Quick update

Those evening runs are certainly one way of boosting my mileage, but they will most likely be a temporary thing. Weather permitting, I will start cycling to work from Monday, and that will be the end of me running home. I guess I might be hard pressed next week to even match this week’s mileage, but I’ll see how I will get on.

I wanted a few faster miles on Wednesday, but after getting carried away on the treadmill 12 hours before, I had to deal with some sluggish legs first. After 2 easy warm-up miles I gradually got faster, but never really managed to get under 7:30 consistently. Still, it was the first run of that kind for a very long time, and if past history is anything to go by those runs will get better each week. I could write a mental note to myself not to get into a juvenile treadmill race the evening before a planned tempo run, but I knew that already.

I ran home again after work, which was the third evening run in a row, if you count the 2.5 miles on the treadmill on Tuesday (which I do). Niamh had to drive to Tralee early today, and I had to get up at 6 to just about manage 8.5 miles before helping her to get ready. Afterwards it was left to me to get the older 3 children ready for school, a task made harder by Lola not feeling well. Since she had a ballet exam later today, I decided to get her to school anyway (she herself insisted). When they finally left, another incident, which I really do not want to get into, left me completely stressed for work, and somehow that never left my system, I was still feeling the strain at lunchtime. I did not have a particularly good day.

To everyone's disgust the weather has finally turned, the sun has disappeared behind a big layer of clouds again, and the wind has picked up considerably. Luckily there hasn’t been much rain so far, but that could change. I would like to run my extended loop around Caragh Lake tomorrow, which I always estimated at nearly 17 miles, but I haven’t the chance to do that run with the Garmin yet. This route has always been my long run, and when I wanted to run 20 miles I tacked an out-and-back section from our house to the kids’ school to the end of it. It includes all the hills of the 15-mile Caragh Lake loop, and if the wind is too bad, this part tends to be really exposed and not much fun. I’ll see how the conditions are tomorrow.

20 Feb

am: 8.5 miles, 1:05:37, 7:43 pace, HR 154
pm: 5 miles, 40:32, 8:06 pace, HR 145

21 Feb

8.5 miles, 1:10:17, 8:16 pace, HR 149