down the line

To be fair in the last few weeks  the long runs were going reasonably well  - 11 mls with Mallow, 12 mls solo, 13 miles with Mallow last week. Nevertheless heading down to Mallow yesterday morning I felt I probably might have benefited from a shorter run this time rather than a 14 mile effort. During the week I ran a 5 mile easy effort on Tuesday and a faster 6 mile effort on Wednesday (7.57 pace) but managed nothing on Thursday. I was very tired and quite cranky with it all the week. It was obvious to me I was on the tired side of things and needed to pull back for the week. I took a rest day Friday as we had to head down to the garage to get the car sorted. That meant my next run was  a  Saturday. Again it was good 6 mile run (8.10 pace). By Saturday evening I was feeling tired again and I knew fully well it was better to opt for a  shorter Sunday long run. I met up with the usual gang on Sunday morning and I was doing pretty well after 7 miles but as soon as I hit the Caherduggan hill the energy drained out of me. I struggled on for another 3 miles before leaving the group off at 10 miles and I walked in by myself for the last 3 miles. I knew after 8 miles the problem was not helped by the fact that I was dehydrated. A sip of water would have sorted me out and I would have made the last 4 miles so a lesson learned there.

Anyway this week is a busy one on a number of fronts. Aoiffe is back in the office this week so it will mean a earlier start for me if I want to get the running in. I am also popping down to Killarney for a few nights for a spot of hill walking and then at the weekend I am undertaking a bit of  outside maintenance work on the house. It shouldn't stop me from getting the long run in. My focus will be completing the virtual marathon organised by the club in October.

two long runs in a week

I can't remember too much about the weekend before last running wise but I didn't do a long run last Sunday as we had to attend my sister's 40th lunch up in her house around 40 miles away. I took the easier option of postponing the long  run until Monday morning running 12 miles at 8.46 pace. It felt fine.I ran 4 miles on Tuesday and 10 km on Wednesday resting Thursday and another 6 miles on Friday with 4.5 miles on Saturday. I ran with Mallow Ac on Sunday (today) in glorious sunshine. We ran 13 miles including a tough 2 mile climb up to Dromahane. I thought at one stage I was going to heave up - it was that tough. The miles from 7 to 10 were downhill and while I struggled at the end , doing a lap of the park to make up the 13 miles I was very happy with the effort. The splits and over all pace was solid enough - 8.37 per mile. I wouldn't have managed it on my own that's for sure.

Anyway I entered the virtual Dublin marathon and Mallow are organizing a lowkey marathon on the scheduled day on the 26th October. It's a great idea and gives me massive incentive.

I'm delighted.

45.7 miles give or take but that figure is inflated by the 12 run on Monday.

(re) born on the 4th of July - Mallow long run

....went for a long run with Mallow Ac for the first time since April 2019. I was a active member of the club from 2012 to 2016 but was less involved in the club in 2017 with only sporadic runs with the club since then. I don't know how I will get on in the future but I really enjoyed my 11 mile run with the club on Sunday in the company of Kevin and John. Both guys are in their 60's and 70's but I am in total admiration of their fitness and dedication to running. Very fit guys and very good company.

I went for a run on Saturday , 5 miles and this filled me with a lot of confidence before the Mallow run on Sunday.

A good running week for me. Sluggish starting off but ended well. I was tired all day Sunday (but in a good way) and took Monday off. I'm nearly finished a course I am doing. It was/is going ok until the inevitable falling out in the group project. Lesson to be learned : Teachers can't do teamwork  but this crowd I was working with are a right bunch of shits.

Rant over - happier now!!!

in july

Pretty wet month so far...only running 25 miles a week since last month. The last week very little indeed. I was (sorry to say) floored after donating a pint of blood for the week and took a week off running. I went back two days ago and was struggling to even run 4 slow miles the last two days. I am considering running with Mallow on Sunday but i think even a hour never mind 10 miles could be beyond me. I hope this trough ends soon as I do have a running ambition I wouldn't mind fulfilling in September.

in june

First week of June. When the lockdown started in March I had resolved to use running to get me through the days, weeks and months ahead. This proved to be very successful as I really enjoyed getting up in the morning and getting my running in on the morning.I had plans to get up to a level of 30 miles a week but no more than 34 miles in any one week. I also sprinkled this in with a little bit of speed work, a few marathon pace runs and nice solid 10 mile long runs. On the whole this proved quite successful and even though I was beginning to feel a bit stale in the last week in the two I felt very positive about running. In all this period lasted a 11 weeks.  Considering I had no race targeted and I was running the same routes I did pretty well.

