Dan Doherty & Keith Whyte, Seregno 2012.
Dan Doherty finished an excellent 8th in the European 100k championships in Belves, France on Sunday 28th April. Dan’s time of 7.05.58 was less than a minute outside the Irish record for the distance. Dan paced himself well and finished strongly, picking off a number of competitors in the closing stages. This displays incredible consistency as he recently recorded a time of 7.05.23 when winning the Self Transcendence (Anglo Celtic Plate)100k in Scotland. Dan will now turn his attention to the World and European 24H championships to be held in the Netherlands in May.
Ireland’s other competitor Keith Whyte unfortunately had to withdraw due to injury at 80k. Keith was also performing strongly up to this point and was disappointed not to post a result. He also demonstrated good form recently when he won the Connemara Ultra.
Special mention must also go to John Collins, Kevin Belton and Jeff Fitsimons. The support crew travelled the 100k course on bikes to provide hydration, nutrition and encouragement to the runners.
A good result and I’m now glad that I took the weekend off as it’s better to miss 2 days training when needed than to miss a week of training recovering from illness or overtraining. Early Gym session testing my 1 Rep Max for the back squat, lost concentration and stopped at 75kg before finishing the session with 3 sets of walking lunges with Dumbbells. Easy Lunchtime 10K with legs feeling tired and heavy and a similar evening run of 10K with tired legs. Looking forward to starting the Taper.
Early Gym session of Power Clean with 40Kg and 5 sets of 3*5 Strict Press @ 30Kg + 4 chin ups. Shorter than planned run of 8K as my legs are still feeling tired and I’m still recovering from the DOMS and don’t want to slow the recovery too much.
My plan for today has slightly changed and instead of the longer run I opt for a shorter but faster session of just under 20K with 14K at Tempo Pace which included a 10K split of under 38 mins. Added in a second recovery recovery run a few hours later of 6K. A good day.
Expected and rather than run early I postpone the run until the afternoon to extend my recovery. Went out at my planned race pace over a hilly route and picked the pace up halfway through even though I knew I shouldn’t.
Not what I wanted but knew it was possible. Today is the end of my peak week and tomorrow is a rest day so my plan for today stands but I limit the distance to 20K and keep my HR at lower end of Aerobic and my pace will be no faster than race pace. This is planned over reaching.
A good comeback from last weekend and overall a good week with a mix of sessions / distances & intensities. Tomorrow is a rest / recovery day and the Taper begins.
Lower than expected. Easy lunchtime 10K and feeling slightly fatigued, decided to cancel my run home. Went to watch my son play a match and then took the opportunity to run a recovery 5K with the Couch to 5K group from my club. Legs still feeling tired and think this was a good decision as it prevents the temptation to run faster / longer. Cancelled my Gym session tomorrow as there’s no point in digging the hole any deeper.
Stress / Rest / Adapt and this is my highest score in quite a while. Woke at my usual Gym time and same scenario as last Thursday, if the signs of a recovery were there I’d use the available time productively. Ran to work taking it nice and easy and added a second recovery run during my lunchtime of 8K. An unexpected window of opportunity meant I could add in a 3rd session of just under 10K at Recovery pace and this is ideal in the build-up to a 24-hr race as the cumulative fatigue is similar to what I’ll experience during the race.
Higher than expected and today’s plan has slightly changed to quality over quantity based on my HRV. Legs feeling heavy so I skipped the opportunity to run during lunch and instead saved myself for a later session of 3*2K intervals off 90 seconds recovery. I was aiming for 3:30-3:35 per K but spent most of the first rep warming up and maybe next time I’ll include a throwaway rep of close to planned pace at the start. Average pace per 2K of: 3:38K, 3:34K & 3:35K and a total distance of 13K with warm up and cool down.
Early Gym session of mobility work and did 3*5 Back Squats with 60Kg and 3* max chin ups. Lunchtime easy run of 10K in just under 42 mins and I can feel my right ITB starting to feel the effects of the recent workload. Think it’s time for a massage.
Plan for today is slightly changed and rather than a tiring long run I opt for a shorter but more intense interval session. An interval session isn’t as tiring because of the recovery between reps and the reps are short enough that the HR isn’t elevated for too long. Session was 10*1K at average pace of 3:35K off 60 second recovery.
Today is now a rest day so it’s back to bed.
Unexpected after resting and taking it easy yesterday. Today is now a rest day and I’m not happy. Sent a text to my club mates cancelling a planned meet up halfway through my run and then it was back to bed.
A good recovery since yesterday and better than expected for race day. Didn’t do my usual pre breakfast race day run in favour of the extra time in bed as I’m still adjusting to the clocks going forward. Unsure of my form but confident that I’ll go under 38mins has taken my mindset away from racing and that in itself has helped keep the stress levels controlled plus today’s race is hosted by my club and I don’t have far to travel so even with the lie in I arrive in good time to relax and mingle before the start. When the race started I was conscious of the possible fast pace and tried not to get caught up in an early sprint. The start seemed slow enough but when I checked my watch I soon realised that it was too much too soon and I purposely dropped back to get closer to my planned pace. The opening stretch went for 3k on the hard shoulder of a featureless road and was made easy by being amongst a group of 5-10. At the end of this stretch we turned sharp left and went up and over a humpback bridge crossing a canal and the railway and then the race starts. This short sharp hill is a killer but local knowledge meant I didn’t attack it hard but waited until I’d cleared it before making a break and then I was on my own and chasing down individual runners with the closest being between 60-100M away. This section went on for less than 2k and was undulating but sheltered and my plan was to get to the end of this stretch on pace before turning left again for less than 500M and into a headwind when I knew I’d need to dig deep and then as I cleared halfway I’d push on. I started to gain on the runners ahead and was also caught by someone from behind and then I became part of a group of 3 before reaching the 6K marker, I tried to get comfortable running as a group but as we hit a downhill stretch I was gone. I’m guessing that the effects of the recent trail race meant my legs just couldn’t cope with the high impact from running downhill and rather than the other competitors picking it up I was simply falling back. A sizeable gap was created as each time they went out of view on a bend made it harder to regain contact as my concentration was starting to go. I wasn’t feeling any pain but it was an effort to maintain the pace as my legs were feeling heavy and in my head I was trying to work out my finish time if I eased back from here. Had I done enough to go under 38 mins? In the distance I could see a house that I knew was close to the 7k mark and that became my new focus and soon enough after passing it I could see that I was starting to make up some ground. I caught up with the runner just ahead and made some distance on him on him at a hill just after 8K but what goes up must go down and he tore past me on the downhill and it felt like I was running through quicksand as I tried to maintain contact. Approaching the finish I get a glimpse of the position behind me and do my best to improve on or at least maintain what I’ve got and make a poor attempt at a sprint finish. Crossing the line in 37:16 it’s over 2 minutes slower than my PB from this time last year but it’s a faster average pace than my last 5K Parkrun on 29/12/12 (18:38). 
A good result and the training can continue as normal. Early gym session including 5*5 squats with 57.5Kg which felt tough enough but still manageable. Legs feeling better than they should do after a race but then again this is what I want as these shorter races are part of rather than the focus of my training. I’m expecting the DOMS tomorrow and with that in mind I scaled back my run to a Recovery effort with my son cycling alongside and we took our time with stops to look over bridges and enjoy the start of the brighter evenings. Covered 10K in just under 1hr not including stoppage time.
