Anyone got a spare ticket...

Oh the Green and Red of Mayo
I can see it still
It's soft and craggy bogland
It's tall majestic hills
Where the ocean kisses Ireland
And the waves carress it's shore
Oh the feeling it came over me
To stay forever more
Forever more

Monday, 16th September, 2013 – Rest Day
Really tired all day so gave into a second successive rest day. :-(

Tuesday, 17th September, 2013 – 11.9km Easy Run (4:58/km)
Almost became a third rest day(!) but just about managed to rescue a run very late in the evening. Fairly miserable out there and I went with the gloves for the first time since Spring.

Wednesday, 18th September, 2013 – 13.1km Yasso Session 8 x 800m (3:12/split)
Decided I’d use the Yasso’s as VO2 training on the run in to the big day. They serve the purpose of speed training but also according to theory, the pace you manage to sustain over 10 x 800m 10 days out from the marathon should approximately equate to the hrs & mins you’ll run the marathon in. So, I was aiming for 3:10 per split in this session which should equate to a 3hr10min marathon.

The evening itself was very blustery, so hardly ideal for this session. I was on my usual stomping ground of the Furze Road for this becaue of it’s flatness. The first two splits were with the wind and came in at 3:15 & 3:14. Not a great start as I was sure things would only get worse. The third split was back into the wind and came in at 3:12 which was a huge surprise! This gave me confidence for the next few which were with the wind again and resulted in 3:07, 3:10 & 3:09. Very happy with these so with just two left I was confident I’d see them all out. Last two were 3:15 & 3:12. So all in all I completed the whole session (Which looked dodgy after the first split!) and averaged out at 3:12. A little outside what I was aiming at from the beginning but if I managed a 3:12 marathon in Chicago I’d be more than happy! The last couple of splits I lost focus for parts of them and that was the reason for the slightly slower times. I’m sure if I was accompanied doing these I’d have maintained pace on them but c’est la vie! A great speed session overall.

Thursday, 19th September, 2013 – 6.4km Recovery Run (5:34/km)
I sneaked in a short recovery run in this morning as I wanted to loosen out the legs in advance of a MLR this evening with Philip. Seriously miserable weather but the nice stuff is on it’s way!

Thursday, 19th September, 2013 – 17.1km Easy MLR Run (5:08/km)
Met Philip in Celbridge for this one. He let me choose the pace but once we got into our stride we ended up going about 15 secs per km faster than planned. It still worked out though and we were able to hold a chat the whole way, so nothing too strenuous. We ran along the Royal canal until 45mins before turning around. We got back in 42mins thanks to the aid of the wind!

One thing of note from the run is that my hip flexors appear to be quite sore and stiff for the first couple of kms so this damn injury seems to be floating around theplace the past few weeks. May need to get a check up by a physio soon…

Friday, 20th September, 2013 – 7.4km Recovery Run (5:36/km)
Very relaxed 6.5km in advance of pacing 1:40 in the Dublin HM tomorrow morning.

So, now that I'm up to date, how about that spare ticket??

Week 38 Summary (so far):
RTW: 5 from 5 days
DTW: 55.9 km
DTY: 3,017.7 km
Chicago - 23 days (3 weeks, 2 days)

Game 5 of 6...

Thursday, 22nd August, 2013 – 12.1km Mountain Run - Slieve Foye, Carlingford

Met Felim after work in Malahide and droveonwards to Carlingford for a go at Slieve foye - Co. Louth's highest peak. No huge reason we choase this apart from getting a peak that wasn't in the usual Wicklow Mountains. En route the weather was perfect but when we got to Dundalk we could see low cloud over our mountain. By the time we got to Carlingford 10 mins later the cloud was almost on the floor!

Regardless, we decided to forge onwards. Felim had an idea of the route and after a couple of wee misdirections by us we were on the trail heading up the mountain. A brief moment of clear views allowed us a glimpse of Carlingford Lough and some of the Mourne Mountains across the way.

