Sunday, September 08, 2013

Over The Hills And Far Away

The second week of my training has gone well, though my heart bled at the weekend because I was missing out on the Dingle marathon/ultra for the first time since its inception. Congratulations to Sean Brosnan, who happens to be the only man to overtake me on the ultra course last year, for winning it this year. Maybe I can give him a run for his money next year.

There is a lot of running to be done before I get back into race shape, but at least I can feel the improvements, and of course they also show up in the numbers. If I apply the old rule of thumb of one day of recovery time for each mile raced I will feel back in shape by the time Sixmilebridge comes around, just like last year then.

I did another fast run on Friday and it went much, much better than the previous week. The effort was the same but the pace was over 20 seconds per mile faster. If I manage to cut another 30 or so seconds off that I'll be happy, but let's be patient.

The legs felt surprisingly sprightly on Saturday which is why I was back home within the hour for my 8 mile run, but I did have to pay the price eventually on Sunday's long run, when the legs had that sluggish, heavy feeling from the very first step. I did not make things easier by taking a wrong turn and running 1.5 extra miles for my usual route around Caragh Lake when I had planned on taking the shorter option. I only noticed over on hour later when the Garmin said 9 miles at Blackstone Bridge, which initially confused the hell out of me and it took a while to figure it out. Ah well, I have only done this run a few hundred times, I can't possibly be expected to know all the turns already.

The long climbs up into the hills on the eastern side of the lake went surprisingly well, considering it was my first visit back in some time, but the last few miles definitely started to drag and the pace was always slower than I would have hoped for. There is still plenty of room for improvement.
5 Sep
8 miles, 1:02:09, 7:46 pace, HR 145
6 Sep
10 miles, 1:10:59, 7:06 pace, HR 155
   incl 8 miles @ 6:52 pace (HR 160)
7 Sep
8 miles, 59:29, 7:26 pace, HR 149
8 Sep
16.6 miles, 2:08:45, 7:45 pace, HR 148
Weekly Mileage: 69.6

2 comments:

  1. That's a shame. You could have been the only runner to do 30 Dingles - Legend status!

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    1. I know. That was my goal when I ran the first one. I only lasted 4 years - youth today, no stamina!

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