I finished the week with over 70 miles in the bag - the highest weekly total this year.
I had an easy 10 miler on Friday and a lie in until 06:30 on Saturday morning when I rose to join the Eagle AC scheduled long run from Atlantic Pond out to Passage and Monkstown and back over the hill to Rochestown and the estuary walk to Blackrock Castle before returning to the car.
I wasn't sure of the start time - it was either 15 minutes before or after 7. I aimed for the middle and when I arrived at 7 and saw no cars I went for a 2 mile warmup. Sure enough when I got back the run was about to get underway. There was a small enough crowd (6 in all). The route is almost flat except for the single hill in the middle that rises about 400 feet over a mile and a half or so. My aim was to push this at a "comfortably hard" effort - I had no problem with the hard bit but the comfortable feeling began to fade after the first 100 yards - oh well isn't it supposed to be all about embracing the pain. I had a much needed rest at the top while waiting for those that hadn't scheduled in the "hard hill" bit. I suppose I should have told them of my intentions before blasting off. Two of the group had run the Connemara marathon and Half marathon last weekend and appeared to be fully recovered, as they were flying along. The return leg along the estuary walk to Blackrock Castle was against a very strong headwind, which made the last few miles tough.
Today was a running rest day, although I got 2 hours on the bike before heading with the 2 youngest to Carrignavar for the County Novice and Masters Road Championships - great to watch for a change. We arrived about 10 minutes into the mens race (4miles) walked up the hill from the finish line through the village and watched the runners come in. Brendan obviously got over his "potential disaster" as he past us flying - although the look on his face showed that he was far from comfortable. John, who ran 16 miles with me yesterday was flying, finishing in 23:3x. Who knows what time he would have pulled off if he had rested yesterday. On an aside, he suggested during yesterday's run that the Dingle Marathon on September 12th would be a great training long run for the build-up to Dublin on October 26th, provided we took it easy and enjoyed the spectacular scenery of the Dingle peninsula (roads closed) - sounds like the sort of crazy plan that I would go for!
Fri 27th MarchSat 28th March
18 miles in 02:21:03 (07:50 pace @ 135 HR)
Transition week 8 (Run 75.1 miles, Bike 34.8 miles, Swim 3000m)
that look was my normal "race face". I'm never comfortable!! Thanks for the encouragement
ReplyDeleteNice of you to drop all your mates on the hill ;)
ReplyDeleteWell, it might be crazy, or it might work - Derek Clayton ran a 'training marathon' a few weeks prior to his 2:08:34.
Hi Grellan
ReplyDelete75 miles this last week shows that you are rounding into shape quite nicely.
Are you really thinking of doing a marathon only 6 weeks before Dublin? That would be crazy, but I am jumping back in with another marathon only 4 weeks after Boston.
Boston '10 for you Grellan?
I just want to point out that the last 10k of the Dingle marathon are across a mountain that makes Connemara's Hell of the West look like a molehill.
ReplyDeleteI haven't decided if I will run that one myself yet, but it would be my "home" marathon, and that may well push me towards it. I won't be going for sub-3 on that course, though.
Btw, who runs a 2 mile warm-up before a training run???
Thomas, it was either warmup or freeze, take your pick.
ReplyDeleteDingle would be a fun run!!!
Great week of training. Seventy miles is a lot more than I ever put in!
ReplyDelete70 miles, I should be runnign with you. Keep up with the running, and triathlon training. Speaking of which, where do you get your tri training advice from?
ReplyDeleteMichael, To be quite honest I haven't taken my tri training very seriously compared to my running.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment I just swim 1500m twice a week (45 lengths easy concentrating on form and 15 lengths hard)and I do 1 cycle at the weekend (base buliding of sorts). Once the marathon is over on 1st June I'll ease off on the running and concentrate more on speedwork, hills etc. on the other disciplines for my first tri in early July.
The only material I read at the moment is the "Triathlon 220" magazine published in the UK. Some of the suggested swim/bike programmes, even for olympic distance tris, scare me off to be quite honest as they require a big time investment and I'm already poushing the boundary in that regard.