Only a week left and it's all in the head.

Week beginning 20^th May

Took my planned day off on Monday but by Tuesday the stomach bug was back as was the sore hip which I had picked up the week before. Decided to jog a simple 4 mile recovery jog on Tuesday at 9.10 pace. The Hr was a high for the first mile (as it usually is) but the last 3 miles settled down for a Hr reading of between 130 -137 . On Wednesday popped into Buckley’s sports for a new pair of trainers. It’s not something I normally do before  a marathon but the present ones (Asics) had clocked up over 650 miles since February and the cushioning wasn’t definitely as good as it once was. Anyway the new trainers and hours nap in the evening after work did trick running 7 miles in 52minutes. The first mile was 8.04 with the rest of the miles around 7.15 to 7.24 range. The last mile was actually 7.24 and the last 3 miles can be explained by the strong headwinds I encountered. Still though very happy with the run and more so with the heart rate which read as 147!!!! This is a all time low for a such a fast pace I don’t know if it’s correct but if it is then happy days indeed. Thursday marks the beginning the Ballycotton 5 mile series with the first race in Ballyandreen. I had planned to do it but being so close to the marathon I reluctantly gave it a miss.

Thursday morning i had a late start in work and continued with my tapering programme with 6.2 miles at 7.43 pace. First mile was 8.06 with the middle miles around 7.33 pace. The last 1.2 miles was a effort again that pull from the town to my house ran in 7.46 pace and the last part in 1.34. The gusts were a factor but coming less than 15 hours after my tempo effort the run was always going to be tough. Hr was in the 150’s but was satisfied with my efforts.

Normal rest day on Friday with another nap in the afternoon and a very good nights sleep that night. Sleep has been excellent all week probably owing to the fact I am home alone since Wednesday. The wife was over in London at the Chelsea flower show so I was taking full advantage of opportunies to laze around. Saturday morning was a easy 5.5 mile jog around town. The legs were a bit heavy so jogged at around 8.35 pace.Sunday was equally relaxed with 10 miles with the Mallow group at 8.58 pace. I probably should have ran a portion at marathon pace but I was reluctant to force it to much, hoping by next Monday week all will fall into place. Very few in the club are running the Cork marathon,many having run their marathon in April and aiming for another marathon in the Autumn. The Cork marathon has lost a lot of it’s lustre for people alright with probably no more than 1200 doing it with 2000 people doing the half distance. Perhaps a change in the date and/or a change in the route might remedy this?. 32.7 miles this week – 3 miles, 7 miles,6.2 miles, 5.5 miles, 10 miles

 

 

Anyway here’s the training programme breakdown.

12 week training programme, 9 weeks training and 3 week taper.

Miles clocked up (with one week to go), 476 miles. 3 x 20 mile long runs (20 miles, 21 miles, 21 miles).

PB’s -4- 10 mile, 13.1 mile (twice), 5 mile and 4 mile. Most miles in one week 59.4 miles.

Comparing this training programme to last years Dublin is difficult. The races went very well this time, all PB’s but the long runs were a struggle. I also didn’t decide to give the Cork marathon a go until after the Mallow 10 whereas last year I had a base of 26 weeks training. The plan for the Cork marathon will be to go out with a PB in mind failing that anything under 3hrs40mins would be acceptable. The most important thing after that is recovery, recovery, recovery. Hopefully that won’t take too long and I can get into a new training programme for the Dublin marathon.