The Windy Road to Nowhere

Sat 11th July: 12.5 miles at 6:29 avg pace

We were a bit late getting on the road yesterday evening, so 20 miles was off the agenda. Jumped out of the car at Clontibret, and headed on. Sort of knew it would be getting dark so didn't hang around. First couple of miles were downhill, but the fourth mile is very tough, uphill the whole way at Castleshane, did it in 6:42 but working hard. Got the pace back to 6:2xs heading for Monaghan town before having some company for about half a mile.
A heifer bolted out onto the road right in front of me, now it was about 9:15, but the N2 was busy, it was drizzly and darkening, dangerous situation. The cow ran out across to the other side then, with traffic all stopping, I stayed my side. Next thing she heads off into the middle of the road for a wander. I switched sides as I felt she may have been scared of me as well as the traffic. By this stage, she was a good 500-600 metres down the road from where she bolted, so I didn't think it safe to take her back up the road. Thankfully she jumped into an entrance to a school and emergency was over.

After the drama, I motored on holding 6:30 pace until Scotstown. Good session, but tough at the tail end, hard to believe I held that for a marathon last year, think I'm a few minutes away from that shape, but a decent effort at this point

Didn't really feel good heading down to Dunleer for the race today. Was working in the garden for a couple of hours during the afternoon, and was still feeling Friday's run in the legs. Was feeling a bit concerned about getting my ass handed to me on a plate by a couple of the lads in the club. Conditions were warm and muggy, and I was sweating gallons even doing a gentle warm-up.

Got ourselves going, with the usual mad dash down the fast first few hundred yards. Couple of NER runners were close enough to me, and one of the lads from our club got off to a very good start. Was in and around 12-14th place. First mile was 5:38, bit on the fast side.

I more or less was running by myself at this stage, about 20 metres behind a group of 3, and about 15 metres in front of another group, not ideal, but anyway. The second mile was 5:48, I was gaining on the little group in front of me, but the ones behind were catching up too. We all seemed to stretch out again, so I was left by myself working my way up the slopey 3rd mile, which I did in 6:02. Three NER runners were on my shoulder and two went by me here, which was a bit of a pain. Regrouped myself for a couple of minutes, trying to stay with the faster of the two, but he got away on me.

Had feck all left in the tank really in the last mile, so not quite so sure how I ran that one in 5:46. But, it was just about enough, as there were two of my clubmates just about 10 seconds behind me, and I was the fourth place runner from our club. Think I finished about 12th overall in 23:23. That's 25 seconds down from last year's time, which was on a much hotter day, but I was much fresher that day.

Happy enough with the time, and a decent enough session. First bit of speed work in a while. Great spread up in the clubhouse. Was hoping to go for pints straight after the race, but the lads were going a bit later, so will enjoy a couple watching the match in the house.

Was off on holidays for a couple of weeks in France, got in plenty of running.

Tues 15th July: 2 miles at 7:15 pace

Weds 16th July: 7 miles at 7:14 pace

Fri 18th July: 9.25 miles at 7:27 pace

Sat 19th: 9.25 miles at 7:21 pace

Sun 20th: 7.2 miles at 7:51 pace

Mon 21st: 5 miles at 7:28 pace

Tues 22nd: 7 miles at 7:41 pace

Weds 23rd: 20 miles at 7:28 pace

Thurs 24th: 5 miles at 7:41 pace

Fri 25th: 8 miles at 7:27 pace

Sat 26th: 7 miles at 7:30 pace

Sun 27th: 7 miles at 7:35 pace

Tues 29th: 15 miles at 6:58 pace

Weds 30th: 2 miles at 7:15 pace

Very happy to have done so much when away. Most of it was at easy pace, with the exception of a few fast miles here and there. Good to get the two long runs in, even if I was actually technically lost when I was doing them, and never intended them being that long!

I'm scrapping the R&R half, just don't feel like I'd do myself justice at the moment on a tough course, and will instead wait til early September to see where I'm at. Plan on getting in another decent month of long enough mileage in August.

Thurs 31st July: 9 miles in 7:05 pace

Was very hot and windy this afternoon when I got out. Was running at 6:30 pace for a couple of miles, but when I turned into the wind, and into the hills, I found 7:10 pace was hard work. It's not the sort of run that really inspires any confidence for what the marathon target is, but from experience, I know I can make up a hell of a lot of time in 3 months, so hopefully the steady mileage will bear fruit.

Fri 1st Aug: 5 miles in 36 mins

Treadmill in the evening for this. Scrapped the 5k race as the weather was rubbish, I was a bit wrecked, and simple as, just didn't feel like I'd make a good enough account of myself.

Did 2 miles at MP on the treadmill at the tail end of this run, felt reasonably comfortable.

