Week ending
28th September
And on it
goes. 3 weeks to the Amsterdam marathon.
Clocked up another 60 mile week, this week was a tougher effort in terms of
getting out there and getting the mileage done. Monday was a 3 mile walk with
my wife, the desire to even do a recovery run wasn’t particularly appealing so
the walk was a good option. On Tuesday morning I had a long day ahead of me but
a late start so I ran 10 miles at 7 am in the morning around Charleville. The
pace picked up for the second half of
the run with me coming me at 8.03 pace. The HR was 148 so all very solid but by
Wednesday that old tired feeling was back again so I did the wisest thing and
took a day off.
Thursday was
a big workout, a 10 mile run with a 7 mile tempo at 7.05 pace. This was my
fastest tempo workout of the present cycle and my 7th tempo workout
since June. In June I ran 3 miles at 7.18 pace so the improvement was obvious,
my HR was spot on this time too, 161. That left me running 11 miles up in
Mayfield on Friday at 8.16 pace and a 6 mile recovery run on Saturday morning
in glorious Autumnal sunshine.
Sunday was
the morning of my last race in training for Amsterdam – the Cork Cobh 15 mile
run. I ran this in 2011 and 2012 and it’s a excellent event. Again like in
previous years I wanted to use it as a marathon pace run so after collecting
Dermot and Kevin from Mallow I ran 5 miles around the north ring road before
settling down for the race. I started off at 7.40 pace which wasn’t strictly
the plan ( I was thinking 7.55) but decided to stick with it. The sun started
to come out at mile 4 so I decided to walk through the water stations and get
plenty of water inside me. It’s probably the only way to drink out of paper cups
and I made up the lost time quite easily. The first 5 miles passed in 38.13
which put me well under 8 minute pace. I saluted Grellan and Margaret and a few
others who like me were running the course as a easier long run. By mile 10
John Holland was there to cheer us on and I hit the clock in 1hr16min33secs. I
was beginning to feel slightly light headed as we crossed into Cobh, possibly
due to heat loss, the gear i was wearing was probably a bit heavy and I could
have done without the t shirt under the singlet. Mile 11 and mile 12 passed in
7mins40seconds and 7mins35seconds so my times were still very solid. However by
mile 13 the effort was beginning to tell and going up the hill I was glad to
the end of it. My splits were solid enough (7.42) but the Hr was climbing to
163. Mile 14 passed in 7.41 – again a hilly mile and a few runners were reduced
to walking. Negative thoughts were soon banished with cheers of support from
the locals on the street and I crossed the line in 1.54.45 running the last
mile in 7.21. This was about a minute faster than 2 years ago but i was a lot
more comfortable that time. Dermot and Kevin had finished well ahead of me and
were happily chatting to other finished runners while I was catching my breath before
we faced the long hilly walk to the community centre. Peadar dropped us back to
Cork where we drove back home.
Looking at
the stats on the garmin- my average time was 7mins38seconds, my average HR was
158. A high Hr certainly around 5 beats higher than 2 years ago. That said I
wouldn’t be getting too hung on the stats too much. I still ran 20 miles with
15 miles at a fast marathon type pace.
The taper awaits....
Monday 3
miles, Tuesday 10 miles, Thursday 10 miles, Friday 11 miles, Saturday 6 miles,
Sunday 20 miles with 15 miles at 7.38 pace. Total mileage 60 miles.
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