Florence Marathon 2010

The new route for the Florence Marathon has just been announced, the race organisers are claiming less difference in elevation but it still looks a fast course.

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Down week

Nice and easy week of running this week, with just three 60' sessions, 1 light hills 12 x 30", and a 90' and 120' as my medium long and long run. I didn't wear the garmin once and it was nice just to run for fun. Siobhan celebrated a significant birthday and her parents took the kids away from Tuesday, so for a little while we got to a small reminder of what life was like pre-kids. Everyday after work we went for our run, had a quick swim in the watershed pool and went for dinner...we even made it to the cinema last night to see inception. What a great film. We're off to Spain for two weeks next week where it's roasting by all accounts.

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Riding the Wind: Western States Race Report & Photos from Anton Kuprica

The mind boggles at the fitness required to "race" this 100 mile run over trail terrain in hot conditions - but these photos (even if you take the ultra-jesus look out of the picture) make it pretty damn inspiring.

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Cliffs of Moher Half Marathon - a race of two halves.

Its been confirmed i'm going to be making my pacing debut in the cliffs of moher half marathon on the 25th of September. I'll hopefully be helping a couple of poor unfortunates to a sub 90 half. It looks like they buried a mammoth under the elevation profile.

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Easy week

After the race last Friday; I've had a pretty easy week of running -
Saturday and Sunday were just 45' and 75'. The week kicked off with a rest
day on Monday before 50' with 8 X Diagonals (12.5k) on Tuesday, 20k in about
90' on Wednesday and then 50' today (11.5k). I've switched back to morning
running (out on the road between 6.30 - 7.00 and back by 8) and it is
suiting family and work life much better. In terms of work i'm finding
myself much more productive in the mornings but struggle to keep energy
levels up towards the end of the day. I wonder is there a nutritional
solution to that? We had a great off-site day today, plotting the course for
the business over the next few months; exciting times ahead.

I had a total change of sporting pace on Tuesday evening, playing in the
club foresomes golf competition with my brother. I know the game is often
derided (and sometimes with justification) but there is very little that
compares with absolute buzz of matchplay golf - we had an epic win on 21st
hole on Tuesday against a much fancied pair, leaving us in the 3rd round.
The beauty of golf is that on any given day, the underdog can win - whereas
with running you tend to perform within certain defined parameters and its
hard to cross those. I like both of them for that reason.

The beauty of morning running is when i get home from work, my time it free
to spend dossing around with the kids on bikes etc.

I have a tough session on tomorrow with 3 sets of 4' X 5km pace (3:24 pace)
+ 1.5' of 1 mile pace(3:07) with 3' of recovery between each set. I haven't
run mile pace before and i've learned over the last few months that any
session for the first time tends to be a bit of a shock to the system. I'll
probably head to the track where i find it easier to run intervals. Saturday
and Sunday are just two nice 40' and 90' steady.

My next race is on the 11th, a 5k road race in the beautiful seaside village
of kilmore quay, www.kilmoreac.com in wexford. There is a seafood festival
on the same weekend - so i hope to wrap up my summer races with a meal and a
drink or two.

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I rob...and was robbed. County 10k report.

There’s lots to love about small rural road races on summer evenings. For the second year running our club hosted the Kilkenny County Road Races  (10k for men / 3k for women). The route is not for the faint hearted, an undulating out and back course over winding country roads.  This is a race without fanfare or palaver. You show up, you warm up, you run – you get a drink of water and have a chat at the finish before warming down and going home. No chips, no portaloo’s, no goodie bags, cakes or “everyone gets one” medals. The fields are very small – maybe 25 in the men’s race and less than 15 in the women’s.  

I had wanted to break the 36 min mark on this and after the underwhelming Deadman’s 5 mile race decided that a slightly more conservative approach might work. The goal was to hit 3:35ish pace throughout – and try get an average pace around that zone to finish in the 35:45 – 35:59 area.  Immediately after the off the racing snakes sprinted off into the distance, with the top 3 opening up a gap on the rest of the field. I ran with one other guy for the club over the first 2k – just keeping the pace in check and not worrying about those ahead or behind me at all.  After 3k, that run dropped off and i was joined by another who sat on my shoulder for a couple of KM  drafting off me. I slowed and let him go ahead and then the pace dropped, so i had to up the pace and soon enough the footsteps behind me were gone.  The course markers were absolutely bang on until the 4th km (my watching beeping as i ran over the mark on the road) - however as i approached the turn it beeped with about 35 metres to go...sugar – the course was long. A quick turn around a bollard in the middle of the road, grab a cup of water and it was back along the route i had come – giving me an opportunity to see that i was probably 15 seconds ahead of 5th place and 20 seconds down on 3rd. I upped the pace at this stage, just concentrated on brining every KM in under target pace. By 7k it was starting to hurt, and by 8k i was really struggling after each of the three or four sharp hills. With about 1km to go i saw a runner ahead and it was Tommy, who had been leading the race by a considerable margin but had pulled up with an injury.  I tried to finish as strong as i could and by the end i was pretty spent.

I had stopped looking at my watch, and i crossed the line and pretty much fell onto my hands on knees – quick check of the watch 36:10...oh feck....  On a much, much brighter note, i had fortuitously won a senior county medal (and a second scorer for team gold) and in the words of Ben Johnson...they can’t take that away from me.  The sub 36 will come soon enough.

