Record Week

For my long run on Saturday I reversed the 23.4 mile loop I did last week. My intention was to do an evenly paced run at about a 135 HR (No speeding up at the end to see what was in the tank) The morning was warm and sunny for a change. The first 10 to 15 miles went by pretty easy - good to cover the hilly part early on. As I was running out of the City on the way home the heat got to me a bit (it's all relative - by heat I mean 20 to 22 deg C) and despite the fact that I was carrying a drink I was running out with 5 miles to go.

While the pace remained more or less the same, the effort was increasing - my Heart Rate was averaging 130 for the first 5 miles, moved into the 140's from mile 16 and stayed above 150 from mile 20/21. I am certainly glad when I finish theses long runs over 20 miles, as the last few miles always tend to stress my system much more that any other type of training run. There certainly was no sprint finish at the end of this run. My average HR for the run was 139 bpm - pace of 07:58 (very similar to last week)

A recovery run this morning saw me heading off at a leisurely pace on a 12.4 mile loop from my house into Cork and back at an even pace averaging at 09:01 minutes per mile (HR of 120 bpm)

The recovery run finished a week in which I recorded my highest mileage todate of 87.8 miles as follows:-

Mon - 12.1 Miles (07:33 pace @ 139 bpm - 9 miles @ 07:23 pace)

Tue - 9.5 Miles (08:01 pace @ 144 bpm)

Wed - 10.4 Miles (08:16 pace @ 139 bpm - Park)

Thur - 10 Miles (08:34 pace @ 124 bpm - park)

Fri - 10 Miles (07:22 Pace @ ??? bpm - 8 miles @ 07:16 pace - Park)

Sat 23.4 miles (07:58 miles @ 139 bpm)

Sun 12.4 miles (09:01 pace @ 120 bpm)