New Irish 24-hr Record.

Glavin sets Irish 24 H Record

Sumie Inagaki (Japan), women's winner, pictured with Valerie Glavin (Ireland)

Galway's Valerie Glavin set a fantastic new Irish women's indoor 24-Hour Record of 217.809km (135.340 miles) at the Endurance 24 Hour in Espoo, Finland at the weekend.

Mick Rice & Ruthann Sheehan

Valerie finished second in the womens race behind Japan's Sumie Inagaki, who ran a world class distance of 240.631km.

It was girl power all the way as Glavin and fellow Galway woman Ruthann Sheehan posted the best Irish performances of the day.

Sheehan, who won the 2010 Dingle 50-mile race, posted a very credible distance of 188.714km (117.261 miles) while their club mates Mick Rice and Ray O'Connor recorded distances of 165.545km and 122.083km, respectively. 

Glavin ran steadily through the 100-mile point in 16:59:49 hrs, also setting an Irish women's best, and maintained a strong momentum until the end.

It was the first recording of Irish female performances in an indoor 24-hour IAU-labelled event. 

Women's Results

1. Sumie Inagaki (JPN) - 240.631km
2. Valerie Glavin (IRL) - 217.809km
3. Marjukka Sinisalo (FIN) - 204.567km
7. Ruthann Sheehan (IRL) - 188.714km

Daniel Doherty 2nd in Gloucester 50k

Daniel Doherty, who will make his debut for Ireland in the Anglo Celtic Plate 100km in March, finished second in the Gloucester 50k on 23 January.

Doherty was leading the race by some 3 minutes at 27 miles and finished in an excellent time of 3:09:05 despite suffering a chest infection. Indeed, his performance is all the more remarkable given that he only took up running a couple of years ago.

English international 100km runners Julian Rendall and Allen Smalls finished first and third, respectively.

Doherty, who runs with Basingstoke and Mid Hants AC in the UK, will be a fantastic addition to the Irish 100km team.

RESULTS

1. Julian Rendall   3:07:22
2. Daniel Doherty  3:09:05
3. Allen Smalls      3:09:41

So far so good.

Last week couldn't have gone any better, I almost mirrored the previous week's sessions without having to make any lifestyle adjustments which tells me that the schedule could me manageable.  Finished the week with back to back long runs of just under 40Km with both done at a very easy pace.  To help with the long runs I arranged to meet a training partner either during or towards the end of the run which helped prevent boredom from tempting me to stop short.  Total distance for this week went slightly further than last week and was close to 165Km plus I managed to fit in a Sports Massage.

 I wasn't looking forward to the Massage as I had visions of the expected pain seeing as I hadn't got a rub down since the start of November last year in preparation for the 100Km World Championships in Gibraltar and I've clocked up quite a distance since then.  I don't think I've ever gone this long without a massage but breaking my ribs in early December meant I couldn't take the risk as the massage usually includes working on my back and shoulders.  To be honest I was probably glad of the excuse not to get one.

Plan for this week is to again mirror my previous two weeks and that should confirm my schedule.  Weekday runs will remain the same and I'll continue to either increase the weekend distance or else reduce the distance and increase the pace but I won't do two back to back runs of longer than 40Km as I don't think it necessary based on my past experience.  Rest & Recovery is just as important as the training and you should only do what you can recover from and if a weekend of high distance means reduced quality in the following week then it might be counter productive.

Michael Collins' Novel Approach to Running at Runner's World

Michael Collins' Novel Approach to Running at Runner's World

Michael Collins leading the Irish Team during the 100K World Championships 2010 Opening Ceremony.

Establishing a new routine.

Antarctica 09th January 2006.

Looking back over old photographs helps me get into the zone when planning ahead and some times I wish that I was still planning the races I've already done.  It's unlikely that I'll ever return to these places because I believe that some experiences should be remembered and not repeated as the next time might not be the same.  Having said that I still might repeat some of the races if the opportunity arises but I won't purposely try to make that happen as there's still so much to do.

My recent injury seems to have cleared up and the in the past week I've managed to run just over 150 Km with 12.5 hrs of training.  This was made of of lunchtime Tempo runs coupled with evening Recovery runs and the occasional Steady run as my commute home from work.  My weekend was as usual with a long run of just under 40K on Sunday.  

I'll follow this same routine for the next two weeks to see if it fits around my life schedule without having to make too many sacrifices and then I'll try increase the volume by starting my weekend runs earlier and maybe adding in the occasional run before work.  I'm guessing this will bring my training time close to 15-16 hrs and when that gets comfortable I'll start to run it faster which of course will increase the distance.

The best training plan is one that fits around your life rather than trying to fit your life around the training.  When sacrifices need to be made the first thing I give up is sleep and that can be made easier by going to bed earlier.

2011

After a quiet and easy December I'm back in action and trying to get back to where I left off.  Having started back running just after Christmas I feel that the forced rest due to my broken ribs has allowed my legs have the time off they needed and during my recent come back runs I felt very strong but did notice my heart rate was higher than it would normally be for the same effort.  I'll need to make the conscious effort to slow the pace down a bit and the easy way to do that without putting too much thought into it is to run with someone that little bit slower and let them control the pace.

My plan for next year is simple, learn from last year and improve.

A day's Rock Climbing to start the new year.

Ultrarunning Ireland Athletes of the Year 2010

John O'Regan, Eddie Gallen & Martin McCann at the Spartathlon Awards Ceremony.

Eddie Gallen is UltraRunning Ireland's 2010 Male Athlete of the Year, Aisling Coppinger is Female Athlete of the Year while Michael Collins earns Performance of the Year.

Eddie Gallen ran in a record fourth consecutive World 24 Hour Championships in Brive, France in May and was the top Irish finisher with a PB of 223.898km, or 139.123 miles. In September he also became the first Irish finisher of the Spartathlon since 1998. The Spartathlon, run from Athens to Sparta, must be completed within 36 hours and strict cut-off times for reaching intermediate checkpoints are imposed. Furthermore, high temperatures in Greece make a difficult course all the more trying.

John Byrne, Michael Collins, Aisling Coppinger, John O'Regan at the 100K World Championships Gibraltar.

Aisling Coppinger finished fourth in the Anglo Celtic Plate 100km in June and then claimed a top 30 European and top 40 World placing at the World & European Championships in Gibraltar in November, setting a PB of 9:09:19 at the event. In between, she won the Causeway Coast Ultra and the Motivate Challenge Duathlon.

Michael Collins earns Performance of the Year for leading the Irish team home at the World 100km Championships in November. In doing so, he also claimed a World bronze medal in the M45 category with a time of 7:52:08.