Anticipation

I bet a lot of runners for Monday’s Dublin marathon introduced a rest day yesterday, planned or not. I actually had a decent workout in mind, with a few miles at marathon pace and a couple of 800s, but when I woke around 6 am the house was being battered by the storm, which persuaded me to give this one a miss. Cycling into work was completely out of question. The wind was really gusty with wind speeds of up to 60mph – running or cycling would have been suicidal. Kenmare and Killarney, neither of them far away from here, got so badly flooded that they made it into the main evening news. As long as the storm blows itself out over the weekend, that’s ok with me. The conditions on Monday are going to be fairly cold but manageable. We will be fine.

As a result of the weather running amok my mileage has dropped off a cliff this week, which made this a more radical taper than originally anticipated. I guess I’ll see how I will feel on Monday, but in all honesty I don’t think a missed 8 mile run 4 days before the big day will have any measurable effect either way.

It was surprisingly calm this morning, and I managed to squeeze in 5 miles between two very heavy rain showers. After a warm-up mile I increased the pace to MP and intended to hold it for 3 miles. It felt much too fast, and the old doubts started creeping in. Then, with half a mile to go, it all clicked again and I cruised along, confidence restored. I went easy again on the last mile home, but when I glanced at the Garmin with half a mile to go I realised that I was jogging along at 7:00 pace, and my confidence for Monday soared. I spent the last few minutes forcing myself to slow down, and with 3 days to go it is time to get plenty of rest. Any miles yet to come will be very slow and easy, just enough to keep the legs moving.

I got two emails in the last few days, one from a John who wants to run under 3 hours and suggested working together, and one from a different John who knows yet another John who wants to run under 3 hours and suggested we should be working together. It looks like I won’t have to set the pace on my own, but things might be getting confusing with all those Johns around me.

3 days to go. We’re driving up to Dublin tomorrow (the weather forecast is atrocious), and I will hopefully manage to relax on Sunday. And then …

23 Oct

0

24 Oct

5 miles, 35:16, 7:03 pace, HR 160
incl. 3 miles at @ 6:49