...and back to Connemara.

3 miles in the woods this morning in 10.52/9.25/9.19 (total 29.37), average pace 9.53 after which I was rightly pooped I don't think there'll be any pbs anytime soon:p. The woods, though lovely to run in, always feel a bit harder than road running for some reason, maybe it's the varied surfaces and dodging branches and tree roots etc

3 miles this morning with the dog. Average (moving) time 30.01, pace 10.01, hr 171. Miles 10.17/10.28/9.41. I used moving time and pace due to the numerous pitstops. The dog behaved reasonably well despite a minor incident with another dog :eek: In fact I was sitting at 9.45 for the last mile with a half a mile uphill drag to go and the dog actually pulled me to run faster uphill bringing the time down
HR a bit higher than it should have been but that may have been due to the lack of breakfast + yesterdays run.

Emer911 wrote: »

...but isn't that cheating?:D :rolleyes:

Shhhhhhh don't tell. I'd take her to the next race if I could except for the fact that she's likely to trip up anyone near us..... .....oh hang on :D

Fri. Slow 3m.

Tomorrows race is all about getting the feel for races again. My 5k pb is "about" 27 mins... I won't even get close to that . My time for this course last time was 27.55 I think. To be honest I don't think I'll touch that either :o. I'll be happy to break half an hour:rolleyes:

Newcastle (Athenry) 5k Race Report.
Since I haven’t been running anything resembling regularly since October and really only getting some motivation back in the past couple of weeks I knew a pb wasn’t going to happen but based on very recent runs I reckoned 9.20/mile was a reasonable estimation of what I could expect. That would see me finish in about 29 minutes but having run the route before I knew the long uphill drag from 2 to nearly 4k could change that... you know... me’n’hills..:rolleyes:
I was awoken this lovely mothers day morning with a cup of tea, lots of cuddles and many many home made cards ... I’ve only got 2 children I mooched around for a while getting myself ready but couldn’t find my garmin ... not got a clue where it is! So I resigned myself to having to do it the old fashioned stopwatch and k signs way which would mean challenging my brain to have to think in kilometres and do sums along the way. I reached Newcastle early, registered and said hello to the very nice MickRice who was the man in charge. Time ticked on and I wondered why no one was turning up for the race. At 11.50 surely we should be off to the startline? The penny dropped..... I was early early rather than just early as the race was at 1, not 12. So, more mooching, tea (on Micks insistence) and chatting with the nice Newcastle people and I was ready to go (again) an hour later.
Off at the start without a clue of pace, into a nice downhill/ flat first kilometre. I hit the first k marker at 5.30, grand, happy with that, the aim was to keep it between 5.30/6 mins. From there on it was a long drag, not steep but unrelenting up to about 3.8k. The second k was done in 5.50, the brain stopped working for the next two but I was happy I was within my target. I never felt the need to stop or walk and the hill didn’t feel bad at all:). Once we hit 4 k after a bit of a plateau it was all downhill and I was happy to see 28.xx on the clock as I approached. I put the boot down a bit and finished the last k in 5.20 with (I think) 28.45 on the clock so about 28.40 for me. (yes I started the stopwatch too soon and then forgot to stop it:rolleyes:). Now my brain is functioning again I’ve done the sums and that equates to 9.13 min miles. I’m happy with that... the fact that I didn’t find it too hard, was feeling grand and talking away within seconds of finishing tells me I probably had a bit more to give. In fact I know I did... but hey it’s grand for my first race of the year and gives me an indication of what to aim for in the Castlebar women’s mini marathon 10k on 1st May.
Said hello and had a quick chat with Magnet but had to hotfoot it in to Galway to meet up with the clan (an hour later than planned:o) so I didn’t hang around.
Lovely race, lovely route, nice people, nice tea

6 miles slow and steady. The aim was to keep HR low (for me) and ignore pace, easier done in the first 4 miles.
6 miles in 1.04, ave pace 10.42, hr 169. I've only run this distance a handful of times since October and this was the first one where the ITB behaved itself:)

3 miles on the treadmill. My aim is to average no slower than 9.20 min miles in Castlebar in less than 3 :eek: weeks time though I think it'll be a testing enough course.
According to this table the equivalent treadmill pace is 8.49 min miles or 6.8 mph setting.
So I did half mile very slow warm at 5.5 (11mm), followed by 2 miles at 8.49 and slow warm down half mile. Total 3 miles in 28. 30.

By the time I was finished Mr was home so after a quick shower I went off out for a glorious leisurely 3 mile walk with the dog .