I’d programmed the watch anyway. 🙄 Not wise. Enjoyed tipping around the quarry, a place I’ve never been to before, watching the rock climbers. It was certainly toasty, 25 degrees according to the Garmin data I’m reviewing while writing this. First 5k set back down The Metals through Dun Laoghaire to Seapoint, targeting 4:35/k pace. Shaded at first, and felt OK, but soon exposed on the coast where it was very warm. On target but working too hard. Happy to hit the recovery period, envious of the late afternoon swimmers that were thronging the Seapoint bathing area (and every other nook and cranny around the coast, actually). The second set, at around MP, should have felt a bit easier but by now I was overheating and feeling drained - delighted actually that the gates were down across the DART line at Merrion Gates and taking an 'enforced' breather. Finished out the second set near Sean Moore Park. All kinds of permutations going through my head about how I might adjust the last section to get some more out of it. Recovery, then found myself unable to get past steady pace for the third set, so canned it after about a mile. Jogged rest of way home through East Wall feeling a bit deflated. But the part I did get done was done fairly well so I won’t sweat it, and I noticed plenty of other people struggled mightily with their midweek sessions this week. 

Found myself in the middle of a gathering of Little Irelanders around the East Wall Road refugee centre and couldn’t help getting into a ‘discussion’ with some pretty strange people. At least that briefly took my mind off the session disaster. 20 kms total.  

Thu 7 Sep

46 mins recovery on the seafront. 

Fri 8 Sep

46 mins easy around Drumcondra. Is the weather starting to break? It felt a bit fresher this evening. Enjoyed this. The north city suburbs looked magnificent. You come across a lot of stuff on social media (and Boards) about Dublin being a sh1thole, which is so obviously not the case that it’s hardly worth mentioning, but sometimes it hits you in face how great a place it is to live. Feck the detractors. 💙

Sat 9 Sep

60 mins easy at St. Anne’s and the coast. Lovely morning, plenty of lads and lasses out. Lots of hydration vests, this year’s thing. A wave from the Claw for the first time in a while. Coffee and pancakes and chats.

Sun 10 Sep

15 miles LR (progressive)

Got out at 7:30am but could have been earlier - it was cool but warming rapidly. 5 easy out the coast. 5 steady looping back around through Sutton. Took a gel at start of this, and it was trying to come back up within 15 mins. Slightly worrying as this is not the first time, or the second time. More practice needed, and no more gels on empty stomach. Coach had given option to reduce the target pace for the third 5 mile set so I kept it at marathon pace, which was tasty enough this morning. Glad to be done with this one.

So a ropey enough week by my standards. Not counting any chickens, but not beating myself up either. Coach has been taking plenty of interest and checked in after the LR with some thoughts, positive and pragmatic as ever.

• This week: 79 kms (49 mi) 432 mins
• This month: 128 (79)
• This year: 2,649 (1,647)

Two weeks to go.

Project Berlin - Week 12/13

Nearly there. Of course everyone in the house is coming down with stomach bugs etc. Hopefully my bout last week will be the last. Fingers starting to twitch around long range weather sites. In other news, I will be moving jobs in a couple of weeks, and moving house shortly after that. Just to add to all the drama. It's all happening!

Mon 11 Sep

45 mins easy on the seafront with 10 x 20 secs strides. All the Berlin credentials have arrived - things are certainly shaping up.

Tue 12 Sep

Rest.

Wed 13 Sep

3 mi @ 8, 2 @ 7:40, 2 @ 7:25 + W/C

Yes I know, but the schedule is in miles. At this stage I don’t even need to look up the km equivalents (4:58, 4:46, 4:37). Did this in the wind and rain on the seafront, hitting the paces handily enough. Slightly clunky in that taper-typical way, but all good. More gel practice. No problems. This run felt good despite, or maybe because of, the conditions. 18 kms total. 

• This week: 26 kms (16 mi)
• This month: 153 (95)
• This year: 2,675 (1,662)

Week 12 cont.

Thu 14 Sep

33 mins recovery, Fairview Park. 

Fri 15 Sep

45 mins easy, 6 x 20s strides. ‘Steady’ strides, not fast ones. Felt good. 

Sat 16 Sep

Up early and considering which parkrun to head to then checked the schedule and realised it was another rest day. Stuck to the plan.

Sun 17 Sep

11 miles with 2 x 3m tempo.

