Anyone can run 20 miles. It's the next six that count.
- Barry Magee

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Heavy training almost done.


4 weeks or 222 miles today since my last update. I had planned 236 miles during this period but I am quite happy to be just 14 miles off.


Its been a good 4 weeks of injury free running. 3 races also during this time and I believe they were needed. I had felt after the Churchtown south 5 mile race on the 22nd of July that I had lost some of my sharpness. This was probably due to injury earlier on. First race on the cards was an 8k race in Galway on the 7th of August. A time of 32:23. A definite improvement there.

Next race on the cards was a half marathon in Clonmel. This race was 6 weeks before the marathon and the race I planned to use to gauge my fitness and to see what I should target in Berlin. Now to say the day wasn’t as planned would be an understatement. Roasting hot day and a course that measured 14.3 miles rather then 13.1. A mistake by the lead car taking the wrong route. I believe I passed the 13.1 mark at 1 hour 30. Time for the 14.3 was 1:39:xx. I believe myself that on a normal day and no confusion about the mile markers that I would probably be close to 1:28 maybe 1:29.

Last race of the last 4 weeks was the Ballycotton 5 miler last Thursday night. Time 32:07. Once again an improvement of nearly a minute in the last 4 weeks so I am quite pleased with that. Compared to my Ballycotton 5 time last year it is a 2 minute improvement so I feel I am slowly improving. The one disappointing thing about last Thursday night is that I was really hoping to make the top 50 in the 5 mile series. I was in 54th position before last Thursdays race and ended up gaining 2 positions. I was 14 seconds off the 50th position. Anyway there is always next year.

My weekly training has gone well over the last 4 weeks and the mileage been steady. Week 11, 55 miles. Week 12, 53 miles. Week 13, 57 miles and week 14, 57 miles. In this period I have also put in 3 long runs over the 20 mile mark. 2 23 mile runs and 1 20 mile. Today was a 23.3 mile run at 7:46 average pace and I have to say it was the best I have ever felt after a long run. Some days are like that.

Now that the marathon is just 4 weeks away its time to look forward to it. There have been points in the last few weeks that I have got bored with all the training. Arriving home from work day after day to head out for another semi long run was starting to take its toll. I have stayed clear of hills and speed work for the last few weeks for fear of injury. Maybe in the next few weeks I will add an odd session here or there.

Before last year’s Marathon I started to taper 3 weeks before hand. This year I am changing it a bit. I felt very sluggish last year and believe my drop in training was two severe with 3 weeks out. This year my mileage will drop a bit but not to a huge extent. The next 2 weeks will be in the 40s and then I will start a proper taper in the last 2 weeks bringing the mileage into the 30s and teens in the last week. Over the next 2 weeks I hope to improve my pace over the 10 mile distance and aim to run a lot of them at my target marathon pace. This I have decided to be a Marathon target time of 3:10. 7:15 per mile pace. Fingers crossed.

Anyway next update will be in 2 weeks time.

Thanks

Paudie

4 comments:

  1. Seems like things are coming together!! Hard luck on the top 50 but 14 sec is better than 1 sec!!!! :)

    Brendan

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  2. Good to see you on Thursday Paudie. That's tough about being so close to getting under 50th for the series. But remember what you're training for and as Brendan says everything is coming together for Berlin. BTW Joe Roche of Eagle is also running Berlin (don't know if you know him or not)

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  3. Thanks gents. Yep I know Joe Roche. Didn’t realize he was doing it. Hopefully I will come across him there. Your right about keeping focus on what I am training for. Won’t care less about the 50th position if I hit my target in Berlin.

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  4. Best of luck to you Paudie great time your aiming for,I'm still trying to sub 4.30 I'm a disaster i know lol,wish ya all the best in Berlin.

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