Sat 2nd Aug: 8 miles in 58 mins, 4 miles in 30 mins

Was going to head out the door first thing this morning, but the weather was beyond rotten, so chickened out and got on the treddy. Decent enough run. Did 4 miles this evening while listening to the Monaghan match on the radio. Wasn't really concentrating on the running at all, but great to see Monaghan finally break their Croker championship jinx. Not before time.

Tues 6th Aug: 7 miles with 6 x 800m at 5:35 pace

First time in at the track in a long time. The club has use of the track from 7-9 on Wednesdays, so I presumed there'd be at least somebody to jump in with, but when I went down at 8, a few of the boys were just finishing up their session. Turned out there'd be nobody hanging around at all for the second hour, but since I'd actually made the effort to go to the track, I should do a proper session.

Normally, I'd like to do 10 x 800m, but as I was still feeling Monday's long run slightly in the legs, and with a mind to racing on Friday evening, I was thinking I'd do 6-8 of them. The idea is that if a marathon goal is 2:45, the 10 800m repeats should be approx 2:45 each. It's know as Yasso 800s, and although quite a rough measure, but I've always found it a very good workout, and it has always been a reasonable indication of how achievable the marathon goal is.

The session was comfortably difficult, and without trying to bomb it, I was hitting the 800s in 2:45-2:48. By the time I was finishing the 6th one, the caretaker at the track was looking out the door. Decided to not bother doing any more, let the guy get away, and keep myself fresher for Friday evening. Did a couple mile warmdown on the road. Happy with the session, I know I could've done another two definitely at the pace, might have struggled for the full ten, but that would be about what I'd expect at this moment in time. Will hopefully get out for a recovery run at some point today.

I placed 3rd in this last year with a vey good run of 27:55 for the five miles, didn't really feel like I was in that sort of shape, but hope to run 28:xx and see where that'd get me in the places.

The race got underway at quarter to eight, a change from the afternoon start of other years. It was clear within half a mile that Conor Duffy would only be racing the clock, and I thought that the other ten people in front of me started a bit fast. By the end of the first mile in 5:40, I was in 10th place and already doubting seriously whether I'd make the top 5, unlikely that that number of people could get their pacing so badly wrong!

The second mile of the race is the toughest, with the only real uphill section, and with the breeze blowing into us that mile, pace dropped back to 5:52, but I made up a place or two. In the 3rd mile, I started getting a move on, made up another place into seventh, with a 5:44 mile.

I was about 50 metres back from the guy in sixth, with the next three runners about the same in front of that. Try as I did to up the pace and hoping for their pace to fall away, neither happened, and I had to content myself with my 7th place in 28:59.

I'm a bit disappointed with that effort in comparison to last year, but it's not the worst thing really. Last year, I felt like I peaked in early to mid August, and fell back a bit from that peak by mid October. In that respect, it's clear that I have work to do , but it might be a good thing, as I want to peak in late October, not August.

With the warm up and down, did eight miles in total, so a good days work I suppose.

Sun 10th: 4 miles at 7:43 pace

This actually was a recovery run. Nice and handy. Felt a bit sore after the efforts of the previous couple of days.

Mon and Tues: Off

Had an extra couple of kids in the house for a few days there, so was busy and too tired to run. No harm.

Weds 13th Aug: 20 miles in 2:15 (6:47 avg pace)

This was a tough old run. I was over in Sligo, so took to the back roads out near Ballintogher and Sooey. Had planned on doing around 5 MP miles, with maybe 10 more in MP + 20-30 seconds. I felt very good for the most of it, struggled a bit on the last couple of MP miles, but delighted with what was the toughest long run since last September.

Thurs 14th: 8 miles at 7:58 pace

Absolutely wrecked after yesterday's effort, so this was ran very slow and easy.

Fri 15th: 4 miles at 7:42 pace

Got out early in the morning for a very slow recovery type run. Was heading to Galway and to Sligo Friday, so hadn't really the time for much more.

Sun 17th: 4 miles at 7:16 pace

I was back over in Sligo for the weekend, and got out early. It was very blustery for this run, making it quite hard work. Not a huge amount of mileage last week, but it was a busy one, so just accept it as such.

Mon 18th: 5 miles in 38 mins

Treadmill at night time for this. Kept the pace easy, as I'm hoping to put in a decent week of it, so no point pushing it on the easy stuff.

Tues 19th: 10 miles in 1:10 in the morning

Headed out about 10 this morning for a relatively fast run around by Gallstown. Took it easy on the first and the last two miles, and for the rest, did about 6:20-6:50 pace. At this stage, I'll need to start honing in on planned MP, I'm relatively happy with how training is going, but there's a fair bit of work to do yet, and MP still feels fast.

Tues 19th: 5 miles in 38 in the evening.

It was either this or watching the Rose of Tralee. Tough choice. Just a nice handy one on the treadmill.