Pot luck

That's what it feels like at the moment. If it's not raining when it's time for a run you're extremely lucky.

Nice fartlek on Monday started the week off well. Overall 5.36 miles in 34:13. That's an average of 6:23 for the run including the recoveries at 7:00 to 7:30. It felt comfortable too - that's a good sign - isn't it??

On Tuesday I planned on taking it easy. But the 5.72 miles ended up being at 6:42 min/mile (159bpm) - it didn't feel that quick!

I was brought back to ground when I stumbled across this clip staring David McCarthy at Providence College. It puts my 5 mile tempo runs in perspective - 5:00min/mile - wow - I've still some work to do!!......

Child minding...

I'm playing lone parent this weekend while my wife enjoys a break to Iceland with some girlfriends. So it looks like my running is finished for the week as it would be frowned upon to leave the 3 kids home alone so that I could fit in a run (even a quick one!!) - or would it ?? :)

This week I'll have to be content with a fartlek and a long run as being the quality sessions. Hopefully next week I'll be able to fit in the third quality session.

While the kids were at school / child minder this morning I took the opportunity to go for my long run. Since the Cork to Cobh race my long run have been a maximum of 12 miles. Today I wanted to push it out to 15+ miles.

It went well enough. It was cold - the first time since last winter that I resorted to wearing gloves but it was dry (for a change!!). I wanted to run in the 7:15 to 7:45 pace overall. The first half was typically faster than the second half. Some day I'll manage an even paced run. I think mental fatigue was beginning to creep in today as from 7 miles onwards my mind certainly drifted from the job at hand. Still though I completed the 15.60 miles in 1:55:48. That's an average pace of 7:25 min/mile and 158 bpm. My first half pace was approx. 7:15 min/mile. It was nice to put in a real long run and hopefully some more of these will stand me in good stead later in the year.

Today's run..

On the right track - hopefully!!

My plan over the next few weeks is to make sure that I get in 2 good workouts, e.g. tempo, interval or long progression runs, per week with a steady long (i.e. 10+ miles) run over the weekend with some easier recovery runs also thrown into the mix. I think that this will plan set me up well for the half marathon in early December and give a good base for the new year.

So the quick session this week was a 5+ mile fartlek. I hadn't run one of these in ages and it felt good. No pressure to hit particular mile splits and the freedom to increase/decrease the pace as I saw fit. The quicker bits of the session generally ranged from 5:50 - 6:30 min/mile pace for durations of 1 to 4 minutes. Recoveries were 7:00 to 7:30 pace. Overall, I averaged 6:44min/mile for 5.25miles and it felt easier than some of my progression runs which tend to have a similar overall average pace.

I went for my long run yesterday and I decided to repeat last weeks 11.62 mile run - just a bit quicker. This week I passed through 10 miles in 69:32min with an average of 159bpm and an average cadence of 78.6rpm. I felt pretty good and fresher than last week and I was a minute quicker! From 10 miles onwards I took it a bit easier and overall I completed the run in 1:22 (over 2 minutes quicker than last week). Hopefully that progress will continue!!

Also, recently I've been playing around with some of the "Evolution Running" techniques (thanks to an introduction by Rick) so it was nice to see the cadence during yesterday's run increase without any increased effort - maybe I'm perfecting a 'slightly' more efficient technique!!

Yesterday's run..


An easy 6.25 run today nicely rounded off the week.... 5 weeks to go to Waterford.


Have a good week everyone.

Let's start again

Unintentionally, I've been a bit more stop/start with my running of late which isn't too much of an issue as I'm only just starting a new training phase. My next targeted race will be the half marathon in Waterford on December 12 but really it's the Munster 10 mile series next spring which is the focus.

This week I started back in earnest with some easy runs and 2No. good sessions. On Wednesday I ran a nice steady/tempo progression 5.66mile lunchtime run increasing from 6:52min/mile / 142bpm (mile 1) to 6:28min/mile / 178bpm (mile 5) and 6:09/183 for the last 0.66miles to the end. My heart rate was a bit higher than normal. In fact, it has been that way since last Sunday morning's 12 mile run. Not sure of the reason so I'll have to keep an eye on it.

Today, I decided to skip the local 4-mile race in favour of a long run. I had planned on taking it 'easy', i.e. >7:15 min/mile, but over the first few miles I found my instantaneous pace being consistently less than 7 min/mile. So I revised the plan and aimed for 7:00 min pace for the first 10 miles with a 1.5 mile very easy finish. I passed through 10 miles 70:30 min (163bpm) feeling a bit tired and certainly more tired than I was a couple of weeks ago when I ran 65mins for the first 10 miles of the Cork to Cobh race. How can that be??!! Overall 11.62 miles in 85mins.

I've also developed a few niggles - tenderness at the bottom of both achilles tendons, left hamstring tightness and some lower back pain.... I must be getting old!! I can only imagine how I'd be feeling if I'd run the Dublin Marathon!! Hopefully the niggles will easy over the coming weeks and not develop into something more serious!!

Also I think I'll introduce some core strengthening exercises into the programme. I used do a lot of this type of work but in recent years I've been a bit neglectful and unfortunately I've gone a bit 'soft in the centre' just like an eclair!! :)