Niamh took a plane to Dublin on Friday evening with Cian and Maia, leaving me in sole charge of the twins. They had to attend their classes in Cork on Saturday, and that's where we drove the following morning. While they spent their 2 hours in UCC I took the opportunity to go for my run. I headed towards the Lough, which I knew from the marathon. I figured that a loop around some water should be a lot flatter than the rest of Cork's roads. Grellan once told me that amongst Cork runners a loop around the Lough equates to one mile, but my Garmin came up with less than 0.7 miles – sorry, guys! I didn't know if there was an etiquette towards the direction you're supposed to run and chose to run counter-clockwise. I met two runners who did it the other way, a girl running fairly slow, and a guy running a lot faster, and from his heavy breathing and the pained expression on his face I figured he was on a hard tempo run. This was supposed to be my easy day and I tried not to get sucked into an imaginary race, but the legs did have a mind of their own and gradually increased the pace with each loop.
Since we would not be heading home after the twins' classes and I was planning some speed work for Sunday, I only brought my racers; Saturday was my first ever “slow” run in flats, and somehow the feet seemed to turn over much quicker, without me telling them to do so. Maybe they put some magic insoles into those shoes, but I found it impossible to slow down. After 7 loops around the Lough it was time to head back to UCC. The fast guy was still doing his tempo run, I guess at about 7:00 pace. Top marks for effort, man! Personally I found it hard to run even 7 loops, from a psychological point of view.
When I was back at the car I realised that I had averaged 7:17 pace – I had done the fastest run of the week on what was supposed to be the easiest day! My first thought was that Ewen and Mike are going to give me grief for this – and that they would be absolutely right. But don't blame me, blame the magic insoles!
When Niamh had explained her plan of flying to Dublin, she apologised for making me miss my weekend runs because nobody would be there to mind the kids. Luckily I figured I could run in Cork on Saturday, and then I had the ingenious idea of driving to Dublin straight from Cork, thus enabling me to
In the meantime, Ireland had beaten England at rugby at the historically loaded venue of Croke Park. As the coach said in his interview afterwards, every day you beat England is a good day!
I missed today's 10k race in Adare, but at least I was able to run a 60/60. I programmed the Garmin for 15 repeats, but that is only the max, not necessarily the correct number I'll end up doing. I wondered how much yesterday's much-too-fast run and the 5 hours in the car had cost me, but the things that bothered me most were dodging walkers with dogs and crossing a road. It felt a bit strange, I never felt like the legs were moving as fast than they should, but on the the other hand I felt pretty good for the first 10 repeats. Things deteriorated very, very quickly after that, though, and when the 13th was markedly slower than the previous ones I called it a day. Not one of my better workouts, for various reasons. Not even the magic insoles could save me today.
We're driving back to Kerry tonight, and I hope for a spell of uninterrupted training for a few weeks. There is still room for improvement in my running, which I will need to fill if I want to break 3 hours, and especially for anaerobic workouts I feel the need for my familiar routes in Caragh Lake, otherwise I can't seem to do them.
- 28 Feb
- 6 miles, 43:42, 7:17 pace, HR 158
- 1 Mar
- 9.4 miles, 1:11:33, 7:37 pace, HR 156
incl 13x60/60 (5:52 avg)
Weekly Mileage: 86.7
February Mileage: 235.5
There's no lacking in your creativity in getting the required runs in but it is comforting to be on home turf for the key workouts. Re: speedy recovery runs, well you know you will pay the price later with less quality when you want it. Nuff said!
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ReplyDeleteI just invented the 'worlds fastest running shoe', the sole is filled with helium gas![ WEIGHT MINUS 10 oz]
Once I get them off the ceiling I'm going to give them a test run!
I guess magic insoles can't solve everything. I say if the run felt easy then you're ok. I like to take advantage of the days when I am feeling good for whatever reason.
ReplyDeleteThomas it was Abina who told me that the outer loop of the Lough is 1 mile. She used to walk it in the evening when we lived around the corner. Who am I to augue with a higher authority even if she does have a propensity for mild exaggeration.
ReplyDeleteYou're getting into Ballycotton mode with fast easy runs.
I hope the week ahead it better than your last w/o. I won’t worry too much about the session unless of course it’s a sign re: recovery. Still, you should be proud of your weekly mileage, all the best…
ReplyDeleteI love my new insoles which got from Therapymagnetic.com... They are more comfortable and nice!!
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