Jan 15th – 21st
Mon: 50 min easy + 5 x 15 sec strides + 5 min easy.
Complete. 11.85km. https://www.strava.com/activities/10564836915
Tue: 15 min WU, 2 x (2k @ 7:15 (400m jog) 5 x 300 @ 58 (45)) 400m jog between sets , 15 min CD.
Complete. 2k (7:11 + 7:07). 300’s (57, 57, 56, 56, 53 + 57, 53, 56, 53, 56). 15.18km total. https://www.strava.com/activities/10571382382
Wed: 60 min easy.
Complete. 12.64km. https://www.strava.com/activities/10577545808
Thur: 15 min WU, 2 x 15 min @ 3:55 km pace (60), 15 min CD.
Complete. Reps in 3:48 and 3:47. 14km total.
https://www.strava.com/activities/10583887163
Fri: Off
Sat: 15 min WU, 10min @ 3:55 km pace (jog to hill) 8 x 30 sec hills (easy jog back), 15 min CD.
Did 8k easy – in Kinsale and very stormy.
https://www.strava.com/activities/10592441771
Sun: 95 min. Complete.
Very easy with Storm Isha. 19.28km total. https://www.strava.com/activities/10603029089
The Irish love many things and love complaining about many more things. You can’t swing a cat in this country without hitting somebody talking about the weather. And so it was and always will be.
This week, however, it is wholly justified to have the weather front and centre. There was a low temperature warning for most of the week, meaning the cold was really uncomfortable all of the time and made dressing for a run an added stress nobody needs. To top it off, the Phoenix Park was closed on Tuesday evening so I had to move the location of my session elsewhere. Despite growing up and living close to Grangegorman DIT Campus, I’ve never ran there before this week but I have seen many people using the walking path beside the pitches as a loop akin to a track. The mainly sandy gravel path is just under a kilometre long so was perfect for Tuesday. It was very cold from the start but then I was overheating on the 300m reps. I took off the jumper I was wearing and plonked it on the ground beside the GAA pitches. When collecting my jumper at the end of the session, I stopped and watched a training match for (I assume) the Colleges team in DIT. The standard was appalling – Dublin truly is a football county.
Tuesday’s session was a good one and 300m reps are not something I have done too many times before. They’re the perfect length for allowing yourself let rip because they end so quickly. I found the anaerobic hit of these coupled with the tempo styled 2k reps a great stimulus.
Wednesday was a freezing cold easy run but at least I was back in the Phoenix Park. Thursday was even colder and, after conducting a recce in the Phoenix Park to see if the ground was in good condition, I adjudged that the frost and ice were an unnecessary danger and found myself in Grangegorman again. Us runners are nothing if not creatures of (new) habits. The two 15 minute reps flew by and there really is something of a track feel to the loop as you can largely switch off from the watch and have a glance when you’re back to the start. The workout went off without incident and was boxed off. I was stoked to have the two sessions banked as Friday was a travel day to Kinsale for a little trip away for the weekend with Emma and some very close pals.
I had planned to do my hill and tempo session on Saturday morning and was up early to get out before the day started but the incoming storm had other ideas. I was barely able to run in some directions such was the strength of the wind. After 5 minutes into the warm up, I resigned myself to not even bothering with the session and just ran 8K easy. I spoke to Seán in the afternoon to let him know what happened and he suggested getting out for a few shorter and snappier hills in the evening to tide me over. Unfortunately, at this point I had already had a couple of pints and decided running up hills in the storm was not the best way to spend this particular day. I enjoyed the rest of my drinks (not that many, don’t be spreading rumours about me) and went off for an early night.
Sunday was a travel day back to Dublin when the real storm arrived. Named Isha, this storm was a smorgasbord of 120km/h gusts of wind, sideways rain and a general sense of national doom. I decided that if I made it home alive, I would run my long run very easy and just get the minutes on feet logged. I had told Seán I would do some hills or the tempo in my long run but he said to just go as planned and take it easy. What should have been a nice respite from hard training recently was obviously scuppered by the doom storm. It was definitely the windiest conditions I’ve ever ran in; the head wind was insane but when the wind was on your back, it was adding serious momentum that it was hard to slow down. But I was true to form and the plan and slow down I did. The run was 19.28km and rounded out an 81km week – a good bit down on the last few weeks mileage but I’m not concerned by that as the quality was still there (minus the hills). Two weeks to Trim.
Buckets of Rain 