KM :  3:34 / 3:39 / 3:39 / 3:38 / 3:36 / 3:36 / 3:34 / 3:33 / 3:34 / 3:35 / 3:37  = 35:55 + 15”

         
Click here to download:
I_rob...and_was_robbed._County.zip (11438 KB)

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Coalition of the willing

'Coalition of the Willing' is a collaborative animated film and web-based event about an online war against global warming in a 'post Copenhagen' world. ‘Coalition of the Willing’ has been Directed and produced by Knife Party, written by Tim Rayner and crafted by a network of 24 artists from around the world. Music & Sound design by ECHOLAB in Dublin

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Training Update June 14th - June 20th

After the race last Friday, and the boozy BBQ that followed it, I was pretty wiped and cried off my LSR on the Sunday. Feedback from JB on the race performance was underwhelming (much like the run itself), and while he didn't say it directly the tone was clearly "could do better". With that in mind, I focused on doing good workouts this week, getting quality sleep and sticking to a healthier diet. Tuesday was the minor workout of the week with 12 x 30" light hills - a really nice workout that makes you work but is not too intense. I have a regular spot to hit on these now and don't even have to check the watch. Wednesday was a 75' run at steady pace (4:27) whileThursday was a simple 50' steady run plus strides, I managed to escape work during lunchtime and swopped the strides for 10 x diagonals of our local hurling pitches.

Friday was the big workout of the week, it comprised 3 sets of 4' x 5kpace + 8' of 10k pace with 2' recovery between each effort and set. I was pretty nervous as I hadn't combined 5k and 10k paces in a workout before, however with the help of a friend we got through it ok, and the paces weren't too bad at 3:37 / 3:25. The last set felt, looked and probably sounded pretty ugly. Saturday and Sunday were steady runs of 45' and 90' and with my garmin gone MIA they were run on feel. Sometimes its really nice just to get away from the numbers! We spent the weekend celebrating mum's 70th birthday en famille in a hotel in Wexford- and she seemed pretty happy with her gift of an iPad! Definitely now a glamourous granny.

So good week alround. The next race is a 10k on this Friday the 25th, its the Kilkenny10k road championships - hopefully I'll manage to pick up a few seconds on my PB and break 36min.

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Spirit of Sebola, sustainable technical sportwear

i may have posted this before; but i stumbled across it again today. Sebola is a French company who design and make technical sportwear for running that is environmentally sound. They use a fabric called tencel which is a closed loop product (that means there is no nasty waste byproduct) rather than the more common bamboo which is produces lots of dirty waste. you can buy sebola products direct from their own site here http://www.sebola.fr/english

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Deadman's 5 Race Report

After the novelty of the 5,000m track race a couple of weeks ago, it was back to the familiarity of local road running on Friday the 11th. After finishing up a hectic week in work around 5ish, I had time to hop home, quickly grab my gear and drive the 30 odd miles to carrick on suir.

The race was the Deadman's 5, a 5 mile road race that is part of a four race series in Tipperary / Waterford and kilkenny. The race is great value for money, a €10 online entry fee brings you chip timing, good prizes, showers and food after in a local hotel called the carraig. The race runs flat for the first mile, generally uphill for mile two and three before downhill mile 4, and a flat mile 5.

Instruction from JB was to relax on the hills on mile 2 to 3 and aim for a pace of between 3:30 - 3:35, and a finishing time of 28:00 - 28:25. After a 20 min warm up, a record 190 people lined up for the off. The first mile leads you through the town and the three top runners quickly legged it off in the distance. I ran with two others, but a quick glance at my watch showed 3:20 pace for the first km, I also knew from the running style of the two lads ahead that they weren't going to be able to sustain their paces, so I took a quick glance over my shoulder and saw another group of runners just behind me so I eased off and dropped in behind them. Soon enough we came to the first of the climbs and our group of 6 caught and passed one of the two ahead of us, and as we went through mile two our group was down to four. Mile three is an up and down mile; gaining elevation throughout the mile though, I was just about still hanging on to the back of this group, working harder than I probably should have at that stage of the race, but I knew if I let a gap open that would be the end of any chance of gaining a place later. This entire section was run into a killer headwind that was really making me toil to keep the gap to 5 metres or so. As we approached the 3rd mile, i had closed the gap conpletely and was able to take a quick breather. Just after mile 3 the hills crest and it's downhill to flat the whole way home. As soon as we turned the corner and started the downhill run for home, the gap opened again and the group split with about 20 metres between the 5th place runner and me, mile four was a nightmare as I struggled to stop tying up, and rather than bring able to use the downhill to drop my average pace I was only able to average 3:35 k pace. I finished 12 seconds down on 7th place and nearly 20 seconds down on 5th, all of that 20 seconds lost on the last two miles.

So, pretty happy with the outcome, even though my training has been good recently my lifestyle has not. We've had 5 weekends in a row now that have been boozy and messy, my diet has gone to pot, and work has been heavy going. So, from today it's back to good life living, so that means no drink for a month, good diet, and lots of good rest. Hopefully there will be a little more fight in the dog come my next race on the 25th June.

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