Aug 24: Longford Marathon - Ireland

It was mid Sunday morning and I found myself watching the rolling green Irish landscape flash by inbetween small naps stolen from the seat of the bus taking myself, Jennie, my sister and my brother-in-law from Dublin to Longford - about 2 hours west. I looked at the others with me and saw that they were doing the same - we were all, no doubt, a little tired from the day before spent sightseeing (i.e. beer tasting) in Dublin and the early morning required to catch this bus. I dozed off again with fresh memories of the events that brought me to this particular trip.

About 20 weeks ago it was time to draft up another training schedule for yet another marathon. The marathon in the crosshairs this time is none other than the world record course - Berlin. The final training schedule was derived from my favorite passages in the bible (aka Daniels' Running Formula) and consultation with my running partner back in Houston. As a side note, I used to call my "running partner" back in Houston my "running buddy" but I have decided that no "buddy" would ever suggest some of the sick, sick workouts he has suggested to another "buddy". One such suggestion from my running partner was to run 24 miles for our long runs, in which we have 2 scheduled for Berlin. Like most things suggested between "buddys" (remember that before this training started that he was still my buddy) this suggestion seemed like a good idea at the time!

A sudden jolt from the bus awoke me from my slumber. It was 9:50am - we were almost at Longford. I had decided to run my first 24 miler within a marathon - this way I was gauranteed a supported route and a mental break from running loop after loop over my usual running routes back in Paris. The Longford marathon was choosen because it was close and fell on the date pre-determined in our training schedule.

I arrived in Ireland a day earlier to meet up with my family and to explore Dublin. We started the day taking a bus tour around Dublin. Making notes along the way as to where we would like to retourn. Once we reached the Guiness brewery, however, no notes were required - all that was required was an immediate disembarkment (plus it was just starting to rain and we were on the top of the uncovered bus!).

Here is Michelle, Jamie, and Jennie being the cool kids and sitting in the back of the bus in Dublin town.


The Guinness brewery tour was really interesting. It took several hours before we found ourselves at the end of the tour in the Gravity Bar (the highest bar in Ireland) enjoying a sweet, sweet mixture of hops, barely, water, and brewer's yeast. I figured that with my long run planned for the next day that a few pints of Guinness would be perfect carb loading. Or, perhaps I am just a sucker for advertisement and was convinced by the statements made in Guinness's first Newspaper advertisement (shown below). The statement that "Guinness builds strong muscles" had me asking for more!



Similar advertising continues to this day on the streets of Dublin!


10 million pints of Guinness are drunk everyday - here Jennie and I are in the Gravity Bar making our contribution to that total!

In fact, doctors used to prescribe Guinness to their patients! Knowing that it was "just what the doctor ordered" we continued to a local pub called Ryan's for more! There I ate beef-stew...a typical pre-race meal...no?!

Back on the bus, we had finally arrived at this sleepy Irish town called Longford (population ~ 9000). With only 45 minutes to go before race time I started to get concerned of whether or not my dietary choices from the day before would affect my running. Or more importantly, what about my dietary choices this morning? With nothing open for breakfast (and me just not not taking this run seriously I neglated to pack anything) I was able to find some high octane fuel in the form of an egg 'n cheese McMuffin and a Snickers bar. Now, if an Egg 'n Cheese McMuffin can sit under those heat lamps for months without changing or going bad, it makes you wonder just what kind of acid one needs in their stomach to break them down. Maybe I should have a banana too so I at least feel like I am doing something right?!

Jennie and I eating the breakfast of Champions...I'm lovin' it!

After getting my bib and working my way into the crowd packed tighter than a sardine can the gun sounded and we were off (and here in Europe the smell is generally the same as a can of sardines as well)! The plan - just run 7:15-7:30 pace and repeat (26 times to be exact).

I started off trying to run at this pace and was, generally, successful. It was quite fun - just running and soaking it all in. With each passing mile I just kept feeling better and better so I decided that just as long as I could chat with whoever was running beside me, then my effort level was probably ok. The problem with this strategy was when I started running next to a big Polish guy who, apparently, had the same strategy...boy, people like us are really annoying! After trying repeatedly to get him to go ahead of me (instead of running me into the ditch), I decided to pick up the pace and to just get on with this run.

Now, if I may take a second, one of the main reasons that I never really got into blogging (until recently) was that I was always impressed by reading other people's blogs with their detailed (step-by-step) accounts of their races. I often wonder, "How in the heck do they remember all that stuff? How can they tell the difference between what happened at mile 9 and mile 11?". So, not trying to be someone I am not, here is my race summary:

11am - Race start

11am - 2:04:40pm - Some heavy rain, annoying Polish guy, a neat town called Roosky, a spectular trail along a lake, a decision to accelerate while still keeping the effort level low.

