PREVIEW: Snowdon International Race

Here we go again, three years in a row the ferry from Dublin has taken me to Hollyhead before a busload of hill runners has been my transport on to Llanberis in the heart of Eryri: Snowdonia, home of the Welsh Three Thousand Foot Challenge, starting place of the Dragon's Back ultra-run and part of the Paddy Buckley Round.

That's not what brings me there, though, it's the annual Snowdon International Race where around 450 runners contest the highest peak on the Irish and British Islands outside Scotland and its mighty Munros. 1085m she stand: Yrr Wyddfa - Snowdon and by the Gods, she is a beauty of a beast.

She is flanked by two of the other 4 peaks of the Snowdon Group: Carnedd Ugain (1065m) and Crib Goch (924m) and her legend chiselled on the pages of Ronald Turnbul''s comprehensive book "The Welsh Three Thousand Foot Challenges - A Guide for Walkers and Hill Runners" which any fan of the area should read.

Snowdon - "The Tomb"
How many hill runners know that the proper Welsh name for Snowdon "Yr Wyddfa" means "The Tomb"? I'm sure many suspected it for the drama on the hilly slopes never disappoints, the many people who staggered to the ground struck with heat stroke last year (such as Northern Ireland's Alwynne Shannon) may have suspected such a grim name hung to the name. Others like debutante Richie Healy, running for Ireland, must have thought the same as he slowed to a walk and the local Welshmen cheered him on with cries of "Go Jesus".

Yet the name may come from the nature of the peak, guarded as it is by precipitous cliffs and spectacular views from the jagged edge of the summit from where the waters of Llyn Llydaw glint back at you on a rare clear day. For even on sunny days, the summit tends to mysteriously disappear in the mist as so many Welsh peaks do.

On the way up you pass the "Pass of Arrows" where according to legend King Arthus slew his nemesis sir Mordred with Excalibur. At this peak starts the grandest race in Wales: The 3000 Foot Challenge which starts on the summit of Snowdon before taking in 15 other peaks.

In 1973 a disappointed Wasdale shepherd Joss Naylor, on his 4th visit to Wales, set a record that, despite Joss' navigational problems on the day would stand for 15 years: 4:46. Colin Donnelly, the Scotsman, was the man to take the record with his stunning run of 4:19.

But for us mere mortals, the work doesn't start at the top, it starts in Llanberis city centre as we have to make our way up the next to the railway constructed on the mountain in 1896 to support the copper mining there.

Snowdon International Race
This year sees the 34th incarnation of "Ras Yr Wyddfa", the popular race which sees international teams from England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Italy, France, and others contest each other while the rest of the field compete against each other or just the mountain.

It's a race that harbous great victories for Irish runners. Robbie Bryson still holds the all-time summit record with his time of 39:47 and John Lenihan was the proud winner of Robbie's time should be put in proper perspective: It was set in the same year as the overall record was erected by the indomitable Kenny Stuart (01:02:29) and both records have stood untouched for 24 years and will perhaps never be broken.

1989 was the zenith of Irish influence on the race when John Lenihan won the race with Robbie Bryson 4th and current Snowdon manager John O'Connor 6th. Astoundingly, England still pipped Ireland for the team competition.

In later year's there's been a resurgence, however, and many remember with joy how Eoin McKenna, the then Irish Champion, finished 9th after a stunning descent. Last year newcomer and debutante Brian Furey surprised everyone to finish 37th in his first attempt. Only former Ben Nevis winner John Brooks finished ahead of him from the "Irish" contingent (John Brooks has finished 6th in the race previously).

This year, duathlete Keith Heary, Crusader Richie Healy and Sli Cualann's Vincent O'Sullivan make up the Irish team while Caroline Reid, in perhaps her best season, northerner Cathy McCourt and Angela Speight.

The Strategy
My first and only time racing Snowdon led me to a credible time o f 1:39:19 basically my half-marathon time and I believe your half-marathon time would be a pretty accurate reflection of your estimated Snowdon time.

While some of my tests confirm I may capable of running 1:24 for the half at the moment, I am taking a more cautious approach as I know I am weaker in the hills than on the flat. Aoife stole some of my thunder by running 1:39:08 last year, so I am looking to take those 11 seconds back, and more, to restore order in the household.

The goal therefore is to break 1:30 while I would consider 1:28 a good stretch target. And I've got a plan too.

In 2007 I measured the race (officially 10 miles) as 15.35k with 993m of ascent. The 6th kilometre is by far the hardest and in 2007 it took me 12:36 to cover it. Compare this to the second slowest, the 7th, which took me 9:07. My fastest "uphill" was the first (5:47) but a good bit of that is run on flat road out of Llanberis.

