Meant to meet Philip for this tempo session but he called last night to postpone as he had a few too many things on around that time. Called into the PP and parked up for around 2pm. Was not really psyched about running so took a while to get out of the car and then the first 10mins were pretty sluggish. I did one 3km loop of the NE quadrant before finding myself back at the top of Chesterfield Avenue, where it was time to begin my first MP segment.
I had calculated that 4.5km would be roughly equivalent of 20mins so that was my goal distance. For this first segment I was downwind and down a slight incline so I figured I’d aim a little quicker and 4:25/km became my goal pace. Thankfully I managed to hit the pace with ease for the most part but when I had to turn around into the wind for the final 1.5km things were a good deal tougher!
 |
| Tempo splits |
I then took a 1km recovery period before beginning my second Tempo segment. Because I was a little bit tired from the first one I eased back on the target pace to my actual PMP of 4:30/km (with one eye pointed at Sunday also!). This still felt a little bit harder than the first segment but I still managed to hit pace so I was happy with that. I jogged the remaining distance back to the car, only pausing under a tree for a 3 minute hail downpour to pass!
Saturday, 1st March 2014 – 7.5km Distance (5:35/km)
Was meant to meet Anto in the evening for this but got a raincheck in the afternoon so just went out and took it nice and gently. Everything feeling well for tomorrow.
Two cancellations in two days…must work up on my social skills!!
Sunday, 2nd March 2014 – Bohermeen 10k & HM
My plan for today was to maximise the benefits of my long run. This year a 10km race was taking place in advance of the HM so during the week I decided I’d run the 10k at a relaxed pace and then attempt the HM @ MP for as long as I could manage. I was parked up by 10:45 so it was a trot down to the start area via a brief detour to the clubhouse where I ran into Gary (who was pacing the 90min HM) for a couple of minutes. I dropped a bag at the white fence of the clubhouse and then jogged the remainder of the way to the race start. Not too bad, I already had 1km covered!
The 10k was about 5 mins late startig which was a little concerning to me considering I had to take it easy yet still be back at the HM in only 55mins now! There was a smallish field for this race somewhere around the 300 mark. I took things nice and steady for the first couple of km with about 20 people passing me out in the early stages. I was running at a very relaxed level yet the pace was staying around the 5:15/km mark try as I might to go slower! This course was more undulating than I expected and certainly didn’t look like a PB course so I was thankful I was just jogging it. Around midway I started to reel in a few runners that had been caught out by the inclines but apart from this my main focus was on trying to ignore the icy rain falling on me! Eventually I got around to the main road leading to the clubhouse where I diverted from the finishing lane to my bag for a quick change of tops. I ditched the jacket here as I figured it was so wet it was useless to me but I kept the cap and gloves which were well saturated also but still might prove useful.
I jogged from the clubhouse to the race start once more but as I was getting closer I could hear the announcer beginning to countdown to the start while I was still a good bit away yet. By the time the hooter went I was 50m off the back of the pack but it didn’t really matter, simply meant the first few hundred metres were a bit more packed. Over the course of the first 2km I was picking off people while still trying not to get too carried away. Eventually things settled down somewhat and a bit of space appeared.
 |
| HM splits |
I had planned on running at 4:37/km for the early stages and increasing to 4:30 around the middle so when the first 4km were 4:38/4:40/4:38/4:38 I was happy enough. Around here spotted Anto a little up ahead so this subconsciously brought the pace up a bit so that when I caught him there was little time for chat before I was past them again. This saw me hitting the faster end of the range with a 4:30 followed by a 4:29 so I decided to row things back a little bit with the following splits being 4:36/4:36/4:34/4:41. This brought me around to the top of the hill/bridge over the motorway. I decided to have a mini-breather after the 10km were completed so the halfway point saw a split of 4:51 (where I also had to pause for a few seconds to dump my gloves) before ramping things back up again for a 4:39. The next two kms saw me struggle a bit (4:46/4:43) as the wind was proving a bit more difficult to deal with around this point.
 |
| Still happy at the halfway stage. |
A couple more faster kms (4:39/4:38) led to a tired final 5km where the splits became a bit more ragged with 4:46/4:45/4:41/4:51/5:00 and then a 4:23/km burst for the final 300m. The final straight from the turn in Ardbraccan was tough but apart from that things went very well. I reckon conditions cost 2-3secs per km so I’m not overly bothered about actual pace being a little down on target. Overall I was very happy with this days work. I still have 8 weeks left to D-Day and with that another 5x 20m+ runs which should bring me on even more. Looking forward too to my little jog in Barcelona now that I don’t have to worry about pushing it. And hopefully the weather will pick up to allow for decent training to prosper!
 |
| Almost home! |
PS: This av pace was run at the same pace as the Clontarf HM which I paced back in November but without the 11.5km preloaded so that sounds like improvement!
Week 7 Summary:
RTW: 8 from 7 days
DTW: 116.1km
DTY: 850.8km
No comments:
Post a Comment