Marathon log

6 weeks and counting down fast.

Hi all. It’s been a while since my last update but I was on holidays for a week so that’s my excuse. Plenty of nice easy running on holidays and with lovely weather so happy days.

Lake Garda was the location and morning running was a pleasure there.

Maybe too much as of a pleasure as the section where I ran was a tarmac surface and zero hills.

Approximately 6 miles in length. Morning running a must as the temperature got up to about 30 degrees during the day.

Only problem with this is that I’m not sure if it did me any favours in regards to my marathon training as no hard training was involved (interval, speed, hill) – Still, all work and no play…..

Since my last update I have hit the track to do some 800 meters sessions. These are getting better for me. My last session (2 weeks ago) had me doing 8 x 800 meters at 3.10 with 400 meters recovery in between.

Plan is to hit the track again tomorrow and hopefully bring it up to 10 x 800 meters for the next 3 weeks.

Since my last blog I have had 2 races. Ballycotton 5 was the first. With this I was hoping to get into the top 50 but I only improved 2 places from 62 to 60th so disappointed with that.

Second race was the Blarney Half Marathon yesterday.

Last year I did this race and had the race from hell. From mile 4 I was dead in the water and every mile after that was a struggle. I finished in a time of 1:34:50 last year.

This year was strange. A very hot day and my plan was to try to run 7.05 per mile. This was not to be but at no stage during the race did I feel bad. My finishing time was almost the same as last year at 1:34:49. This while feeling good. I’m really not sure what this is telling me. Did I not push myself enough?? Did the week’s holidays take the kick out of me??? I’m really not sure and I do think that I should have put in a better time than that but how I felt this year compared to last year has no comparison.

My split times are as follows:
Mile 6 was an uphill section so I can understand the 7:54 but mile 12 at 7:39 and mile 13 at 7:22 are a mystery, I felt good so it must be a case of getting lazy close to the end. Something for me to look out for during the Cork to Cobh 15 mile race in 3 weeks time.

1 Mi
6:50.42

2 Mi
6:47.55

3 Mi
7:00.64

4 Mi
7:00.55

5 Mi
7:21.11

6 Mi
7:53.78

7 Mi
7:07.88

8 Mi
7:05.07

9 Mi
6:54.86

10 Mi
7:16.72

11 Mi
7:12.46

12 Mi
7:38.03

13 Mi
7:21.84

0.19 Mi
1:18.33
(Mr Garmin tells me 13.19 sh that why the last interval is 0.19.

At this point I need to look at my training and see where I am. To be honest I am not very happy as of now. I don’t seem to be getting over the 50 mile mark in the week and I think it’s starting to tell. My running is not consistent and if I have any hope of getting under the 3:15 in Dublin then the training needs to improve over the next few weeks.
6 weeks and counting. Tonight is a rest night after yesterday (shins also sore so no harm to rest them). From now ‘till the Cork to Cobh will be crucial in the training for Dublin so fingers crossed.