Joined @Laineyfrecks at the beginning of her long run in the Phoenix Park for an all too brief warmup. First of the 3-mile tempo legs through the Glen and down past the S Bends. Took a caffeinated Maurten gel at the beginning, with a swig from the soft flask. No negative reaction this time, apart from really disliking the taste at this stage. I am definitely finding them more sickly sweet this year, despite using them now for several marathon blocks. Lots of runners out in the cool drizzle, plenty of smiles and waves. A mile recovery then the second tempo 3 up the North Road, getting a passing low five from @scotindublin, out with his crew. Tempo today was 7:25 pace. I enjoyed this, although I had to concentrate not to fall off the pace at times, even though it felt easily manageable. Took a second gel (regular) during the cooldown, just to keep trying to get my stomach accustomed as much as possible. Finished at the Visitor Centre then realised I was a mile short of the schedule so out for another quick loop around the adjacent roads. 

And that’s the last session of the plan, combined with the last (M)LR. Bring it on.

• This week: 56 kms (35 mi) 303 mins
• This month: 184 (114)
• This year: 2,706 (1,682)

Thanks E, I'm enjoying a quite relaxing week so far. Travel Fri morning.

Sun 24 Sep

Berlin Marathon 2023

You are 300 metres away from the end of your 18th marathon. You’ve slugged it out with the course, the weather, the other runners. You’re on the edge. A very thin edge. You’ve just stumbled through the series of left and right turns that jinks you in an out of the last mile of the Berlin course. You make that left onto Unter Den Linden, the final turn on a day that started so beautifully, became more workmanlike, and now you are hanging on for dear life as the iconic Brandenburg Gate comes into view. The last **** turn of a long and trying race, and some dude behind you decides to shove you out of his way.

I’m a skinny guy at marathon weight, and it doesn’t take much of a shove. I’m propelled to my left, as this self-entitled 30-something goes past, giving me grief. He seems to be pacing someone, and briefly, as a pacer myself I try to understand his schtick, maybe I cut off his pacee or something.

Fuck that. No respect for his elders.

“Did you just push me out of the way with 300 metres to go in the **** Berlin Marathon?” I say in my best indignant voice, although I should not be talking at all in the last kilometre. I can’t believe the guy actually starts arguing and gesticulating and pointing at my running line. As if that really matters in the last 500, the last k, the last mile, the last 10 mins for that matter, or at the end of any race.

Only one word for this guy, and it begins with a W. He’s left me no choice. Once on the red carpet I muster up the afterburners, that little anaerobic power that will always be there at the end of an aerobic race. I smoke the dude, and his pacee too. Wish I’d had the presence of mind to give him the finger as I went past.  

A last glance at the watch then and there are only seconds left. The last minute shenanigans propel me to 3:19:59 on the day. Only the B goal, but it had been activated, and it was a good and wholesome goal. Although in truth I’d thought I had a little more time to play with.

Mission accomplished. Everything else is window dressing. The expo was mad. The buildup was great. The start and finish areas were well organised. The reception for Eliud from the assembled masses was inspiring and heartwarming. The crowds were generous. The many bands and musicians and deejays along the route were entertaining. The water stations were nearly all on the right and poorly signposted, so people were barging across the road every time. But I got enough water (including a bottle from the mrs at 39k). I’d no trouble with the plastic cups, although the chaos might have cost me a minute over the course of the race. But then again you get most of that back. My 5k splits (goal: 23:35) were great for 30k, slipped a bit by 35k. Then slipped a bit more by 40k, even though I’d somehow managed to grind out the two fastest kilometres of the day during this period (or maybe not - the GPS was pretty dodgy in places). 

I’d given it a shot, and I’d come up a bit short. So the B-goal was an honest and noble goal, and the manner in which it was achieved was sweet. 

The ‘A goal’ was sub-3:19. In the cool temperatures of the first half, I'd gone through halfway in 1:39:16 (the atmosphere in km 21 is awesome and you can’t help picking it up a little). But ran a near 90-second positive split, covering the second half in 1:40:44, leaking a lot of that time in the last 4k. The temperatures had risen (as expected), and the numbers never lie. I was bunched. Maybe if I’d managed another gel somewhere along the route - I took 5 of the six I carried, and most of them did not agree with me so I’d spaced them out a bit further than planned. Adjustments you have to do on the fly, no regrets there, I’d done my best to get the carbs in and hold it together. But I’ll not be using Maurten anymore, we seem to have fallen out of love.

I’m not the only one who struggled. The results page says I gained 1,088 places in the second half of the race, despite everything. I’m proud of that, and the way I finished, and that cheeky time of 3:19:59. Not a second to spare. You spend six years trying to break 3:20 for the marathon and two come along at once. I’ll take that!

5k Splits: (target 23:35)

23:44 23:36 23:23 23:24

23:39 23:41 23:44 24:15 (10:33)

So many messages of support, before and after the race, many of them from here, or people who used to be here. Yiz are legends, many thanks. It’s been quite a journey from 2012 to now. Thanks for coming along.

Previous PB: 3:19:28 (Chicago 2022)

Target: 3:18:xx

Result: 3:19:59

Place: 6,012 (of 28,582)

Category place: 75th M60 (of 1,522)

VDOT: 47.2

AG: 76.6%

Verdict: Danke!

