In-Between

This is one short post-marathon recovery I'm going through at the moment, because Cork is on this weekend and I agreed to pace it. At least I wasn't stupid enough to go for my "usual" 3:15 slot and told them straight away it would have to be 3:30 or slower - and 3:30 it was. I'm really looking forward to it, Cork always look after the pacers very well, and now my job is to make sure I don't mess it up.

Recovery was kind of curious this week. There had been no muscle soreness, nada, zilch, nichts, despite the hilly nature of the Clare Burren Challenge, and despite the fact that I ran two of the downhill segments fairly hard, which really should have destroyed my quads but they managed to completely withstand it. That's good. My muscles have definitely become very resilient, which will hopefully mean there won't be a repeat of last year's fiasco in Belfast when the legs were just gone after 12 hours, irretrievably. However, the runs over the last couple of days have felt quite tough, despite the fact that I tried to take it as easy as possible, and the slow pace shows it.

I don't think I'm overtrained, and there are two possible explanations. First, the toughest runs were the ones in the morning, after just half a day break after running home from work the night before. Secondly, and I think that is the real, major reason, it has become very humid here, and the temperatures have been a good bit higher than what we're accustomed here in Ireland. Those are tough conditions for a run and always make it feel harder.

The main worry is that the conditions tomorrow in Cork might well be more of the same, which will make it a tough day for everyone. I have paced marathons in warm, humid conditions before, with Dublin 2014 particularly sticking in my mind, and it was always hard work, feeling more like a race effort than a reasonably easy training run. We'll see. I have been worried about messing up the pacing before but I have paced 14 marathons so far and never missed the target.

If you're there tomorrow, say hello.

27 May

6.9 miles, 58:25, 8:27, HR 133

   Actually 2 runs - my youngest daughter wanted some company when going for a cycle

28 May

am:2.7 miles, 22:39, 8:23, HR 138

pm:6.3 miles, 49:52, 7:54

29 May

10.25 miles, 1:21:18, 7:55, HR 141

30 May

10.25 miles, 1:30:25, 8:49, HR 136, gasp

31 May

10.25 miles, 1:24:05, 8:12, HR 139

1 Jun

10.25 miles, 1:28:25, 8:37, HR 143, gasp