This week felt very slow, after the high of a good time for the 5k I struggled to get motivated. I think it is because I have missed two weeks of speed training, and the pace seems slow and difficult. The day after the 5k I did a slow run and on the Thursday was the 10 mile tempo with a mile warm up and cool down. The pace was 6.53 average, and I was a bit disappointed with that, as I had been using this run as a tester for the half in the park this Saturday where I am looking for a 6.30 pace, which was the pace for the 10 miler a few weeks ago. I am putting the slow pace down to work this week, I have been putting in pretty much 12 hour days, getting up early before work to run, and not finishing until midnight, combined with the runs really took its toll.
Saturday was my long run, again up early before work, and it was a nice day for running. 18.6 miles at a 7.29 pace, again was faster than it needed to be for the marathon training pace, but I was using this run as a tester for the 3/4 marathon in athlone in two weeks time. 50.5 miles for the week was probably a bit short, I took my rest day on Sunday instead of the Wednesday.
Monday was 7 miles of hills and Tuesday was 8 miles of the same, 7.20 and 7.15 pace respectively. Wednesday, 5.5 at 6.58, and we are tapering for Saturday over the next two days with a short two mile tempo today, and some strides only tomorrow. As I said at the start, I think I am getting a cold or something, I have no energy, and worse, I am finding it difficult to get motivated to go running.
It could be the long week at work, the change in the weather, a cold, the cumulative effects of the long weekly milage, or all of this combined. Whatever it is, I am not hopeful of a good time on Saturday, and I hope it passes soon.
Sunday is the club cross country race in Greenanstown, the weather is forecast good, and I am excited to be helping out with the organisation. I doubt if I will run it myself, cross country is not really my thing and I hope to put a few hours on the legs afterwards on Sunday, I will need it to recover the lack of miles this week.
My previous PB for the half distance is 1.30, so hopefully the next report will show something better.
Thanks for posting the blog Alan. Nice to see one with an original title ;-)
ReplyDeleteBe careful racing on Saturday if you don't feel right. I'm speaking from experience of last week.
Remember as well 'the main thing is the main thing' i.e. the marathon. I'd suggest gearing your paces back to the pace you want to run the marathon especially the tempo's. Your body will be better trained then for what to expect in the marathon.
P
Thanks Peter, I was thinking the same thing recently, and Gary hinted to the same in this weeks post about the "last" tempo before the marathon. That is the goal, I will just run athlone as a long run. I can really identify with how you were feeling last week, I'm not going to put any pressure on myself for tomorrow.
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