Fingers crossed

Week ending 10^th November

Racked up over 28 miles this week plus a recovery walk of 2.5 miles. Very happy with how things have gone this week and generally satisfied with the direction of my running since September. At this stage I don’t think much more will be served by concentrating solely on base building to the exclusion of speedwork. Therefore after this weeks workouts I will be adding a (modest) amount of speedwork to the workouts. I also hope by December to increase the frequency of the workouts to 6 days a week (5 running and 1 walking recovery workout). Currently  I’m running 4 days a week plus one walking recovery workout. Speedwork will increase intensity. Upping the weekly mileage will increase duration

Monday I headed out in the dark winter afternoon to do 6 miles or so in Charleville. As the street lighting here is pretty poor and the town even smaller, much of my normal day time routes (country lanes, motor way and road and park) are off limits so it means a number of loops with a bit of out and back running. The garmin was on the blink so i went out with no watch on me meaning i had no idea what distance or pace i was doing but I reckon it was roughly 6.5 miles. I threw in  six sprints using the telegraph poles as guides. I ran 7 at a time resting for the following 3. These were all out efforts and the last mile jog home was a effort.

Tuesday was my recovery walk with my wife. All very social and relaxed around 2.5 miles. Helps those achey legs freshen up. Wednesday did my 10K run up in the hillier parts of Cork City. Pace was solid enough (8.30) but the last 2 miles are v tough but again very happy with my recovery afterwards.

Thursday evening meant hooking up with the Mallow Ac training group for the first time in three and half months. This was the start of my dip into speed work. 2 mile warm up with 6X 3 minutes sprints with a 2 mile cooldown in the most appalling weather. I was down the back for the speedwork with each sprint averaging out at around 7.30 pace. I was happy enough with the way things went. It was all about getting out there and losing the fear. The workout was on grass which was of great help . 6 miles in total.

I took two days off on Friday and Saturday meeting up with the Mallow gang for a planned 10 mile long run. I use the word gang advisedly as there was only 5 of us – Kevina, Barry, Dermot, Denis and myself. I hung down the back with Kavina for the first 6 miles before pushing on for the last 4 miles. I was curious to see what pace i could manage in the last few miles. I caught and went past the lads at mile 7.5, to be fair they were only just after the Dublin marathon and were happy to take it easy. When I finished the rain was coming down pretty heavily but i was very happy. This was my first double digit workout since the power drain of last July and a good solid attempt at a MP run.My pace for the marathon pace portion felt faster than the actual times posted. A similar effort would have produced a 7.30 pace last April but I was happy with the 8.10 average. I had no Hr strap but i was delighted with how things  had gone. 10 in 88 minutes with last 4 miles at 8.10 pace. I don’t see much point in increasing the long runs to any more than 10 miles for the next 3 or 4 weeks.

Fingers crossed for the next few months and lets hope the "Ronnie" starts sprouting at a quicker pace!!!!