April 18th
Tuesday
evening. In the excitement of Easter Sunday and paying visits to in laws not to
mention the usual baby and gardening stuff I had given the blog a complete
miss. The running week had gone very well coming close to a 40 mile week. It
did help of course having 2 weeks off work which of course makes training very
easy indeed even with the distraction of a 6 month year old baby. Aoiffe is on maternity
leave until June so I was determined to make the most of the time off. Monday
morning was a relaxed 8 mile effort around town but the pace was still very
promising (7.55) with the last 3 miles coming in around the 7.40’s. Tuesday was
another excellent session with the club – 6 miles with 7 X 3 minutes. The pace
was good here though I was some way down behind the leading pack. I was running
at 6.35 pace, nothing hectic but hopefully some day that might improve.
Wednesday we
headed up to Cork and I was happy to avail of the day off. Thursday morning was
a tough session 3 mile warm up with 4 X 1 miles and 1 mile cooldown. The
repeats were in the 6.45 to 6.53 range but I was struggling in the last repeat
and was right to wrap it up. The session was tough but I suppose the idea to
emulate race pace means it is always going to be tough.
Friday
morning was a lot more mellow but rewarding nevertheless – 10 miles around town
at 7.50, the splits were kept even. Again very solid but I do have ambitions to
get faster and more comfortable in time. Saturday morning was the club run in
Doneraile. I last ran one of these sessions around 12 months and so it was back
to the future. I was happy to run down the back with John (he was in taper mode
for the Limerick marathon) and unlike last year I was comfortable and happy to
run at the slower pace (8.30 pace). I don’t see the point in racing all the
time in training.
Sunday was a
rest day as mentioned above as Monday I was making the trip to Edenderry, Co
Offaly for a 10 miler. It’s a surprisingly involved journey once you come off the
M7 to Dublin at junction 14 taking around 35 minutes taking you through Monasterevin,
Rathdangan and through various little villages and secondary roads. I got there
around 10.45 parked outside the HQ strolled up to the desk and collected my
number in around 2 minutes. I was told there would be little more than 240
runners and I was enjoying the low key feel (but friendly) to the whole thing.
It was a totally different set up to the Ballycotton/Mallow/Dungarvan races
whose numbers are in the 1000 to 2000 range which at times can be a bit
overpowering. A fast sub 55 minute runner would clean up in terms of prize
money if they were so inclined. My ambitions were a lot more modest. I was
thinking a sub 70 would be great but I would taken a sub 72 minute time too.
We shot off
at 12 on the button and I noted there was probably 8 of us running with the sub
70 minute pacer, now that’s what I call nice. My buddy Aidan shot off aiming
for a 66 minute time with large gaps appearing in the field after a mile. I
didn’t have my garmin on me but the pacer was doing a bang on job of keeping
time. The course was pretty flat with on tricky stone bridge at 5.5 miles and I
was still right on top of the pacer. By mile 6.5 I could feel the legs start to
wobble a bit so I had to pull back a bit leaving the sub 70 crew push on ahead
of me. Nevertheless I had made up some ground and by mile 7 I was only 7
seconds off the pace. Unfortunately I was losing more ground and my mile 8 I
had to call time on my sub 70 ambitions hitting a tough climb by a industrial
estate ( 7.33 mile). This was a mistake
on my part as mile 8.5 to mile 9 was a steep downhill with the last mile into
town and into a lap of the running track, a flat fast mile. I didn’t run a
particularly fast mile here either (7.13) but it was enough to let me sneak
under 71 minutes (1.10.53).
To be honest
I was a bit annoyed after the race, this was a great opportunity to PB but my
lack of racing at sub 7 minute pace told against me here. On the positive side
my 10 mile times have improved since last year (1.22, 1.16, 1.12.45, 1.10.53)
so that is something to take away and focus on. I never will make big leaps in
time anymore. My friend Aidan ran a great time coming under 66 minutes with
something to spare. He was understandably chuffed.
So what is
the plan now? Probably run a few 5
milers over the next few weeks and then figure out a plan for Berlin. At the
moment I am enjoying the training but I want to avoid the temptation of
overdoing it and losing the freshness before Berlin training even begins.
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