Early starts and a missed interval session

11^th  June

Up and out the door by 5.55 am. A bit crazy I know and definitely the earliest I have ever been out running but I knew I would be home a bit later than normal this evening.. I also wanted to get  to watch a bit of the football on the box too. Less said  about the Ireland – Croatia game the better.Anyway I was very sluggish for the first 5 miles. Not surprising given the mileage I had run the previous week and the early start. By mile 6 things had picked up and the next 3 miles I was around 7.30 pace. The last mile was great completing it in 7mins 12 seconds. Showered, brekkie and then onto work. Heart rate was low too 147 BPM.

9 miles at 7.57 average pace. 1.11.33. Average HR 147.

12^th June

Was up running at 5.50 am. Again I knew I was going to be home late and the Poland – Russia game intrigued me.(  Irish – English rivalry hasn’t  got anything on this gang). Intended to run 2 miles warm up – 4 miles temp and 2 miles cooldown. Mile 1 and 2 passed in around 8.25 and 7.37 pace. The tempo portion I intended to do close to half marathon pace. This I managed quite easily -7.12, 7.12, 7.13 and 7.06. Finished with 2 mile jog home – 8.26 and 8.30 pace. If I wanted I could have ran the last miles at sub 7.30 pace and completed the 8miles in a hour. Obviously I am very fit these days. 

8 miles in 1.01.30 with 4 miles at 7.11 pace. Average HR 154

13^th June

Things are bad when your sister law drives past you at 6.16 am in the morning with a look of horror on her face. I had at that stage done 6.5 miles of my planned ten miles. Deirdre was on her way to her long commute to Little island when she saluted me as i heading from Ballyhea back to Charleville. I was out the door at 5.30 am this time. I wanted to get the ten miles in and to get into work on time. My students were sitting Leaving Certificate History and Junior Certificate History and I had some supervision to do at 9.15 so getting up early was the only way to  fit it all in. The schedule of Pfitzinger and Douglas calls for medium runs of 10 miles. These medium runs peak of 15 miles which i have to admit is pretty savage. I gauged the pace would be somewhere between 8.00 – 8.30 or about 60-70% of my heart rate. Anyway i felt pretty good during the workout and kept to around 8.05-8.10 pace. When I came home the garmin had me down for 1.08.56 which was around 7.53 pace. I had done the last number of miles at 7.40 pace with the last mile at 7.30 pace. Thing is is that i never even noticed. Heart rate was 152 average which is probably a bit too high too. Must watch that next time and try to stick to the slower pace otherwise i will suffer during more intense workouts – like tomorrows.

13^th June 2012- 10 miles – 1.08.56- 7.54 average –HRM 152

14^th June –Suffer I did... never managed to stir myself out of bed at 5.45 am to do my run. Slept like a log until Aoiffe’s alarm went off. When I did get into work felt strangely groggy and the back of the calves were sore – always a bad sign. The heavy downpours and the prospect of missing any of the soccer tonight (Ireland playing Spain) was enough to lead me to persuade me to do the  running to-morrow on Friday –normally my running day off

Friday 15^th June – Waking up it dawned on me that Ireland really did get stuffed 4-0 last night and it wasn’t a bad dream. I also realised my 3 X 1 interval sessions were going have to be cancelled as I doubted if I would be recovered enough to do my scheduled 15 mile run on Saturday. Thursday was the day really to do it. Anyway in the face of wind and rain opted for a easy 7 miles instead- designed to freshen the legs up. Did the 7 miles in `1.05.55 – very slow but very relaxed. HR was very low too 137 HRM. Bumped into Dick Riordan. Dick runs with North Cork Ac and turns 45 next week. He’s fresh off running a sub 3.15 marathon in Limerick. The most mileage he did was 62 miles. In the space of two years he has taken 30 minutes of his marathon times. We were discussing about whether he should be targeting a sub 3 marathon now over the next year. No reason why he shouldn’t go for it. A good guy and his newsagents on the main street in Charleville is one of the best around. Hopefully I will be that guy in October ;-)

7 miles – 1.05.55-9.23 pace – Average HR 137.