Time Trial or Race? ;-)

Week starting 22^nd April

I was feeling very happy with myself with picking up 2 PB’s in a week at the Ballintotis 4 mile and Wexford 13.1 mile races. Problem was I slept very badly Sunday night and this coupled with the stress put on my body from Sunday’s race plus the driving over the weekend meant I was feeling pretty lousy by Monday evening. I foolishly allowed mental fatigue to get the better of me and skipped the 4 mile recovery run. It was a mistake I have been paying for since.

On Tuesday morning I was still feeling heavy legged and whereas a 4 mile recovery jog might have cleared that up the day before and left me fresher for the planned workout I was in poor form. Instead of a tempo workout I opted for a slow 9 mile jog at 8.36pace instead. The heart rate was at least low – HR147. By Wednesday the mental cloud still hadn’t lifted but surprisingly for my 11 mile run around the city with a hard 3 mile hilly finish i feel stronger than I expected. Mind you I am still off a 8 minute pace running at 8.16 average pace with a lower HR of 142. Total time on my feet here was around 1.31 or so.

Having not gone to a club session in a couple of weeks I thought it would be best to show my face. The club have training sessions 4/5 times a week. I can manage a Thursday and most long runs on a Sunday but the rest of time just doesn’t suit. It’s a shame really but I always get something good out of each time I attend. Meeting near the Roundabout in Mallow I jogged a few miles  by myself before  having a chat with Shane, Denis, Darragh, Tony and Adrian at the meeting point. A group of us proceeded out to the industrial estate where the other stalwarts were waiting for us dressed in civvies – Paudie, Aidan, Denis, Pa, Sharon, Aoife and so on. A few them had just run cracking times in Rotterdam, London and Boston marathons and were obviously taking a bit of time off. They were there to time us in a planned 2 mile time trial. The plan was to run 4 laps or so of the estate with your times clocked and recorded for posterity. Lining up at the start there was the usual slagging with Ray quipping “Who packed the defibrillator?”. Anyway feeling slightly nervous off we went. Shane not surprisingly shot off at 5 minute pace followed by Matt, John Paul, Ray and Adrian. I was next in pursuit with Denis as usual just beside me. Lap 1 and 2 passed with the front 3 well out of sight. Ray passed Adrian and I was doing my best to get near the two of them. Denis was over my shoulder and suddenly I realised this time trial was going to be the toughest workout of the week. Paudie, Sharon et al were watching proceedings but were giving loads of encouragement. By lap 3 I was in a anerobic state – the heart was burning and the head was doing funny things. Ray and Adrian looked very comfortable, I just felt brutal. Shane , John Paul and Mattie were done in no time and I knew I wasn’t going to get past Adrian or Ray. By the time I finished the 4^th lap I was wrecked gladly reaching for the water. It was all very good humoured at the finish handshakes and craic all round. Anyway I was timed in at 12minutes33seconds which was very good for me indeed. Mind you the jog back to the car was a slow one. The whole session from start to finish was 8 miles in total. How fast runners can keep even faster paces up in 10 mile races is beyond me.

Got back late Friday evening after meeting my Dad so no chance of making the Killmallock 5 mile race. Anyway i was still feeling unwell from Monday. I’ll spare readers the gory details but I am sure you can figure out the problem and the 2mileTT hadn’t helped my cause one bit. Ignoring all good advice dragged myself out of bed for a planned 9 mile run with a 6 mile tempo but 2 miles into the tempo portion it was obvious I would have to drop gears running 8 miles in a laboured enough state in1hr35seconds or 7.34 pace. Heart rate was way over what was permissible. My buddy Aidan who is one fast guy texted me to say he “jogged” 20 miles in 2hr38seconds. He still has doubts about his ability to get a sub3.30 in Cork despite running 1hr32mins in Wexford and 1hr08mins in the Mallow 10. He should spend a day in my head at the moment, he would be all over the place!!!!!

By Sunday morning it was time to face up for a 21 mile run around Charleville/Colmanswell. I skipped the club run meeting up with Paudie for the last 11 miles, fresh  from a 3.15 run In Rotterdam marathon 2 weeks previously. I jogged at around 8.40 pace hoping to come in under 3 hours. By mile 16 things went rapidly downhill, pace dropped to 10 minute miles for the last 5 miles. I finished in 3.13.11. Hr was very low for the run 130 but I was a bit down after the run. I was very down when I finished – another struggle of a long run. Will see what all this means in a few weeks but not happy at all

Miles for the week 58 miles (9.3 miles, 11.2 miles,8.5 miles inc 2mile TT, 8 miles, 21 miles)