This year to break 1:30 I must keep a pace of 7:33min/km to the top on average while my average downhill speed must be 4:07min/km (between 10k and half-marathon pace). On paper this looks very achievable because Snowdon's average ascent grade of 13.4% is not daunting compared to for instance Lugnacoille.

What can make or break my race, though, is the distance and the true state of my speed-endurance. I showed in the Wicklow Way Relay that I'm capable of running hard for 1:33 over rough terrain, but this was on a route with much less climb (albeit also 6k longer). Endurance is therefore likely to be there, but the tenacity of the climb is another unknown factor. Leg 7 starts with 4km of gentle climbing (which I did in 20 minutes). I'll have to tackle a steeper climb of twice the length but I do have almost thrice the time to do it. If I can run to the summit in around 59 minutes, I have 31 minutes to make it down. This only requires I better my stomach-cramp crippled descent of 2007 by 4 minutes or 30 seconds per kilometre.

If my projections are relatively correct, I'll need to be half-way up by 26 minutes, at the top under the hour and at no stage on the descent will I need to run faster than 3:43 (I only need one kilometre that fast, which is my 10k pace). I can help myself by avoiding the disastrous kilometre 10 last year when cramps and a steep decline slowed me down to 5:10. So the moment my watch beeps for kilometre 9 on Saturday, I am going to tell myself to keep pushing it past this difficult kilometre.

I still remember the exhilirating feeling as the crowd in Llanberis roared you on so now all that is left is to make them roar again. The Danish singlet and shorts are dusted off and ready to show their colours on Snowdon once again! See you all Monday!

DIARY: Random Learnings

"Can I play with Madness" was always one of my favourite Iron Maiden songs and while the prophet in the song provides some cryptic answers, the answer for me is simply "yes".

After having devoured "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall this morning, I had a great anarchic day of tapering. Coming home I was hammered so took a snooze before doing a short bare-chested hill run in the rain and the fog while practicing the superfast "180 steps per minute" cadence of the barefoot runners.

Coming home I did my new mandatory gravel walk in bare feet and extended it a bit as my feet are already getting used to it; I may be running on the gravel within long. Back in the house it was time for some muesli and some stretches before torturing the ghost of my plantar fasciitis with a golf ball. The injury is stone dead and my new strong feet plan to keep it in the grave. The last thing you want in life is Undead Plantar Fasciitis.

Stretches were next and there doesn't seem to be any sore spots before Snowdon, so happy days. I couldn't decide what to do next, so picked up a copy of the August Runner's World, flipped up on a page and saw a Japanese work-out called "Tabatha"which means doing any 8 exercises for 20 seconds with 10 second rests.

I picked the first eight that came to mind: Star jumps, push-ups, bar dips, squat jumps, crunches, dumbbell curls (on 1 leg), medicine ball goodmornings and box jumps. This workout takes 4 minutes and if done 5 times a week apparently increases anaerobic capacity 3 times as much as 5 sessions of 60-minute slow runs if done for six weeks. It also increases VO2 max by 14% compared to 0% for the slow runs. I'd like to see the study, but for the moment, I didn't care. It seemed like a great carefree and easy way to get exercise in whenever you don't want a full weight session or feel to knackered or lazy to do one. So Tabatha will be part of my regime

for now, that's for sure.

After that it was time for a bit of reading, I found Scott Jurek's, the world's leading ultra-marathoner's (yep its not Deano), website: http://www.scottjurek.com/training.php. Scott seems a pretty sound guy by all accounts and there are some interesting observations there but I owe his blog a deep-dive.

I also find the website of Caballo Blanco, the mysterious runner from "Born to Run" who lives among the Raramuri (Tarahumara) Indians and the photos are well worth checking out: http://allwedoisrun.com/tarahumara.htm

The race described in the book now seems to take place every year. It was almost surreal to see the photos and the websites as the book describes a world so mythical and so extraordinary that its hard to imagine that it all happened. As mountain runners, we can be part of this magical world of lunatics and that's a very exciting thought.

Evolution Running

Before ChiRunning and POSE invented their methodologies for correcting foot strikes and before the Alexander Technique was provided as another alternative, "Evolution Running" was pioneered by Ken Mierke, another character in "Born to Run".

There's a lot of good to be said about all techniques. The only negative is some people may find ChiRunning a tad to "holistic" while POSE can be a bit dogmatic in their approach to their own theory (always something that rings alarm bells for the scientific).

Evolution Running seems very easy to access and the DVD they offer is the real kicker: I watched some samples online and its really useful. So I'll order this in early August and start taking personal "Evoluation Running" sessions in the house and hopefully further improve my energy-efficiency and reduce injury-risk. It'll be fun to learn to run anew in any case.

