After last Monday's run, as promised, I took it easy on Tuesday with a 7:20min/mile 5.6mile run. But on Wednesday I took it really easy and didn't run at all!! Looking back through my diary Wednesday is my most consistent 'day off' having run on only 6 of the 17 Wednesdays since the start of May!! The start of school for the girls meant that Thursday and Friday were no running days also!!On Saturday I wasn't too confident (correctly as it turned out) that I'd fit in my long run on Sunday so while Joe took his morning nap I snuck out for an 11.33mile steady progression run.
The first 4 miles were uphill from Ardmore to Kiely's Cross so I took them handy enough at an average of 7:25min/mile pace. Once I reached the main road and the 7 mile 'downhill' home stretch I picked up the pace to under 7min/mile and progressed from there!! By the 10 mile mark I was at 6:30min/mile (166bpm). I had covered the first 10 miles in 70:39 minutes and at this point I thought I'd done enough so I contemplated easing off which I did for about 10 seconds before I continued to the end at a steady 6:40 pace. In all 11.33 miles 1:19:31 (7:01min/mile @ 161bpm & 77.4rpm). It was an encouraging run before the half marathon on the 13th Sept. and given that the first 6 miles of the HM are uphill I suppose Saturdays run also counts as a dress rehearsal!! With only one race all summer, in fact only one race since last March, the Half Marathon on 13th September will be a bit of a journey into the unknown...
Week Total (24/08/09 to 30/08/09) - 3 runs
22.54miles - 2:39:37 - 7:05min/mile - 158bpm - 76.6rpm
Today my legs were recovered so after I couple of easy miles (7:15-7:30 min/mile) I upped the tempo to 6:40, 6:26 and 6:08 pace. In all covering the 5.64 miles in a 'comfortable' 39:16 (6:58min/mile).
Although I'm happy with my current condition, on reflection, I don't think I'm back to where I was last March (probably roughly equivalent to mid January) but if I do decide to take the plunge and loose my virginity at the Dublin Marathon at the end of October things are probably right where they should be... I'll reassess my plans in a few weeks..
2 comments:
I knew it! As soon as I read about your 20-miler a while ago I knew you were going to run a marathon, no matter what you said.
Our twins made the local paper as well when they started school. Good God, was that really 4 years ago? Time flies, and I'm getting gold! But enjoy the free child care.
Thomas - you knew more than I did.. I'm still in two minds about the marathon but the recent 20 miler has just given me a taste for it!!
In my ignorance I've always thought that running 26 miles wouldn't be much harder than running 17 miles (and I can manage that 'relatively' easily). So I never saw the point in running a 'normal' marathon (I have toyed with running one of the extreme ones though!!) But the fact that I found 20+miles so much harder than 17 miles it has made me think that I'd quite enjoy the challenge of 'finishing' a marathon....so maybe..
Free childcare is great but our childminder for our youngest is almost as expensive as the montessori was for both girls last year!! So my pocket isn't seeing any benefit :(
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