Swimming
(1500M / 00:30:08) 18M Pool at Gym.
Back
in the pool again. It’s time now to step things up a bit as I need to
build a decent base of swimming as I head towards the beginning of official
Ironman training which is looming in November.
Up
until now, I was happy enough to just knock out 750M swims in preparation for
the Tri last weekend, however I now need to start building a bit more endurance
in.
With
that in mind I managed a very pleasing 1500M today at lunchtime.
Now,
I know that 1500M is hardly an major endurance session but I haven’t swum that
far in a while so it was good to get back a bit more distance.
I
felt really good and it showed in the first 750M, which were completed in
14.38. That is faster than I managed over the last few weeks when I was
working specifically on the 750M distance and speed.
I
thought I might pay for that in the second 750Ms.
I
did a little bit but it was only 52 secs slower at 15.30. This is the
purpose of endurance training. I should be aiming to stay strong or
possibly even build pace as I go along.
I’m
not complaining as this was a good session and a really decent base point to
build from.
Running
(19.50 Miles / 03:15:12 / 00:10:00 per mile)
I
am not doing any more long runs at night after working all day. Nope, never, no
how, no way!
The
experience is just not really all that enjoyable. Maybe in the summer it
would be better but as we march onwards towards Autumn, the experience of
seeing the light fade while out running is just not doing it for me.
As
I will be hitting the Dunfanaghy International Jazz and Blues Festival this
weekend in Co Donegal, I decided to get the long run out of the way and thus
freeing up valuable drinking and “recovery” time this weekend.
The
aim was for a minimum 19 miles and my rough estimation of the route might see
me touch on the 20 mile mark.
Now,
this is a bit further than I would typically be going with six weeks left to
go, however my recent experiences have taught me that I have lacked the
strength of consistent long runs in a Marathon and I really start to lose pace
over the last 6 miles or so. My aim this time is to do more longer runs
and build the strength to see me come through without slowing down just as
much.
If
I am completely honest I am just not enjoying my long runs as much as I
normally do in this block of training running up to the Dublin Marathon.
I don’t know why, but my suspicion is that it is poor experiences of
evening long runs are dragging me down.
The
run itself went pretty well. Having decided to ditch the Heart Rate
Monitor in favour of working on a paced run, I set out aiming to hold 9.30 per
mile for as long as I could, and then not let the wheels come off.
By
and large the run then was successful as I held that pace through until about
15 miles without too much problem, however the last couple of miles up home
were blooming awful. It’s all up hill and my legs were not feeling the
love, probably not helped by the funk that my brain was in at this stage.
I
walked a bit of the up hill (probably quite a bit) and this was largely
responsible for the 10 min per mile average pace. If the last couple of
miles had been flat, would I have done better?
Probably,
but not to the extent of regaining 9.30 pace.
The
verdict is that it is good to get it done, it went largely to plan and I am not
doing night time long runs again!
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