A pretty boring run this, I just went out a bit too late after dozing/napping on the couch all evening. Body felt ok but perhaps a little tired after last night. Nothing alarming anyways.
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| MLR splits |
Called into the PP after work for this. Never really too keen to actually go and run so was happy with how it went overall. Faster end of the range (4:50-5:10/km) so that’s a good sign.
Saturday, 8th March 2014 – 12.8km Distance inc. Castlebar Parkrun (4:14/km)
The inaugural Castlebar parkrun was held this morning so I went along for a look. Conditions were windy with misty rain which made for a dreary day. In advance of the run I went for a 2.5km warm-up which allowed me the chance to see part of the course. For the amount of times I’ve been to Castlebar I’d never gone down to Lough Lannagh so this was a first experience of the lakeside walk which looked very impressive and scenic. I returned to base in time to strip off a layer and get to the run briefing. No loudhailer made it a difficult task for the girl speaking and the general murmurings of the 111 strong crowd.
Before long they started the standard 3-2-1 countdown and we were away. I was not very interested in racing this as I’d had a decent session yesterday but I was still peeved to see the woman who started in front of me (about 2/3 of the way to the front) just walk! Probably her first event but still annoying. Anyways, we made our way down through the little Lough Lannagh village and were soon out on the lakeside path. This first lap brings us on an anti-clockwise direction around the lake. This section was in the shelter of trees and a mound of earth which meant we didn’t get the full benefit of the wind. However after approximately 2km we reched the end of the lake and doubled back on the far side which was much more open to the elements and just so happened to be straight into the teeth of the wind. This split was quite slow as we had to combine those issues with the first climb – a 5-6m climb over about 50m. Nothing huge but when running at 5k pace it can be quite tough. By this stage I was in about 13th position and was all prepared for another similar lap until I saw the leaders climbing up a steep hill for an extra portion of distance. It must have been about 10m high and all in the space of about 50m again. I passed a couple of people on this climb and it really slowed most people down significantly. Once atop the hill there was a nice zig-zag descent the far side. Thankfully it was at a gentle gradient and the quads managed it without issue. After that it was a return towards the start of the lap via the pedestrian bridge.
The second lap was more drawn out and less opportunity for passing. At this stage I was blowing hard and my initial idea of cruising around was out the window – I now wanted to maintain position even if I was not that interested in closing the gap in front. Thankfully we didn’t have to climb the bigger hill this time round and eventually we were back at the beginning of the lakeside path and turned right for the finish line. This was a further dent to the motivation as the finish chute was at the top of a modest hill but made it all the more difficult after what wes just been through! I decided I was just gonna jog the remainder as no point in killing myself.
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| Parkrun splits |
My initial plan to run this in the morning in Mayo gave way to running it in the afternoon in Dublin which resulted in me running it after 7pm! Once I was out running things got even worse as mentally I just didn’t fancy three hours of plodding along but I knew it had to be done.
I started off by doing a lap of my usual 11.9km loop and had been contemplating two more laps to bring the run to 36km but halfway around the first one I knew I’d never survive laps tonight. As I finished it out I dropped back into the apt for a chage of clothes as I was already saturated and didn’t fancy two more hours in the same wet clothes. I got caught with a couple of other things too so I was off the road for about 20mins before I returned.
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| Part 2 splits |
Back on the road and I was feeling much fresher and the rain had mostly passed so things were easier for a while. This time I made for the coast road via Coolock. Once I arrived at the coastal path the view of Dublin Bay was much more appealing and my spirits lifted. I was keeping things at a nice, slow pace yet not really looking at the watch. Before too long I reached Clontarf and then was on my final 6km home which was mainly uphill so that added a nice bit of resistance to the end of the run.
Finished up doing 34.4km in total in 3:13:50 (5:38/km). Afterwards my legs were feeling pretty goo and I could have done an extra few kms if required. So, a success overall and another good week of mileage. Another big mileage week follows culminating in Barcelona marathon on Sunday and then a much needed first rest day in a month next Monday – Can’t wait for both of them!!
Week 8 Summary:
RTW: 8 from 7 days
DTW: 109.4km
DTY: 960.2km
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