3:30 or bust!

Monday 13th through to Monday 21st - Sick / No running.
The past week has been a disaster for training. After the Terenure 5 miler I took a rest day on Monday as I was feeling a bit tired but when it came to going to work on Tuesday I was totally wiped with some kind of virus/cold which meant I took Tues, Wed & Thurs off work. This meant I missed my last big session before Cork – a 32km LSR with the final 19km @ MP. I returned to work on Friday but had to hightail it to Cork for a stag weekend which left me reeling in a different way! When I returned to Dublin I was 110% knackered both Sunday and Monday so no running there either.

Tuesday, 22nd May - Docklands 5km
So, it was with fresh legs from running that I togged out for the Docklands 5km last night. I still possessed a bunged up nose but thought that if that was the worst of it, then it wouldn’t be too bad. Did a 15 min warm-up with Philip but I wasn’t feeling too fresh now! I ran into The Boy Wonder during warm-up and we started the race beside each other as the rough plan was to aim for sub 20. My brief outline was start with a 3:45 or so and then maybe a couple of 3:50’s before hanging on for a sub 4:00 and finish off with a big effort for a 3:5x.
About 5 mins after the planned start time we were released. The first 1km was pretty twisty around Grand Canal Dock area but by the 1km marker I was registering 3:41. Possibly a bit fast so I was content to slow down for the second km as per my plan. Somewhere between 1.5km and 2km I realised my shoulders and arms were very tender due to Karting we had done on Saturday – The constant vibration from the 1hr session caused achy limbs which I thought had recovered. Instead I was having issues trying to propel myself forward. I arrived at the turnaround at the O2 2km mark in a split of 4:02. Here I met Philip coming the other way up near the front so I was able to shout at him that he was in 14th place.
After this things started to get rapidly worse for me - the third km along the North Quays was the beginning of the end. I started to be passed by lots of people now and I simply wasn’t able to up the effort at all. Km3 was 4:20. We then continued for km4 over the Sean O’Casey footbridge but it was only more of the same for me. I was thinking about just backing off altogether and jogging it out but I soon realised I was only about 8mins from the end so I kept plugging away. Last two km were done in 4:27 & 4:20. Total chip time was 20:52 – Only 19 secs slower than my pb but still a very disappointing race for me.
The Boy Wonder passed me in the closing stages and kicked on for a 20:42 and Philip smashed his pb by over a minute to record 18:04!

Wednesday 23rd May - 8.0km Recovery Run
Went out for a recovery run this evening but it was possibly one of my least enojyable runs ever! Legs felt heavy and footfall was like I was smacking my feet off the ground! I need to get the positive endorphins back working again!!

Month|No. of Runs|Kms Run

DukeOfDromada wrote: »

Look on the bright side, you've got the sickness out of the way now so you'll be fresh for Cork. It would be worse if you got sick next week.

True, that's what I was thinking last week alright...just gotta get my running mojo back now!

Thursday 24th May - 8.5km Easy Run
I called into the Park on the way home from work and decided to do an easy run just to get the legs moving. They felt a bit better than wednesday but still a fair bit off yet.

Friday 25th May - 10.2km Fartlek Run
Stayed local for this run in Santry. Quite hot out there in the afternoon sun but enjoyable nevertheless. A nice cool breeze managed to add to the weather.

Saturday 26th May - 18.3km MSR with 3km at pace
Met up with the boards crew in the Park for this one. Plan was 6.5km @ 5:18, 6.5km @ 4:18, 6.5km @ 5:18. The first 6.5km was fine and an enjoyable run. Myself and Digger were leading the peleton when the fast kms begun and even though we upped the pace to close to the planned speed we still weren't going quite quick enough for Meno so he took over after the first 500m. I stayed with the gang until about 3km when the residual DOMS was making life tough for me so I decided to ease off and join The Boy Wonder. As things turned out the gang finished up the faster stuff at about 5km mark as they were beginning to feel the heat/pace themselves so they were taking shade under a tree as I rejoined them. We continued down to the Memorial Gardens at approx 5:30 pace before finishing up the Kyber and back at the cars after 18km in total.
This was pretty much what I was looking for from today and I felt I was getting back closer to where I was before I got sick last week but still maybe 10-15% off yet.

Sunday 27th May - 11.4km Easy Run
Another lovely day so I went to the Park again and did one lap of the Park in as big a loop as I could manage. I ended up on one particularly dodgy trail down around the furry Glen but in general I loved this run. The trails are bone dry after the great weather so a real joy to run in the park and managing to avoid the road for large sections.

At some stage during my MSR on Sat I managed to go over the 1,000 mile barrier at last! Very happy that I managed it so early this year but still would have preferred if I hadn't delayed it by a week due to being sick!!

Month|No. of Runs|Kms Run

ultraman1 wrote: »

well done pon 1000 .....smack down to 2000? and u have a sneaki maratrhon dis week

I may have a marathon this weekend but don't you have 3 days of non-stop running coming up sometime soon??
I think you'll be heading for 3,000miles as I'm winding down to 2,000 myself!!