Me, I'm nowhere near that figure, but I do hope to get there one day myself. The next marathon will be in a fortnight in Killarney, though of course to me this will be a training run, but since it's an official event it will count all the same. As you know, training is going well so far. I felt a bit tired after the mountain run on Wednesday, as always, and took it easy for the next 2 days, both of which saw a nice, easy, relaxed 10 mile stroll in the morning.
Niamh has taken Maia and the twins to Dublin on Friday, mostly so that the twins would get the chance to meet their favourite author, Michael Grant, which left me all alone with Cian. It made training a bit tricky, but as long as there is a will there is always a way. In my case it meant getting up at 5 am on Friday so that I could run before driving them to the station in Killarney. It meant getting a neighbour to look after Cian for an hour on Saturday, and it meant getting a babysitter on Sunday.Training-wise, things got a bit more serious on Saturday. In fact, I got way too serious. Last week I got that workout just right, running reasonably fast but perfectly relaxed. This week I ran too fast, the effort was too high and the heart rate was much too high. I found it very hard to relax and pushed too hard, especially when running into a rather breezy headwind. I only really realised my mistake when I looked at the watch afterwards, but of course I should have caught on sooner.
I can get away with this every now and then, but in the grand scheme of things I'd be much better off showing a bit more restraint. In the end, there was no real harm done. The legs felt fine on Sunday and I even enjoyed the rare glimpses of sunshine. In fact I felt good enough to tack another mile to the end of my long run. What I noticed was that the pace during the second half was dropping below 7-minute pace at times while the effort was still low enough for the HR to remain in the 140s. I don't think I have ever been in that kind of shape before, and I do hope I can build on that even further.
The temperatures have risen considerably recently and for the first time this year I was actually running in a singlet this weekend. Let's hope that will continue for a while; the last three summers have been desperate and nobody here wants a fourth one of the same kind. A bit more sunshine and Kerry is the best place in the world to live in.
- 2 May
- 10 miles, 1:17:07, 7:42 pace, HR 141
- 3 May
- 10 miles, 1:16:27, 7:38 pace, HR 141
- 4 May
- 10 miles, 1:06:53, 6:41 pace, HR 164
incl. 8 miles @ 6:29 pace - 5 May
- 21.1 miles, 2:35:55, 7:23 pace, HR 149
You as well have done the full 26.2 for the Sunday run and see if you break a sub 3 maratho in training !!! ;-) That's amazing training this week and today - more so the low HR
ReplyDeleteCathal
That's a great sign -- gives me hope that I might have some breakthroughs like that this year. Are you pacing the 3:15 group? If so it'll really feel like a jog!
ReplyDeleteI won't be pacing in Killarney, but right now the plan is to stick with the 3:15 group for at least the first half. It will feel like a jog, but it will ensure that I won't be tempted to go for another sub 3 - which I'm absolutely sure I would be able to, but at a price.
DeleteWhy don't you pace Killarney, then you can show restraint for the full 26.2 and get TE off my back ;-)
ReplyDelete