Too busy running

Things must have been pretty busy over the last few weeks as I haven't updated in a while. Or else I haven't much to say at the moment as my training follows a pretty regular routine. I started this post on Thursday and it's now Sunday morning - a lot of Guinness has passed my lips in the intervening period, which may be the reason for my apathy to blogging.

For the first time in my short running career I am running to a programme set by someone else. The club coach gave me a programme last week which centres around a Tuesday track session of 3 to 5 x 1 mile repeats, a Sunday long run of 16 miles preceded by a hilly fartlek session on Saturday. The remaining runs are either aerobic "easy" runs or "Steady"runs with a day off on Friday. Given my social schedule coming up to Christmas the day off on Friday has come in very handy. Pity I couldn't extend it to Sunday this weekend (end of Thursday's post).

Certainly the most challenging session is the 6 minute mile repeats on Tuesdays. Last week I managed 4 and thought that was my limit, as we were pretty much spent at the end. This week the target was 5 repeats in lane 3 (6:12 target for 1,664m approx, 93 second laps). We weren't too far off the target at 6:15 for the first, but it felt tougher than last week. However the 3 minute recoveries were enough to enable the body to repeat the process a further 4 times with the last rep coming in at 6:09. My "steady" pace is somewhere between marathon pace and easy pace (7:00 to 7:20 miles for me) although I have concentrated on the fast end of this scale as I want to get used to running marathon pace early in the programme. On Thursday I pushed the pace under 7:00 for the 4 "steady" miles of my run and although the 6:45 pace was closer to my "Tempo" pace the effort did not feel as tough as I would have expected this early in my programme. My long runs are at a relatively easy 8 minute plus pace, although this mornings run with Pat over a course that was very hilly in parts was enough to stress all the systems despite the 8:20 average pace. The run was in beautiful sunshine along quite country roads on the ridge between the Lee and Bride valleys west of Ballincollig with great views - certainly a new route to add to the list of Ealge AC weekend runs (for those Eagles reading this post the route could be reduced to a 16 mile run). The only drawback this morning was the icy surface at some shaded spots. Goodbye for now and enjoy the holidays.

Fri 4th Dec - 4.87 miles @ 8:12 pace & 133 HR (with 7 x 15 sec hill sprint).

Sat 5th Dec - 13.36 miles @ 8:09 pace & 131HR

Base Week #2 - 38.4 miles

Mon 7th Dec - 10.22 miles @ 7:50 pace & 137 HR

Tue 8th Dec - 6.21 miles with 4 x 1,600m in 6:08/03/03/03.

Wed 9th Dec - 6.21 miles @ 7:55 pace & 132 HR

Thur 10th Dec - 6.2 miles 7:25 pace & 140HR (with 4 miles steady @ 7:03 pace)

Sat 12th Dec - 9.25 miles @ 7:50 pace & 143 HR (Hilly Fartlek run)

Sun 13th Dec - 16.44 miles @ 7:53 pace & 128HR

Base Week #3 - 54.5 miles

Mon 14th Dec - 6.1 miles @ 7:12 pace & 138HR (Steady run)

Tue 15th Dec - 7.93 miles with 5 x 1664m in 6:15/13/15/13/09

Wed 16th Dec - 8.64 miles @ 8:03 pace & 133HR + 2.5 mile treadmill run @ 7:56 pace.

Thur 17th Dec - 6.0 miles @ 7:08 pace & 136HR (with 4 miles @ 6:45 pace)

Sat 19th Dec - 12.86 miles @ 8:51 pace & 118 HR (Eagle AC Christmas Run) Sun 20th Dec - 18.43 miles @ 8:20 pace & 131 HR (Hilly long run)

Base Week #4 - 62.47 miles.