Hard Recovery Day

A 15 mile easy bike ride with Adrian on Sunday morning was sufficient to loosen out my legs after Saturday's triathlon. In the afternoon we all headed to west Cork stopping off in Inchydoney to see my mother before making our way to Goleen for 6 p.m. to sign up for the Route to Crook 5 mile road race. Ani was keen to run the U16's race which was over the last 2.5 miles of the course as her friends, Daire and Eimear (and their 4 other siblings), from home, who were in Goleen for the summer were running it. It was very much a family race as her friends parents, Denis and Shelia were running the 5 miler as was Pat next door, whose son was also running the 2.5 miler. In fact Shelia's family, 7 in all, were also running the race. The only damper was the incessant rain. I met up with Pat Murphy and Niamh Roe from Eagle AC before the race. "Are you running it hard?" Pat asked me. When I replied that I was not racing it we agreed to head out at a comfortably hard sub-7 minute pace. We were soaked through before the start but my short warmup was enough to keep me warm. The course was quite undulating but the rises and falls were sufficiently short to make it manageable. We headed out at a steady pace covering the first mile in 6:30, passing out those who had set off too fast. We settled into a steady pace and continued to pass runners who by now had thinned out. The pace slowed to 6:40 over the 2nd mile as the undulations took their toll, still passing one or two in front until about the 2.5 mile mark where we settled into what would be our final position. Certainly the pace was more manageable with Pat next to me, like a metronome keeping time. Pat indicated across the cloud laden bay to Crookhaven saying "That's where we're going" - too much for me to take on board - it looked miles away and all I could think of was the next 100 yards. We finally turned away from the wind before the 4 mile mark keeping pace about the 6:40 to 6:45 mark. The lone guy in green 100 yards in front was getting no closer as was the guy in black 100 yards in front of him. Finally the village was in sight and we upped the pace slightly in anticipation of the finish line but still kept together to the finish line - although I was given 20th place and Pat 21st (33:09 - 06:38 pace). Niamh finished in 7th taking first female place (30:50). Ani was there to greet me after having finished her 2.5 mile run/jog/walk. Her friend Eimear was first girl U16, which is very good considering she is 10 (no times were recorded). I think they enjoyed jumping off the pier in Crookhaven more than the race though. The results gave me 2nd M40, with Pat getting 3rd M50 - it's a case of being at the right age at the right race - there were 5 x M45's ahead of me. After a quick shower Abina, Ani, Saran and I headed to Denis and Shelia's house in Goleen for a nightcap before heading home in the wee hours. Needless to say there was no early morning recovery run on Monday - although I did manage an easy run in the park after work. This evening was bike time with Puds (close on 28 miles with a 20 minute tempo at 25 MPH - wind assisted and drafting). Although I have no triathlon on the horizon i'll continue with the bike training as it appears to benefit my running with less impact. Sun 9th Aug 5.89 miles with 5 miles in 33:09 (06:38 pace @ 159 HR) Marathon Training week 2/12 - 42.6 miles. Mon 10th Aug 7.72 miles in 01:04:39 (08:22 pace @ 120 HR) Tue 11th Aug 2.5 miles in 19:49 (07:56 pace - treadmill) My training heart rates continue to come down which is a sign that my fitness has come back - sitting on the bike before my workout this evening my HR was in the low 40's, which surprised me. The treadmill test today shows than my HR has recovered to pre-injury levels at last.