The Spink / Glendalough

My training so far this year hasn't included much hill work and because 'The North Face 100' will include 4500M of Ascent / Descent it's important that I prepare my hill climbing muscles as much as possible over the next few weeks.

With that in mind I finished off last week with a short run in Glendalough taking in a circuit of  a classic route called The Spink and added a few extra climbs concentrating on ascent & descent rather than distance.  The attached photo was taken during my run which started at the Glendalough Hotel next to the small lake which is visible in the middle of the Photo.

I'll take it easy enough this week and treat it as a rest week but as soon as I return from London it'll be back to business and I'll be training in the hills with every available opportunity.  Having completed 100K fairly recently I'm confident that I can cover the distance and having ran non stop up the Empire State Building I know I can climb.  Running London and finishing as planned will prove I can hold a steady pace and I'm injury free unlike this time last year when I was out of action for almost a month with a back injury before the Inca Trail Marathon.  It's all coming together......

I'll be running at a set pace of 8 min mile during the London Marathon using the mile markers and clock to determine my effort and in Australia I'll be using my Heart Rate to determine my effort and pace.  This will mean slowing down on the climbs and speeding up on the descents and flat.

Keepak 8 Miler

All the long slow runs have made me a bit lazy so I was really looking forward to racing the BHAA Keepak 8 Miler yesterday but instead I ended up watching the race and was left wondering would I have set a new PB (Personal Best) on the familiar course?  Pictured at the race yesterday were Tony & Dave representing Le Cheile.

Sports Massage

I always wondered why my wife insisted on using the same hairdresser all the time as do most of the girls I know but yesterday I was getting a massage with the same guy I've been going to for the last 3 years and after the massage he said 'I've seen you a lot worse'.  He knows what I've done over the last few years and has helped me recover from injury and prepare for races so he knows a lot about me and it was then it dawned on me that when you find someone you trust and that knows their job you should stick with them.  

Anyway, not a lot happening at the moment as I'm between races and although not Tapering for London I'm taking it a bit easier.  Took most of the Easter weekend off apart from an early morning 15 mile run with Tony last Friday.  We started out at 07:00 am and ran for 2 hrs at 8 min mile pace without a pre planned route which made for a very enjoyable start to the day and end of my training week.

Fitness Testing

If you decide on taking up running or some other form of exercise for whatever reason it's always a good idea to carry out some form of test to determine your current level of fitness and retesting to monitor your progress.  If the results improve you know what you are doing is working and if they show no improvements you know that some adjustments are needed.

What is a fitness test? This can be something as simple as timing yourself over a measured course, noting the results and re doing the exact same procedure after 3 to 4 weeks of regular exercise.

If you are training a bit more seriously you could follow a standardised test such as the Cooper Test.  The person doing this test runs at a steady pace which should be as fast as they can comfortably manage for 12 minutes and the distance they covered is recorded and compare with a set of results related to their age group.  Today we carried out this test on Tony during our usual Saturday Morning session on the Grass Track.  Over the 12 minutes Tony covered 3130 M which according to the results he's at the top end of the scale for Athletes which makes me think he should be graded using the experienced athletes chart and this puts him in just inside the average range.  Only average?? Using the experienced athletes chart a person that can comfortably run a 6 min mile for 2 miles is average.

Another simple way of testing your training progress is to take part in a fun run and compare this time with future races.  Check out the Leixlip 5K on Saturday May 09th 2009.

Flora London Marathon 09

Today I went for an easy run on the track keeping my heart rate below 140 bpm while checking the associated pace every 200M and pressing the lap button on my stopwatch after every complete 400M lap.   My pace was an even 7:30 min mile over 4 miles and my legs feel as if they've recovered but rather than overdo it I kept the run short.  This heart rate and pace is more or less normal for me and at that pace I could expect to finish a Marathon comfortably in 3hrs 15min.  So what? this means that my 8 min mile pacing job in London will be well within my comfort zone so the signs are good for a quick recovery and a successful race.  Reading this you may think that running the London Marathon so soon after the 100K would be either impossible or foolish and how can I do it?   Well there's a big difference between just running and racing and because the London Marathon will be slower than my easy / recovery pace it will be just another training run.  

Sport, Sweat & Science.

Today as a guest athlete I took part in an incremental treadmill test in 'The Science Gallery"', Trinity College as part of an experiment to show the difference in fitness levels amongst athletes.   As part of the demonstration I ran on a treadmill beside Fiona Friel (one of the best sprinters in the country) in full view of  visitors and our test data was displayed on a screen for all to see.  The test started out with us running at 10 kph with the speed increased by 1 kph every 3 minutes until we had to stop.  Two minutes into every kph increase a small sample of blood was taken and this was analysed for lactate content.  This result along with speed and heart rate was plotted on a graph and the result shows essential information for maximising performance and making improvements in your chosen sport.

If this test was carried out in a lab we would also be wearing face masks to work out how much oxygen our lungs can absorb from each breath and this would then give us another important reading which is our VO2 Max.  

Tomorrow I start thinking about the London Marathon which is now only 24 days until I stand behind the start line.

Recovery

Well my recovery period was short and sweet and today I went for my first run since the 100K.  Took it nice and easy and covered around 4 miles in 32 minutes keeping my heart rate under 130 bpm.  My legs are still feeling a little bit heavy but the muscle pain has gone which is a good thing because tomorrow I'm a guest in the Science Block of Trinity College and will be taking part in a fitness related experiment.  This involves going head to head with the captain of the Kilkenny Hurling team to see if the GAA player is fitter than a long distance runner.