Shopping When your Hungry

One thing I'm learning about blogging is it can be a bit like shopping when your hungry.... Just as when you enter the supermarket hungry you could commit to eating everything in the shop but once you're full your done... you need to be careful as likewise if you log on in a good mood you could commit to setting all sorts of new PB's and then later when the blood rush is over you look to the the edit post section in retreat..

I've been mulling around the place the last three days wondering what's next on the agenda . Having done 3 Marathons last year it became clear to me that I needed to go back and look at building up speed at the lower distances before improving my marathon time anymore. I read somewhere that Paula Radcliffe said she starts with mile one and builds from there up and to be honest if you take away all the technical stuff you read and think back to how you would imagine you get faster when you began running that's the way you would go about it. So I have reduced the mileage and have seen some improvement.

My plan now is to concentrate on the Ballycotton 5 mile series and also find the flatest 5 miles I can find and set a 5 mile PB for mental preperation. So Im going to start with mile 1, not to run my fastest mile ever but to run it at my ideal 5 mile pace and then mile 2,3,4,5 and I'm not moving off each mile until I can run them at my ideal pace ..of course this means I might not be running any race soon...or maybe ever.. but this is none the less my plan.. I'm sure many plans are probably based around it but I just think it makes sense so that's the way I'm going to look for a 30 min 5 mile this summer.. Check in later to see if I have edited anything (:

GreatIsland /Cobh 10 mile Race

When setting out to run a race over 5 miles I always live in hope that the weather will be cool and especially if the race has a lot of hills involved, the sun came out to play yesterday and it was a beautiful day to be running . It was going to be a hot 10 miles for all involved but Cobh really looked its best and I'm sure as we all wiped the salty sweat from our eyes it was nice to drive past the local beaches and up the rolling hills.

As always there was a minor crisis in the morning... as I went to power up my Garmin on a warm up mile it was dead I think when I disconnected it from the power supply the night before I must of some how turned it on but I got a 15 min window just before the race to charge it and to my surprise it lasted the race.

I got to the line with about 5 mins to go and met some other eagles after a quick chat we were off and Pat O Connor John O Callaghan and I were in the same group with Ann Marie Holland out front.Its a hard course to figure out the cobh one as its only really when you run the route at pace that you realise how devastating the small inclines can be. Trying to take caution in the first mile we were pacing approx 6 min mile as it was down hill and having hit mile 2/3 the pace dropped off substantially and by the time we came off mile 3.5 the pace had dropped off to 6.38 it became clear to me then that a PB was not on. The hills along the route were just too much and the recovery down periods not enough from mile 2 to 6 there were 7 hills 3 of which could end your day early.

But thankfully I managed to hold my place and fought hard to pass 3 runners after mile 6. I could see 2 more in the distance but didn't have enough to catch them I spent most of the race out on my own and wished for the last 3 miles I had someone to pace with I stuck in next to the last guy I overtook and thought we might drive it on together but he faded a bit and I just couldn't dig any deeper on my own. At points if it makes any sense I felt like I had more to give but couldn't give it... hind sight is a great thing!! Either way I held onto my 12th spot and finished in 63.51 so no PB but a big improvement on my 68.l...last year .

The buzz around the town was great and it was good to see everyone walkers stewards runners and supporters getting involved . There were a good number of eagles involved this year which was great to see and best of all Ann-Marie Holland who helped me through the killer mile 2/3.5 won the woman's race which was a brilliant result on a tough course.

Have I got faster or Slower..

A couple of fast miles along the Tay rd left my calf's feeling very stiff this week and a stroll into the tide in cuskinny just wasn't enough to ease the tightness in my legs and ankles.So thankfully I had an appointment with Norma tonight for a sports massage.This girl knows how to inflict pain and her mantra is "pain is only weakness leaving the body" in which case all my weakness must be gone cause there was plenty of pain in my massage.. but if there is such a thing it was good pain and left my legs feeling like someone drained off all the pressure from my muscles. Its only 3 more days to the Cobh 10 and its hard to judge if I'm in better shape than the Ballycotton race I think I'm much the same and will do well to better a time of 62.38 but then he who dares!!! I'm certainly a couple of pounds up so need to be good for the next 3 days so il try to stay away from my stash of chocolate until Sunday night.I look forward to seeing if I can better the time as I genuinely don't know where I am with regard to racing right now so no better place than a race to find out.

Tapering

Road racing for serious runners by Pete Pfitzinger

"Train hard to race well " is the runners mantra. Everything we do is based on hard work. We brave the elements we endure,we run through bizzards and bronchitis,we dont whimp out. And we certainly dont rest. This puritanical philosophy impels us to drag our bodies out on the roads day after day and with hard work and consistency we grow stronger and faster.
A time comes however when working harder is counter productive to performance. That time is the last 3 weeks before a marathon and several days before shorter races.Thats the time to taper to reduce significantly the volume and intensity of your training. Lets start by looking at a distance that requires a good taper the marathon.
Have you ever hit the wall in the last few miles of a marathon? if so you`ve probably worked to hard in the days before the race. A well executed taper will give you extra reserves that will push the wall out past the finish line and perhaps make the differance between whether you maintain your pace or struggle home over the last couple of miles. Despite the benifits tapering is the most over looked part of marathon preparation. But tapering is as important as long runs are for reaching peak strength on the day. Tapering allows your muscles to repair the microdamage of intervals and long runs,permits your muscles and liver to store glycogen,helps your body to overcome the dehydration of hard training,and relieves the last bit of tendinitis in your knee and hip.
An effective taper can take about three weeks for a marathon.Unfortunately our self confidence is fragile.Our egos require the positive reinforcement of a hard workout every few days.If we take a few days easy let alone a few weeks we go through withdrawl.Our distance-runners paranoia makes us fear our muscles will turn to mush and that we`ll waste all those months of hard work.Despair not studies have shown that runners can cut back by 60% for 3 weeks with no loss in running performance or V02 max. A well planned marathon taper cuts the volume of your running while keeping you working hard enough to stay in peak condition.

Last chance for a 10 mile PB

Training for the next 10 mile race is going well but im not sure how much more I can shave off my ballycotton time.It seems my times have begun to level off. Im finding it hard to see improvments in training. Im anxious to get the Cobh 10 out of the way so I can get on my bike and get into the water. Im looking forward to trying some triathlons this year and get my 5 mile pace down for the ballycotton summer series.Last year the Ballyheigue Tri was a great buzz and with the brighter evenings It will be easier to get late swims in the local beach.So all is left to do now is get a 10 mile PB in Cobh on the 17th.