You can see it for yourself here: http://www.evolutionrunning.com/index_files/home.htm

Coaches?
I couldn't help but go look at Eric Orton's website (he's the highly regarded coach used by Chris McDougall to turn him from a heavy injured runner into an ultra-running machine in "Born to Run"). The website looks really cool and has a 14-day online training package at a very reasonable price that I'm tempted to try: http://www.trainwitheric.com/train_cycling.php

DIARY: Return to Madness

I am newly inspired! Having purchased and read Christopher McDougall's hilarious, elucidating and suspense-building "Born to Run", an adventure book by runners for runners, I have come to the conclusion that I am not nearly crazy enough to do well in this business.

I love my Excel sheets and I think the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder I have for analyzing them is no harm to my running, indeed the mental fuel I get from working my brain on the data aids my running. But that's not enough, I've grown comfortable, cautious, settled and, in the most negative sense of the word, modern.

That must all end know, after pouring through the pages of "Born to Run" it's quite clear that if you're willing to truly shed the vestiges of modern comforts, conservative thinking and go "all the way", there will be few normal runners out there able to stop you.

I'll probably devote a number of articles to the "whys?" but let me use this diary entry to tell you some of the "whats", that is, changes I've made:

1. More and more minimalistic footwear: I'm weening myself off ordinary runners. I'll never buy another pair of ASICS Nimbus or similar standard footwear in my life. Light racers, fell runners and spikes are the order of the day now. Eventually I hope to be able to do most runs in the Vibram FiveFingers. I'll wear out the one's I have, simply for the sake of it, but then traditional runners belong to the past for me.
2. Barefoot Running: Every time I'm at the track in Irishtown or Kilcoole, I'll do my warmup barefoot on the grass, eventually I'll be able to run all sorts of surfaces barefoot. As a help, I've made a bet with myself that every day I spend in the house I have to take a walk from the door to the porch (about 60m) in a big circle over the gravel stone courtyard even if there's freezing snow. This will harden my feet quickly and then I can move onto bigger challenges. Oh yeah, and the orthotics are out. Today I even took out the insoles of my working shoes. My feet love the ground and don't need a big clunky platform taking it away from them...
   
3. Strength: I need crazy strength, I'll buy a squat rack to supplement my bench and I'll get hurdles, hoops and other such equipment so I can turn my courtyard into an agility track for demented runners!
4. Diet: I have to ween off the Western diet almost fully again. Some things I need to keep simply out of practicality, but others must go forever. I'll try salad for breakfast, I've already bought the weird "super-seeds" described in "Born to Run" (called Chias). I need ot eat much less but much more nutrition-packed. The best runners in the world don't need all the calories. There's 9.5% body fat on my body at the moment and most of it is totally superfluous. The amount of toned muscle I have is scandalous and a healthy diet will help sort this out.
5. Technique: I need to further step up the work to perfect a natural running technique. Today I tested the super-fast tiny step technique of the Tarahumara Indians (as I think they do it, I need to do a lot more research and a lot more training) on a short run on the hill. It was very weird, my heart rate was higher than normal but my legs didn't get tired at all. What happened is undoubtedly than hundreds of thousands of never-before used motor-neurons sprung into life confusing my brain and forcing my heart to beat faster to support these fledgling untrained and underused muscles.
   
6. Balance: I've taken to walking around the house on my tippy-toes whenever I remember it. When I brush my teeth or do dumbbell curls I stand on one leg. I'll keep getting creative and find new ways to practice anything running related while doing everyday activities. They say Kenyans start with an 18000k advantage on us Westerners in terms of mileage by adulthood. Every minute counts!
7. Anti-inflammatories: Out with the Ibuprofen which wastes muscles and stalls the healing process for all the good it does. I'll go with Scott Jurek's overdosing on Garlic and ginger!
   

It's not enough for me to become a good runner, and I realise that now, the quest is about something much much more. Its about the unabated freedom to move whereever you want whenever you want with no restrictions. Running must become a child's play, the easiest possible exercise, and something I can do for hours and hours and hours without thought of stopping.

I, too, want to feel like I was Born to Run....

PREVIEW: New Garmin - ForeRunner 310XT

Flicking through the Runner's World August Edition I picked up yesterday I noticed an ad for a new Garmin watch. Not only did it look more like my beloved 305 than the slick, but endlessly frustrating, 405, its name evoked an association telling me this watch was the most advanced Garmin had put out yet: https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=&pID=27335

The new ForeRunner 310XT adds some features that will fill both adventure racers, triathletes and ultra-runners with glee. Not only does it have some of the newer technologies found in the 405 (such as wireless connectivity) but much more importantly its water resistant down to 50 metres (meaning you can swim with it!), and has a battery life of 20 hours (you may make a Wicklow Round with one of these!).

