Back from the cold

Well, hello again.

Firstly, profound apologies to the limited number of running Websters who may be following my blog. I've been on a bit of an unplanned break from blogging and the same has been true of my running. Looking back over my diary since my last post I've been averaging a 'massive' 1 or 2 runs per fortnight which really was nothing to write home about. It has also caused my to rethink my short term goals...

The reason... real world demands which I won't detail here but I'm sure you can guess... work, family, fatigue and the well 'documented' Irish weather.

The result... I haven't raced recently and my fitness level has dropped significantly (the Christmas over indulgences haven't helped either!!)

The future... as of this week I'm back. You could call it an early New Year's resolution but really I realised that unless I get some running in I won't be able to 'complete' never mind run a semi-respectable time in Mallow on the 10th January!! And since I found out today that my entry into the Ballycotton 10 has been successful I really do need to get my arse in gear!!

So I started my comeback on Sunday with a 'traditional' long run. Given my current fitness I could have legitimately claimed anything longer than 3 miles as a 'long' run. But I wanted to test the boundaries and I went for 8 miles at an average of 7:29. It felt surprising good but the heart was beating a bit fast (avg 165bpm) and from 6 miles onwards I really wished I'd set the bar a bit lower!! To compound my misery, when I arrived at my sister-in-laws house (where we were headed for brunch) my clothes etc were still enroute (Pamela was bring them by car) and I decided to tag on a 2 mile warm down.

As I mentioned I felt surprisingly good until 8am on Monday when I went for a 6.5 mile recovery. I could blame the slippy roads but to be honest even if the conditions were perfect I couldn't have gone any quicker than the 7:50 pace that I averaged.

Today I went for a 5.5mile steady/tempo pace run. Overall I averaged 7:07 pace with mile splits being in the range of 6:40 to 6:55. Hopefully I won't be too stiff tomorrow!!

If this continues December may not become the total wipe out that it could have been!!

When I get some time I'll put together a bit of a review of 2009 which overall was a mixed but good running year.

Happy New Year to all and hopefully 2010 will bring nothing but joy and happiness to you and your families. And....hopefully the economy will recover too!!