It is on!

Did he really say that? Ewen was right when he predicted that Grellan would beat me in Ballycotton, but now he’s stuck his head out too far. Surely I will be able to keep within 3 minutes of the man in Bantry! Let’s see, Macmillan says his 38:15 10k equates to a 1:25:07 half marathon, while my 66:01 10 miler in Ballycotton gives me 1:27:40 for the half (let’s ignore those hills between Glengarriff and Bantry for a minute). The three minute chase is on, and this time the loud mouthed Ozzie is gonna cough up.

I did my tempo run yesterday. I got a new pair of racers and hoped they would make me feel faster, but that didn’t really happen. It still wasn’t too bad, considering that the ultra had only been 11 days previously. My mile splits were 7:21, 7:17, 7:07, 6:56, 6:51, 6:47, and maybe I should take comfort from the fact that I got faster with each mile, even though I had not planned it that way. The course is 3 miles each way out-and-back, reasonably flat, but there is about 30 feet elevation gain in the middle mile (and the same loss on the way back, obviously). It was quite windy, and I had to face the headwind on the way out, but of course got the benefit of that on the way home. It would have been a bit faster if I wouldn’t have lost concentration on several occasions – an old problem of mine during tempo runs. I guess I should be happy enough, but of course I’d like to be faster. I guess I should be able to push the average pace below 7:00 by the time I’ll try that again next week, when the legs will have recovered that bit more.

I settled for a more relaxed pace today, and got back into double figures for the first time since Connemara. It looked like a nice day, but the icy wind made for rather chilly conditions. I was glad that I had brought along my gloves, I think my fingers would have frozen solid otherwise. The run went well, but there is a bit of a twinge in my left hamstring. It’s not painful, it’s not even a real discomfort, just a bit of a twinge, but enough to keep reminding me to be careful. I really started enjoying myself out there, the sun came up while I was running along the lakeshore, and the twin baby lambs in the field were fooling around (I imagined showing them to my own twins, they would have enjoyed the scene). A good day, and not even the biting breeze could spoil it.

17 Apr

6 miles, 42:18, 7:03 pace, HR 162

18 Apr

10 miles, 1:18:42, 7:52 pace, HR 148