A tentative dip

Week starting 26^th November

Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning i was lucky enough to be able to start work late so I took advantage to get the running done in the morning in the daylight as distinct from running in the dark pathways of Charleville. Street lighting is pretty crap so happy to get my tempo  run started on Tuesday. I begin with a 2 mile warm up and launched my 3 mile roacket down the railway road. Ok, ok I am exaggerating here. At best it was a modest effort with splits working out as 7.26, 7.30 and 7.34 followed by a 1.5 mile cooldown. I was reasonably happy with the workout in so far as it was done and dusted and I hope to see a gradual improvement over the next few months.

Wednesday morning I opted for a somewhat slower but still a testing workout. 6.2 miles at sub 8 pace. Again these types of workouts were never a problem in the past but this time it was necessary to force the pace. Running on 8.20 pace is all very well but the legs have to be moved into a new notion of what was “normal”. First mile up Love Lane was slow – 8.40 but the rest of the splits worked out reasonably well – 7.57, 7.55, 7.40,7.37 (or so), 7,34 and the last bit 1.31. I normally run in the city up in Mayfield on Wednesday for a hill workout but was happy to swap it around. I have pretty much figured out Monday as  arrest or recovery day, Tuesday – tempo or marathon pace run, Wednesday – hill run at varying pace and Thursday – interval session with Mallow. The weekend will be long run territory.

Thursday’s session with Mallow went well enough. Intervals on Clyda pitch. Tried to maintain the pace but struggled in the 10^th and 12^th intervals. Started with a 2.5 mile warm up, some drills, 12 X 90 seconds intervals with 90 second recoveries and a mile or so cooldown. Job done

Saturday morning I was up in Mayfield having spent the night up in Cork. I was at a work do the night before but if anyone was expecting me to be the life and soul of the party, they were to be disappointed. Three Lucozades and I was in bed by 11.45, yeah I know pretty boring. I was glad to see the back of the moustache too it being the end of Movember. This workout marked by first tentative dip into back to back territory all be it on very low mileage. 7 miles up and down the usual hilly route was completed in around 1hr02mins16 minutes.i felt very relaxed all the way through a far cry from the way the way i was a couple of months previously when I had to walk run a 3 mile run around the estate. It was a lovely day for it too – hard cold and dry weather. Then back home to Charleville and spending the day doing the food shopping. The wife and mother  in law were off doing the xmas shopping – running 7 miles is way more preferable. Sunday was a meet up with the mallow lads for a 12 mile run around a lovely route around Dromahane. The first 6 miles were v hilly but we were flying up it. Considering this was meant to be a slow run i took it easier for the last 6 flatter miles. Total time was 1hour42minutes53seconds/8.35 pace. Next week I will probably run the long run on Saturday and rather than run by distance I will run by time. Ideally i will hope to do 2 hours with another hour on Sunday. As to where all this will take me by the New Year who knows?

A satisfying weeks running though the faster pace is not coming as readily as I hoped. Currently I reckon if I had to run the Dungarvan 10 I would probably be doing well to finish in 1hr17minutes.

Tuesday 6.5 miles with 3 miles tempo, Wednesday 6.2 miles, Thursday 6.7 miles, Saturday 7 miles, Sunday 12 miles. Total 38.4 miles