Saturday 14th December
Friday was my day off running and by the time I got home from Cork City I was happy to rest on the couch, catch up on a few Sky plussed shows and hit the bed at 10.30 pm. I woke up at 8.30 am to the sound of a almighty blowing outside the bedroom window.
Ah Jesus I don't have to run in this - ah really come on!!! As Aoiffe wasn't around I had no excuses in terms of household chores so I headed to the Saturday session in Doneraile park. I normally don't do these but I was surprised to see there was only 3 other runners there. Two of them - George and Aidan are savage runners with marathon PB's of 2hr35minutes and 2hrs55mins respectively. As you can imagine I found the prospect of tagging along with these guys terrifying. In fairness they are sound blokes and were happy to go the pace of myself and Sean. George was as entertaining as ever with great tips too. We completed 7 miles in a hour running up and down some tricky hills mostly running on dirt track. The wind was pretty bad though. At one stage a couple of branches blew off and smacked me on the head. Anyway myself and Sean did a extra mile to make it eight miles in 68minutes35seconds. I contemplated another 2 miles but Brudairs café awaited for a feed of soup, sandwiches, milk and cake.
Sunday
morning I had planned to meet the Mallow lads for a long run in the town but
after putting up the usual notice up on facebook there didn’t seem a huge
amount of willing runners. A couple of lads were planning to do 13-16 miles in
Doneraile park butI didn’t fancy the idea of doing more loops there again.
Therefore I stayed in bed a extra hour and trotted off for a 2 hour run around
Charleville involving 2 X 6.5 mile laps. By running for time as distinct for
distance I hope I wouldn't run too fast and simply get time up on the feet. I
reasoned that the body responds not to mileage but in fact to effort and time
spent running. I did the first loop in a hour and the second in under a hour
(probably 58mins) running another 0.25 miles in 2 mins. The weather conditions
were kinder too. The run while slow was necessary as I need the reinforcement
of being able to jog for 2 hours and being able to cover 13 miles on my own. If
I am to run longer distances then it’s all about learning to stay on my feet
for a long time. Hopefully i can mix the long runs up with a bit of speedwork
too.2 hour run at 9.03 pace-13.25 miles
A end to a
very good week. I don’t need to look at my records to know this is my best week
of training since May.
8 miles on Saturday and 13.25 miles on Sunday.
Total mileage 46 miles
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