Yesterday’s run appears to have taken a lot out of me. Not sure if it was the distance (just realised it’s only my 3rd 20 miler and I have not gone any further since Belfast!) or the two progression segments in the middle but I found myself with a tight left hammy and the by-now usual abdomen strain. Thankfully this was just to be a recovery run and boy did I need it. The first few kms were coming in around the 5:50’s when I thought they were around 5:30’s. Glad to get it over in the end and did a bit of foam rolling afterwards. Planned to get to bed early too but that fell by the wayside with TV and a few chores to blame!
Thursday, 26th September, 2013 – 7.4km Recovery Run (5:16/km)
Thursday, 26th September, 2013 – 7.4km Recovery Run (5:16/km)
Again it was later than planned by the time I got out for this run. Legs felt a fair bit better and after a relaxed first km I upped the effort to around 5:1x/km pace. Probably slightly tougher than it should have been but close to normal.
It was during this run that I had a moment of clarity in relation to my bad runs this year. All of Rotterdam marathon, Portumna marathon, Athlone HM and Dublin HM were in warm conditions. It was probably at least 21-22 degrees for them all so I think the underlying issue is that I perform poorly in warm weather. Certainly the elevated temperatures could well be responsible for an extra 3-5bpm which would be enough to scupper a long distance run. There were probably other mitigating circumstances (like the blisters in Rotterdam and poor nutrition choices for the HMs) but the heat is the one common denominator. Even last year in Valencia in similar temps I faded in the final 10km, albeit I still got my PB there but according to my Athlone ¾ marathon a few weeks before I should have been on for 3:20 or thereabouts. Definitely something to think about for the future!
Friday, 27th September, 2013 – 7.4km Easy Run (5:00/km)
I got up early this morning to fit in an easy run before work. This went well and feel I’m almost back to normal now.
Got back out for another recovery paced run in the evening. Was gonna do a 12km loop but decided to just keep it to 7.4km to prevent and lag in the legs.
Saturday, 28th September, 2013 – 8.1km including 5km St. Anne’s Parkrun (4:10/km)
I ventured down to St. Anne’s Park in Raheny for their first Parkrun. It consisted of a 2 lap course on an extremely flat course with the only thing to slow you down being a couple of tight corners. After a 2km warmup I ran into Mick K. at the starting area and had a bit of a chat. Within a few minutes we were walked to the start and were away.
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| St Annes Parkrun - two laps, very flat! |
I wasn’t exactly clear-minded about how I was going to run this. My thoughts veered between trying for a sub 20 before pushing that out of my mind and deciding to take it at 4:10/min pace instead. Without having my mind firmly made up I spent the first km taking it handy and avoiding racing too many about me. As we got to the playing pitches I started to move up a few places as some people began to fade/ease off already. There were some kids training on the corner of the football pitch where we were due to turn the corner so we had no choice but to cut the apex a little. Before long we were out on the main avenue which runs all the way to the finish on the second lap. Things were going well still and while I am pretty sure I’d have struggled with 4:00/km pace if I had gone for it, the first 2km both came in at 4:10/km and I felt I was putting in a very decent effort without redlining it too much.
As we started the second lap we went through/under a load of trees and so I wasn’t too surprised when the garmin started to suggest my pace was slipping to 4:17 for the 3rd km. I just maintained position as those ahead of me were about 50m down the road at this stage. The next 1,500m were a tad boring for me as it was simply more of the same. The final km began just as we turned back out onto the main avenue for the second time and being able to see the finish in front of you makes for a long kilometre! About 600m to go a local runner called Jim went past me but I was happy to simply maintain pace than try to enter a race with him… perhaps on another day!
Eventually I reached the finishing chute and stopped the watch in 20:47 which I was neither happy or disappointed with. It just is what it is! Time wasn’t the target today, more a good VO2 session while holding back a little for the 10 miler tomorrow. During today’s run though I made up my mind to run that at marathon pace instead of racing for a 10 mile PB time. Therefore I’ll be aiming to carry a steady 4:40/km (Which I failed at after 8 miles last week!!) all the way to the finish and if the opportunity arises I will allow myself to race the final 2-3 km but not before that. Well, that’s the theory anyways!!
Eventually I reached the finishing chute and stopped the watch in 20:47 which I was neither happy or disappointed with. It just is what it is! Time wasn’t the target today, more a good VO2 session while holding back a little for the 10 miler tomorrow. During today’s run though I made up my mind to run that at marathon pace instead of racing for a 10 mile PB time. Therefore I’ll be aiming to carry a steady 4:40/km (Which I failed at after 8 miles last week!!) all the way to the finish and if the opportunity arises I will allow myself to race the final 2-3 km but not before that. Well, that’s the theory anyways!!
Week 39 Summary (so far):
RTW: 6 from 6 days
DTW: 69.7 km
DTY: 3,103.5 km
Chicago - 15 days (3 weeks, 1 day)
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