10/12 – 10/18: Mixed bag of easy cycling and running before jumping on a plane on Friday and flying to Wales for a much needed holiday. The week ended fantastically as I ran the Cardiff Half Marathon in a surprising 1:20:42 — not bad considering six weeks previous I was still wearing an aircast boot for my 2nd metatarsal stress fracture.

The event was tremendous, with perfect weather conditions and numerous family members all showing up to cheer me on. I also have to mention the support of Les Croupiers Running Club too — such a friendly, enthusiastic and passionate-about-running group of people. Thanks everyone!

10/19 – 10/25: Spent the week with family in Wales so not too many opportunities to run, although we did walk miles over the course of seven days. Think I fitted in 4 x four milers which took in some of the nice Cardiff hills. I miss the hills!

10/26 – 11/01: The week started with a full day of travel; leaving Cardiff at 7am UK time and arriving home in Virginia Beach just past midnight. Tuesday was back to work, collect the dogs from the kennels and generally playing catch up from being away for ten days — too tired to even think about running to be honest. Wednesday rolled around and I realized there were only 19 days to the Richmond Marathon — time to start training!

The next three days I ran an easy four, seven and six respectively before lining up for the Great Pumpkin Chase 5k on Saturday 31st….Halloween. I managed to duck under 18 minutes for the first time in a while, but I think that had more to do with the slightly short course than my speed. I was, however, pleased with my consistent pace and mile splits of 5:53 5:52 5:53. Second place overall was a nice bonus too.

Sunday was a desperate attempt to regain some endurance and despite a nasty blister on my left foot, I managed to battle through 20 miles in 2 hours 26 minutes.

11/02 – 11/08: Typically, two weeks out from a marathon I’d usually be tapering — decreasing the miles, the intensity and the frequency. However, my non-typical situation (i.e. still really in recovery mode from the stress fracture), deemed that I keep logging the miles in the hope of gaining some kind of endurance and resilience. I started off the week with an easy seven on Monday and a steady nine on Tuesday. Wednesday I stepped it up and ran ten, which I followed up with a confidence-boosting eight miler on Thursday and an easy six on Friday.

Heading into the weekend I was feeling good and looking forward to the Saturday morning Yorktown Battlefield 10 Miler. The race went well, and after a difficult-to-find-a rhythm couple of miles, I finished strong in just over 61 minutes. My second half of the race was faster than the first and I actually felt like I could have maintained the pace for a couple more miles. For the record I finished 7th overall and 1st in the 40-44 age group in what turned out to be a pretty strong field.

Sunday should have been a rest/recovery day, but again with the marathon just one week away, I was desperate to log one more long run before beginning my mini-taper. I headed to First Landing State Park and ran a solid 20 miles in 2 hours 23 minutes — no real blister problems this time and definitely feeling better at the end than the previous week. Oh yes, the 20 mile long run put me at 75 for the week, which somewhat surprisingly is my highest ever week of mileage. I guess it’s a PR?

11/09 – onwards: This week is all about easy running and preparing as best as possible for the Richmond Marathon on Saturday. So far I’ve just shaken out the legs with a four and a five miler, and don’t intend on doing much else at this stage in the game.

Race goal and prediction: Just over nine weeks ago, I was still wearing an aircast boot to help protect my broken foot. Hopes of running Richmond were slim, but I kept the thought in the back of my mind anyway. Over the weeks my goal has changed from getting to the starting line in one piece, to crossing the finish line in an uninjured state. Last week I posted on DailyMile that my plan was to go out at 6:52 per mile pace with the aim of reaching halfway in 1 hour 30 minutes. Of course, with my lack of endurance I would expect to fade in the second half, but would do all I could to minimize the inevitable slowing down. A 3:05 would be a pretty lofty goal and a creditable performance I thought.

Since Saturday’s race and Sunday’s long run, I’ve started [foolishly] to think a sub-3:00 could be possible. I must admit it would be pretty sweet to gain revenge over my Frederick Marathon humbling earlier this year, but maybe I’m getting ahead of myself? To complicate things even more, if a sub-3:00 finish seems impossible, I’ve even started thinking about a 2:56 goal which would give me my fastest marathon of 2009. Sound doable? I’m not sure to be honest, but I’ll have a better idea when I cross the 13.1 mile mark on Saturday morning.

