Hectic stuff

Week ending 28^th June

Heading into July now. I have much rather been where I am now around a month ago but recovery from the ultra and then PF hit my running plans for six a bit. I still haven’t entered any short races either. No running 5k’s to 5 mile races isn’t fatal to one marathon ambitions but it does keep the interest going and if they go well it means your ability to run at longer distances at a  slower pace becomes easier. I had planned to enter the Shannagarry or the Milstreet 5 mile races this week but some issues prevented that from occurring. Let’s just say it’s a awkward time at the moment but all fine now.

Monday I headed up to Athlone to the correcting conference. I have been correcting leaving cert history papers since 2008 and the best way to kill the evening downtime post conference is to go for a run. I have no real interest in going for a pint or hanging out with the other teachers post conference, in fact we are all probably glad of the private time. Anyway I jogged the usual route I have been doing since 2008- 3.5 miles out of town and 3.5 miles back in. As usual the sun came out in the evening as it seems to do every conference evening in June. I ran the first couple of miles handy enough around 8.20 pace but picked it up over the last 5 miles around 7.30 pace. I all I covered the distance in around 7.40 pace. It was a testing effort and I was in a bit of sweaty lather making my way to the hotel. HR was around 155 so that was a interesting piece of information to digest. It told me I needed to start shedding around 10 pounds by September (nothing new there) and to get the heart used to running at what would be marathon pace.

Tuesday evening I headed back to Charleville to bring the back of scripts back for counting and to get myself set up for correcting. At around 5.30 I headed out for 5.5 miles. I had no garmin but reckoned I ran at around 8 to 8.30 pace.

There was no planned run on Wednesday as I had a trip up to Cork with my wife.I then had to get moving on the scripts which made for what at times was a tricky day.

Thursday was more of the same but I least fitted in a 70 minute medium paced “long run” in. These are beloved of Pfitzinger and are meant to reinforce the gains of the weekend LSR. The problem with these is that I have to work hard on keeping the pace slow. Pfitzinger’s schedule calls for around 11 miles to be started and to build it up to 15 miles. I hope to get there eventually but not quite yet as such a rapid approach exhausted me 3 years ago. Hopefully by September I will be up to 2 hours running in hilly terrain and hopefully at a good pace and lower HR. Today I ran for 70 minutes at 8.30 pace covering 8.5 miles. HR was 145.

No running Friday. I had hoped to get a relaxed 4/5 miles in at recovery pace but one or two things made that difficult. Not running wasn’t such a problem really as at the moment I am only looking to get out there maybe 5 days a week. The plan is to get up 6 days a week by August.

Saturday was a good workout. 5 easy miles around the town and 6 X 2 minutes intervals @ 6.40 pace around the park with 1 minute recovery. I covered 7.3 miles in total.

My youngest sister in law had her 18^th on that evening so I was obliged to show face but being a oldie was at the same time expected to stay in the background lest I ruin the party.!!!Teenage angst!!!! I had around 2 bottles of beer and kept the snacking reasonably light.

Got home for around 2 am and was out running at 10 am later on. This was one of my big workouts – 1 hour at easy pace and 1 hour at marathon pace. The trick was to keep the marathon pace restrained enough and see what I had left in the tank for the last 10-15 minutes as the inevitable tired legs kicked in. The restrained part was the hard part. This time I was running on my own and the tendency here is to over do the pace and go too fast for the first 4 miles and not complete the workout correctly over the last 3.5 miles. It’s happened before. Anyway I ran 6.92 miles in the first hour at around 8.35 pace. That was nice and handy before picking it up for the last hour on a challenging route. Fast and flat for the most part but some nice pulls too. Anyway the second hour went very well covering 7.8 miles which is around 7.45 pace or so. The sun came out for the last 2 miles and I was feeling the thirst a bit but as I say job done. Spits for the second hour were as follows: 7.48,7.46,7.41,7.30,7.37,7.42,7.48 and 5.20 at the end at 7.56 pace. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was glad to stop the timer after two hours. I’d be glad to return to the LSR again next week.

A tough week in a lot of ways but some good running. Total miles 43 miles

Hitting all bases.

Week ending 21^st June

Managed to hit 40 miles this week and a 1000 miles for the year.

Monday 4 mile recovery jog at probably too fast a pace. 9.15 with HR of 145.