Now in the first week of June I am asking myself what to do next. I took it very easy this week - 21 miles, 4 runs (4 miles Monday, 5 miles Tuesday, 6 miles Thursday and 6 miles Friday). No running over the weekend. I had ideas of training for a virtual marathon in September but might just focus on perhaps upping the mileage from 30 miles to 40 miles, maybe up the long run up to 2 hours.

Running in sorchio sorchio

Currently in Ireland we are going through our regular June weekend heat wave. We will enjoy it while we can as the Winter seemed to drag on for ever. It makes for tough running, evidenced by my 2 mile jog yesterday and my easy 7.2 miles today. Yesterday I probably should not have gone out to be honest. I picked up a touch of the sun the day before and wasn't feeling the best when I went out. Heavy legs, queasy stomach, a bit hot headed so I called it quits after 2 miles feeling a bit crap for the rest of the day. The bad mood took a while to lift too a sure sign I was feeling under the weather. Sunday was a bit better but even at 8 am I was beginning to suffer again with the queasy tummy so this time I just stopped after a hour - 7.2 miles up on the legs. This wasn't my original plan during the week but sometimes you have to make down with what you got.

Aside from that a good solid running week, no speedwork. Monday 4 miles recovery at 9.20, Tuesday 6.4 mls at 8.20 , steady but was finding it tough. Wednesday 7 miles at 8.06 pace pushing the pace for the last 4 miles. This was a tough run. Thursday I had a long workday ahead of me so went running Friday instead doing 6.6 mls at 8.16 pace. This was followed by 2 miles on Saturday and 7.2 miles on Sunday.

33 miles for the week. 134 miles for the month of May. Not bad these days but without a target race it's hard to keep motivated.

On a extra note Cork City marathon are now cancelling their race. It would have been originally held today. It was then deferred to Sept 6th (my birthday!!!) but is now postponed until May 2021. Today would have been a tough time to hold a marathon in such heat. I had planned to do Cork in September and Dublin in Oct had they gone ahead but I guess i will just have to run for pleasure now. Connemara is still talking about going ahead but this is hardly credible or sensible.. I might try training for a solo marathon instead but then again I might not 😆😀😀😀

Running in the time of Covid -part 8

I had planned to take a easier week this week as the legs were feeling heavy for the last few sessions last week.  I was consistently hitting 30 miles for the last 4/5 weeks so it was no harm. The other big news of the week was the cancellation of the Dublin City Marathon. It was hardly a surprise and it was the correct decision but now I have a large gap in terms of "what am I training for". The answer is "I don't really know". I could train away to run a personal marathon in August but unless it's officially recognized  and I get a nice chunk of metal for it there seems little point at the moment. We will see what happens down the line. Maybe just keep doing 30-35 a miles a week for the month of June might be enough of a challenge.

Monday - I ran with just a stopwatch at recovery marathon pace. Maybe 5 miles maybe a bit more. Pace was probably 9.20 per mile.

Tuesday - no running. Aoiffe was busy with work meetings in the morning so running wasn't a option. I was happy to avail of the excuse.

Wednesday - 6 miles at a relaxed 8.16 pace

Thursday - 6 miles with 3 X 1 miles . First mile was a bit rusty 7.14 or so but last two a lot better 7.07 and 7.04. I didn't have another one in me but might remedy that in the future

Friday - no plans to go for a run. As it was it was a crazy work day.

Saturday - Probably a disappointing session in a lot of ways. I was thinking maybe 8 miles at a faster MP pace on the Coolens route. First 10 km went well , 7.55 pace but I bonked after that and I called it quits. Just walked home . Mind you I had a good day at home with Aoiffe and Iseult

Sunday - no run. Panned out on the couch for a hour during the day. Feeling a bit miserable not physically ill but just feeling a bit bluesy. Some stuff going on in the background that is affecting me. My best running can only occur if the real life stuff is going ok.

That works out as 23 miles a week. Very low to be fair but I needed the break. The "Kick" was gone out of the running a bit lately.  No harm in that.