24th December 2012
Ran a easy 3 mile jog in the morn.
Battery dead on the heartstrap so have to get that fixed. Nice day for it,
grand and mild. Still reflecting on the race yesterday and wondering what will
my strategy be for the Dungarvan training cycle I am under going. Hope to enter
a 5 mile race on St Stephens day. Will try to use it as a tempo run – that is a
run at a fixed pace rather than a all out pace. I know it’s early yet but a few
running resolutions are entering the mind already
1) Get a decent sub 70 PB in a ten mile
race next year be it Dungarvan, Mallow or Ballycotton. If I scrape under 70
minutes so be it but I want to get a decent time.
2) Use my new found 10 PB as a
springboard for a new half marathon PB. Stretch out my 10 mile time to 13.1
mile,. perhaps 1hr30 to 1hr34minutes?
3) Next step is of course the marathon.
If I can get a 1.32 in a half marathon (Bandon, Limerick) then why not push for
a marathon PB? Somewhere between 3.20 to 3.25 in either Cork or Dublin?
4) Get my 5 mile time down to 6min30second pace per mile
5) By the end of 2013 hopefully I will
have enough in the head and body to get training for the Connemara ultra in
2014. Have to get permission for that though...working on the boss for that one.
6) Beyond that I don’t know but thinking
really long term (and this is really long term) it might be a chance to give
one of the fast continental marathons a shot – Berlin, Frankfurt or Amsterdam. In this dreamland scenerio get as close as possible to a sub 3.15.
Of course many a slip between cup and lip............
3 miles at recovery pace. Around 28 minutes.
Tuesday 25th December
Normally I do 6 miles up in Cork City on xmas day with a run
up and down Patrick St, as there isn’t usually a soul out on the streets at 9
am but this year I was having the dinner in Charleville rather than Mayfield.
Headed down to Doneraile park gave my donation towards the GOAL mile and jogged
6 miles at slow/medium pace around the settings of the park. Place was busy
with walkers, joggers, families and so on. On the way out got chatting to a few
of the Mallow AC people before back home for the B-I-G dinner.
6 miles in 51 minutes. Relaxed medium pace effort
Wednesday 26th December
Woke up at 8.30am and by Jesus was I feeling the effects of
the days before Xmas dinner. It wasn’t that I ate a lot or a drank a lot (one
bottle of beer) but it was that it all was eaten at once. Brekkie, 3 course
dinner and supper all followed within 7 hours of each other, Anyway the plan
was to head to Caherdavin for a race. There was a choice of a 5 mile or a 10
mile race. I opted for the previous hoping not to race it but to run it as a 5
mile temp run at 7 minute pace. I was interested in a interview given by Br.
Colm O’Connell when he said his runners stop performing a interval or tempo
session when they fail to maintain the target pace. European runners just keep
on going which on the face of it makes little sense if you are getting slower.
The point of my temp efforts for the last 3 weeks is to get to my body tuned in
at running at a certain pace, a pace I hope to sustain over 10 miles. To say
the race is relaxed is a understatement. We all herded by the community centre
in a housing estate and without any clear signal off we went. By mile 1 it was
clear there was going to be no mile markers and by mile 3 when a jeep and trailer
were trying to overtake me there was to be no stewarding either. Mind you unlike
the mess at Clonakilty I was actually enjoying myself as the course out on the
country roads was very good with hills and drops at various points and plenty
of testing pulls. Mile 1 was completed in 6.56, mile 2 completed in 6.59, mile
3 in 7.00 and mile 4 in 7.01. That might seem like a big variance but the
course was up and down and I was comfortable enough, happy I was maintaining my
tempo pace. The last mile back to the start line was quite testing with a long
pull uphill. At this point , if I was a Kenyan I would have stopped as the pace
started to drop (yeah right) but I was determined not to let it beat me. Crossed
mile 5 and stopped the Garmin. My watch read 34mins53seconds but the distance read
4.97. Nothing to it but to run the last 0.03 miles off course. I did this and
then stopped the watch when it reached 5 miles. My revised time was 35.10. I
mentioned it in a friendly way to the steward and he said “Era sure it’s close
enough”. I wouldn’t have minded but it did cost a tenner and another 4 euro in
tolls through the tunnel.
I hung around to watch
the ten mile runners come in- a good half dozen flying in under 60 minutes.
Fuck, they were fast. It really puts you in your place. I was chatting to one
tall skinny lad from Killmallock who came in at 1.02.XX and he was literally
foaming at the mouth when he crossed the line. We got chatting (after he
cleaned his mouth) and he said he read the blog and enjoyed it. He then
mentioned it to another club runner who came in at sub 60 and I was cringing
slightly. The second guy did his best “pretend to be interested in a slow
runners ego blog”face and thankfully moved on. To be as naturally fast as these
guys must be a great thing indeed . Anyway waited for John Daly and Paudie and
considering they were only training their times of 1hr11min and 1hr12min were
very good indeed.
Quite enjoyed the day and then back home to the mother-in-law’s
house for more food and well meaning calorie punishment.........
1mile warm up with 5 mile tempo run at 7.02 pace
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