Called off due to rain.

Week ended 10^th April

I didn’t run Wednesday. That is a deliberate policy as I am currently simply trying to go out running when I feel rested and fit as distinct from feeling the need to put myself under pressure and go running 6/7 days a week. On average I am running 4 days a week at most. Thursday effort was to be a marathon pace effort. I was planning to run 7 miles at a 7.55 pace but when I looked down at the watch at mile 6 I was surprised to see I was running at around 7.35 average pace. I hadn’t expected that so I decided to dial the pace back a bit for the last mile. The HR was reasonable enough – 158 – for a marathon pace effort but I may want to keep a tighter rein on the pace next time.

My next run was on Saturday morning with the club in Doneraile park. The plan was 2 mile warm up , 6 X 1km and 3 mile cooldown. I wasn’t completely focused and I was feeling a bit heavy legged if truth be known. I was well down the back of the group for the repeats – around 7.58 mile pace. The rest of the club members were flying it and I tried to be philosophical about it. Running is as a honest a sport as it gets, you get out what you put in.

The plan on Sunday was the 10 mile race in Cobh. I had intended to run it at around 7.20 pace feeling strong and controlled. It’s a tough course and I hadn’t had enough done yet to challenge myself to do anything faster. What was even tougher on the way down however was the weather. It was bucketing down, it was cold and the temperatures were very low. In other words ideal weather for catching up with boxsets certainly not for running. By the time I reached Belvelly bridge the waves were lapping over the bridge and onto the road. It looked pretty spectacular and a lot of cars were turning back home. I drove to the finish line and some stewards were packing away barriers and traffic cones so it was obvious it was going to be called off. That announcement was texted to me later.

The morning wasn’t without it’s compensations. I popped into my mum’s home on the way back and got well fed so happy days !!!!

I didn’t even bother trying to venture out the rest of the evening. It does mean however that I haven’t run 10 miles or more in around 3 weeks so that will have to be remedied.

By the way congrats to club stalwart Paudie Birmingham who ran sub 3 in the Rotterdam marathon to day. A great achievement and well deserved..

Monday 40 minute walk, Tuesday 6 miles with 4 X 1 repeats at 6.52 average pace, Thursday 7 miles at 7.37 pace, Saturday 8 miles with 6 X 1 km repeats. Total 23 miles

2 races in 1 week

Tuesday 5^th April.

I drafted this update a while back but only found the time now to finish it off. Last week saw me enter two races in a week – a 4 mile race in Boherbue/Kiskeam and  a 10k race in Cork City. In between I jogged 7 miles on Tuesday, 6 slog miles on Thursday and 6 miles in Doneraile park with the club (3 sets of 4 sprints , -25 -30 -35 -40 secs).

The first race is one of the oldest in Cork county and while it was a bit pricey (15 euro) I enjoyed the drive from Charleville and meeting up with clubmates. The first mile was a rapid downhill. I tried to hold back but it was difficult. The next two miles were quite hilly with a nice finish in the last mile into Kiskeam. My first mile was around 6.35 but I was finding it hard to get the legs moving after that, finishing in 28minutes05seconds. Still though it was nice to get out there and race. The legs felt surprisingly fresh the next day with the HR reaching a decent level of 145 at a pace of 8min15seconds per mile. I took the now customary day off on Wednesday but felt a bit blah on Thursday struggling to get the 6 easy miles up on my legs. Saturday was a series of hill sprints with the club in Doneraile park. I am beginning to warm to these sessions so hopefully I can stick with them. Truth be told I wasn’t very good on the sprints but road running isn’t about sprints more about mile by mile endurance. Nevertheless it was a good workout.