As we got closer to the top the cloud had really gathered in so we had a quick double-check off the map and compass and 300m later we were at the peak. There were brief views of the countryside but mainly we were looking down on a blanket of cloud for miles around us. I'm pretty sure this would be a great viewpoint on a clear day so I'm sure I'll be back but this evening failed to deliver on the vistas!

Trig point atop Slieve Foye (Highest point in Co. Louth).
(Try not to think of "I'm a little teapot"!!)

We continued on after a while and after we noticed the dark evening was beginning to close in we dropped down along the gully from Eagle's Rock to the former forest. A dodgy fence crossing eventually got us out onto the trail proper and an easy 3km run back down to the village under the guidance of my head torch. All done it was 12km but a bit stop-start and really shouldn't have taken the almost 2hrs we racked up! Enjoyable evening out and the plan is Slieve Gullion in Armagh next up.

Friday, 23rd August, 2013 – 7.4km Recovery Run (5:40/km)

I was a little bit stiff after the trail run last night so just a slow recovery run this evening. Still looking to keep the recovery days very relaxed.

Saturday, 23rd August, 2013 – 26.5km LSR (5:07/km)

I met up with Philip in the Phoenix Park at 8:30am for this run. Plan was to get a decent run in before Philip called over to the start of the Frank Duffy 10 miler on Chesterfield Avenue. This portion of the run lasted 10 miles and was done at approx 5:00/km which was a good decent pace for me but a very easy pace for Philip!

After catching the start of the race I continued on my way for a few more miles. I stopped off for a few minutes to catch the race leaders pass through mile 8 and then ran to the finish line to catch the rest of the crowd coming home. All done it amounted to 26.5km. I was hoping to rattle a few more off to get to 30km but the rigor mortis had kicked in by the time I restarted so I just jogged it back to the car. Pretty confident about this weekends LSR though where I'll be aiming for 30-32km @ 5:00/km.

Sunday, 24th August, 2013 – 7.1km Recovery Run (5:23/km)

This was just a short run to get the legs moving as I had to be in Croker in time to watch the Mayo Minors beat Monaghan. The day was completed with the Seniors beating Tyrone so onwards to 'Game 6'! Big loss with Co'C dislocating his shoulder again but Freeman stood up to the mark in his absence. Over to you Dublin to set up the match everyone's been waiting for!

The Eircom 'Were you there?' app question answered!

Week 34 Summary:

RTW: 7 from 7 days

DTW: 91.0km

DTY: 2,722.0km
Chicago - 49 days (7wks, 0days)

What a performance...but nothing to do with running!

Friday, 2nd August - Rest Day.

Feeling a little tired today and just as lazy so decided to take a rest day.

Saturday, 3rd August - 7.3km Easy Run (4:51/km).
My old soccer team were short on players today so I helped them out by playing about 70mins at left back. First game in a year. I am probably the best part of 10lbs lighter than my last game so it took a while before I managed to stand my ground in tackles. I wasn't too quick on the turn (never was!) but as the others were fading in the second half I was still grand. A mixture of my fitness and the fact I was playing LB I suppose.

A few hours later I felt a bit guilty about not running yesterday or today so I ventured out for an easy run. Felt surprisingly good so kept the average pace around the 4:50/km rate. I can feel myself getting the life back in my legs at last!

Sunday, 4th August - Rest Day.
I'd planned to go for a recovery run this morning but just before I left the apartment I got a call from a friend who was in Town for only a few hours so had to call off the run. Would have gone later instead had it not been for the Mayo v Donegal match and in fairness there was no way I couldn't go out and party after that Mayo show!! Nothing won yet but I'd more than settle for two more performances like that!

So I appear to be getting back to some sort of decent training at last. Hopefully I still have enough time left to get a good run in Chicago in what is now less than 10 weeks time!

Week 31 Summary: 

RTW: 6 from 7 days

DTW: 48.8km

DTY: 2511.5km
Chicago - 67 days (9wks, 4days)