March 25th – March 31st
Mon: 30 min easy + 5 x 15 sec strides + 5 min. Complete. 8.52km. 41 mins.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11036015775
Tue: 50 min. Complete. 10.62km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11043382842
Wed: 60 min. 55 mins, 11.41km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11050862109
Thur: 80 min progression (work down to 3:40 pace) + 5 min easy. Complete. 73 mins. 4:50 > 3:40. Stomach issues at the end. Doubled in evening (29 mins easy 6.25km). 24.62km for the day.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11060475442
Fri: Off. Thursday was Friday. Thursday off.
Sat: 15 min WU, 4 x 5 min @ 3:50 km pace (60), 15 min CD. Complete. Windy and hot. 11.46km. https://www.strava.com/activities/11067801101
April 1st – April 7th
Sun: 90 min easy. Complete. 19.10km. AM shuffle 4.02km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11075053228
Mon: 50 min easy + 5 x 15 sec strides + 5 min. Complete. 11.74km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11082492537
Tue: 15 min WU,5 x 400 @ 90 (30/60 after last) 8 x 1k @ 3:25-30 (60), 15 min CD , 15 min CD. Sunday – Storm Kathleen. Changed session to 9km at approx 3:45’s. 14.65km total. https://www.strava.com/activities/11125154081
Wed: 60 min. Complete on Tuesday. 12.87km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11089183664
Thur: 15 min WU, 20 min @ 3:55 km pace (90) 4 x 4 min @ 3:45 (60), 15 min CD. Complete on Wednesday. Paces quicker than prescribed but effort good. 16.93km. https://www.strava.com/activities/11100265765
Fri: Off
Sat: 15 min WU, 6 x 600m hill reps (easy jog back), 15 min CD.
Complete on Khyber. 2:10, 2:09, 2:08, 2:08, 2:08 and 2:03. 10.88km total. https://www.strava.com/activities/11106292954
Sun: 90 min easy. Complete. 19.27km. https://www.strava.com/activities/11117195178
Two weeks since Dunboyne and fully recovered. In truth, I felt pretty good the evening after the race and felt A1 from Tuesday. Although Dunboyne was a goal race, there was only a couple days of taking it easy and then we’re basically straight back into it. Owing to some holidays in work, I was able to do my Thursday session in the morning and, in terms of the weather, it was the best day of the year. The clocks have gone forward an hour since March 31st so there is now no longer a clamour to jump into a session straight after work or to wear a head torch every evening. With that said, having a day off work meant I did my session in the morning. The plan was 80 minutes progression and finish at 3:40s. I set my watch up with 8 ten minute intervals and the plan was to up the average pace of each interval by 10 seconds. I felt great early doors and the pickups felt seamless enough. Unfortunately, I had to cut short the last rep by 7 minutes due to an emergency stop in the bushes. My stomach wasn’t in the best shape then so I called it a day with a good mornings work banked. The splits looked like a thing of beauty. Hang them in the Louvre, some said.
Saturday was 4 x 5 minutes at 3:50, which was an easy enough session ahead of an easy enough long run of 90 minutes easy on Sunday. Seán has said that from now on, until the marathon block for Dublin starts, I will be “wintering in summer”, with the goal being that base training is what we need ahead of a big 16 week block that will build to the end of October. I can see a lot of threshold work and K repeats in my immediate future and I for one am excited. I have signed up to the Dunshaughlin 10K in June and once that is done, the marathon block will be in full force.
The first week in April was not the best for training. Work has been incredibly busy on a number of fronts and, coupled with bedding in a schedule of seeing my Mam, it was tough to fit in all the training and to fit it in on the correct days. I ended up doing the mid week tempo session on Wednesday and followed that up with the hills on Thursday, much to Seán’s dismay. He doesn’t want me chasing fitness by doing days with back to back sessions. In my defence, I find the steady work not too taxing on the body and was able to turn the body around quickly for the hills on Thursday. Considering the busyness of the week, with sleep being altered and a good diet going out the fuinneog, I was pleasantly surprised with the splits on Khyber for the 600s (2:10, 2:09, 2:08, 2:08, 2:08 and 2:03). I also felt great during and after the reps, whereas usually I have a ticket to the struggle bus after hills.
Friday was a day off and Sunday’s long run was done on Saturday. This was day 1 of 2 of Storm Kathleen and the wind was barbaric. I had initially planned to do my K repeats on Saturday morning but with the storm landing on Saturday, I decided to postpone this to Sunday. For the easy run, I had saved up an episode of Serial’s new podcast on Guantanamo Bay to listen to during the run. Unfortunately for me, the wind (see above comment re barbarism) was such that I couldn’t actually hear the podcast, even with in ear earphones. After 5 minutes I was resigned to taking my earphones out and raw dogging the run with my brain alone. An easy 90 minutes at the weekend, even when the weather is bad, is still one of the highlights of the week. The long run is always the most enjoyable, made infinitely better with company, but I am also pretty content trotting around the Phoenix Park on my own and getting buried in my head as the time whiles away.
After I finished, I spent the day with Emma and my Mam and headed to Moate for the evening. I had planned to (finally) do the Tuesday session in Moate as the storm was due to be finished on Saturday, however, the wind was only worse on Sunday that I didn’t even bother trying to do the K repeats. I warmed up as if I was going to and tried to suss out somewhere that I could do them without being too badly effected by the wind, but no such place existed. I didn’t see the point of flogging myself too much with this session so I decided to run a route of approx 9km at a quicker than steady pace, knowing that the effort would be much higher because of the wind. Moate is flat with some rolling hills in parts so I always enjoy training there. The session was pretty tough because of the conditions but the toughness was equalled by the enjoyment. All things considered, I’m content enough with how my fitness is progressing and super excited for the weather to improve. I’m heading to Italy next week with some friends and we will be running the Lake Garda Half on Sunday. Seán wants me to forget about racing it and just go and enjoy it. That means I’ll be enjoying my pasta, my beer and the Lake Garda Half too.
Buckets of Rain 