Saturday 9 January 2010

Beautiful Day

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The first song on the shuffle this morning was Beautiful Day - yeah I know seems like it's all U2 lately. The title certainly summed up the feeling I got from running in the clear crisp air on a sunny morning. I headed west up Curraghbeg for a hilly fartlek session. The photo is from the top of the hill looking west over Inniscarra Lake.
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I had no issues following last weeks looong run. I took an extra unintentional days rest on Monday despite taking the afternoon off to see Avatar with Abina - the movie went on longer than anticipated but was well worth it. The best movie I've seen in years. Then again most of the movies i've gone to since becoming a dad involved a cast that ended up in McDonalds "happy meals".
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A double run on Tuesday ensured that I got a recovery run in before a scaled back interval session at the track. Mile repeats were on the cards again but this time we were back to 3 repeats with the recoveries reduced from 3 to 2 minutes. However I ran them slower @ 6:40 pace, which was no harm given the icy conditions.
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Despite the continuing cold spell (hasn't been this bad since 1963 apparently) and warnings from Abina (who has seen a tenfold increase in the number of orthopaedic injuries at the hospital where she works) I managed to get my remaining scheduled runs in on Wednesday and Thursday as road conditions were not too bad - cold but mainly dry.
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The scheduled rest day on Friday saw me back in the pool looking for my sea legs with one eye on Tri season - my biggest problem is that I haven't seen the bike in weeks let alone sat on it - hopefully i'll address that when the thaw comes (or when Connie returns my turbo trainer, whichever comes sooner) There may also be a new bike on the horizon, which I hope will be the biggest contribution to my reduced bike times in 2010.
. The "big snow" is due late tomorrow morning, hopefully late enough to allow the Eagles complete their hilly long run. TueAdd Video 5th Jan 6.05 miles in 51:59 (08:35 pace @120 HR) Recovery run. About 6.7 miles with 3 x 1600m @ 6:40 - Interval session without the Garmin. Wed 6th Jan 9.09 miles in 1:09:43 (7:40 pace @ 132HR) General Aerobic run Thur 7th Jan 6 miles in 43:29 (7:14 @ 149 HR) Steady Run 2.5 mils in 19:50 (07:56 pace - treadmill) Sat 9th Jan 9.49 miles in 1:13:15 (7:43 pace @ 144HR) - Hilly Fartlek run.

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4 comments:

  1. We saw it Saturday on the big screen in 3D - pretty amazing! Didn't seem like it was 3 hours.

    Hope the ground thaws out soon - and the lakes so you can get in a swim ;)

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  2. That is a solid four days, what with the double runs; nice photo too! So where does this take you come spring? A (long) triathlon or two?

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  3. Hi Grellan

    That was an amazing long run you did the other day. It was well planned out and certainly well executed.

    I can't wait to see how that ultra goes as I have been throwing the idea around myself.

    Take care and best of luck in 2010.

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  4. Ewen, That's the lake I swim in during the summer.

    Michael, No Triathlon until at least June and then perhaps a half in September.

    Bill, Cheers. Good to see you back.

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