Quite Week

This week has been fairly quite on the running front. Saturdays long run of 17 miles was followed by no less that 3 run free days. Monday was a rest day and I ended up on the bike on Sunday and Tuesday (a late day at work on Tuesday saw me miss the track and head out on the bike with neighbour Jim, who is also doing the Bo Peep Tri next Saturday).

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My first run of the week was a speed session in the park at lunchtime on Wednesday with sets of 2min, 1min and 30sec at Interval Pace with 1min, 30sec & 30sec recoveries. I was aiming for 5:48 pace on the Garmin as a guide. While the pace should have been manageable I found running on the grass in the sun much tougher than the track and instead of the 30 sec recovery between sets I took closer to 2 minutes as my legs felt like lead. I completed 5 sets in all at paces between 5:40 and 6:00, although the Garmin isn't that accurate at measuring average pace over 30 seconds.

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Thursday was another running free day as I opted for the bike again. Friday was an easy 5 miler in the morning and while I was hoping to run my second speed session of the week at the Kinsale 5 in the evening, a late return from work killed that one.

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So I was reasonably fresh on Saturday morning to try something new. I joined up with Paul Daly (who had run the Kinsale 5 the previous evening) and headed for Ballyhoura in Limerick for a short mountain run. The route was a mixture of forest roads, mountain bike trails, rocky fire breaks and bog. While the uphill first half was challenging on the heart and legs it was the downhill section that really concentrated the mind as finding the correct spot to plant your foot on the undulating rocky/boggy terrain could mean the difference between getting down safely or falling flat on your face and at a cadence of 90 that's 3 footfalls you have to plan every second - much better than Nintendo Brain Training. Needless to say I was trailing behind Paul who had some previous experience, the latest being a 25km trail race in Vancouver. Great fun, although I can feel those downhills in my quads today.

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Today's session was a long brick requiring me get out the door and on the bike shortly after 7 to cover the 21.3 mile hilly loop via Crossbarry and the Viaduct to get back and run the mile to the start of the club run schedule for 8:30. I pushed at a steady pace on the bike and was home for about 8:20 - enough time to change the shoes, take the bike indoors have a quick drink and head back out. I kept a strong pace (6:36) for the mile to the start of the club run - a bit of race day practice before settling into the easier 8 minute pace. The club run was over undulating terrain west of Ballincollig and while my energy dipped on occasions I held it together to cover 15.5 miles in just over 2 hours. Coupled with the hour+ on the bike I was glad to be finished - time to refuel, the best part of endurance training.

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