Road rage, you know you are absolutely right! Righteous rage though, in this case. 😉

Thanks AM - yeah, I'll have to do something about that marathon addiction. But first, London Calling...

Thanks E. I'll nail the negative split thing eventually I hope. Of course the 'controlled fade' is all the rage these days too, maybe I need to embrace that. 😁 Cheers re the age category - it was interesting comparing the results, overall and age related, with Chicago. Berlin is much more competitive, seems to be a much deeper field overall. Definitely noticeable on the course too, once you got past the quite high number of people who'd obviously spoofed their way into the earlier pens. 😱

Many thanks, M. Probably got too wound up about him but it snapped me out of the funk for sure. Would have been better if it had happened a bit earlier!

Ah, thank you E, and right back at ya.

Ah don't be giving me a big head. I did find time to high five a few kids along the way, in your honour of course. Only if I didn't have to adjust direction or stride, mind. 😉

Thanks S, and I can think of plenty more people, here and elsewhere, who do exactly that, and they are the people who inspire me. "10% inspiration, 90% persperation", as my old maths teacher used to say. Or was it W. B. Yeats? 🤠

Thanks all, much appreciated.

Definitely! Having taken a complete break from alcohol in the 4-5 weeks before the race it was nice to have a few beers again. Just the one shot!

A Last Hurrah? London Calling

Week 1 of 24

Mon 6 Nov

Rest day.

Tue 7 Nov

50 mins with 6 x 1 mins on/off

Jogged up to Albert College Park for the first mini session in a good while now. The idea for the reps was just to run comfortably fast and turn the legs over for the first time in seven or eight weeks. It felt good, in the twilight around Albo's back pitch, and it struck me that this is where the whole Major Marathon quest all began, coming off injury to train for Berlin 2014 where I got the original Boston Qualifying time. Good session - a minute can feel like a long time when you've been plodding for two months.

Wed 8 Nov

53 mins easy around Carton House in Maynooth, where there are a couple of trails around the golf course.

Thu 9 Nov

40 mins+ steady.

Did this one on the Royal Canal, out and back to Kilcock from Maynooth. I'd left the HRM at home so just tried to feel it, which was tricky enough as there was a fresh headwind all the way out to the turn. It felt comfortably hard, and while I'd set out with permission to keep it to 30 mins, 40 felt manageable enough.

Fri 10 Nov

Rest

Sat 11 Nov

9.5 kms including parkrun at about half marathon pace (22:25). This was a nice LT-ish run, with plenty of runners to hunt down in the 500+ field. Bit of a ding-dong with a junior runner but I let him 'win' in the end. 😉

Sun 12 Nov

65 mins easy - not exactly a long run but it took the week's total over 30 miles so a decent enough transition back into something resembling marathon prep. The extended recovery periods over the past while have me about 30 kms behind the annual target so hopefully I'll make that up over the final seven weeks of the year.

• This week: 51 kms (32 mi)
• This month: 56 (35)
• This year: 3.029 (1,882)

John Treacy 10m 2024

A sort of report.

The log has been dormant. Unlike me, because I've been tipping away - but with a few setbacks since late 2023 when I last posted any training.

Being a DCM pacer was great fun but it took more out of me, a few weeks after Berlin, than I expected. I should know better in my mature wisdom, but I wouldn't have changed any of that either - just wish I'd anticipated better how much it would take out, psychologically as much as physically.

The timing, with me starting a new job and moving house did not help, but I'm over that now, mostly.

Things were quite stop/start in Nov-Dec 2023, and the same again in Jan 2024, with a surprisingly lingering cold taking a bigger bite than expected out of the first part of the London training regime.

The upshot of all that is that, in the first week of Feb, I'm feeling like I'm only getting started on the London plan (even though that's not true and I"ve been tipping away at bits of it for a good while now, just not at the usual sustained level that has always given me confidence before).

When your main strength has been your consistency, what happens when that’s taken away?

Not in the usual place, where you are starting to feel the strength kicking in - that's still a few weeks away.

So today, I ran the John Treacy 10 mile in Dungarvan and had a bit of a nightmare from a racing point of view. A shitshow from mile 4 to the finish.

I usually know what to expect, at the start line, and approach accordingly. Today I had the feeling that I haven't done enough to expect great things, but maybe give it a lash anyway and ask myself how valuable the years of solid relatively uninterrupted and injury-free running have been. I dialled up the coach and he said,

Race it, you have strength, see where you are.

He was right. God knows I have a couple of running buddies who always seem to pull it out of the bag after fallow periods - why not me?

I can sum up my race in a single sentence.

Good start, but then realising that it felt too hard, too early - you never race well when you don't feel comfortable enough in the first third, and you're right, you're struggling early and you manage to grind it out, but slower than you've ground out bad races before, so you know, not a great race, even though your heart rate says you worked hard.

