Irish Team Selection- Anglo Celtic Plate

A very proud moment in my short running career. Ultra Running Ireland has announced the team that will represent Ireland in the Anglo Celtic Plate (Home Nations) 100km which will be held in Perth, Scotland on 27th March 2011.

This will be both an international debut and 100km debut for me but I will be running with a very strong team this year. The team line up is:

John Byrne,
Thomas Maguire
John O'Regan
Keith Whyte
Me

The team will be captained by Thomas Maguire who holds the 100km Irish record at 7:05:06 and also holds the 24 hour Irish record. Thomas was ranked in the top 6 for 24 hour event in 2009.

John O' Regan has a wealth of experience in ultra running and running for Ireland competing in the World 24 Hour Championship and World 100km Championships. He has also ran in some key international marathons / ultras including the North Pole Marathon, Antarctic Marathon, Everest Marathon, Marathon Des Sables, winning the Yukon Arctic Ultra (100m) and joint first in the Inca Trail Marathon. Some great ultra experience here.

John Byrne has some impressive marathon times under his belt and made his 100km debut in 2010.

Keith Whyte, like me, will be making his 100km debut in March. Keith recently won the Moher Half-Marathon and has put in some impressive marathon times.

I am currently putting in some intense training to prepare for this. I am keeping to the pyramid style training of a 4 week cycle. Week one I am hitting around 100 miles peaking with a gradual increase to around around a 130-140 mile week (week 3). I will then drop back down to 100 miles in week 4 to rest. In respect of my long runs, in the few weeks leading up to the Plate I will be putting in a 3.5 hour session this weekend, increased by an hour or so each week until I hit about 6 hours. By then I should be ready to taper down for the event... Keep an eye out for the race report!

To find out more about the team and Ultra Running Ireland click here.

Enjoy your training...

 

Tony Mangan's World Jog

Tony Mangan, an Irish ultrarunner and 48-Hour World Indoor record holder has recently passed the 100 day mark into his 'World Jog'. An amazing adventure - check out more here.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Running v Jogging - Just in case you wondered

I am an Ultra Runner...

A typical day in the Doherty household....

Gloucester 50k - The 50k Debut

Where do I start. Well I suppose with my 'war story'. Gloucester 50k was a key race in my diary for this year. It was not only my 50k road race debut but also a good warm up to some 100k races I have planned for this year.


I put in some solid training over the December period taking advantage of the holiday season to put in some high mileage (and burn off those calories!). The 5 week period between 06/12 to w/c 03/01 I managed to log about 565 miles most of which were on road - this is a little unusual as I try and get in as much trail running as possible. I was just glad that I didn't get any niggles from the hours of stomping tarmac. I put in a taper reducing my mileage down to 70 miles 2 weeks before the race and then about 35 miles during race week.


Inevitably with such training under my belt the Saturday night before the event I came down with some kind of bug that I am sure was kindly passed onto me by my son (who has a skill in collecting illnesses from his nursery). I woke up Sunday morning, had some porridge, a smoothie and switched on cbeebies for my boy when my temperature suddenly had me in a sweating fit. That was it. No running for me today. I went up stairs took my kit off jumped back into bed and declared to my wife that I would not be running today!


It was not long before the guilt and "what ifs?" started to rattle around in my head, so I jumped out of bed threw my kit back on and headed for Gloucester. I was hoping that a couple of Combiflam (Ibuprofen) and a large skinny Cappuccino would do the trick. It did!


It was not long before we were taken for a leisurely walk by one of the volunteers to Sellars Road which is about 2 miles into the Marathon route. The start is a small country road where we were told to wait for the elite car to come into view. This was a sign that the marathon runners (who start some way behind us) were coming our way and we were to start running and mingle with these guys. 10.30ish we were off.


I was not feeling too bad at this stage and headed off at quite a hard pace of around 5.20 - 5.40mm the route takes us through Hardwicke and Quedgeley in a figure of eight shape leading us to Stonebench turn where we start to count laps. For the 50k runners we do 4 laps of about 7 miles with a 1 mile return to the finish.

The first couple of loops passed without much notice, I maintained a reasonable pace although again quite erratic, I remember looking at my Garmin and noticed that my pace was 4.50mm on the flat - I eased on the brakes a little but felt strong so tried to maintain a pace between 5.30mm to 5.45 hitting 20 miles in 1 hour 56. This was about the time when the battery in my watch died. Hmmm

The loop takes you through Elmore and Longney through quite country lanes and is very scenic. The support was great and really gave me a boost when I needed it.

The drink stations were perfectly located and offered both water and High Five so hydration was not too much of an issue. I had kept a Clift peanut biscuit to hand and munched on it from about an hour and a half in. I could have probably done with a bit more food but it kept me going until the end.

It was about 26-27 miles when things started to go wrong and my body began to shut down - I reckon it was a mix or erratic pacing and not feeling too well but I suddenly went from 5.40mm to something way over 6mm (if not 7+mm for about half a mile) before I got a grip of myself. Soon after English International 100k runner Julian Rendall came rushing past me looking very strong. He had amazingly picked up the 3 minute advantage I had gained over the race period and continued to push forward up to the finish line. A very good performance. Unfortunately, I did not have it in me that day to pick up the pace and push to the finish - perhaps next time. My priority was not to drop any more time and Allen Smalls was hot on my heels!

