A Win Is a Win Is a Win

There you have it, my first ever win in a road race, the 5k organised by the local gym in Killorglin. Now, you might ask, if that guy won, what on earth were the other ones like, and you wouldn’t be wrong. There wasn’t much of a competition, not a single fast runner turned up (by default, or I would not have won), but you can only beat whatever competition is there on the day, and on Saturday I was the fastest guy in town.

Not that I had a great race, I was a bit disappointed with my time of 19:39. I have plenty of excuses (runners tend to have lots of them), e.g. there was a big hill after 3 km, and the fact that the next runner was about 500 meters behind me meant I never got that extra gear that competition brings on, and my legs felt heavy from the training (no taper here). I still should have run faster, heck, I ran 23 seconds faster than that only a fortnight ago. But whatever, it felt really good to finish first, and the fact that the next guy didn’t come home much faster than 22:00 isn’t my fault. To be honest, when we stood on the start line (only about 15 or so runners were there) I silently declared myself the race favourite, and once the gun went I knew within 10 seconds that I was going to win this easily, there simply wasn’t anybody there to challenge me. Oh, and I won one month free gym membership. That was definitely a nice surprise.

Niamh was there at the finish, which was nice too, and she seemed reasonably proud of her man. But that was nothing compared to the excitement of the twins once we came home. “You’re the best Daddy in the world! … pause… But I already thought that, even before you won”. And Shea gave me a superhero trophy. It looks like his faith in me has been restored, after him voicing doubts earlier this week.

Despite the fact that the race wasn’t exactly a glorious achievement, I went out for a few extra miles after coming home. I was on a high. I recommend winning, it feels good.

Sunday was a gorgeous day and I seized the opportunity for a longer loop in Valentia that I had meant to run for a while. I ran along the southern side of the island all the way to the western tip, up to the signal tower in Bray Head, and came back via the northern side. It was a seriously hilly run, and the views were breathtaking, especially towards the Skelligs. The whole loop is about 14.5 miles long, and when I added up this week’s miles in my head I realised that this would put me on 98.5. I was supposed to cut back the mileage now, but with me being so close to 100 I could not resist adding an extra out-and-back section to give me one and a half extra miles. Those were pure vanity miles, only there to boost my mileage up to triple figures. I’m not even sure about the correct mileage, because the distance covered during the hill repeats is just a guess, but my training log shows 100 miles, and I’ll stick with that. I should probably start cutting back for real this week. It’s not that I feel overtrained. My legs might feel heavy, but that’s not overtraining. It’s just that everybody else tells me to go easy, including guys who know a lot more about running than I do.

What makes up for the reduced mileage is the greater intensity on the hills. I’m planning to do 3 hill workouts per week for the next 3 weeks, and today was the first one for this week. I returned to Geokaun for one last time, and 4 repeats were what followed. By the time of the second repeat the sun had risen and shone directly from the side, enabling me to see my shadow, which was a great way to check out my form. I’ve never been sure if I’m doing those drills correctly, but from what I could see it looked good. At least my shadow seems to perform them properly, maybe the rest of me does so too. I also added some bounding to the mix of steep-hill running, which is always a very tough workout. There is still some work to do before I can do those for any length of time before gasping for air within seconds.

Today is our last day in Valentia, and of course the weather has turned absolutely beautiful all of a sudden. I shouldn’t complain, I’ll still be able to enjoy the sunshine while at home, and running through a beautiful summer morning sure beats the rain we’ve had to endure for much too long.

28 Jul: 9 miles, incl. 5k race in 19:39, 6:20 pace, 1st place. First ever win.
29 Jul: 16 miles, 2:12:51, 8:18 pace, avg. HR 143
30 Jul: 4 hill repeats, 1:47:30, ~12 miles, avg. HR 138

Weekly mileage: 100+ miles