Back to normality

This was the week that was all about getting back to normality and back into routine.
Monday 6th January - Strength & Conditioning

Back to work today and back to routine. First class in a few weeks and was eased back into it with only having to do 4 sets instead of the normal 5. The body wasn't sure what was happening but got through it in the end.

Tuesday 7th January - Session

Back to speed training with the club tonight and the numbers seem to have trebled from the weeks leading up to Xmas. Good to see so many down.

Session consisted of a 12 min tempo @ 10K pace (7:22) followed by 2 Min's recovery, then into 6x200 w/45 sec recovery (32, 40, 40, 39, 38, 38).

As we weren't using a standard track the distance was approximate and it was changed after the first rep.

After 2 minutes recovery we finished up with 4 minutes @ 5K pace (7:02).

With warm up & cool down just over 5.5 miles for the night. This was a toughie being the first one back after Xmas and the strong wind on one side of the track making it hard to maintain pace.

Great to get back into it though.

Wednesday 8th January - Strength & Conditioning

Another strength & conditioning session lasting 30 minutes or so. A good session with a tough finisher. Finisher was a minute hitting a tyre and a minute of a wall sit for a total of 6 minutes each. The wall sit looks nothing but it takes a lot more effort that just sitting against a wall.

Thursday 9th January - Easy Run

6.34 miles @ 8:52

Was meant to be a tempo run today but I felt I needed a bit more recovery time from the previous 3 days and also I was running around all evening so wasn't really prepared for it anyway. Headed down to Gormanston and did a few miles with the club gang. Legs did feel tired as they often do during an easy run for some reason.

Friday 10th January - Tempo Run

7 miles @ 7:52
7 mile tempo was on the agenda for today and was lucky enough to have Ken for company as we set off for a hilly enough route around Balbriggan. My Garmin was acting up so Ken set the pace with me checking every so often how we were getting on. Legs were feeling it a bit as they should I suppose but finished strong enough I think.

8 miles in total including w/u & c/d

Saturday 11th January - Easy Run

6 miles @ 9:32

This was early on Saturday morning and the legs were a bit creaky from the night before. Also didn't get a chance to have breakfast beforehand or anything to eat much after the run last night which didn't help. Got it done though and hoped it would freshen the legs up for the run the next day.

Sunday 12th January - Long Run

11 miles @ 8:58 + 3 miles @ 7:48

I did a couple of miles before meeting up with the club for the long run. We clocked up another 9 miles at an easy pace, counting down the miles until the pain would hit. Worked the route so we would be starting the tempo part outside the college and would follow the SOS 5K route.

The group was down to myself and Rosemary at this stage and we set off towards Stamullen, the first mile wasn't too bad but we knew we had the rise up through Stamullen into the wind which turned out to be as tough as anticipated. Even when we turned into St Claire's we were still into the wind so no real respite. The pace had dropped a bit as expected but not the effort. As we made our way back towards St Pats we picked back a bit of time on the downhill and I was never happier when we ground to a halt after 3 miles.

I had been dreading the pick up in pace after 11 miles as last weeks 11.5 mile run was the longest I had run since Dublin and also coming at the end of a long week. In the end we got it done though although hard to hit an exact pact with the nature of the conditions yesterday.


So finished the week with 40 miles & a couple of s&c sessions thrown in for good measure. Happy with that and the aim for the moment is to just keep the consistency there as the mileage gradually rises. Another full weeks training this week and then will step back a little bit for the week of the Raheny 5.