May 12th – May 18th
Mon: 50 min easy + 5 x 15 sec strides + 5 min.
Complete. Trails. 12.01km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11344866128
Tue: 15 min WU, 10 x 1k @ 3:30 (60) , 15 min CD.
Complete. 3:26, 3:26, 3:25, 3:25, 3:26, 3:26, 3:25, 3:23, 3:23 and 3:21. 17.45km total.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11354573724
Wed: 60 min.
Complete. 12.53km. https://www.strava.com/activities/11362771116
Thur: 15 min WU, 20 min @ 3:55 km pace (90) 4 x 4 min @ 3:45 (60), 15 min CD.
Complete. Short CD as under pressure for time. 14.96km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11370688144
Fri: Off
Sat: 15 min WU, lap of acres @ threshold (jog to hill) 6 x 30 sec hills (jog to acres) lap of acres @ threshold, 15 min CD.
Complete. Acres laps in 9:10 and 8:59. Hot. 15.75km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11382587131
Sun: 90 min.
Complete. 86 mins, 19km. https://www.strava.com/activities/11391105308
Last week finished with myself and Emma drinking some pints and celebrating… nothing, we just went for pints. I kept my consumption of pints in the perfect zone of ‘I feel a little drunk but will not wake up completely hungover’. And so it was – what also helped was not having work on Monday and being able to mosey around before heading out for a run in the early afternoon. I stuck to the trails and then did 5 strides on the path before a 5 minute cool down. No discernibly negative impact from the pints was a good news story, so too was a visit to see my Mam who was in good form. The good days are to be celebrated.
Tuesday marked a return, for the first time in a while, to my favourite workout of kilometre repeats. I had 10 x 1km to do at 3:30 and went to the familiar Furze Road for the session. Furze Road is perfect for this as it is basically flat, cars cannot drive down most of the road and it is wide enough that, even in the parts where they can, it doesn’t affect your session. It was pretty hot on Tuesday (as it was all week) but this was the best I had felt doing kilometre repeats in a long time. There was a slight wind; the type of wind that would make you think you’re not getting sunburnt (when you actually are) but doesn’t have any impact on your session. My splits were 3:26, 3:26, 3:25, 3:25, 3:26, 3:26, 3:25, 3:23, 3:23 and 3:21. For most reps, I would bomb out too quickly only to check the watch and see that I was running 3:12 – 3:15 and would then have to slow down. I use the average pace on the watch for reps like this so if I am out too fast, I gradually slow down to bring the overall pace to as close as I can to what is prescribed. It is a good lesson in pacing as I am clearly not great at pacing without a watch so the average pace allows me to correct that mid rep. The day rounded out 17.45km and I had a yogurt to celebrate.
Wednesday was an hour easy on the trails and the legs were in fine fettle from the day before. The humidity was a little stifling so I was sweating a considerable amount considering the pace I was doing but was happy to be locked away on the trails again away from the glaring eyes of the public.
On Thursday, I was back on the old stomping ground of Stephen’s Green. I was going to a puppet show (of all things) after work so I didn’t have time to get home for the session so had to make do. I was a little apprehensive going to Stephen’s Green on a sunny Thursday evening but needs must. The jog up to Stephen’s Green was busy enough and the park itself wasn’t as bad as I expected, save for the half were the Luas tracks are. The trees are in full bloom and my GPS had a mare so this was purely on effort. At some points, the watch was telling me I was running a 2:57. Spoiler alert; I was not running a 2:57. Again it was hot but the effort felt like it was were it needed to be. Except the couple times were I had to dodge and weave in and out of pedestrians, this was a pretty successful run. The puppet show was successful, too.
Surprise, surprise; Saturday was hot. On the menu was a lap of the acres at threshold, hills and a lap of the acres at threshold. The first lap was at threshold and came in at 9:10. I felt really good throughout and then jogged down to Khyber. The 30 second reps were all at 2:55 – 3:00 pace and pinched a small bit but basically what you would expect. I took it a bit easier jogging back to the Acres so as to be fully recovered and at this point the heat had increased noticeably since I started. Due to my ego, I did not want to run slower than 9:10 on the second lap so abandoned the threshold part of the rep and set out a bit quicker. The second half of the lap started to bite aerobically, although my legs felt good. My mouth had started to become extremely dry so I knew I was on the road to dehydration. I ground out the rep and came in at 8:59, feeling happy that I was quicker but wondering should I just have kept it at threshold. A text from Seán later in the day telling me I was moving well vindicated the decision to flog myself.
Fully recovered by Sunday morning meant I was back out on the trails and this time with Barry. The (almost) 90 minutes flew past without incident and, in keeping with the last few weeks, I did not check the pace on the watch for most of the run. It averaged out at 4:33’s, felt slower than that in the legs but the HR was a little higher than I would have liked. I am not too concerned about that though because overall it felt easy and, as I type this, I consider myself to be fully recovered.
Next week will be a busy week in work as well as the christening of my oldest niece on Saturday. I will also be travelling to Warsaw on Sunday for a week of work but I aim to not let that interfere too much with training. There will be an expectation that I take my team on a night out when I am over there and I will also be eating in restaurants for the entirety of the trip. However, I will sell the yarn that I am an elite athlete and cannot indulge in excesses that are unbecoming of an athlete of my stature. I will report back on the success of this venture in two weeks time.
Buckets of Rain 