2:04:40 pm - Race (for me) finish

And all of that, occured somewhere along this path! The start (Longford) is in the bottom right; Roosky is the northern most point; and yes, it was basically a route all through the countryside.

Here I am at the finish.


It don't mean a thing if ya ain't got that bling...me and my medal!

My splits were as follows:

1-5: 7:06, 7:05, 7:18, 7:23, 7:25 (36:19)

6-10: 7:14, 7:08, 7:10, 7:09, 7:13 (35:55)

11-15: 7:11, 7:10, 7:05, 7:06, 7:02 (35:34)

16-20: 7:00, 6:58, 6:52, 6:46, 6:52, 6:56 (34:31)

20-25: 6:56, 6:58, 6:52, 6:46, 6:43 (34:17)

26 - 26.2: 6:36, 1:23 (7:59)

Total chip time: 3:04:40

For those of you more visually inclined, here is my HR and Pace chart. My HR was very well controlled until I decided to pick up the pace a little around mile 14. After that, it was just a steady incline up. This is another great reminder for me as to why negative splits (if you can plan it) is the way to go - you minimize the time your body has to spend working!

This chart is my pace shown relative to my overall average pace.

My marathon PR is 3:04:38 (Mobile, Alabama) - this marathon was just 2 seconds slower! I am not at all bothered by that - PR'ing was not an objective of this workout. Sure, perhaps I ran this training run a little harder than I should have, but I am blame Guinness!

Aug. 24: Guinness Makes You Stronger

So, it was Sunday morning and my schedule called for a 24 mile run. Instead, I decided to run 26.2. I ran it in 3:04:44. The lovely people in Longford, Ireland even decided to give me a medal when I was done! I was quite pleased as the run felt great the entire time and I was able to manage the second half approx. 7-8 minutes faster than the first half. Splits and HR to follow to be included in the race report!

A full 'race' report will follow - just remember that Guiness DOES make you stronger! I am currently in the south of France for training. (And wouldn't you know I managed to plan this training to be located immediately adjacent to a 400m track!!) Speaking of which, JD could you please send me the Q workouts for this week (actually I just need the shorter one)?

Sorry for the quick post - internet time is limited this week...but I am still running!

A+

Aug 21: Nuttin' Doin'

Be warned - this post is lame. Work is busy, I am packing for Ireland (leave tomorrow after work for the weekend), and am watching How I met your Mother on DVD (love it!). Actually, I wish I were doing all those productive things - as usual I am procrastinating my packing (I hate packing).

I did manage to squeeze 6.25 miles of chill running after work at an average pace of 7:17 min/mile. That puts me at 36 miles so far for the week...exactly where I need to be! I hope to squeeze in the extra few miles in and around my Guiness brewery tour (in which I already have my tickets purchased for!) and any other shinanagans I might get myself into this weekend!

Maybe next blog I will report that I have found a pot o' gold...stay tuned!

A+

Aug 18 - 20: Back to Paris!

After a great long weekend in England, I left Jennie behind on the island and came back to Paris (someone has to pay the bills...booooooo!). Ahhh...to be back in the land where people live of stimulants. In England it seems to me that the general population all could be on a rugby team...generally, everyone appeared stalky and rugged -all from good stalk! Now I am back here in Paris, where everyone appears anorexic and super skinny - I think the daily meals consists of a coffee for breakfast, a cigarette for lunch, and sex for dinner!

This week is my last 60 mile week (sucre!). It has been a good start so far - Monday and Tuesday were both easy runs, each one about 8.2 miles long (with an average of 4.5 trannies seen each night!). Tonight was another AWESOME threshold run (note the heavy sarcasm, yet the subtle tone of excitement that I am now done and writing about it!). Todays run was one of those sweet ones where I get to do 2x20 minutes of threshold (again, note heavy sarcasm).

Here is what happened:

2.5 mile warmup (7:33 min/mile)

3.25 miles threshold (5:59, 5:55, 5:54, 1:30 (400m))

2.5 miles (7:24 min/mile)

3.25 miles threshold (6:00, 5:55, 5:53, 1:28 (400m))

1.75 miles cooldown (7:22 min/mile)

As usual, my HR and pace are plotted below. This run felt great throughout, which reminded me - we are now in Phase IV of Jack's training schedule...I guess if I am going to start hitting a groove, now would be the time (Perhaps this is what Jack intended!!).

