Pic shows me as the happy camper in the middle surrounded by some of County Mayo's hard-working politicians, on the night of my book launch, 31 January 2008 at the Westport Woods Hotel.
Left to right, Dara Calleary, T.D. (Fianna Fail); Margaret Adams, (Mayo County Councillor, Fianna Fail); myself, Joan Geraghty, the author; Beverley Flynn T.D. (Fianna Fail) and Michael Ring T.D., (Fine Gael). We'll make runners out of them all yet!
I'm back! At last, after two months of madness, my book is published, the new year 2008 is well and truly launched and I'm rightly stuck into my first ever marathon training programme. The funny thing is, even though I was so busy getting 'Anyone can run' out on to the book shelves, I still made time for my running - no matter what! Even on the day of the book launch, I sneaked a 60-minute run in just to clear the head and keep the auld legs ticking over. That's what got me through it I'm sure!
So I'm in the middle of preparing for the famous Connemarathon - the lovely uphill struggle through the gorgeous mountaineous scenery between Leenane and Connemara in County Galway, Ireland. I've already done the second half of the event - in my half-marathon effort last year - which in itself was a major task. The weather on the day was so good - the sun shone hard and hot for the entire duration. I don't knwo what I would have done without my peaked cap - or how so m any others survived without one.
I'm aware anyway that the second 13 miles entails lots of hills as well as the never-ending Hell of the West hill that goes on for about two miles towards the last stages of the race. Having given in to walking a good part of this during my half-marathon outing, I'm not really looking forward to facing this vertical challenge at around the 23/24 mile stage and I know I shouldn't think like this but I'm allowing myself a few minutes to walk it again! OK. I'll really try not to but as memory serves me, it just goes on and on and on. It's too much!
I've been following the training programme of the late and famed Irish marathon runner, Noel Carroll, which requires six days of training a week building up to a maximum of a two and a half hour run. So for the last five weeks, I've been doing the six day thing, upping the sessions to total between 33-40 miles a week - and the whole thing has me jiggered. I just want to sleep all the time. I've been feelling that just having one rest day isn't enough. Other runners tell me they train just three or four days a week for a marathon and their long runs go on up to three hours at least. Last Saturday, for my long run, I ran two hours and 15 minutes straight - covering more ground than a half-marathon and feeling pretty good at the end. I could have done more. My God, I really am capable of doing a bit more than a half-marathon now! Maybe I actually might even make it in my full marathon attempt.
Let's be honest about it. People announce they're going to run a marathon but after a couple of weeks into training, on realising just how hard it is to prepare for such a physically demanding event, their enthusiasm wanes. Some stick with it just to get around the course. But I want more than that. I don't want to get around the course just any old way. For instance, I don't want to arrive in at the end of it all, clocking a time of up to six hours and feel entitled to pronounce myself a marathoneer. No way! To me, running a marathon is about doing just that. Running all of the way, if possible, which should put anybody in at under five hours at least. Mind, if it does take me five hours but I can put hand on heart and say I did it while running practically all of the way, that will do. Then again, no it won't. I just want to do better than that. It's my first attempt and I know I could have picked an easier, flatter course. But why not start off with one of the most difficult of them all. That way, at least if I survivie it to try marathon number 2, I should do it in a faster time!
I recently heard one sports advisor argue that if you can cover one kilometer every five minutes, there's no reason why you shouldn't complete 42 in a marathon in or around the same time. Now I don't totally endorse this mindset as surely it is only natural to slow down as the miles clock up - but I think I'm with him on the substance of this. You shouldn't let the growing distance allow your running slow down to barely fast-walking. Your training is all about gearing yourself to keep running for a long, long distance. Your legs and aerobic system should be conditioned to keeping going at an even pace for hours at a time. The real aim should be to run a marathon - and to run it as you would do any other run - from 5k up to the requisite 42 point something k on the day. That's where I'm at at least.
