Well I’m back into the swing of things and feeling ready for some new challenges. I’ve joined up with Leevale in Cork city and loving the training so far under coach Donie Walsh. It’s real quality work focussing on speed with 2 weekly track sessions and a hill session on Saturday. I was feeling well rested after 2 weeks of easy running and have signed up for a couple of races over the next months to test my fitness. First up is the Cheetah 4 mile run in Fota wildlife park on 15th May. Next will be the Cork half marathon on the June bank holiday weekend and then a couple of weeks later, a hometown appearance in the Strawberry 5 mile in Enniscorthy. So here’s last weeks training (lazily copied from my boards.ie training log).
Sunday – 10m
Feeling good today, beautiful sunny morning in Cork so threw on the singlet and headed down Blarney street and out the Carrigrohane/Model farm loop. Legs felt fresh throughout though it was pretty spicy out there for an April morning. I settled in at a pacier than planned pace hovering around 7 min mile which was comfortable though I did tire a little near the end. Chelsea Liverpool time!
Summary: 10.8m in 1:17:21 @ 7:10 min/mile
Monday – Steady Run
So my first week back to the grind, I’m excited about what lays ahead for me and really motivated to put in the hard work required to achieve my goals. Beautiful evening again, set off down towards the city, settled into a nice steady 6:40-45 pace after the first mile. Felt pretty comfortably for the most part, weaved through the city streets for 6 miles at that pace and then 1 mile cool-down up the killer hill.
Summary: 7.95m in 55:19 @ 6:57 min/mile avg.
Tuesday – 3 x 9min track session
Time for my second club session and it was bloody hard work but worth it in the end. Wasn’t feeling particularly great today, smothering with a cold and didn’t particularly feel like a session but I knew I was able for it even though my brain tried to talk me out of it. 2 miles warm-up and then headed into the planned session of 3 by 9 mins at pace with a 3 minute recovery. I started with a group of 5 lads, one of which ran 2:29 in the London marathon just gone, yikes. The planned pace for the group was 5:20-5:40 but by the 2nd rep the group had split into distinct groups, the 3 quicker lads and then myself and another runner at a similar level, it was good to have someone to push me, really needed it. First rep was too quick because I was trying to stick with the faster lads but soon I realised that wasn’t my pace and saw sense. It was a tough tough session, by the 2nd rep I wasn’t feeling I’d make the 3rd but I stuck it out in the end and managed to run the 3rd one pretty well.
1. 1.67 miles @ 5:26 min/mile
2. 1.63 miles @ 5:34 min/mile
3. 1.63 miles @ 5:35 min/mile
Happy with that session, met a few new people and also bumped into Donore club mate John Travers who was wandering around the Mardyke, looking pretty fresh from his cracking run in the states during the week. 15 mins cool-down and a lovely* cycle back up the hill, nearly collapsed with hunger.
Total: 9.6 miles
Wednesday – 4m Recovery + Gym
Woke up feeling pure shyte this morning, stuffy head, snots falling out my nose, usual cold bollox. Was planning on doing pre-work recovery run in the AM so I could gym in the evening but it wasn’t happening, it just wasn’t. Went to work and felt a little better in the evening so I plodded on down to the Mardyke, ran (the long way down) for 3 miles, very easy and did a decent arms & chest workout. Ran 1 more mile home.
Thursday – 5 x 1000m & 1 x 200m
After a horrible wet morning, the skies parted in spectacular fashion this evening, cracking weather but was still feeling the effects of the cold so I wasn’t overly enthusiastic. I wanted to push myself a more than I had last week as I was only getting back into so I jumped into the intervals with chap (same guy from Tuesday session) and our target was 5:20-5:25 min/mile pace, a fairly significant increase in pace from last week (~5:40) but I felt I could manage since that felt pretty comfortable last week.
Overall it went to plan, I found it very, very difficult near the end but thats why I’m in here a club, to push myself hard and we ended up hitting the targets. I’d find it tough to keep that pace up if I hadn’t have had someone with me. An enjoyable 200m sprint at the end and a 2 mile cool-down on the pitches with the lads. Again a great session and I really think I’m gonna really benefit working with these guys.
1k Splits
1. 3:23 @ 5:18 min/mile
2. 3:24 @ 5:15 min/mile
3. 3:25 @ 5:20 min/mile
4. 3:28 @ 5:25 min/mile
5. 3:24 @ 5:13 min/mile (almost died)
1 x 200m in 36s @ 4:46 min/mile
The garmin was a bit of a pain in the neck today, I kept accidentally hitting the touch bezel and knocking the screen off when I tried to hit the lap button so distances were longer on some reps, does this happen to anyone else? it’s so frustrating, maybe it’s time to just use a stopwatch on the track.
Total: 9.7 miles
Friday – 2hr cycle + Gym
After work I went cycling to see a man about a car, and bought the car. The cycle there was full of hills, hunger, rain and more hills but I had company so it wasn’t so bad, still didn’t plan on it being 2 hours, hugely under-estimated. Was planning on a small recovery run but figured the cycle was enough recovery for me so just headed down to the gym in the evening for shoulders and back work.
Saturday – Club Session: 10 mins hills & 6 x 3 min on grass
A misty Saturday morning but not enough to ruin a good session. Met up with the club near the greyhound track in Curraheen, 2 mile warmup around the pitches and then headed off to do some hills. This involved 10 mins of 200 meter repeats with a jog back to the start recovery. I slotted in with a group and knocked out 6 of them at an avg. of 43 seconds (5:45 min/mile).
Next it was back to the pitches for 6 x 3 mins on the flat pitches. I was in a group of 4 runners and we ran these at 5:45 min/mile pace (0.52 miles) with a minute recovery. A 15 min cool-down and that’s a good first weeks training bagged I reckon.
Total: 9 miles
Total for this week was 51 miles, I plan to ramp up the non-session day and long run mileage over the next couple of weeks and then consistently hold 60+ mile weeks over the summer, should be a good base for Autumn marathon season.