A fresher week.

Week ending 11^th January

Another week into the New Year. I was happy enough with the mileage completed this week – 53 miles but the vibe I felt when running was one of sluggishness. Tuesday was a case in point. I didn’t fancy going for a  run at all but as it was meant to be only a recovery jog I opted for a 4 mile walk instead around Cork City on my hour off. I ran 8 miles on the Monday. Anyway when I got home I ended falling asleep and snoring very loudly on the couch for 2 hours before going to bed and sleeping for another 8 hours after that. The enforced sleep seemed to have done the trick as I was a lot fresher the rest of the week.

Running up in Cork on Wednesday was a tough affair battling against some heavy wind and gales unable to cover no more than 8.26 miles in the 70 minute period window open to me. Thankfully by Thursday night the wind and rain subsided somewhat to enable to run 8 miles at a steadier 7.55 minute pace, the last three miles coming in at 7.35, 7,30 and 7.15 respectively. The Hr was 155 with a rest day Friday.

That left me with the prospect of running back to backs over the weekend. It was a struggle getting out of my warm bed on Saturday morning. It was obvious I was out of practice arising up for a long run. A couple of months ago this was second nature to me but running on my own around Charleville was a mentally challenging prospect. However as the object of the exercise was simply to spend time on my feet and not worry about pace I began to warm to the job in hand. Miles 1 – 5 was spent running up and down Love Lane, the Limerick road, 2 laps of the car park of the hotel and back to my house before heading down for a pleasant enough run to Bally hea and back via the Railway road. It was Baltic out there at times but at least it was dry. I was also happy to see the pace improve covering 6.8 miles in the first hour, 7.2 miles in the second hour tacking on a further 2 miles for a total of 2hrs16 minutes on my feet. It was one of those long runs where it didn't turn out as bad as I feared. I better get used to running on my own as I don’t think there will be many wanting to train for a ultra with me.

Sunday was a lot easier running with the lad and ladies of Mallow covering a nice and relaxed 10 miles – also at 8.30 pace. The Hr was 151. Hopefully more the same for the next few weeks.

Mileage for the week 54.26 miles. Monday 8 miles, Tuesday 4 miles walking, Wednesday 8.26 miles, Thursday 8 miles, Saturday 16 miles, Saturday 10 miles.