This blog entry should be as short as my recent runs, so Ewen will rejoice. The legs were still a bit on the sore side on Thursday, but I decided to at least try and get some faster miles under my belt for this week. It was really windy and initially I decided to do the Ard-na-Sidhe road because of it, but then changed my mind and took on the elements on the Caragh Lake road. The faster part came in the middle of my 8-mile run in the form of 2x1.5 miles. The first part seemed ok with a pace of 6:36, which wasn’t exactly brilliant but as good as it would ever get with my weary legs. However, this was with the wind on my back and also slightly downhill. Obviously I had to pay for that on the return journey and the corresponding stretch only yielded 6:56 pace, fighting against the blustery wind.
It turned into a beautiful day and I could not resist another run after work in the bright sunshine. Since the family were still absent, I kinda felt obligated to do at least one double workout during the week, so I ran for 5 miles, just because I could. It’s not often that I have the opportunity. It did strike me that it would have made more sense to run easy in the morning and do the workout in the evening, but by that time it was too late. I checked the Garmin after 2 miles and even though I could have sworn I had run about 9-minute-miles up to then, the display begged to differ and I was close to 8-minute pace. I did slow down a bit for the rest of the run.
I was quite surprised to feel some fatigue in the legs this morning. I blame the evening run, with the halved rest period, rather than the tempo miles. This was not really a problem today, but could come back to bite me tomorrow for my next long run. I admit to being a bit apprehensive about it. My legs don’t feel recovered from the last weekend, and to put some more punishment on them feels risky. But I will try and stay close to the schedule and that means 4 hours tomorrow and 3.5 hours on Sunday.
The family will be back tomorrow. The house has started to feel really quiet without them. It's too big for one person. I guess it's a sign that I really miss them.
Talking about missing, I will miss tomorrow's 5k in Killarney that is run annually as part of the Killarney Summerfest. That's the first time in 5 year that I won't be there, and I'm sorry I won't see a few friends that are bound to be on the start line. It just does not fit into my training. The long runs don't leave room for a 5k race in-between.
- 22 Jul
- am: 8 miles, 59:46, 7:28 pace, HR 154
incl. 2x1.5 miles @ 6:36, 6:56 pace
pm: 5 miles, 41:22, 8:14 pace, HR 136 - 23 Jul
- 5 miles, 43:12, 8:38 pace, HR 134
That was good. I'm a slow reader Thomas, so I enjoy short posts ;)
ReplyDeleteRace results are great for that. I was running with two girls Saturday and couldn't remember one name - than "Ah, yes!" when the results came out.
I'm sure the family were missing you too!