Well it's arrived the most unwelcome running month of the year - November. It was always a good month to do very little running wise as one would be taking a break from the summer training and the October marathon. This year however I have decided to make it a base running month with the target race being the Donadea 50k in February 12th or so.
Last week started off slow with me being too busy in work last Monday to do the 6 mile portion of my back to back workouts. The Blarney half was on the Sunday prior to that. I got out on the Wednesday in Charleville for a leggy enough 10k but followed that up with a faster 10k @ 7.44 pace on the Thursday. I put the good pace down to the fact I used the foam roller a bit on the Wednesday evening. Saturday I woke up feeling pretty crotchedy and cranky and left the 10 mile run until 3.40 pm. Aoiffe and Iseult popped out for a house call so I took full advantage and did a very relaxed 10 miler at around 8.35 - 8.40 pace.
Sunday morning I ran the Buttevant 4 miler. My first time doing it and I didn't really what my goal was. I did decide to do a 2.2 mile warm up with a general intention of running the 4 mile at around 7.30-ish pace. The indecision contributed to a slow first mile (7.50 pace) and I tried to make up some ground after that. Mile 2 to Mile 4 were okish enough but weren't enough to see me get under 30 minutes which to be fair should have been a easy target. It was probably my slowest 4 mile race ever but it was a good tempo workout so I was ok about it. It was a well organised event on a fast course. (28 miles for the week)
Monday this week was a 10k effort around Cork during lunch time and the legs felt pretty comfortable.
Wednesday I ran 10k up in Mayfield on the favoured Blackpool/Montenotte route. 3.1 miles fast downhill and 3.1 miles slow uphill with a 25 minute / 27 minute split.
In the old days it was always a very important workout and I was glad to get up there.
Thursday wasn't so good. Iseult had a little snuffle so as a COVID measure we had to take her out of school for the day. Aoiffe was away with work so I had to stay at home and mind her for the night which meant my window of running (3 to 4 in the evening) was gone. Aoiffe didn't get home until later and I had too much to do to get ready for work the next day - dinners, lunches, parent phonecalls. As it was the cold cleared up that night and she was fine but it meant no more chance of running until the weekend.
Saturday was a 6mls at 8.25 pace. It should have been straightforward enough but I was a bit breathless during the run. Sunday I had planned a 2hrs30mins workout and get around 16.7 miles up on the legs. I was doing fine until mile 13 and started to struggle after that. By mile 14 I was walking up the sharp hill at Cooleens and then ambled down the hill for 15 miles. I had enough at this stage. That left me with a good 30 minute walk hone and it was SORE. Not happy at all nor was the left ankle which has been sore all day. Looking back I hadn't run a proper LSR in 4 weeks (cold, Blarney half with 15.5 miles in total, 10 miles stepback) so perhaps that accounted for the loss of pep. Disapointing. Again running th same old route doesn't help either. 34 miles for the week but the ankle is sore enough.
It's obvious my only running days are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday which isn't too bad. It's probably all I could manage anyway. I do have a plan main out which in a ideal situation has me hitting 50 - 60 miles a week in the month of Janruary but that might be fanciful. The main thing is to get the long long runs in and a shorter second long run in the day after.. Anything else would be a bonus.
While it's too early to be even talking about getting under 5 hours yet it will indeed prove a challenge. It was something I would managed quite easily up to 4 years ago but I was surprised at how much I struggled in the same race in 2020. Time will tell.