So, with this view in mind, and after thinking about my current six-day a week schedule and comparing it to another one, I've now decided to change course - at this kind of late stage I suppose with eight weeks to go. I'm grateful to the Noel Carroll programme for bringing my mileage up to around the 40-mile a week stage now, but I see that the Tim Rogers schedule - as carried in the Teach Yourself series on How to run a marathon - actually requires fewer but much longer long-run sessions at the weekends. This appeals to me. Under Noel Carroll the maximum outing was to last two and a half hours. I almost reached that last weekend and covered around 15 miles I would say. I could have gone on for another 15 minutes easily and that would no way have pushed me to go as far as I feel up to now.
The Tim Rogers programme by contrast, brings me up to 200 minutes in peak training week ie three hours and 20 minutes. I need to practise running for a length of time this long because I'm not fast. My best average would be 9-minutes a mile, which would put me in at around the four hour mark over a flat marathon course - but I haven't a hope of achieving that in Connemara. So 200 minutes, run slowly as advished, should bring me to around the 20 mile mark - which is what I want to have reached before I attempt my marathon. From today therefore I am adopting this new programme - which also gives me the two rest days a week I think I need in order to recover properly from all the extra running.
Diet-wise, I'm also finding I'm not eating properly at all and really have to make an effort night to get the food right. It's true that marathon training leaves you craving carbohydrates most of the time but I also read now that protein is vital for muscle recovery and repair and I'm definitely not getting enough of that. Yesterday I made up a bit by indulging in my favourite dinner - roast rib of beef with lots of veg. There were no spuds left because the kids ate them all - so I was starving again less than two hours later and just had to re-fill with a bowl of cereal.
I'm just back from the health food shop now and have stocked up again on Brown Rice Flakes - which are just delicious eaten with walnuts, sultanas and chopped bananas. That and Bran Flakes are my two staple cereals - although I like Weetabix too. I just like to watch not to wheat-overload as the tummy tends to object when I do.
I'm amazed at how privately I seem to be able to do my marathon training too as it doesn't seem to be interfering with my work or family life at all. Basically, I do it according to the programme I follow - which means slotting in the required times on the designated days into whatever spaces I can make available. Sometimes I run in the mornings, when the kids are at school, in the afternoons - when taking a break during my part-time office work hours, and in the evenings, when I usually hook up with my running buddy Noreen. If I can't get away until really late, I might just work out on the treadmill at the gym, which is open until 10pm. Ther eis always the other option though and this is the one that really saves me, I think. Over Christmas, I finally went out and did it and bought my own treadmill. This was quite a big step for me as I'd been tossing with the idea for sometime but just wasn't sure would I get a good return on my investment - ie, would I use the damn thing at all.
As it turned out, Argos had a half-price offer on a Roger Black treadmill down from €1,000 to €500 in December which was just too good to resist. I ordered it and it duly arrived, a week before Christmas. From day one, it's been well utilised as hubby (Padraic) uses the thing quite a lot and even the kids come out when I'm running on it and ask to have a go for a few minutes at the end. So it's been a great investment and I discover now I'm far from the only one who owns one. In fact, having a treadmill is becoming quite commonplace now. Even people who don't run at all tell me they have one and use it to do their walking while they watch the TV or wait for a hair treatment to work. It's mad!
Anyway, that's enough for now. I wish everyone and anyone in the throes of discovering the joys of exercise all the best at the start of this new year. It's great that Spring is in the air now, the evenings are longer and life just feels that little bit brighter somehow.
My thanks to Eimear for her lovely and inspiring post on my blog site here in regard to her own running experiences. Running your first jmarathon at the 50-year mark Eimear and then you tell me you've done seven more since. It just confirms to me what I've been thinking a lot about recently - that running really has entered my life for the long-term. As long as I can stay injury-free, I needn't think that finally running a marathon will be the be-all-and-end-all of it. I can go on and make many more running goals afterwards - no matter how it turns out - and that is exactly what I plan to do.
Keep me posted on all your continuing progress!
bye for now