The watch looks to have an easier and sleeker interface than both the 305 and 405.

A good (brief) overview can be found here where you can also see that the additional gadgets to go with the 310 (HR monitor and footpod) have also been reduced in size.

TRAINING: Another Track Session

Thursday evening:

My “quality taper” continues unabated. Having recovered muscle strength after Sunday’s long haul up the Galtees, I am now focusing on getting two more quality session in before Snowdon.

The first completed yesterday and my plan was to do a 3k or 1 Mile pace session (depending on how I felt) in the shape of 14x400m with 30 seconds non-active recovery (rest).

My target pace for 3k pace is currently 03:47min/km which I know is too conservative as it’s slower than my last 10k race pace, so I decided to go for the 1 Mile target pace of 3:34min/km. I was still a bit stiff from all the hills, so executed a 4k warm-up on the track followed by a long session of dynamic warm-ups.

Unfortunately my meticulous planning didn’t protect me from human error. I have trained a lot at 10k pace this year, but this would be my first time training at the 1 mile, 3k or 5k pace ranges. Therefore I wasn’t sure how it should “feel”. I went off and finishing the first lap with quite a bit of discomfort I looked at my watch and saw “1:15” or 75 seconds. Somehow I misread this as being just about my target pace. Distraught that it had taken such energy I executed the next 7 in about the same pace until I needed a longer break as my recovery of 30 seconds simply didn’t take.

The 10k Perspective

What I had forgotten was that my actual target pace (for hitting 3:34min/km) was not 75 seconds but 85 seconds! I realised this after having executed one more lap and immediately tried to pull in the reins on the remaining 5 and managed to “slow down” and do 80, 80, 84, 84, and 85. The average pace for the session was 3:19min/km. This pace I find very interesting as it’s close to my target 10k pace (3:18min/km). Seeing how this pace tired me out towards the end of a 400m puts the task at hand into perspective. A 10000m is 25 laps, so I need to be able to keep that pace up for 25 times longer than I can currently do!

Snowdon Perspective

Today’s session served two purposes: First to get some speed and efficiency back into the legs before the downhill part of Snowdon and second to give the heart a good workout to prime it for the uphill part.

Contrary to outdated beliefs some benefits of training can manifest as early as the day after your session. In the old paradigm were most adaptations were physiological it was understood that adaptations need significant time to occur and that, in this instance, the full benefits of this session will only be available to me in a few weeks time. However, the brain learns overnight (indeed the brain practices running and other movements while you sleep). Therefore doing a session that requires quick leg-turnover (such as running at a pace of 3:19min/km for a runner like me) almost immediately provides benefits in terms of your brains capacity to quickly recruit muscle fibres for this type of movement.

Running down Snowdon at my target pace to hit 90 minutes, I won’t actually need to run quicker than 03:43min/km (a pace I already master), so this session should make this pace seem even more manageable.

Next Up – Speed-Endurance

Fast leg turn-over does not equip me with all I need to survive Snowdon, however, so on Saturday I will fall back one last time before the race on my favourite session: The 10k race pace.

This session I find terrific because it forces you to run long intervals at a pace that you can use not just in 10k races but in most hill races (and at many times in other races) as well. Because the repetitions are always 1000m or longer, the specificity of the exercise is much higher than for the 400ms. In this way you build not just speed but speed and endurance at the same time.

My final session is simple, but testing, 4x2k at 10k pace with 2:00 float. The target pace, however, is a modest 4:04min/km which will keep the session from becoming too draining with just 7 days to go. I’ll finish with 12 minutes of peaking sprint to get the body tuned to the constant stop and go of hill running and to harness final neuromuscular efficiencies.

Today will be a day of easy running to recover for this final session. Then the work is completed and only the highest peak outside Scotland on the Irish and British Isles awaits me.

TRAINING: Tracking the progress

Before starting my Snowdon previews on Monday (tomorrow will be all about the Europeans), I had my final serious session to worry about.

I had scaled down my original plan a bit moved the extra volume forwards and instead taking less of a risk with my session.

Friday evening had contained only a brief easy 32-minute hill run and I followed that up with another 33-minute hill run Saturday morning with Aoife. After having breakfast I headed back up to the Charlesland track in Greystones/Kilcoole for my redesigned session: 2x1 mile @ 10k pace with 2:00 float followed by 3 sets of 5x15seconds peaking sprints (full out sprints) with 30 sec floats.

