Stormy week

Yet again I've followed a good week of high mileage with a week of low mileage and few runs!! I suppose I could call last week a recovery week - at least that would make it sound like it was planned. In all I managed to run on three occasions since the race last Sunday - Monday, Thursday and Saturday. On the other days work and family commitments took precedence. Now, I could also blame the awful weather we're having but that would sound like a lame excuse given that some of you are running in -15 degC.

So on Monday it was a lunchtime 'recovery' run with Tony helping to pace for the first 2 miles. 5.66 miles around Ballincollig in 45:39, an average of 8:04, although in truth the pace varied from 8:52 for the first mile to 7:23 for the last.

Tuesday and Wednesday were no running days and on Thursday it was another 5.64miles over the same route again with Tony for the first 2 miles. I was well recovered from Sunday's race so I decided that I would run at a progressive easy - steady - tempo pace. The pace splits were 8:28, 8:30, 7:02 (uphill), 6:42, 6:25 and 6:11 respectively.

Friday was also a 'no running' day and on Saturday I headed out early AM for an 11.5 miles over the Douglas - Sunday's Well - Mardyke - Douglas route @ 7:17 average (1:23:43). I took the first 3 miles easy at approx 7:30 pace. But then I was passed for another crazy runner braving the elements at 7am on a Saturday morning! He was probably running about 15sec per mile faster so I left him get about 100m ahead and then started matching his pace. About a mile later he headed off in the opposite direction so I was surprised to find him about 100m ahead of me again when I reached Sunday's Well (5 mile mark). At the end of the Mardyke he again headed off in the opposite direction but I couldn't help wonder if our path's would cross again later on the run - they didn't. I passed the 10 mile mark in just under 72mins (7:11 average) feeling pretty good but I still backed off the pace for the last 1.5 miles - no point in pushing it too hard.

Storm force winds, rain and a broken night's sleep appeasing Joe saw to it that my intended 15mile today was put off. Still though, the 3 runs that I did complete this week were the intended important sessions. The day's I missed were the less important so overall no real loss.

Also note to self - remember buy a new battery for my heart rate monitor this week - I'm craving the feedback provided by the additional numbers!!

Week Total (12/01/09 to 18/01/09) - 3 sessions
22.81 miles - 2:50:28 - 7:28 min/mile - no HRM