Running and the impact of running.

Monday 3 miles recovery. very slow pace 10 min 30 sec miles - Hr average 116

Tuesday - felt very tired and very cranky. Take a rest.

Wednesday - 5.5 mile jog around town. Medium pce around 8.33 pace. Hr high 153. Hmmmm

Thursday  - 5.3 miles on treadmill. 9 min average pace but started on 10 min pace and worked my way down the pace. felt great afterwards but by the end of the day very tetchy and miserable. Cranky and ill tempered. Resting Hr was in the 70's all day. Normally it's in the low 60's.

Friday - 5 miles with 3 mile tempo at 7.30 pace. Took a lot out of me. Very tired and very bothered all day. A few stomach cramps.

Saturday - rest - no running. Just a pain to be around. a lot of anguish about the ...

....Sunday long run. 12 miles. 8.45 pace. Hr a lot better 149. Last Sunday same run same route same pace - Hr 158.

Nearly 31 miles for the week, delighted to get the miles but obviously my body was getting stressed out. Maybe I was carrying a virus but it was a rough week in terms of how I felt. Outside of running (mid term week off) I did a lo of fun and good stuff but as remarked by Aoiffe it was obvious I was not  in the best of form all the time.

Running - cause or affect?

I felt a lot better this evening. Back to my usual self but very limited running this week coming.

Mind and body needs to catch up.

In a interesting place

 Time for a update...Rare enough these days....I had planned to give Clonakilty marathon a go in December but as is typical with the shoddy organisation associated with that event the main event was cancelled a few days beforehand. My place has been deferred to December 2023 so I guess I'll have to park it for a while. I know it would have been a struggle for me but I had put a good block of training after the Dublin marathon including a good 20 miler in the driving wind and rain. Therefore I was hopeful of getting around at least but as I said it came to nought. 

For the rest of the month I did very little and simply enjoyed my Christmas and tucked into the grub. The weight went up to 92 kg but I was ok with it.

In the New Year I had resolved to get back running with a view to running the Dungarvan 10 and Kinsale 10 in February and Mallow 10 in March. I did have a very sketchy notion of running the Limerick or Cork marathon. I say sketchy because I have already entered the Dublin marathon 2023 and the aforementioned Clonakilty event. The Dublin marathon is the key long distance event for me so I am reluctant to over cook the legs too much by running Limerick or Cork. 

In terms of running in 2022 I had a decent year clocking up two marathons and 4 half marathons. Admittedly dropping out of the Donadea 50k with covid was a disappointment and recovery certainly affected my running for a few months afterwards. Also doing poorly in DCM was also a disappointment but that's a record I hope to put straight in October 2023.   I still think (based on my half marathons) I was well capable of getting a sub 4 but it didn't happen for me (for a variety of reasons) so going forward that's the goal this year - complete a good marathon in Dublin in 2023. A lot of running friends and acquaintances are showing no signs of decline so I don't see why I should either. 

January and early February has gone well. I am generally running 5 days a week - one recovery run (usually on treadmill), one 4/5 mile run on Tuesday, 5 mile speed session on Wednesday, 5 mile medium pace/hill session on Thursday and a long run over the weekend (currently capped at 10 miles).

What got me really excited was my run at the Dungarvan 10. I had expected to get around in 1hr25mins a slow easy plod but I hit a decent solid pace of 1hr18mins19seconds. It was my slower 10 mile time but as things stands I was delighted with my run. I went away from it thinking I could certainly improve on that time and hopefully that will stand me in good stead during the year. 

That's the plan  at the moment- it has put me in a interesting place.