I warmed up for another kilometre as the morning's run was almost a few hours away and did my dynamics stretches before starting off. I didn't make any readings on the watch focusing instead of running by feel and ensuring I didn't work so hard that I would need serious recovery. This was a tune-up session only.

The first still felt reasonably ardeous as my legs were clearly tired after the week and the two hill runs it had done within the last 16 hours so I decided to ease off further on the second one, still not looking at the clock. My target pace was prescribed as 4:04min/km (06:33min/mile) which was conservative. 3:45 would be acceptable as this is my real current 10k pace (06:02min/mile) but I was eager not to put in a race level effort on the day.

When I stopped and checked the result I had to check my watch (and still doubt it somewhat!) as I had covered the first mile in 5:25 (3:22min/km pace) and the second in 5:56 (3:41min/km). What makes this so outstanding for me is that its only 4 seconds short of my 1 mile PB!

I've done 3 1 mile time trials. First back in 2007 (5:45) then in February (5:52) and my last in March (5:21), so I feel quite confident that I have a shot at breaking 5:00 (3:05min/km pace is required for this).

Luckily, as I continued with peaking sprints I got proof that I can easily master that sort of pace.

Peaking Sprints
This exercise is fantastic and liberating because it allows you to run so fast that the only part of your lower leg ever hitting the ground is your toes. This is my favourite form of running because it feels like you're afloat. The impact forces on your feet should be higher due to the increased speed but because lower ground contact time allows your lower leg to reuse more energy from the spring effect generated when it hits the ground it feels much lighter.

I'm not a sprinter and seem to have little or no fast-twitch fibres, yet I was happy enough with my sprints. I did 95-98% sprint efforts for 15 repeats total and generally ran around 85m per 15 second repeat with my best being 94m (2:40min/km pace) and my average pace being 2:57min/km. Being able to run at those speed without maximal exertion in a pre-fatigued state gives me great hope for my maximal achievable speed. Also, not long ago I couldn't even record speed sub 2:50min/km and now I can.

There's certainly no neuromuscular or biomechanical constraints, indeed I believe today brought my closer to an explanation on why I have failed to perform in the hills this season despite what looks like significant improvements in general running ability.

At this stage my form looks to warrant a goal of 1:24 for the National Half-Marathon in Donegal in September and it would be good if I could have a go at breaking 37 and 18 minutes respectively for the 10k and the 5k. So why am I running relatively so much worse in the hills at the moment? The problem is strength.

Constraints
A small heart or lungs could potentially limit an athlete's ability. From the earliest tests with Emma in 2007 it was clear that my lung capacity and heart rate are at a level where they will never hinder me in any meaningful way. Plenty of world champions have indeed shown comparable measurements. Ergo, the reason they were better is simply that they had other advantages. Any person blessed with a decent size heart and good lungs is unlikely to face a "bottleneck" in performance from this source.

It's now understood that muscle damage is the main cause of fatigue as the body starts shutting down motor units to prevent catastrophic muscular damage from occuring (Ross et al. 2009). Seb Coe already highlighted how important muscular development is in his book "Better Training for Distance Runners" commenting on what it takes to create a top-class 1500m runner:

"Third, athlete and coach will have realiszed that extended sprinting is a strength game, manageable only through a long-term plan of progressive overload, total-body strength development using weight training."

Why am I comparing hill running to 1500m running you ask? Well, because I will argue that hill running is a strength game too and it is one of the reasons you cannot transfer 100% from road to hill and vice-versa. For a well-rounded athlete with both strength and speed (or a modicum of both) the transition will be easier since he will rely on both factors to generate his speed.

I believe my problem stems from the fact that I rely almost solely on biomechanics and neuromuscular adaptations to run fast and very little on strength. Indeed I have no doubt that if you compare leg strength between me and runners 20-30 places behind me in the hills you would find, on average, that my leg strength is poorer.

As Aoife likes to point out: "Your legs are like twigs". "Like Kenyans", I'll gleefully reply before being shot down with "no, not muscly". Strength tests have always confirmed the same and its quite clear that there is only one solution for the Winter training if I want to have any chance of using my running ability effectively in the hills: A strict programme of static weight training followed by controlled application of plyometrics. Only by "biting the sour apple", to borrow a Danish phrase, and doing training I dislike can I overcome a fundamental disadvantage.

I must keep in mind, however, that while I seem to have been given good biomechanics, effective neuromuscular coordination and a strong physiological engine (blood, heart, lungs etc.) my muscle fibres could be of such poor quality that they will always hamper me to some degree. I am hopeful this is not the case but it will certainly be hard work.

But until then, this training has given me a real buzz and gives me consolation that while its not yet visible in the hills, I keep improving and should have an exciting cross-country season ahead of me.