Tuesday 2 mile warm up with 3 miles at 7.05 tempo pace and 1 mile cooldown. Splits were 7.05, 7.06 and 7.03 (must check this out). I seem to be getting better at keeping the tempo splits tighter.

Wednesday  8 mile jog/70 minutes on feet at 8.45 pace

Thursday 5 mile run with Doneraile with 3 X 1 mile repeats at 7.05, 7.00 and 7.08 pace. A tough session on hills but I enjoyed it. In another 2 weeks the club will be running 4 X 1 miles but unfortunately I will be away.

Friday Rest day

Saturday 3 mile walk with my wife, 55 minutes. Walking is a tough business

Sunday Hilly long run with the club. 13 miles at 8.30 pace. No HR information as strap was misbehaving.I tacked on 2 miles after we completed 11. Stomach was queasy for half of the run but settled down after that.

40 miles for the week. A good running week. I managed to cover all bases. A recovery jog, 2 speed sessions, a midweek medium long run and a LSR.

Looks like Frankfurt

Week ending 14^th June

I bit the bullet and pinned my colours to running the Frankfurt marathon on October 25^th 2015. As seems to be the case these days there is a large number from Mallow AC going and despite my best efforts to resist I gave into (polite ) peer pressure. I found myself caving in after one group long run too many. Kind of weak that way…… Marathon runners always feel the next race will be the PB race. Aoiffe, my wife, is looking forward to the break away so that helps soften the ground.

Anyway I booked the flights flying from Faranfore airport to Frankfurt – Hahn airport. As you expect from Ryanair the airport is actually quite a distance from Frankfurt, I hadn’t realised until I booked it the distance is actually 120 Km or nearly 2 hours by bus!!!!! Anyway all travel things aside I am sure it will be a cracking weekend and most importantly a good race for me. It’s been a long time since a marathon PB – nearly 3 years and realistically given my age it could be my last chance. After that I could be entering the dreaded era of “seasonal bests”.

Anyway a good running week. Monday 3 mile walk with my wife, Tuesday 5.2 mls with 7 X 30 second strides, Wednesday 6 mls at 8 min pace with hill repeats, Thursday 8 mls (3 miles with couch to 5k, 3 X 10 minutes at 7.05 and 1 mile cooldown), Sunday 11 miles with 6 miles at 7.45 pace.

The last two sessions were with Mallow ac. Tadhg did a great job of pacing me on the Sunday run. It was a marathon pace run and it was tough. Long way to go.

Mileage for the week 32 miles.

Marathon training I suppose.

Week ended 7^th June

21 weeks to the Dublin marathon. I don’t really know to be honest how the training cycle will go as I am balancing trying to get good training done with trying to avoid further injury. That said the running week was a reasonable one. I ran 5 days this week. Monday was a 4 mile recovery jog keeping the HR under 140 in pretty dreadful conditions. This was the day of the Cork marathon. I was down to run a leg of the relay but because of one thing or the other I had to withdraw. On Tuesday I ran my first tempo run since probably February. 1 mile warmup – 3 mile tempo at 7.10 average and 1 mile cooldown. The splits were 7.05, 7.05 and a laboured stiff and sore 7.18. Hr was 163. A solid effort though I will be hoping to improve in the last mile.

On Wednesday I ran 6 miles in Charleville. It was supposed to be a hilly run but given the lack of hills in the area I had to make do with hill repeats by the local hotel and repeating a 1 mile pull up by Love Lane. Thursday was a club session with Mallow my first in 4 weeks. I warmed up with a few miles and then ran 4 X 6 minutes, covering 3.5 miles. I hadn’t realised my pace was so fast around 6.51 pace. I guess I just felt energised.

Friday was a rest day as was Saturday. Hopefully in a few weeks I get that extra run in on the Saturday. Sunday was a long run with the club. We ran 11.5 miles at a relaxed pace of 9.15. Just as well as the Hr was a bit high 143.

Mileage for week 32 miles. Monday 4 miles with 5 X 30 seconds strides, Tuesday 5 miles with 3 mile tempo at 7.10 pace, Wednesday 6 miles with hill repeats, Thursday 6 miles with 4 X 6 minutes at 6.51 pace, Sunday 11.5 miles at 9.15 pace.