Saturday 5th October 2013
Running (20.70 miles / 03:17:39 /00:09:32 per mile / HRZ2)
In hindsight it was pretty likely that I might end up being a bit disappointed in this long run, given that my run last week was probably one of my best long runs ever. Could I repeat this feeling two weeks in a row. I would find out pretty soon.
Setting out with a goal in mind to hold on to a 9.15 per mile pace I wanted to see if I could build on from the feeling of invincibility last week.
Conditions were good and I was feeling pretty positive as I put the rubber on the road.
Pretty early on in my run I realised that I didn’t have that feeling of running on candyfloss (not that it felt like that last week anyway) and that holding a reasonably steady pace might not be just as easy as I hoped. Following a broadly similar route to last week I found my pace yo-yoing a bit although the average was still sitting around the 9.15 mark and this continued through to about 14 miles.
I won’t lie – miles 14-16 back up the hill to home to begin the last little 5 mile loop from home was quite tough. My pace slowed to around 10 min per mile and I was very glad to get to the drink and biscuit I had stashed that would see me through the last miles.
Mile 17 is downhill so I managed to get a bit of momentum back again but the cloud of slowness descended on me again at around 19 miles. The last 2 miles were somewhat of a struggle and mile 20 dropped to about 11 min miles. Not good but I suppose it was forward motion!
Overall it wasn’t a bad run and if I can hold on to a 9.30 average pace on the day in Dublin I will achieve a time of around 4H 09M marathon pace. This would be a huge 12 minute PB and under my goal time of 4H 15M.
I am seriously considering my strategy for the last few weeks now ahead of the Marathon. I had planned to do another 21 mile run next weekend and then go in to a 2 week taper. I’m thinking now that I will change that slightly and next weekend replace the 21 mile run with a shorter 16 mile run with the sole intention of trying to maintain an average pace of 9.10 per mile.
That pace seems pretty quick, however I would feel pretty confident of holding a half marathon at that pace pretty easily, so realistically it is only an extra three miles and should be very much within my level of achievement.
Why would I do that approach rather than another long run? A couple of reasons.
Firstly I’m getting a bit bored of the long runs. Secondly I’m not sure that the extra 5 miles on the run will do a tremendous amount for my fitness and thirdly, I am worried about picking up an injury at this late stage, so hopefully by cutting the length of the long run I will reduce the chances of that happening.
I’ll make up my mind as I go through the week and decide ahead of the weekend.
Sunday 6th October 2013
Cycling (37.62 Miles / 02:27:28 / 15.30 mph / HRZ2 / Cadence 74rpm) Elevation gain 660M
We are one year old! Lisburn Triathlon Club that is.
To “celebrate” we got a great group together and headed out for a group ride for a couple of hours and then back to our Sponsor “The Hillside” for coffee and scones. It was fantastic to see about 20 folks out and sporting the Club gear.
The pace of the ride started out fairly sensible although early in it was clear that a lot of the guys are in better shape than me on the bike and were raring to get stretching the legs a bit and crank things up.
We more or less stayed together through to about 20 miles or so, and then some of the competitive juices started to flow and it was at this point that I lost tough with the main group.
Thankfully (for me anyway) Stuart was lumbered with me as his gears got stuck in the big ring meaning hat he had a hard time on the hills with his gearing. I have no doubt at all that had his gears been working, he would have been up with the main bunch.
I really enjoyed getting back on the bike as it has been four weeks since I last cycled and it is so clear to me that this is the area where my fitness disappears very quickly and where I stand to make the biggest gains for Ironman.
I’m determined to improve on the bike and it would be lovely to be able to ride with the “Big Boys” in the not too distant future.
It’s definitely worth a mention that Claire made a fantastic first Birthday cake for the Club and we all got stuck in to that, along with the great hospitality from The Hillside it made for a terrific day.
The good thing is that despite a 21 mile run and a hilly little bike ride, my legs feel very good. Just as well really as otherwise I might need to spend some time on the torture instrument which I purchased last week.
I’ve heard so much about Foam Rollers and the benefit of using it for recover to flush Lactic acid out of the muscles that I decided to buy one. I don’t really have much of an idea yet on how to use it but I will do a bit of research. However, what I do know is that the two minutes I spent just trying it out, were enough to tell me that it is going to hurt – A LOT! Now there’s something to look forward to.
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