End of year repeats

Thursday 27^th December

Jogged 3 recovery miles with Aoiffe.  Aoiffe took up running over the summer but was having problems getting beyond the walk/ running method before realising that simple consistency (3 times a week) does wonders for the body’s ability to adapt to stress and then increase one’s mileage. This in turn is my roundabout way to mention that at the moment I am revisiting “Jack Daniels – Running Formula”. Chapters  5 to 10 are pure gold dealing with marathon pace training, interval training, cruise training, threshold training and so on. At the moment I am focusing on the interval and threshold training and I don’t think I am doing too much wrong except perhaps there is little point in running one mile intervals. Daniels argues a 5 minute interval is sufficient as you are sustaining VO2 max development for the last 3 minutes. Any time longer than that will lead to rising LT threshold levels and the quality of the workout diminishes.  I found that running 4 minute intervals with Paudie last week rather than the normal 4 X 1 mile intervals I do produced a better quality return and quicker recovery period. Furthermore I was chatting to a runner from Midleton after the Cork half marathon and he said there was little point in one mile intervals for very much the same reason. He thought you get very much the same effect from running 1km intervals provided you allow correct time for recovery in between sessions.

Saturday 29^th December

Planned to do 10 miles with the last 5 at goal pace (7.00 minute pace). Wasn’t even close. Ended up doing 9 miles at a average 7.30 pace. Stopped after 9 miles as the last mile saw the pace drop to 7.30 pace. Took a 3 minute recovery and jogged the last mile at a recovery pace. I wasn’t even close to getting near my goal in the last 4 miles. Did 7.96 miles in the first hour which isn’t bad and not too far off what i could manage when training for Dublin (my record training pace there is 8.5 miles) but as workouts go it was very poor and I was more than a bit pissed off getting home. Currently I would only manage a 1.12.XX to 1.14.XX time in Dungravan.  Mind you if I was training for a marathon the 7.30 training pace would be very good indeed. In fact this time last summer the most i could manage was 7.50 training pace so perhaps I am being too tough on myself Will keep at it..

The splits were as follows

9 mile run in 1.07.55 with mile 10 at recovery pace 8.45.Total time 1.16.35

The splits were as follows. Mile 1 (uphill jogging) 8.26, 2)7.54, 3) 7.39, 4) 7.17, 5) 7.14, 6)7.23, 7) 7.09, 8) 7.13, 9) 7.31

 

Sunday 30^th December

Jogged 6.5 miles at recovery to medium pace. Slight strain / pull just above my right  hip. Had hoped to run the Bandon 5 on the 1^st January but that may not be possible. I am now wondering when to fit my midweek tempo run in. I was thinking about Monday but Wednesday may be a better bet. It’s much easier to do these tempo runs when in a race than on your own out on the road. Funnily enough it’s harder to keep the pace down in a race whereas it’s harder to keep the pace up when out on the road on your own. I ran the same race last year and I was pretty sick doing it.

6.5 miles at 8.51 pace

Mileage for the week 34.5 miles

Monday 31^st December

2.5 mile warm up- 6 X 1/2 mile repeats with 2 minute recoveries and 1.5 mile cooldown.

Repeat 1) 3.08 2) 3.22 3) 3.15 4) 3.20 5) 3.16 6) 3.18. Ran these at 5K pace and was very happy to keep under that pace except the 2nd repeat where I held off. Couldn't face a tempo run today, hopefully during the week. Clocked up 2053 miles this year, 39 average miles a week ;-)

My race highlights this year are easy to pick out. Number one has to be achieving my goal of a sub 3.30 in the Dublin marathon and feeling really strong and powerful while doing it. The buzz of leaving the pacers in my dust at mile 18 and having a armchair run all the way to finish is something I won’t forget for a long time. God knows I worked really hard for it so much so I haven’t done a whole lot in the last 8 weeks.. Other highlights are achieving a 13.1 PB in the Bandon, Cork and Charleville half marathons and hitting 4 PB’s in one race (Liscarroll 10km). My biggest disappointments were the Dungarvan 10 mile and Rome marathon (great weekend though).

Meeting up in Cork to-night with a few friends for dinner bringing in the New Year. Must be showing my age, 10 years ago we would have been on the batter in Sir Henry's, Hogmanay in Edinburgh or at a house party in Dingle.

Happy New Year!!!!!