Keep the Easy Days Easy....

...so that you can keep the hard days hard.

Most of my recovery runs have been at a steady 7:50 to 8:10 pace which fits in reasonably well with my "Easy (E Pace)" training pace prescribed in "Daniels' Running Formula". But recently I have slowed the pace of these easy "non-quality" runs, where the only objective is active recovery and getting miles into the legs. My two recovery runs this week (Monday and Thursday) were at 9:04 and 8:43 pace over 10 miles. However while the pace was easy they were far from comfortable as it was windy and wet on both occasions. Having escaped the rain over the last number of months I managed to get three wet runs in this week with Tuesday evening's speedwork limited to 3 wet and windy miles at 3 hour marathon pace with a 1 mile warm up/down either side -and I can't say the pace felt comfortable, even for 3 miles.

My 2 dry runs on the other hand went quite well with a 16.5 mile long run on Wednesday morning, which started off sluggish and felt better as the miles progressed. This morning's tempo run in glorious sunshine actually went better than expected. I had planned 2 x 3 miles @ HM (06:30 pace) with 0.5 mile recovery in between. Typically I have found it difficult to get down to 6:30 pace on these runs and if I do get near it, i can't maintain it for the duration. My 2 warmup miles felt sluggish which was not encouraging for what was to come but as I eased into the tempo pace I felt comfortable so much so that I thought of extending the first leg and cutting the second and ultimately decided to run the 6 miles straight with recovery at the end. In reality I should have re-adjusted my target pace to account for the longer duration. The one benefit was that it was a flat 6 miles (Ballincollig/Straight Road) which helped with maintaining the same intensity, although when I turned at the Kingsley Hotel after 3.5 miles I faced a slight headwind, which was more tough psychologically than physically. I thought the end of the last mile would never come as the fatigue intensified - my mantra over the last 400m was "keep the easy days easy so that you can keep the hard days HARD.....HARD............HARD". I maintained a relatively consistent pace which turned out slightly faster than last Sunday's 10k so all-in all a good hard session. My legs do feel achy now though (pleasantly so). Mile 1 - 06:35 (148HR) - 06:35 Mile 2 - 06:24 (155HR) - 12:59 Mile 3 - 06:26 (159HR) - 19:25 Mile 4 - 06:23 (163HR) - 25:48 Mile 5 - 06:34 (166HR) - 32:22 (only 19 seconds off my 5 mile PB - time to find a fast 5 miler) Mile 6 - 06:31 (168HR) - 38:53 (06:29 pace @ 160 HR) This has been a better week for sleeping as the kids are off school and I don't need to rise as early in the morning to get the runs in. Although some days I subconsciously compensated by staying up later. Have a good Easter and good luck to all those running the Kilnaboy 10 on Sunday (the final one in the Munster Series). I don't think I'll make it as Abina is working on Sunday and there is the small matter of an Easter Egg hunt to organise. I'll be missing out on 2 tee-shirts though. (although I'm not short on those - now if it was a free mug....that's a different story......) Mon 6th Apr a.m. 10.1 miles in 01:31:27 (09:04 pace @ 117 HR) p.m. 2.5 miles in 19:50 (07:56 pace - treadmill) Tue 7th Apr 5.27 miles in 37:37 (07:08 pace @ 159HR) with 3 miles in 06:50, 06:47 & 06:51. Wed 8th Apr a.m. 16.49 miles in 02:07:20 (07:43 pace @ 154 HR) HR all over the place, in the 160's for the first 5 miles but dropped into the 150's when I pushed on the uphills!!! p.m. 2.5 miles in 19:50 (07:56 pace - treadmill) Thur 9th Apr 10.16 miles in 01:28:31 (08:43 pace @ 120 HR) Fri 10th Apr 11.39 miles in 01:22:12 (7:13 pace @ 149 HR) with 6 miles @ 06:29 pace @ 160 HR)