Sunday was the morning of the classic 10 k race in UCC. It takes in a tough but fair route along the Mardyke, the Waterworks, Anglers Rest and back up the straight road finishing in the Lee Fields. The tough part of the course is a long drag and a hill by mile 1.5 to 2.5 but the finish is a good one. I had planned to run around 7.15 pace and get in under 45 minutes, not a fast pace but I wanted to run under my Lactic Threshold. The plan was not to race all out rather at a controlled fast/comfortable pace. I was doing well enough up to mile 3 but started to struggle a bit after that losing 3 to 4 seconds on each mile after that. By mile 6 I was a bit battered and glad to get the whole exercise over with in 45minutes08seconds clock time. I timed it from when I crossed the line coming in at 45seconds02seconds. No matter though, it was tough but enjoyable. I felt recovered enough to tack on a mile cooldown for a good workout. (30 miles for the week)

Monday consisted of a easy 40 minute walk with Aoiffe.  I would have gladly gone for a jog instead but it was nice to talk and chat through our respective days. Tuesday I trundled down to the railway road starting with a  1 mile warm up with 4 X 1 mile repeats and 1 mile cooldown. Mile one 6.40, Mile 2 6.50, Mile 3 6.40 and Mile 4 7 mins. It obviously time to go home after the last mile repeat. I felt surprisingly energized for the rest of the evening.

Doneraile hills

Week ending 27^th March,

It was another positive running week in that I managed to get a decent few miles up on the belt. It was the enthusiasm that I felt for running that I was most happy with. Nevertheless I did take 2 rest days during the week as on Wednesday I was feeling a bit tired, a kind of underlying terseness that I traditionally associated with marathon training and which I generally ignored. However this time I took the rest day on Wednesday and today with good grace. Thursday I ran 7.5 miles with 5 X 2 minute sprints at 6.40 average pace and plodded a easy paced long run of 11 miles at 8.20 pace on Friday.

Actually Friday’s run was probably a bit faster than it should have been and I was a bit worried that I would  suffer when running the Doneraile hills with the club on the Saturday morning. The Saturday morning Doneraile run is a long tradition of the club and is probably the most favoured workout by club members. It was my first time doing it so I was a bit nervous going along. I rarely show my face at club sessions any more so it was good to reconnect with the people there. The crowd was small (7 runners) and I was tipping away for the first 2.5 miles. By mile 5.5 the steam was coming out of my ears and the hill at the back of the park was really taking it out of me. I balked at the thought of doing that hill a third time opting for the flatter route towards the car park. Peadar Lucey looked totally chilled at what was a easy 7.30 pace for him and Pat Daly was flying it as well. Eamonn Nagle was on his second loop of the course at that stage. I covered the 6 miles at 8.10 pace but the last 3 were around the 7.50-7.55 range which isn’t bad for a novice. I have to admit though my legs felt it for the rest of the day. The Mayfield route I used to do regularly has steeper hills but the difference in Doneraile was that the pace and intent was quicker and the surface was trail rather than road. All in all I did enjoy it, it’s a fantastic amenity.

In regard to future weeks a plan is forming but I am still wary of blowing up again.

Miles for the week 37.5 miles.

Churlish

It seems a bit churlish to write about running in the light of the unfortunate car accident that saw the cancellation of the Mallow 10 last Sunday. I was running in the back end group (mile 3) when we came upon the accident by which time the stewards and emergency services were doing sterling work in aiding the injured and diverting the runners back to headquarters. My condolences to all those people affected by this terrible tragedy.

My running seems to be picking up a small bit and while I am hopeful I may have turned a corner I won’t be making any big announcements yet. I ran 6.5 miles on Tuesday at 8.03 pace and Thursday and Friday I ran 7 miles and 6.5 miles tacking on another 4 miles on Saturday. It wasn’t the pace of the run that encouraged me more the fact I was more than willing and enthusiastic to get out and go running. Yesterday I ran a faster 6.5 miles at 7.37 pace with another 6.5 miles this morning at 7.47 pace. The legs felt fresh and I found myself in the enviable position of trying to keep the pace down. The HR for this morning’s run was 155 which while high was a within perfectly acceptable limits.

