30th
December 2015
It’s
been a age since I bothered to write a blog update so I better get on with it.
On
a running front I had a reasonable if not a spectacular year. A steady 2015 in
keeping with a steady 2014. I was delighted to say I completed 2 marathons and
my first ultra, even if on the day I ran or walked into very tough places for
the last 10 miles. I do intend to give the Connemara ultra, 39.3 miles, another bash in 2017. I enjoyed and
was happy to get another sub 3.30 in the Frankfurt marathon and while not a
PB I can say I gave it my all having nothing left to give in the last 5k. Yeah
it’s a race I hope to return to next year with hopefully me getting a better training
cycle in this time.
I
haven’t been doing a whole lot of mileage in the 8 weeks since. I can’t really explain why but the fire isn’t really
there at the moment and for the last few weeks I was focusing on one tempo and
one interval session a week with a long run no longer than 10 miles. Rather
than aim for a long term goal like a marathon, for the moment I am training in
4 week cycles aiming for a target race at the end of each cycle. The idea is to
increase my speed in shorter distances and hopefully pick up a few pb’s between
now and June. This approach paid off with me getting a PB in the Newmarket 5k,
20.22, two weeks ago. It's a modest time but a good one for me especially I was running 20.48 for
the last couple of years in the same race. The next race I will try to aim for
will be the Dungarvan 10 in 4 weeks time. While I may not get a PB I will be
aiming for a course PB , hopefully under 1.12.53.
Other possible races include
Adare 10k, Ballycotton 10 and so on but we will try to get the hunger back for
running first. At the moment I sometimes feel I am a step away from not running
anymore. It doesn’t feature very high on the list of my priorities at the
moment and hasn’t in a while. That is the way it goes.
I
ran a total of 1940 miles this year, which works out as a average of 37 miles a
week
