Sunday, September 18, 2011

Roller Coaster

Now that was a topsy turvy weekend from a sporting point of view, with Ireland beating Australia, Alistair Cragg setting a new Irish record over 5000 meters (which was completely ignored by the press), Kerry throwing away the game against Dublin when they should have been out of sight and City doing likewise against Fulham. At least my own training is going well.

I decided to add one last race to the racing season, the Valentia Island half marathon in 2 weeks. I love Valentia, always enjoy staying there, and running a race on the same loop that I have done a number of times in training is too much to resist. The only thing topping that would be for someone to organise a race around Caragh Lake, and I can't see that happen any time soon.

Two weeks is too short to achieve any kind of meaningful physical adaptation, but there is still time for some mental adjustments. Therefore I thought running a few miles at half marathon pace would be a good choice on Saturday. There are a number of ways of doing that and I settled on 3x2 mile repeats. That's not as specific as a tempo run because last time I checked they still don't allow for periodic rest breaks during the race, but it's an easier way to accumulate the faster miles as the next rest period is never far away. I had to deal with the blustery wind, which was on my back for first and a third of the second interval but straight into my face for the rest, which explains the slower pace for each subsequent interval. I was reasonably pleased with the result. I'd love to break 1:25 in Valentia, but the hilly nature of the course (it basically starts with a brutal 3-mile climb) will make that a rather tough challenge.

This morning I ran around the lake again, by far and away my favourite long run route. I expected to be tired after yesterday's tempo intervals but managed to surprise myself. The pace was always a little bit faster than planned, even though I never consciously pushed the effort and I never felt the need to slow down as I was always feeling great. I know the coach generally frowned upon running faster than planned, but some days you just have to let go of the brakes if you're enjoying yourself so much.
17 Sep
10 miles, 1:09:33, 6:57 pace, HR 162
   incl. 3x2 miles @ 6:23 (HR 166), 6:34 (HR 169), 6:36 (HR 172)
18 Sep
15 miles, 1:54:05, 7:36 pace, HR 151

Weekly Mileage: 68+

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