Memories Of Connemara

The first thing Ray O'Connor, the Connemara RD, said to me when he saw me at the briefing was "next year you'll be running.". After the race I had a coffee with Mick Rice; he asked if I'm running next year, I said maybe, and he immediately went "great, I'll crew for you and I'll get Jo to crew as well". (As if I let him crew for me. He has to keep his sequence of so far 4 wins in a row going!). Shane James Whitty told me he was already looking forward to my race report next year. Pat O'Keefe said something similar. At least half a dozen other said something along the same lines as well. I have no idea if there was a grand conspiracy to get me to sign up or if I just appear daft enough to do so anyway, but apparently I am going to run 100 miles next year, I just don't know it yet.

We shall see. It would certainly shape my 2013 running schedule. Pretty much everything I'd do would have to be geared towards Connemara.

Let's focus on the short term instead. Someone must have done a number on the calendar because all of a sudden Dingle is only 2 weeks away. I guess it's too late to cram in the training now. Instead I have been taken it pretty easy all week because my right calf kept being a little bit sore following Tuesday mountain run. It was not bad, but with a 50 miler so close I need to be careful. The other area of concern is my left Achilles, which keeps nagging me, especially early in the morning. Usually I would not be too concerned about a little discomfort like that but I'd prefer to go into a 50 miler without being crocked at the start line already.

This morning was the usual Saturday morning group run. The pace was a lot faster than usual, Anne kept pushing the pace; we ended up doing 7:40 pace for the hilly 10k instead of the usual 8:30-9:00, but it felt easy enough; at least that aspect is very encouraging for Dingle.

16 Aug

8 miles, 1:02:51, 7:51 pace, HR 138

17 Aug

7 miles, 54:45, 7:49 pace, HR 138

18 Aug

15.6 miles, 1:59:18, 7:38 pace, HR 141
   incl. 10k group run