Top 3 Men:

1. Julian Rendall - 3:07:22
2. Daniel Doherty - 3:09: 05
3. Allen Smalls - 3: 09: 41

A Touch of Frost

I thought I would post a couple of pics of my afternoon run... That is frost not snow on the trees!!

Snellsmore Common, Newbury, UK:

Portland - Coastal Trail Series - Race Report

Saturday morning, was up at 5am, knocked out some coffee an egg and bacon sandwich and threw in some malt loaf into the kit bag. With the way the weather has been in the UK I didn't know whether to expect snow, ice, rain or a Tsunami. In the end we got a touch of mist and about 1 degree. Not too bad.

Throwing the kit in the car I picked up my fellow club runner Sam and we headed off to the latest stage of the EnduraceLife Coastal Trail Series 2010. I had already participated in the previous race (See Gower race report below) and today would see us head off to Portland on the South Coast in Dorset. As ultra distance was not an option on this course, I had opted in for the trail marathon instead.

The starting point and check-in was in Weymouth an outstanding place if you are mad about boats and the like -as it will soon be hosting the sailing part of the London Olympics 2012. The schedule for the day is slower marathon runners heading off first followed by the other marathon runners shortly after. The half marathon and 10k runners head off an our and half or so after we shoot off.

With a good turn out we all head off out of the hanger for a quick briefing a look around to idenitfy anyone wearing road trainers (for a good laugh) a few words of encouragement and we were off. The marathon runners hit 2 laps of the island (although I am not entirely sure why it is called an island) with a basic line following the coastal line around Portland.

Checking out a few forums and blogs I heard that this was a reasonably quick course so I shot off at a sub 6mm pace only to hit a very large hill within the first mile or so. I usually use the first few miles to warm up and get settled in so this hill was certainly most unwelcome at such an early part of the race. That said, it certainly woke me up. After a very short time to recover from the hill(s) we were presented with another hill which was impossible to run up and we were forced to the 'hands on knee' manoeuvre to get up, a quick pose for the camera at the top and away.

After a couple of miles I had a comfortable lead hitting the first checkpoint just over 17 minutes. Now, getting lost appears to be a common occurrence for me on the coastal series - shortly after a quick decent after the checkpoint I was presented with a path leading left and right of me. The problem was that 1 arrow pointed right and the other left! As with all these kinds of events there is always the risk of someone moving the arrows and it appears that someone found it funny to point the arrow in the opposite direction. It was a 50/50 so I took the left path only to be presented with a dead end half a mile or so down the track (i.e. the sea!). I must admit I was pleased to see the other runners following suite who  had taken the left turn as well. It also meant that we all made the same mistake so it was an even field! There was a lot of time to make up -to put the diversion into perspective, the organisers estimate the mileage to be 26.9 miles - my Garmin recorded 28.17!

Anyway, after the little jolly we all dug in and got on with the race. The first lap went by quite quickly presenting some nice challenges, steep descents on wet rocks a few metres from the cliff edge and the sound of the sea smashing into the rocks and cliffs below. Some really beautiful scenes to be had. It wasn't long before the famous Portland Bill Lighthouse (do you remember the kid's cartoon!) came into sight which also indicated that checkpoint 2 was close by. A quick dab of the dabber and off for another long section across some grassland before hitting more cliff edge slowly bringing us down the the seafront.




It wasn't long before I went from tarmac to pebbles. Over a mile of pebbles in fact! I started the beach section quite promising with a sub 7.5mm on shingle / pebble beach but it wasn't long before the legs were struggling and I was down to 8.5mm for this section of the course. The worst bit is knowing that you have to do the section again another 13 or so miles later!



It wasn't long after the beach section that I was in the second lap of the route and about 10 mins behind the half marathoners. Up the hills again drop the pace to catch my breach and I was back into 6.5mm - I caught up with the half marathoners just before CP1 which was nice in a way that I had some company whist running but a little bit awkward when trying to run down the single lanes. Shouting "coming through" seemed to work in most cases but they were under no obligation to step aside if they didn't want to and some didn't - fair enough. This brought me down to a shuffle in some stages but it was probably a positive thing as it gave me time to recoup for a few seconds before hitting the coastal path again digging in and trying to complete the second lap.

Half way around the second lap the wind kicked in and it began to rain. The island is so exposed it wasn't long before I was soaked to the bone but I knew there was not far to go. A final MASSIVE slog across the pebble beach hit the final checkpoint and an attempt to push in a good time in the final section back to the HQ.

3 hours 23 minutes and 3323 calories later I passed the finish line.Job done. Although I was pleased with setting a new course record, this is by no means a quick time for a trail marathon - this is tough terrain and the pebbles make sure you know you have just completed a coastal trail run.

Top 3 men were:

1. Daniel Doherty - 3.23.01
2. David Spencer - 3.41.10
3. Mike Martin - 3.50.00

Full results for marathon, half and 10k can be found here.