Week ending 20^st March

Tuesday 6.5 miles, Thursday 6.5 miles, Friday 7 miles, Saturday 4 miles, Sunday 2 miles.

Monday 21^st March 6.5 miles, Tuesday 6.5 miles.

It was the chips..I swear!!!

Week ending the 13^th March

Flying into the New Year. I only realised last night that it was 12 months since I ran the Tralee marathon as a training run and then tacked another 13 miles on the next day. All this was in preparation for the Connemara ultra. I was eating up the miles in training and while the ultra proved tough at the end it was the training that allowed to stick it out and bounce back into the training cycle for the Frankfurt marathon. Alas at the time of writing it looks unlikely I will be running any more marathons in October. A couple of personal commitments have arisen which make it unlikely I will be chasing a PB in October. I hope it doesn’t mean a end to running but perhaps a fresh opportunity to concentrate on other races.

That however all depends on whether I get my mileage up to acceptable levels. The week just gone was a good solid running week. All these were easy relaxed paced efforts somewhere in the 8.10 to 8.20 pace range. The HR was very high on Tuesday but settled in the 150 range after that. Still high but not too alarming all the same. 3 mile walk on Monday, 6.5 miles on Tuesday, 6 miles Thursday, 6 miles Saturday and 10 miles on Sunday.

What is a problem at the moment are my eating habit’s. I am generally eating a lot of biscuits and sweets and crisps. Pretty dire so I will have to put a brake on that. Another side issue was I was carrying a stomach bug on Saturday and Sunday. I had a social engagement in Bandon on the Saturday night and while a good time was had by all I was feeling the effects of it the next day.I didn’t drink but the bag of chips I had down there did for me.

The big race of the upcoming week is the Mallow 10. If I do run it will be a relaxed enough affair again.

Fufilling a fixture - Ballycotton 10

Week ending 6^th March

I ran my 5^th Ballycotton race yesterday, 2 years since I ran my PB there in a time of 1hr09mins40secs. I didn’t run there all last year as I was preoccupied with training for the Connemara ultra. Not running there last year was a mistake and I was determined to rectify it by training well and hopefully getting a PB. However a mixture of apathy (hard to account for it) and a flu picked up in London meant that by the time I arrived on the start line I would be doing well to get around the course. I hadn’t run 10 miles in nearly 3 weeks and got a serious dose of the heaves last Tuesday attempting to jog 2 X 15 minutes at 7.45 pace. Three weeks ago I ran 10 miles with a 5 mile tempo at 7.05 pace so that showed how much I had fallen.  Aoiffe thought I was nuts making my way down to fufill a fixture but I reasoned it was a good opportunity to catch up with clubmates and also with my good buddy Aidan McGee. I also wanted another mug for my collection.

As for the race itself there wasn’t a whole lot to say. A few clubmates who would have been looking to get serious times couldn’t run on account of illness and injury but they were good enough to come down on the club coach. It was good craic on the way down.

I finished in a inglorious time of 1hr21mins57seconds. It’s probably my slowest 10 mile race ever  and while I did feel under a slight bit of pressure at mile 4 to mile 6 I was relaxed enough at the end.

As I say not a glorious running moment but I am glad I headed down. Hopefully I can kick on from here and gradually improve over the spring and into the summer. Improvements will be gradual but possible.

Monday 6 miles, Tuesday 7 miles, Sunday 10 mile race Ballycotton.

Election change

Election Day today and my first post of the new year. I haven't posted as I simply couldn't be arsed but I was doing a nice bit of running. It wasn't actually high mileage marathon running but was geared towards 10 mile races, one long run, one tempo run and 3 easy runs. The Arsenal fell out of it around 2 weeks picking up a chest cold, a flu and a large dose of not really interested anymore. Maybe it's the end of the line after all. My last race was the Dungarvan 10, a easy paced 1.13.30, my next is Ballycotton 10 which now won't be much better. As I say like the outgoing government maybe it's time to accept a change.