May 13th – 19th
Mon: 50 min easy + 5 x 15 sec strides + 5 min.
Complete. 12.01km. https://www.strava.com/activities/11401398061
Tue: 15 min WU, 4 x (5 x 400 @ 72 (60)) 2min between sets , 15 min CD. Complete. Hard. 71, 72, 72, 72, 70 / 73, 71, 72, 73, 73 / 72, 72, 74, 73, 72 / 72, 73, 73, 72, 72. 17.02km total.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11410378675
Wed: 60 min.
Complete. 54 mins on grass. Legs tired. 11.44km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11418056905
Thur: 15 min WU, 20 min @ 3:55 km pace (90) 4 x 4 min @ 3:45 (60), 15 min CD.
Complete. Tired still. 15.95km. https://www.strava.com/activities/11425891180
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. Harder and a bit slower than last week. Acres (9:13), Khyber (6 x 30 secs), Acres (9:03). 15.69km total.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11436587543
Sun: 90min easy.
Complete. Canal trails. https://www.strava.com/activities/11446836311
The week had two distinct parts – before Tuesday and after Tuesday. I am not at all used to doing 400’s at that pace, let alone twenty of them, and that session put me in a hole that I have not been in in quite some time. I opted for the Furze Road and did two 400’s out and then two back, with a bottle of water strategically placed at the midway point. Unfortunately for me, after the first set and a pining for a drink, my bottle had disappeared. Disaster.
The session did go well though. Most of the reps were at 3:00 pace and I wasn’t ever in much danger of not finishing a set or a rep, but it was pushing right up against the line from very early on. For context, I usually do a couple of strides at that pace or a small bit faster so a session with 8k of volume at 3:00 pace is on the upper limit for me. Thankfully, although I pushed up against the line of despair and failure regularly throughout, I did manage to get through it. The slow death march home for my cool down was a cruel kind of evil.
The fatigue in the legs lasted until Sunday and my other runs throughout the week felt the pinch from it. Thursday’s steady run hit all the paces it should have but felt more like a session than it has done in recent times. This was not helped by the deluge of hailstones that rained down on me during this session. I had sun, wind, rain and a prolonged hailstone storm. In May. This is fast becoming a blog to rival @CarlowWeather. I was stoked for a day off on Friday.
Saturday’s session was the same as last week and unfortunately it was not executed as well. The laps of the Acres were slower and harder and the hill reps took more out of me at basically the same pace. I am putting this very much down to still being tender from Tuesday but this was the last day that legs felt the effects. Buttressing the importance of this session, though, was the appearance of Barry Whelan lying in the long grass taking some delightful photos of me doing my session.
After speaking to Seán on Saturday, the decision was made to put the 5K fitness to the test again and target a PB at the Bohermeen 5K, two weeks out from Dunshauglin 10K. Seán described my being in a hole as the results of “true track work” and I do not doubt him, for he is the man who so eloquently described lactate building on his teeth during hill reps. I hadn’t had a 5K on my radar so it will be good to see if I can translate that speed in intervals into a race day performance.
Rounding out the week was a beautiful 90 minutes out along the banks of the Royal Canal, on all types of terrain ranging from asphalt, grass and trails (no grassy trails though). The majority of this route is on trails and I ran at a proper recovery pace and the legs are feeling the benefits of it now. I am writing this sitting at a bar in the airport after having eaten a top 5 worst burger of my whole life. All roads, for now, lead to Warsaw, and better food.
Buckets of Rain 