June 17th – June 23rd
Mon: 40 min easy + 5 x 15 sec strides + 5 min. Complete. 10.15km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11674054058
Tue: 15 min WU, 10 x 400 @ 90 (30/90 after last) 5 x 1k @ 3:30-40 (60) 15 min CD. Complete. 400’s on effort and tailored to wind. 82, 85, 82, 84, 82, 82, 81, 82, 82 and 82. 3:32, 3:27, 3:29, 3:28 and 3:27. 16.53km total.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11683043902
Wed: 60 min. Complete. 13km. https://www.strava.com/activities/11690582699
Thur: 15 min WU, 12 min @ sub T (90) 4 x 5 min @ threshold (60), 15 min CD. Complete. Saturday. Reps on track. Last rep of 5 mins in spike. Felt harder than I’d like. 16.22km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11710444258
Fri: off
Sat: 15 min WU, 5 x 600m hills + 3 x 30 sec hills hard (easy jog/walk back), 15 min CD. Complete. Thursday. 2:06, 2:03, 2:03, 2:00 and 1:58. 30 secs hard. 13.34km total.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11699333613
Sun: 70 min easy. Complete. 63 mins (soz). https://www.strava.com/activities/11718131814
I am not really sure what this week was. Two weeks ago was a 5K; last week was largely centred around recovery; this week is two weeks post race and one week to another race. No magic can really happen here and the race is too far out for it to be a proper taper week. So… here we are. A familiar session on Tuesday of 400’s and kilometre repeats, however, the 400’s were light enough on pace but an uptick in volume. Overall the session was comfortable and enough stimulus to give the feeling of a workout banked but maybe not enough to strut around thinking I’ll PB again at Nationals.
Tuesday’s session was on the canal and it’s the first time I’ve ran there in over a year. There is a 1,200 metre stretch that is completely flat and thankfully was not windy at all. I find it really beneficial having a place like this to do the shorter reps as it allows you to properly gauge effort for each rep and I feel it means you can lock in better.
On Wednesday and Thursday, I was back in the Phoenix Park. Wednesday was 60 minutes easy and this was all on trails. It was a beautiful day and one of those restorative runs. With Euro 2024 in full flow, Second Captains are releasing daily podcasts with Ken on his travels and Wednesday’s run lined up with Ken telling a story about how an Albanian fan jumped under a train carriage to rescue Ken’s AirPod that had fallen out of his ear. If anyone seen me on Wednesday, they’d have seen a ginger man manically laughing the whole way round the park. Thursday was session day and I had hoped to use the track in Lucan but it was booked so I moved my days around and did hills on Thursday. 5 x 600m and 3 x 30 seconds has become a staple in the last few months but this was the first time I did it in 20 degree heat and was blowing hard from the first rep. I was still able to keep the reps progressing in terms of pace and finished with a 1:58 so I was stoked on that. The 3 x 30 seconds were hit with the usual gusto and were made faster with the sight of not one, but two, rats half way up the Khyber. The sound of my Brooks scared them away.
Saturday was up to the track for a 12 minute rep followed by 4 x 5 minutes. The 12 minute rep averaged out at 3:34 pace. The 5 minute reps started out a little too hot at 3:18 (definitely not threshold) and the HR went up by the end so I paired it back to 3:25’s for the next two. For the fourth rep, I put on spikes and kept the effort consistent. I haven’t worn the spikes in 19 months so felt it important to give them a shot prior to the 5,000 metres on Saturday. You feel instantly lighter on your feet and the legs feel like they have more pop but overall I didn’t feel great during this session. This was 9.25km of volume on the track and I felt it difficult to see myself doing 5,000 metres at a pace that would see that race as being a success. I’m trending towards skipping the race and getting straight into the marathon block, which ultimately excites me much more than racing on a track. I will speak to Seán to see what his opinion will be but, with the race being his idea, I have a fair idea what he’s going to say.
The National 5 mile championship was on in the Phoenix Park on Sunday so my easy run was migrated to the home of Ireland’s most storied baseball franchise, Dublin City Hurricanes. The Hurricanes home field is in Corkagh Park and Corkagh Park is where I ran. Barry joined post his Dunshaughlin 10K race effort and we moseyed around for the first 45 minutes with an 18 minute argument at the end meaning the last few kilometres were a bit quicker. The week finished with 83 kilometres of volume and that is more than what the body felt like it ran. Maybe I’m fitter than I thought.
Buckets of Rain 