RACES: Galtymore

My Snowdon trip continues step by step and after Lugnacoille provided the first part of the launch rocket a bigger booster was dropped yesterday at Galtymore.

• Route: 4.5 (A real mountain adventure in breath-taking surroundings and challenges you’d find only on a rare few hills. Surprisingly runnable terrain. Would have been a 5 in dry conditions)
• Weather: 3 (Windy and quite wet in patches and slightly misty at the top. However, weather was never a problem navigationally or performance-wise and the relatively high temperature kept conditions fairly safe)
• Field Strength: 3 (A much smaller field than at Lugnacoille and runners of all levels participating but all eyes were on the contest between Peter O’Farrell and John Lenihan in this race)
• Performance: 3 (Another hard training run but not in “race mode”. No navigational errors. A bit of fun and enjoyment among all the seriousness)
• Overall: 4 (Down from 5 as it wasn’t much from a sporting perspective for myself, but as an experience and a day out, it was superb)

So was Galtymore as hard as expected? The answer unfortunately is not one I can give despite having run it! It was certainly a tough route but in terms of suffering, there wasn’t very much pain involved and the harrowing zombie-like plodding that I have felt in races such as Aughavannagh, Three-Peaks, and Donard-Commedagh never materialised here. (and better so given that I was a walking zombie at Donard-Commedagh and a wreck of a man after Three-Peaks).

Truth is my legs were too tired after the week’s session for much action and my mind was halfway in Wales already and the other half wasn’t ready to suffer any discomfort today, so once I got settled in on Cush with a group with Dermot Murphy, Joe Aherne and Mick Hanney, my only interest was in keeping a steady ship, finding the right route and returning in good form.

Even slow pace can be arduous when a route is such as this, however: I measured it (after corrections) as 12km long and with 1198m (rounded nicely to 1200m!) climb and an average ascent grade of 21.4% (max 43.2%). Poor old Lugnacoille only manages 13.7% (if you go up the South Prison it’s a different story).

In any case, today was not about us, it was about a Biblical battle. And no, it wasn’t biblical because of the short bursts of rain that lashed us, but because the main protagonists of the day were called Peter and John.

Irish Champion – Peter or John

The Irish Championship has been an interesting affair ever since Peter O’Farrell started out winning Croagh Patrick. When John Lenihan answered by winning Carrauntoohil on the same day as Peter suffered a bit of a blip and finished 5^th, things were looking on edge before Lugnacoille.

With his back to the wall Peter clawed out a great result in his native Leinster to beat John Lenihan at his own game. Galtymore and the World Trial would decide the Irish Championship and with the latter being a hard race to score the needed “1 point” that would secure the title for either contestant, everything pointed to Galtymore being the decider.

And neutrals weren’t disappointed when they looked over a starting field that also included other notables such as ex-Internationals Tom Blackburn, Bernard Fortune and Turlough Conway but also in-form John McEnri. Paul Nolan watched from the side-lines. It would have been quite something if he had been ready and willing to race on this day.

Because up front they stood side by side, John with the characteristic long dark hair and his green and yellow Riocht club colours. Peter O’Farrell with trademark cap and dressed in white that meant on-lookers on Cush thought he was alone in front for long spells as John Lenihan’s colour blended into the Galtee’s green.

The race, from my vantage point in the middle, seemed to take off at a pace respectful of the sternness of the day’s climbs. Yet, no doubt, it was fiercely fought from the beginning as John Lenihan attempted to break away on Cush but Peter holding firm and responding with a strong descent. Close together the two experienced hill-runner made their way over the wet stretch to Galtymore and up the natural staircase to the ridge leading to Galtymore.

Peter turned the cross with a reasonable gap but John still close enough for the kill. With a very long technical descent to go and a hard climb back up the Southface of Cush, he must have known there would be little or no room for error. Yet, he held both his nerve and kept his concentration to arrive back in the forest at Clydagh Bridge ahead of the greatest legend of Irish hill running.

Unfortunately, he did drop his concentration on the last 60m to suffer a nasty fall andsome cuts on the rocks. But the mistake had happened at an opportune time and there was no time for John to turn it to his advantage. Some would point to the fact that John is now rounding the 50, and while the former world champion doesn’t churn out the record-breaking times he used to, this should not detract from Peter’s performance. Truth is, very few have beaten John Lenihan on the big classical routes over the last decade and Peter has now managed the feat twice in the spell of a week. In a time when much focus goes on "hybrid" race and enticing top-class cross-country runners into international competition, the Rathfarnham man looks a natural heir to take on the mantle in the older, rougher tradition of hill running.