Anyway, long story short, here’s the plan –

Goal #1 — finish the marathon with a smile on my face and a happy left foot. Naturally this would be a major victory after spending six weeks of the summer in an aircast boot and the last nine or ten weeks building up from a one mile walk to a 26.2 mile attempt.

Goal #2 — run the first half in 1 hour 30 minutes and fade as little as possible to a marathon finish around 3 hours 5 minutes.

Goal #3 — run the first half in 1 hour 30 minutes and maintain pace for the second half to record a marginal sub-3:00 marathon.

Goal #4 — run the first half in 1 hour 30 minutes and pick up the pace in the second half to finish in 2:56 or quicker.

Now that they’re down in black and white, I’ve made myself accountable…..and I like it that way. Of course, a smarter runner would stick with Goal #1 and be happy with it. I, on the other hand, am obviously not that smart and will be “going for it” from the gun. It may get ugly towards the end, but to be honest, it’s the only way I know how to run.

Finally, if you’re interested in tracking my progress on Saturday, the marathon starts at 8:00am. You can sign up for text/email alerts at the Richmond Marathon web site — just search on my last name “SPEIRS”. Also, good luck to wife Ally who is running her 2nd Richmond Marathon (9th marathon in total). I have a sneaky feeling she’s going to do rather well herself….

Actual: 30 minute easy run.

No more talk of a groin pain, no more talk about the weather. Just finished an easy 30 minute run, felt great and am officially ready for Shamrock. Finally, after months of training, it feels like everything has clicked into place – now it’s just up to me to follow through on Sunday with the race outcome I’ve been planning since last November.

Actually, there’s still one thing missing: a four-pack of Samichlaus in case I can pull off a new marathon PR. Guess I’d better visit the local beer and wine store….

This afternoon was a fairly tough workout, but it felt good. I warmed up for 15 minutes, ran 4 x 1000m (200m recovery jog), stretched for a while and then did 3 x 200m (200m recovery jog). To finish off the workout I jogged slowly for 10 minutes as a cool down.

I didn’t want the stress of running against the clock, so focused on getting faster as the workout progressed and just running by feel. I think I did pretty good and generally felt happy with leg turnover and running form.

Not sure what the deal is with the groin issue however: midway through the second 1000m, the discomfort reared its ugly head again. It seems to happen every time I “stride out”, so maybe I just need to concentrate on stretching the area for the next couple of days? Right now, the discomfort doesn’t stop me running fast, but in the back of my mind I’m a little concerned what will happen in Sunday’s 26.2 mile race. I guess whatever will be, will be, and with 2 or 3 days of easy running and plenty of stretching I’m sure I’ll be fine come race day.

On a positive note, the weather looks to be pretty good for Sunday – high of 57°F with just a 7mph SSW wind. Not quite sure how I feel about the 74% humidity, but at least it looks like we won’t be battling a 25mph north wind this year!

Good luck to everyone running one of the Shamrock events this weekend. Enjoy the last couple of days and be sure to have fun on race day!

I’ve used the endurance-prolonging Race Day Boost many times in the past and am convinced it does exactly what it says on the web site:

Hammer Nutrition claim RDB will:

(a) Prolong endurance
(b) Increase performance time at anaerobic threshold
(c) Provide unsurpassed lactic acid buffering and
(d) Help boost glycogen storage

An extra benefit of the product is that 2000 mg of glutamine daily, (the amount provided in four servings/one day’s loading dose of Race Day Boost), has been shown to elevate plasma growth hormone levels, a definite benefit while tapering for an event.

Here’s the technical info from the Hammer Nutrition web site:

Race Day Boost contains one of the most potent legal ergogenics available for competition. In the most extensive study to date on Race Day Boost’s key ingredient, fit cyclists, in a 40K time trial, netted a whopping 8% improvement in performance time! The simple formula belies its profound effectiveness, aiding in increased cellular energy production and buffering performance-robbing lactic acid. A four-day loading dose of Race Day Boost prior to a key race can make a noticeable improvement in your performance.

