Plans for 2014

31^st December 2013

Ran my last few miles of the year today. 8 miles with 7 miles at marathon pace. I had notions of running a tempo run but was feeling rather chesty and the legs were heavy. Instead I decided to a first warm up mile (uphill) and then run 7 miles at 7.45 average pace. Not too hard but providing enough stimulus for the legs.

Mile 1 of the warm up was up Love Lane in 8mins30 seconds pace. After that I got lashed on for the entire duration. Up Smiths rd, down Smiths road, through the park, onto Newline turning left onto the Cork road, up and down the railway road and the last mile through town and back home. That was 8 miles on a flat course. Splits were as follows -7.32,7.48,7.53,7.39,7.49,7.50,7.45. That was the best I could do – 7.45 average.

Plans for next year? I have entered the Dungarvan 10 and the Ballycotton 10. The Dungarvan 10 on the 26^th January will probably be the first race I have run since the end of July.  It’s unlikely at the moment given my tempo training splits that I will be anywhere near sub 70 pace. I usually find that a few races usually helps me find my feet in that regard – adaptation. Therefore I would be happy just to improve on my last couple of poor showings there, somewhere in the 1hr13minutes to 1hr16minutes range. Hopefully i will then be able to bring a bit of form into the Spring races.

Last year was a disappointment. Things got off to a slow start in Dungarvan 10 but from then until June I hit PB’s in every race I ran. The big peaks were the Mallow 10 (1hr09mins53seconds), Limerick 13.1 (1hr34mins16secs), Midleton 5 (33mins10secs) amongst other good races in Wexford, Ballycotton and Ballintotis. Things went pear shaped during the Cork marathon , for reasons I never understood (3.59.58) which was followed by a 3 month period of general fatigue and muscle and groin pain. I ran 3 races in July (Donoughamore, Churchtown and Carrigtwohill) but lets just say I was far from my best and simply took August and early September off running. It has taken me since then to get where I am now. I even got a exhaustive number of medical checks which all showed up fine but the doctor did say I had burned by body out. I do know now as much as I hate to admit it that I will never be the sub 3 marathon runner  that we all dream to be. Instead I will play to my own strengths.

The big race in April will be the Connemara marathon. Note the marathon not the ultra marathon. A pity as I hoped to do the ultra in 2014 but the training involved (back to back long runs) would have proved too taxing on my time and other peoples time too. A friend once told me you have to be a bit selfish to be a marathon runner but I don’t think it would be fair on other people to be expected to be picking up the pieces all the time. Running can never be the number one priority.

So there you are- the Connemara marathon it is. Will I predict a time? Sub 3.30? Sub 3.45? Sub 4 hours? Lets just say for the moment I will be happy to get to the starting line and will see from there.

Below is a bit of a guilty pleasure...Dan Fogelburg "Same old Lang Syne"