Keep it real dudes!

Aug 17: Wimbledon Track Workout

Today was the last day of my training week and I still had to do my quality Threshold workout so that meant only one thing - time to go to the track in Wimbledon that my beau-frere researched for me prior to my arrival and lay down some sweet, sweet threshold miles! It was pretty cool - check out where the track was below. Just to the left is the Wimbledon tennis courts.

So, feeling inspired by all the great things that have occured just next to the track I started trotting around and getting fired up! It was extra inspirational since my sister, beau-frere, and Jennie were hanging out track side (yes, going on vacation with me means you get to spend some sweet, sweet time checking out the local tracks...maybe it is a good thing that I got into this whole running thing AFTER getting married!)

I was pretty excited to run, but my pacing was ALL over the place. The whole idea of going to a track for these workouts is to nail your pace and to keep it consistent. I definitely was not consistent, but getting a track workout during vacation kept a smile on my face the entire time! The workout unravelled like so (the general theme is one of excitement at the beginning of each interval followed by boredom!):

Warmup: 2.02 miles (7:09 min/mile)
Threshold (reported as cumulative miles):
1. 5:58 min
1.5: 3:01
400m recovery: 1:52 min

2.5: 5:53 min
3: 3:02 min
400m recovery: 1:53 min

4: 5:51 min
4.5: 3:04 min
400m recovery: 1:53 min

5.5: 5:55 min
6.25: 4:31 min

2 mile recovery (7:20 min/mile)

This is the graphical representation.


After the workout, we were all leaving the track when 2 other guys were walking up and starting to get ready for their workout. I said hello and they both said hello back and I kept walking. My brother-in-law asked me, "Do you know who that was?!" I said, "Nope". It turns out, it was a Great Britain tennis star, Andy Murray, who had just been eliminated from the Olympics a few days earlier. My sister told me that I should go back and run a few laps with him...I decided against it - I thought that the poor guy is probably still feeling bad from losing out at the Olympics let alone having some no-name whoop him on the track!!! LOL

Total Weekly Miles: 43.24 miles (Goal: 42 miles - goal achieved!)

A+

Aug 14 - Aug 17: England: Day 4

Today was the much anticipated woman's Olympic Marathon. I would not let myself leave my sister's and beau-freres place until I watched it on TiVo. The English like to post the current news updates (i.e. as it happens) on chalk boards outside their news stands. As new news rolls in, they update their boards accordingly with big catchy phrases so that the casual passerby is compelled to buy the lastest news edition. A since Paula Radcliffe is a pretty big deal in Great Britain and the marathon community (I guess that is what you get for holding the world record), I figured her progress would be posted.

I was really inspired by her performance. No, she did not win, but if that is what running marathons is about, then it is time for me (and I am guessing most of my readers) to find a new goal or dream. I was inspired by her class and her perserverance. I was also quite dissapointed that Deena Kastor fell out so quickly - I was looking forward to seeing if she was going to run with the same tactics she used in Athens. That is the beauty (although I am sure that Paula and Deena would use a different word) of the marathon - race day can be totally unpredictable.

Ok - I was going to start blogging about my quality workout I did after the Olympics - but I am tired and am going to bed! I will update tomorrow!

A+

Aug 14 - Aug 17: England: Day 3

So, today is Saturday and it has been 2 full days without running (OMG - how did I survive?!) That is the beauty of low mileage weeks - they totally allow you to take a few days to travel to a new country and to visit with your family without the constant battle of trying to figure out how (and when..oh yeah, and where) you will go for your run. But today (after watching Olympics of course) the family and I headed up to the Wimbledon Commons to get my jog on while the rest of them went for a little walk. We agreed to meet up at a little pond in 45-60 minutes - I decided 45 minutes + stretching would be the best combination of my time. The run went as follows:

7:23/7:25/7:33/7:27/7:21/7:28 min/mile

Here is a satellite image of my route. If you look to the right of my route and in the center of the picture, you will see the world famous Wimbledon Tennis Courts. Those of you with a keen eye, will also notice a 400m track just north of the 'T' shaped lake - but we will see more of that tomorrow (fun, fun!)!


During their walk, the family stumbled upon bushes and bushes of blackberries. I was pleasantly surprised when they arrived at the rendez-vous point with loads and loads of freshly picked blackberries. That is what I call a recovery treat!

Mom and dad flew out tonight - on their way to Eygpt. As usual, the time spent together was much too short, but I am just grateful for having that time together.