No Time for Puck

The last three days have coincided with Killorglin’s annual Puck Fair, which is by far and away the biggest event in the local calendar. According to the radio, up to 60000 visitors are expected each year. If that’s true, I can’t tell, but it sounds a bit high to me. Anyway, apparently it’s the one event in Ireland where the most Guinness per head is consumed – unfortunately, taking part in said festivities is rather incompatible with marathon training. I went there at lunchtime on Friday, but my stomach didn’t feel well (similar to the day before), so I returned back to the office soon, just about the only employee to do so (normal work rules are suspended during Puck).

After the long run on Thursday my legs felt very heavy on Friday, which isn’t particularly surprising. My main problem was a very queasy feeling in the stomach though, and I felt like throwing up a few times. I managed to get through the workout, but it very much felt like hard work. Then again, hill workouts tend to feel like that anyway.

I took it easy on Saturday, with 10 miles at whatever pace felt comfortable. Funnily enough, I felt great that day, and could have run a lot faster. I managed to keep myself in check, but the legs felt like flying and 8:00 pace has rarely felt so easy. Maybe the extra strength from the hills is already telling, or maybe it was just one of those days when the running just feels easy.

Last week I ran 3 fairly fast miles on Sunday and felt like I could have run the same workout again. Today I tried to put that theory to the test. The idea was to run 3 miles at sub-7 pace and, if I felt good, do the same thing immediately again. After a 5-mile warm-up I changed into my fast shoes and took off for the first 3-mile section. I kept the HR around 160, which is still very much aerobic pace. It was a bit slower than last week but it felt easy enough, and it still was faster than 7:00 pace. As expected I felt fine after 3 miles of that, and went out for another loop. I didn’t hang around for a recovery, there were just about 30 seconds between those efforts. The second loop was actually a bit faster then the first one, and the HR was a bit higher. It still went well, and I felt I could have done a third one. Maybe I should have, but I went home afterwards. The effort was definitely aerobic all the way, I guess it would be around half-marathon pace, which would be nice because that’s faster than the pace I ran my last half-marathon in, and that was a PR.

Next week is the last one of my hills phase, but I decided to cut back already and only do two hill repeats. I need the extra day because I want to do another one of those stamina-building double headers. I’ve gone through my training log and while I have done a lot of running, I have done very little at marathon pace, and I want to rectify the situation. The marathon is 8 weeks from now; there is still plenty of time to get used to that pace. I need to be able to hold it for over 3 hours, and at the moment I don’t think that I can.

Niamh and the kids have gone to Dublin for a week and I have the house to myself. Just about everyone else I know would use the opportunity to go to the pub as often as they can. I'll have early nights instead. Maybe they're right when they say I'm nuts.

10 Aug: 4 hill repeats, 1:44:26, ~11 miles, avg. HR 136
11 Aug: 10 miles, 1:20:19, 8:01 pace, avg. HR 140
12 Aug: 11.25 miles, 1:25:47, 7:37 pace, 5.25 easy pace @ 8:35 (HR 140), then 2x3miles in 20:24 (6:48, HR 160) and 20:14 (6:44, HR 163)

Weekly mileage: 91+