Back to School

Niamh is a relieved woman, the kids are back in school. Lola and Shea are in first class, Cian is in preschool. She might actually be able to get some rest in the mornings, which would be welcome at week 31 of pregnancy, I guess.

I neglected to update you on my shin splints (yeah I know, as if you really wanted the details). I’ve been icing them several times a day last week, and I noted a definite improvement. Then I got lazy/I forgot, and they got more noticeable again, so I started icing again, noticed some further improvement, got lazy again and paid the price again. In short, it’s been a bit up and down, but that’s down to me being sloppy. On the whole I’m definitely on top of the issue and it will affect neither my race on Sunday nor the marathon four weeks later.

I took it easy again on Monday after Sunday’s faster workout, but the legs felt pretty fresh anyway. I was fighting the temptation to pick up the pace for the entire 10 miles and was a good boy for about 8 of them. Then I spotted another runner about a minute ahead of me (I even timed that on my watch), and most of the resolve went out of the window. I didn’t quite speed up as much as I could have, but went below 8:00 pace, which is definitely not recovery pace for me. I went past him on the last climb before home, and after exchanging a short greeting he was behind me. Maybe one day, when I’ve grown up, I might be able to hold myself back sufficiently, but clearly not yet. The HR was a bit higher than it would have been without that little private race, but it was still pretty low.

The main reason why I wanted to take it so easy on Monday despite feeling rather fresh was the fact that I’m planning another double-header for Tuesday/Wednesday. The first part of that consists of 10 miles, with 3 miles as a warm-up and 7 at marathon pace. I’ve run nearly all of the previous runs of that kind on the flat Ard-na-Sidhe road, but today the legs opted for the hillier and more scenic Caragh Lake route. I was already half a mile down the road before I realised that I was going into that direction, and I wasn’t going to turn around by then. It meant a few hills on the way during the marathon segment, but since the marathon itself won’t be flat either I reasoned that it would be a better choice anyway. I gradually increased the pace during the first 3 miles, and then went into MP mode. I actually surprised myself this time, because all of the miles splits were basically within 5 seconds of the target. Accurate pacing was always a weak spot of mine, but I guess I’m slowly able to tune into that effort, which bodes well for the marathon. I’m not quite there yet, though; I still have to concentrate to keep 7:15 pace going. As soon as the mind starts wandering, the legs will slow down. I’m hoping there will be others around me in Loch Ness going at my pace. That has never been a concern before, but as I’m slowly moving up the field, the numbers around me are thinning out. Looking at last year’s result, there was only 1 runner at 3:09, 4 at 3:10 and 5 at 3:11. I guess that should be sufficient to keep some company, assuming of course that that’s indeed the pace I can hold for 26 miles.

3 Sep

10 miles, 1:24:07, 8:24 pace, avg. HR 134

4 Sep

10 miles, 1:14:53, 7:29 pace, avg. HR 151
last 7 in 50:33 (7:13 pace)