Dublin Marathon hangover

With the Marathon over there comes a time to sit back, relax and realise what you have achieved or not achieved as the case may be. I had planned to take a week off running at least to let the body and mind recover. Just as thoughts of getting the runners back on came into my head I was hit with a bit of a cold which I think is common enough given that your immune system might be a bit low after the exertions of the Marathon. With that I was forced into a few days more recovery and by Thursday although not 100% I decided to get back into it.

Thursday 7th November - Easy Run

6.14 miles @ 9:04 pace

This consisted of 4 loops of the winter run in Gormanston College with Rosemary & Brian. Where the legs had felt recovered beforehand they certainly made it known that they didn't feel like running again just yet. Was great though to get back out there.

Saturday 9th November - Tempo Run

We are still getting a weekly training plan off Gary to follow and a nice 5 mile tempo run was included to be done at roughly 1/2 Marathon pace + 5/10 seconds. Met with Rosemary at 7:30am and did around a mile warm up although not really getting warm.

The splits for the 5 miles were (7:32, 7:29, 7:25, 7:25, 7:24).

This was tough going, really tough going. I still wasn't feeling wonderful and was struggling in the first mile. I just tried to keep plugging away and although the legs were screaming at me once it didn't feel like anything was going to pop I kept at it.

Although we both seemed to be struggling in equal measure the pace held steady and even picked up slightly on the return 2.5 miles. Before long we were up the last incline and the main road and finishing point came into sight. I for one was relieved to see it. We finished off with a mile cool down back to the cars and everything was done and dusted before 8:30.


Summary: Back at it in a small way last week with a bit of a shock to the system on Saturday morning. Maybe the shock to the system was needed as the lingering cold seems to have shifted now. Looking forward to a bit more structured training this week. Time to build a base again before London training kicks off in earnest...