I’ve found the best way to take Race Day Boost is to dissolve the powder in 3 to 4 ounces of warm water and drink as fast as possible. FYI, if you use a cold/cool liquid the powder tends to “clump” and is a bit more difficult to swallow.

If you’re curious about Race Day Boost or any of the other great Hammer Nutrition products, don’t forget you can take advantage of the 15% off your first order promotion. Just follow the link to receive the one-time 15% saving!

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Note: Do NOT take Race Day Boost the day of the event.

Planned: 15 to 30 minute warm up + stride workout [8 to 10 x 25 seconds with 1 minute recovery jog] + 15 to 30 minute cool down – build leg turnover and lactic acid tolerance.

Actual: 20 minute warm up, followed by a few groin stretches and then 10 x 30 seconds with a 60 seconds recovery jog. Cool down was just 10 minutes of easy running with more groin stretches and a brief session on the foam roller.

Tomorrow morning I start my usual four day loading cycle of Hammer Nutrition’s Race Day Boost. I’ll post more details on the product later this evening…

As you can see, I plugged in my 17:25 5k time and out popped a 2:49:47 predicted marathon time. Now that would make me sooooo happy, but it’s not just going to happen – there’s the small matter of 26.2 miles of focus, concentration, determination and sheer hard work to get through first.

I spent the remainder of Saturday with my wife Ally at a condo in the local Sandbridge Beach area. It was great to chill out, read, watch old British TV shows and eat and drink at the local Island Bar. Despite being just a dozen miles from home, it was the perfect getaway – the only thing that could have been better was the weather. Oh well…

Sunday was another lazy day at the condo, followed by a lunch date with our daughter before she headed back to college after spending Spring Break in Virginia Beach. A couple of hours later I figured I’d better go for my run. After all, the Shamrock Marathon was only a week away and there was still a bit of work to do. My planned workout was 6 miles easy followed by 6 miles at marathon pace. I changed things up slightly and after a brief warm up, ran 7 miles at marathon pace with a 60 second recovery between each mile. Once again, I experienced a painful groin on the faster efforts, but the pain eased during the recovery and wasn’t too much trouble in the cool down.

I’m sure with a week of easy running I’ll be fine; it’s more an annoyance than anything else at the moment. I’m able to run through the discomfort but naturally I’d rather be firing on all cylinders for the marathon.

Today’s run was just an easy 40 minute effort. I covered about 5 miles and focused on keeping the heart rate low and the cadence slow. Not many more miles left to log….

Actual: Started with a 20 minute warm up – not very fast as my right shin was a bit sore. The 2000m intervals went well – I’m always more comfortable running at a faster pace (if that makes sense), and the shin pain went away. 2 minutes 30 seconds didn’t seem very long for a recovery, but at least there were only three intervals to perform. I totally forgot about the 3 times 200m (I really did forget, honest), and jogged for another 20 minutes to cool down.

Stats: 10.1 miles in just over 1 hour 10 minutes (6:59 pace)

With 10 days to go to the Shamrock Marathon, I’m really not feeling the taper at the moment. Think I’ll cut back on my easy run tomorrow and hopefully get my legs (and confidence) back pretty quickly.

Actual: Just as planned – a one hour easy run. Felt okay, not great, but still have 11 days to get myself together for the marathon.

Stats: Just over 8 miles in an hour (7:27 pace)

Actual: 25 minute easy warm up (covered just over 3 miles), 8 x 1 minute fast followed by a minute recovery jog for each fast effort. The quick stuff felt pretty good, but I wish I’d worn a different pair of shoes – my Brooks Ghost have almost given up the ghost and felt flat as a pancake. Oh well, no damage done and I was able to jog the 2 miles home quite comfortably.

Stats: 7.7 miles in just under an hour (7:35 pace). Average heart rate: 136bpm

Easy run tomorrow and I’ll be sure to wear something more cushioned on my feet….