My home town gets its own athletics club :)

My home town has finally established its own athletics club called Callan Athletics Club, the club has just started and its early days yet but it's currently taking on new members.

Registration details can be found on the Callan AC website or on their Facebook page, the first registration night will take place on Tuesday the 5th of May at 8pm in the Droichead Family Resource Centre in West Street, Callan.

Taper time!

Started last week with another nice long run this time a marathon distance as I ran exactly 26.2miles on Monday morning....nice way to start the week.   Thats my last long slow run before the Vartry 50mile in two weeks.

So now since Monday I'm officially tapering and after the 26.2miles I only did a few more miles to finish the week with a low amount of miles.

I'm never a fan of the taper time before a race as I always feel like I could be training more and this viewpoint isn't helped from the fact that I have had past experiences of still managing to perform pretty decently without tapering. For example during July 2015 I ran a 36mile Ultramarathon and then 7 days later I still managed to set a personal best at a local 10km race.

Still I'm reluctant to over do it and I want to be sure I don't burn out during the 50mile or get injured so I want to take it easy before hand.

Looking forward to Easter weekend,

Miles This week: 36.59 miles
Miles this Year So Far: 366miles

First 30mile run of the year

Its been a good week of training, started it with an easy walk on Sunday with my wife Tramore, Co Waterford and then upped the miles to my first 30mile run on Monday morning...certainly a different way to start the day!

I felt absolutely fine during the 30mile run but didn't want to overdo it too much so I did walk on some hills now and then but finished it in good shape and felt fine.

30mile Run Route in Co Kilkenny

 Over the next few days I did have some niggles in my left leg muscle, this teaches me a very valuable lesson for not stretching properly after such a long run!.     But after I did some stretching throughout the day over the next few days as well as a walk on Thursday that cleared up and I felt fine again by Friday, thankfully.

I really have to make sure I'm stretching enough or this muscle pain is coming to come back to bite me again.  I finished the week with a nice fast 8mile run this evening to finish the week with just over 60miles.   All in all a good week training.

I have the Vartry 50mile run in two weeks time so I'm going to start winding down the miles next week after one last long run and then take it easy ahead of the race. I don't think I'm in as good a shape as I was last year going into the 50mile race but it certainly reassured me to get that 30mile run under my belt before hand.

This week consisted of:
- Sunday: 3.02miles @ 20:16min/mile pace (walk)
- Monday: 30miles @ 9:53min/mile pace
- Tuesday: 4miles @ 8:28min/mile pace
- Wednesday: 10miles @ 8:58mine/mile pace & 1mile recovery walk
- Thursday: 4.15mile @ 23:24min/mile pace (walk)
- Friday: Rest
- Saturday: 8miles @ 7:09min/mile pace

Miles This week: 60.22 miles
Miles this Year So Far: 330miles

Connemara 100 is Happening!!!

Connemara 100 Route Map

Its finally happened, I've committed to running the Connemara 100 in August of this year.  This is a race I've been hoping to do since I did my first 50km Ultra back in 2012 and I honestly can't wait!

Still have logistical issues of sorting a crew to work  out but other then that I'm very confident that my training will go to plan.

I've not yet sat down to work out a more concrete training plan but I already have a 50mile race at the end of this month and I'm planning a Kilkenny to Waterford and back run sometime in May or June which will total approx 60miles.