Fat And Unfit

Well, I've had a good run of, err, runs, and maybe I was just due a bad one. But since this was my first long-ish run since Belfast, it did knock my confidence before Dingle just a bit. We runners are a fickle bunch when it comes to confidence, one bad run and we start questioning everything we have done in the last few weeks and everything we will do in the next few weeks, and I'm no different.

Friday and Saturday had gone well, maybe a little too well in retrospect. The miles were just flying by and I could not resist letting them spin for a little bit towards the end. In retrospect I suspect it were those faster miles that threw me off for Sunday, or maybe it was that little gardening work on Saturday, or maybe I'm just fat (147 pounds!) and unfit (no long run for 5 weeks!).

Ah well. We've had a nice spell of weather with plenty of spectacular sunrises for an early riser to enjoy. On the downside it was pretty cold, I was almost tempted to bring some gloves along yesterday morning and only resisted because it just felt wrong to wear gloves in August. I particularly loved the view from up the mountain on the Kerry Way on Wednesday morning when the sunbeams had not quite reached the lake yet, and the steaming lake and the illuminated clouds and the Reeks in the background just combined to one scene of pure magic. I kind of regretted not bringing a camera, but every time I tried taking a photo in the past the results were never even remotely close to the real thing, which may well be a combination of a lousy camera and a lousy cameraman, so I guess you'll just have to heave your own backside up the mountain and judge it for yourselves.

Anyway, the less said about today's run the better. The conditions were decent enough; I was caught by one or two rain showers but for the most of it it was dry and at one stage the sun almost managed to peep through. But the legs had absolutely no pep and climbing up the hills on the roads around the lake just felt like hard work and the last few miles were just dragging along endlessly. I don't even want to contemplate how I'll get round Dingle, over three times as long and with a few climbs that make today's hills look like speedbumps in comparison.

Then again, I think I'm always like that before an ultra, and I'm not the only headcase either.

22 Aug

10 miles, 1:60:30, 7:39 pace, HR 144

23 Aug

10 miles, 1:60:56, 7:41 pace, HR 142

22 Aug

16.75 miles, 2:13:11, 7:57 pace, HR 144

Weekly Mileage: 77+