Good workouts before holiday blowout

Week ending 2^nd August

A very good running week. I hoped to pack a good few miles in this week as it was coming to the end of the month and I wanted to get close to nearly 200 miles for the month of July (I managed 199 last year and 193 this time). Also with a 11 day trip coming up in Spain where temperatures are somewhere in the 40 degrees I might be limited to 3 runs a week. We tend to do a bit of travelling around when we go abroad so getting into a settled routine of running is tricky. At least by getting a good week up on my legs the following 7 days allows me to rest somewhat before building it up again for August and the big month of  September.

Monday – routine recovery jog. I had no Garmin but I did the usual 4 mile route. It felt very comfortable.

Tuesday – 8 miles with 5 miles tempo. Average pace for the tempo was 7.10.It was a faster tempo than this time last year and I should have pushed things on a bit for mile 2. Last mile was run in 6.59 pace. Hopefully by September I can get a faster pace on the shorter tempos, ideally around 7 minutes.

Wednesday – I was up early around 6.40 am for a 90 minute long slow midweek medium “long run” running from Charleville – Railway Rd – Bally hea and back via Charleville. I covered 10.25 miles at a solid slow pace of 8.27 per mile.

Thursday – Another early start with a 3 mile warm up jog and then 10 X 2 min intervals at 6.33 average pace. I rested around 45 -60 seconds between each interval and jogged a mile home. I ran 7 miles in total. Again not a very fast pace for intervals as a lot of runners who run a 5k under 20 minutes would be doing these intervals at 6 minute pace. 20 minutes of intervals is enough to be getting on with as the legs felt it the next day.

Friday – 4 mile recovery jog at 9.20 pace. Hr 135.

Saturday – The day of the long run. Like all my workouts this week I was running this on my own. The plan was to spend around 2hrs40mins on my feet but run around 10 miles at marathon pace. I ran 7.5 miles at a slow relaxed pace (7.45 pace). I took a sup of water and then ran the next 10 miles at 7.40 pace. I was very comfortable for the for 8 miles but the last two miles were tough. I should have kept a tighter rein on the splits at miles 7 and mile 8 and I suffered a bit for the last mile. The splits were the marathon pace run were 1) 7.46, 2)7.59 3)7.48 4)7.43 5)7.35 6)7.26 7)7.29 8)7.30 9)7.40 10)7.38. Nevertheless I was happy with the way the run panned out. I suppose it would have been good to have turned out another 2/3 miles but all in good time. I then tacked on another 15 minutes (1.5 miles) of slow mileage simply to get the legs running on depleted legs. A good workout. 19miles.

My next race will be the Clonmel half marathon in two weeks. I hope to get around as the legs will be jelly like after the holidays. Hopefully I can build up the fitness from that point onwards.

Monday 4 miles, Tuesday 8 miles with 5 mile tempo, Wednesday 10.25 miles, Thursday 7 miles with 10 X 2 miles, Friday 4 miles, Saturday 19 miles with 10 miles at MP pace.