That's a long sentence, a bit of a cheat, a run-on sentence that's really two and possibly three.

The negative thoughts had set in from mile 4, and persisted. Not that I let them rule the roost, but they were nibbling away.

This is my PB race, the PB course. Last year I flowed over it like water, destroyed it on my own terms in an honest and methodical way. This year the course did the same to me - every time I expected it to yield, it told me to GFY. The wind blew in the first half. I clocked 36 mins odd at halfway and said, at least I'll neg split with the wind favouring us in the second half. But the course never buckled and it felt harder and harder as the miles ticked on. The lovely surface in mile 8 was there as expected but did not inspire a surge, as it had previously. The final two miles (downwind) back to town felt like the most endless trek imaginable, with people passing, passing, passing - as they had been since mile three, but now more regularly, and more decisively, more ruthlessly.

I was targeting and passing the odd runner in even worse shape than me, but the balance was way off with dozens more handing me my ass on the run in. I told myself this is OK, it's what you have to expect with a couple of dodgy months, and this is a race that finds you out - but it was still a bit humiliating.

Except it wasn't, because runners are the salt of the earth, and they don't care who you are as long as you're not in front of them at the finish and unless they know you they don't realise that they have beaten you, but none of that matters anyway.

I mustered up a mighty finish over 200m or less to not be beaten by one or two or three runners who I felt didn't deserve to finish in front of me. I didn't get them all, and in truth those confrontations should not have happened, they should have been with other - faster - runners. I knew on the line, despite an honest effort, that there was more I could have given.

Maybe that aspect of my racing will never change. Not the best day out, but in the end I took solace from the fact that I was at least racing again and putting it out there.

It can only get better.

• Target: 70-71 mins
• Previous PB: 69:58 (John Treacy 2023)
• Result: 73:15
• Verdict: Deflating, and yet completely unsurprising, so let's take it from here.

London Calling: (Week -11)

I suppose I should start logging again. Especially with AMK reminding me of that call to arms above. With eleven weeks to go to London, there's not a lot of time left to get things right. Coach/mentor DD got in touch after the JT race and offered to tweak the schedule we've been using for the past couple of years - to address the kind of shape I find myself in at the moment with the endurance conditioning and strength being a little off where it usually is at this stage of the proceedings. So those adjustments will kick in from next week, 10 weeks out from the big day.

Mon 5 Feb

41 mins recovery. A running acquaintance is involved with Mental Health Ireland's occasional Monday fun runs, and they were having an informal event in the Phoenix Park. Was supposed to be 5k but whoever was leading the charge seemed to have missed a turn somewhere! Ran this with my daughter, who didn't appreciate the 'bonus' 1.4k. Pleasant atmosphere, preceded by a group hug and a verse of one of those motivational songs that I can't quite put my finger on, writing this six days later. [Edit: Flying Without Wings, that was it! Edit 2: Or was it Lean on Me?] 😁

Tue 6 Feb

50 mins very easy. A loop through Drumcondra and Glasnevin on a pleasant night for running. Body recovering well from Sunday's race.

Wed 7 Feb

48 mins easy on a route through the Maynooth campus, Royal Canal and Carton House. Feeling pretty good.

Thu 8 Feb

Rest.

Fri 9 Feb

Session: 90 mins sub-threshold + warmup/cooldown. I'd double checked with DD about whether it was OK to do this one after last Sunday's shenanigans. Yes, was the answer - no messing about there! Headed out after work, along the seafront. I wore a pair of supershoes that are a bit past their prime, and I have to say, whether it was the shoes or the conditions or just me, I felt strong on this one from start to finish. Delighted to have it under the belt, with the HR exactly where it should be - 167 bpm average, as close as I can get to my threshold zone which starts at 168.

Sat 10 Feb

75 mins easy. In Donegal for the weekend. The mrs was meeting some family for lunch in Donegal Town so I decided to head in and explore some local running options (have never run in that particular locale before, amazingly enough). Started on the gorgeous River Bank walkway, then headed through town and out to the bypass. Should have turned back but decided to return via the bypass, which was a bit of a miscalculation. Much longer on foot than it looks when you're booting along it in the car! Will probably pare back tomorrow's LR a bit now as a result. Enjoyable run though, always great to discover new territory.

Sun 11 Feb

2 hours. There was 2:30 on the schedule but I pared it back after yesterday's extra miles. Got dropped off in Mountcharles and ran back to base hugging the coastal country roads as much as possible. Tired legs but all good. Tried an Enervit gel that I got somewhere, proabably in a race goody bag. Not too pushed on it! A decent week, all told.

• This week: 81 kms (50 mi) 465 mins
• This month: 125 (78)
• This year: 369 (229)