A chip off the 90- Mallow 10 2014

Week starting 17^th March.

I kept forgetting this was the first week of my taper. 56 miles last week would normally mean a 20% cutback this week but as the Mallow 10 was on the Sunday the cutback was a small bit more pronounced. I don’t think this will be a problem.

Monday was the usual 4 mile jog in the company of my wife. Tuesday was a planned tempo run. As the weather was improving and the evenings getting longer I wanted to run  my favourite route – my house to Pikes Cross and back up again. I warmed up with a 2.2 mile run and then proceeded  to run a 5 mile tempo with a 1 mile cooldown and 4 X 1 mile sprints and 1 minute recoveries. The tempo was very positive – all done just under 7 minute pace. My fastest tempo in a year. I considered running a extra mile in the tempo but thought better of it. Wednesday was the usual 11 mile run in Mayfield but slower than normal 1hr33mins (8.25 pace). Thursday was a rest day enforced by work commitments more than anything else. I made up for this by running 6 miles on the Friday at 7.53 pace. A satisfying run with the last mile at 7.30 pace.

Saturday was time spent with the couch to 5k group – 2 relaxed miles. It’s great to see new runners starting with the club.

The big day was of course the Mallow 10 on the Sunday. I was down for pacing duties (90 minute group). Of course I would have loved to have race it and I really fancied my chances to get under 68 minutes but not this year. I was looking forward to the job in hand. Myself and Dick Riordan were pacing the 90 minute group together and it went very well. While we were both very comfortable the heat at mile 7 played havoc with many of the runners. I would have loved to have slowed down to help them but the clock is our master so on we pressed. By the time we finished we had a small enough group. As usual the reception at the finishing line was top class. I timed my run as 1.29.55 but my chip time was out again (1.30.35). While I got the Ballycotton time sorted I was a small miffed at this latest breakdown - no fault of the club, more that of the timing company. Dick finished just behind me and his chip was correct 1.29.57. No more technological breakdowns not with Connemara in two weeks!!!

Mileage for the week 42 miles