If, in a small way, this heralds the end of the era when John Lenihan ruled supreme over the Irish hills, we shouldn’t greet it with sadness but rather as a natural progression and with excitement on what a new era with runners ready to step out of the shadow of the Kerry giant can achieve. Eoin McKenna was the last to sow such promise, but has sadly not been seen running much in the last year.

For now it is official: Peter O’Farrell, Irish Champion for the first time, in 2009 after winning Croagh Patrick, Lugnacoille and Galtymore. Adding to his King of the Mountains title and Leinster Championship and qualification to the Europeans, the Rathfarnham man must feel some satisfaction with the way the season is going for him (in theory Bernard Fortune can draw level by winning the last 3, but Peter has beaten him thrice in the Championship. While I’ll have to check the competition rules to see what tie-breakers we have, he’d be joint Champion at worst!).

Many long-term IMRA observers undoubtedly also cherish the fact that these titles are being won by “one of their own”, which just means someone who’s been running in the hills for a long-time and Peter is certainly counted among those. A similar sentiment will undoubtedly be extended to Caroline Reid who also looks to add the Irish Championship title to her Leinster League win. Both herself and Karen Duggan will find it tough to get a win at the World Trial, which means Caroline looks set to take the IC title.

Racing Galtymore

To briefly recount what happened elsewhere as I finished 17th myself having been 16th at the top.

Dermot Murphy seemed determined on the day and broke away from the trio of myself, Mick and Joe on the ascent of Galtybeg. Behind us Caroline Reid was carving out a lead to local woman Loretta Duggan.

Joe Aherne was a good man to offer some advice on the route as we went along after he caught up with us on the wet plateau between Cush and Galtybeg. I was a bit slow on the turn as we reached the ridge but Mick and Joe stayed in view ahead of me through the thin cloud cover.

Coming up Galtymore I lost a bit of ground and here I saw Bernard Fortune sitting on the ground moments after I had seen Peter and John roar down into the mist. His racing flats were causing him problems and he opted to run the remainder of the race barefoot.

There were several muddy moments here were I went in to my knees and a runner behind me had caught up and we battled it out for positions for a while until I broke a hole to the top. As I passed the first cross (a small tin cross in a cairn), Mick and Joe were making their way down, and I ran on and went up to touch the second cross (a big white Celtic cross). It felt good bagging another of Ireland’s 3000-footers and one that has long played on my mind.

The summit marshal had had to abandon his post as he had judged conditions to dangerous for race. Unfortunately, he had gotten lost on the way down and the race continued unabated. This lead, allegedly, to a few runners not knowing what cross to turn at but it seems most made it all the way out to the second cross.

Coming off the grassy rock-strewn side of Galtymore, I understood Bernard’s woes. My Trailfoxes here learned of their true limitations as I was slipping all over the place and after a fall, I decided to take it easy until back on the flat ridge. The runner in black overtook me here and ran alone for a while greeted only be a plethora of runners coming up from below.

The mist broke slightly towards the end of the Galtybeg ridge and just as I thought “have I run too far east”, I could glimpse tiny figures far below close to the plateau and I turned left onto the steep descent from here. I had made very slow progress apparently as Joe, Mick and the runner in black were now well beyond catching distance, and I lost more time coming off, trying to find a way to run the slippery gradient with a modicum of control. Mick Hanney later reported his Mudclaws had been superb, and it looks like I’ll have to pick up a new pair the next time I’m in England solely for these races.

My heart rate never rose into the zone of discomfort but once I had spurted over the plateau my legs immediately let me know they weren’t up for any antics on the second descent to Cush. I had otherwise kept Paul Nolan’s advice in mind for here: “Don’t try any heroics until you climb back over Cush”, just in case I was feeling particularly good.

I looked back and my gap to the next runner looked unassailable. With the runners ahead being equally far, or further, ahead, there wasn’t much to race for, so coming off Cush my focus was on trying to learn how to get to grips (literally) with the terrain. Eventually I got into a flow and the last mile or so was very relaxed and it must have been the first time I can remember arriving at a finish line neither knackered nor out of breath which was nice for a change.

Stopping for a few pre-race chats, I was just in time to see Mike Cunningham show off his Walsh PB which had had its sole ripped off clean up on the hill! Only a few spaces further back, Caroline Reid arrived as first woman. Ercus Stewart put pressure on Diarmud O’Cholmain by winning the M60 meaning the latter will hope his broken rib, sustained at Lugnacoille, can heal up in time to defend his challenge.

