Dec 4th – 10th
Mon: 40 min easy Complete. 8.72km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/10327614082
Tue: 15 min WU, 3 x 8min @ 4:05 km pace (60), 15 min CD. Complete. Treadmill. 13km total (ish).
https://www.strava.com/activities/10333600271
Wed: 40 min easy. Complete. Treadmill. 8.24km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/10337715361
Thur: 15 min WU, 20 min @ 4:10 km pace, 15 min CD Complete. Rep quicker but felt grand. 11.70km total.
https://www.strava.com/activities/10342649677
Fri: Off (30 mins elliptical) https://www.strava.com/activities/10349193161
Sat: 15 min WU, 10 @ 3:55 km pace (jog to hill) 8 x 30 sec hills (easy jog back), 15 min CD. Complete. Tempo at acres and hills at Khyber. Windy. 13.47km total. https://www.strava.com/activities/10352115159
Sun: 80 min. Complete. 17.55km easy.
I had a few goals this week. In no particular order;
(i) Do not have a sore hamstring after Jingle Bells (success)
(ii) Manage Christmas socialising in a way it is not to the detriment of training (jury is out)
(iii) Do not use the treadmill (failed)
The mini hamstring scare of a few weeks ago has been put to bed. I felt good all week and particularly during the three sessions. Tuesday was on the treadmill again due to work but that was no bad thing. I’m a late convert to a treadmill but enjoying being able to control the effort. Some old man told me I was being too loud on the treadmill, though, but thankfully my fragile confidence was not shattered by such antipathy towards my training.
Thursday was a day for work pints and some heavy, heavy rain. I headed out for my session at lunch time in town and made my way to the Dublin City Track: AKA St Stephens Green. I’ve made the mistake of going there on summer evenings after work and spent the whole time dodging revellers, children finishing school and commuters rushing home. It was a different scene on Thursday as it was midday, it was pissing rain, the wind was swirly and it was anything but warm. Such crummy conditions were a blessing as the perimeter of the park was basically empty, save some slippy patches where leaves had accumulated. My only real issue with this spot for a session is that the tree cover wreaks havoc on the GPS so I tend to base sessions here off feel, which has worked out previously and worked out this day. After work, myself and my team went for dinner and pints to celebrate the season of jolly merriment. The pints had me in a bad way on Friday but thankfully this was a day off from running. I did get to the gym for 30 minutes on the elliptical to sweat out the drink and also a 20 minute ab circuit (my core is still in bits today).
Saturday was good fun. There was a storm in Dublin which made for some interesting splits for my session. The Acres is the most exposed part of the Phoenix Park and I was loving life for 5 minutes and questioning all of my life choices for the other 5. After that was finished, I jogged down to Khyber and there were about 30 other runners on the hill, some of which were the DTC lads and ladies. They looked to be doing the same session as me (I had seen them on the Acres beforehand) and were now doing their hills. I did my own thing for 7 of the 8 repeats but timed a recovery and chanced my arm with doing one rep with the lads (secretly, of course). I took off with them and after 5.6 seconds had instantly regretted this. I kept with them until the last 4 or 5 seconds and, when they jogged back down to the bottom of the hill for their next rep, I wretched off to the side until I got my breath back. Bruised but not beaten, I finished my session and ran into the wind all the way home. A great cool down.
Sunday was easy and fun. Barry had a monster session on Saturday as he preps for Seville in February so we jogged around the park solving all of the worlds problems. Unfulfilled by this, I went home and roasted some beef. A delicious end to a fun ass week.
*Jay Z, not me
Buckets of Rain 