2 PB's in a week!!!!

15^th April

This week marks 7 weeks to the Cork marathon or to put it another way 5 weeks of training with a 2 week taper. I term this “marathon intensity training” as everything is geared towards gearing myself to the marathon. That usually means lots of races – Ballintotis 4 mile, Midleton 5 mile, Killmallock 5 mile, Limerick and Wexford half marathons plus the usual tempo runs and LSR’s. It was a strategy that served me well when training for Dublin though I am probably not putting the same mileage this time round. I only started to think seriously about Cork at the start of March.

 

Did 4 recovery miles in the lashing rain on Monday while on Tuesday a much better nicer evening allowed me to run a solid 9 miles at sub 8 pace. I have also been amiss in attending club training sessions in Mallow as work hours don’t suit me  to attend Tuesday sessions. More’s the pity as they are very helpful.By Wednesday things were a bit more wobbly. Planned to do 10 miles up in Mayfield but the wind made things very difficult. That wasn’t my concern my complete lack of puff from mile 8.5 miles onwards. Had to walk for 2 minutes before I went off again. A disappointing effort. The legs were like bricks. 10 miles at 8.36 pace, 1hour26mins, HR 147.

Thursday. 4 mile race – Ballintotis- finished according to the official time in 27 mins bang on the button but I was according to my stopwatch 3 seconds under that. It mightn’t seem like a big deal to some people but that probably means you aren’t into running!!! At least it was a new PB and I was happy and surprised with how it went. Last year I ran this a minute slower. Massive crowd there and parking issues meant no time for a planned 2/3 warmup, in fact no chance of a warm up at all. I had no garmin but I think the splits were 6.45, 6.35, 6.50 and a slow 7.00 minute mile. The wind out on the road at the end really set me back but again a weakish finish for the last mile.

Saturday I reintroduced 6 days a week running. I do these runs at a moderate, relaxed pace and pick it up if i feel like it. If anything it gets all the bad “running” out of my legs for Sunday’s 13.1 in Wexford. I pb’ed Wexford on the Sunday. The first 6 miles were tricky enough with lots of pulls and drags but the last 7 miles were flat and/or downhill. I was smoking by mile 7 making up nearly 30 seconds per mile. My garmin clocked my finish as 1.35.15 which is a PB by 36 seconds. Aidan Mc Gee ran the race in sub 1.33 and Dermot pb’ed by 6 minutes finishing in sub 1.50. I was very happy with the outcome putting me on a good path for the Cork marathon. That said I will be looking to improve my HM time in future – ideally run the distance at 7 minute pace. Splits were 1)7.30 2)7.27 3)7.41 4)7.31 5)7.14 6)7.17 7)6.58 8)7.04 9)7.03 10) 7.14 (1.13.02) 11)7.06 12)7.09 13)7.02 and the rest 52 seconds. Only one person overtook me at mile 6 onwards with the up and down nature of the course reflected in the splits at miles 1-6 and 7-13.1. My ten mile time was slow enough (compared to my Mallow ten time,) the point at which I normally slow down in half marathons. Today was different but the Limerick half marathon will be a even better indicator of where I really stand.

Miles for the week 47.5.