Holding Back

As we sat in the Community Centre enjoying the free Munster sambos and servings of tea, Peter O’Farrell lifted his finger at me and told me to “take it easy from now till’ the big race of the season. Your work is done.” He’s not wrong, of course, the basic tenet of the final weeks before a big race is to just ensure you arrive fresh and rested.

That will bring me to tomorrow's topic in the warm-up series of articles for Snowdon: Taper. I have now managed to run somewhat restrained on Lugnacoille and very restrained at Galtymore. This bodes well as self-control has great importance, but there's more to a successful taper.

But more on that tomorrow, for now I want the steep green slopes of the Galtees to play once more across my inner retina with all their enticing might ever reminding me of the true essence of hill running behind the numbers, the competition, the Championships and Leagues, reduced back to the two elements that matter most: Man and Mountain.

TRAINING: Kilcoole Track

Jimmy Synnott had made me aware that one of the best track facilities in Ireland was built at Charlesland behind Jackie Skelly's gym between Greystones and Kilcoole just a few round-abouts off the N11.

Having gotten half-day off yesterday after a marathon-shift of 16-hours with the Microsoft Year End, I decided I would finally have a look at it, as I don't manage to get to the Crusaders track sessions in Irishtown at the moment.

As its my philosophy to do most track work on my own anyway (since I'm quite religious about executing my own sessions at my own pace), this was not a bad thing and the track could prove a very useful "stopover" point every time I head from Sandyford towards Ashford and home.

The Kilcoole Stadium
This is the best track facility in Wicklow and as such is used by all of the Sli Cualann clubs: Parnell AC, Kilcoole AC, Bray Runners , Roundwood and District AC, Blessington AC, Inbhear Dee, and Greystones AC.

Despite not being a member of these the nice lady in reception told me it was free to use the track and I was impressed with the cleanliness of the area and the fabulous views you could enjoy from the top notch track.

After doing 3.2km of warmup it was then time for one of my classical 10k pace sessions or "Race Pace" as I currently label them.

The Session
Today's session was as simple as they come 5x1k repeat @ 10k pace with 1:30 floats (active recoveries). Earlier in the year I executed a similar session but started with 3 minutes and then 2 minutes of float. The idea being that the further into racing season, the less active recovery you must need to cope with to move your session closer to the actual race demands.

At this time of year, its normally recommended to do Mixed Intervals and shorter but faster intervals, but I chose to switch back to these longer intervals in preparation for Snowdon due to the length of the race. Also, my feeling is the hill races act very much like Mixed Intervals and I want the body to get a bit more exposure to steady hard running (tempos would have been another route I could have gone down, but I find the quality of the track workout better).

On Tuesday I did a very tough 30/30 session, so I had worked both speed and V02 max on that day. It wasn't necessary to include a speed session of 200s after the 1ks then.

I kept the intervals at 1k despite 2k and 3k being more race specific to keep the strain of the sesssion reasonable. My legs are somewhat weary at the moment after the latest series of races, so I opted for quality. The long 2k and 3k repeats will be important in the very hard ramp-up I've planned for the cross-country season.

The Results
The goal for today was to run the 1k repeats in 3:42 (3:42min/km pace, duh!) which is a pace of 5:57min/mile. My long absence from the track showed immediately as I struggled somewhat to find rhythm not helped by the very hot day and a strong seabreeze on the return strait of every 400m loop.

I managed alright for number 1, however, doing it in 3:44. From then on, unfortunately, I was always a bit short of a "kick" completing the next 4 in 3:51, 3:50, 3:47 and 3:50. I found consolation in the fact that my legs weren't remotely fresh, I'd eaten too much at lunch, and this was my first time doing this exercise with just 1:30 active recovery.

If nothing else, though, my session was very evenly paced throughout, always a hallmark of a quality workout. The average pace of 3:48min/km still puts me ahead of plan. I had planned to operate at Target Pace 29 at this stage of the season, and this pace equals a Target Pace of 25. My 10k two months ago, however, was a TPL of 24 and my best performances have been TPL 23.

So all in all, I'm cruising around the area of 23-25 at this stage. I'm hoping to reach a pinnacle of TPL 22 by the end of the season (equivalent of a 36:20 10k performance) and then start the new season working from the pace levels at that. This would be an increase of 12 pace levels in 12 months. Next year I should expect to gain only 3-4 and then maybe a further 2-3 before progress starts to seriously plateau.

What the figures mean currently is that I am probably only capable of a 38min 10k (+28seconds over my PB), and 18:20 5k (25 seconds faster than my PB). On the other hand it suggests a 1:24:03 half-marathon and a 2:55:50 marathon but this would take a restructuring of my current training.

So happy out, progress is stabilised, and I'll have a decent platform to start the next stage of work from once Snowdon is defeated and her head delivered...