Structure

Time for me to get some structure and shift the extra lbs from Christmas, so to focus the mind of creating this structure I have another race booked for 2020!

After 9 years I'm returning to the Cork City Marathon, Cork was my first marathon back in 2011 and in hindsight, I was ill-prepared for it as I barely did enough 20mile training runs before it so this time around I'm well capable of it.

I'll likely do several other races between now and then but nothing else is booked for now.

Last week started off well with a trail run around Slievenamon, then a handy recovery run on Monday with the dog.   For Tuesday I had planned to get a lift into Kilkenny and then run the 13miles home but instead, I decided to head for an 8mile run.  While out for the 8mile run I felt good so I changed my route and finished in 11miles instead.

On Wednesday I had planned on a short run with the dog but hadn't got time in the evening so it ended up being a rest but, Thursday morning was a very slow 2miler during which I found the legs very heavy.   I had a visit booked with Sports Physio at Bodymend.ie as my legs haven't been feeling best (heavy) since the 27mile trail run two weeks back.

To cap things off on Saturday I had a few hours to kill so I opted for a long slow run on-road rather than a trail for a change. I headed up towards Co Tipperary and completed a large 17mile loop near Mullinahone. 

More rest days then I would have liked but then I didn't want to overdo it after the physio visit.

Last weeks training was
Sunday: 12.44miles @ 12:37min/mile (Trail)
Monday: 2.42miles @ 8:45min/mile
Tuesday:  11.05mile @ 8:05min/mile
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 2.13miles @ 9:05min/mile
Friday: Rest
Saturday:17miles @ 12.03min/mile

It's been sometime since I posted...

Dublin Marathon
Credit: Marathon Club Ireland / Vincent Guthrie

It's been awhile since I've posted an update and it's also not been a very activate few weeks.

Why?
Well, back on the 13th October I headed off for a spin on the road bike which I had been doing to maintain fitness while I've eased off from running to allow recovery.          All went well until I reached around 200metres from home where the road bike just went from under me and I hit the ground hard. 

I wasn't even doing any sort of fast speed but I still managed to cut up my arm and bruised my ribs from the fall.

It's over 30 days later and only now can I do a run where I can a run at a decent pace without any sort of pain or discomfort. Up until now it hurt to breath deep, hurt to lay down in bed and if I coughed. All of this really makes it awkward to do any sort of decent running.

Due to the injury sustained in the road bike I did still go ahead and run the Dublin Marathon but I opted instead to only use it as a slow training run with the aim of finishing somewhere between 4hrs-4.30. I did manage to pop by for a Marathon Club Ireland group photo before the race though.

Since then things have improved and during the week I managed my first run where I could comfortably run at a sub 7:30min/mile pace without feeling discomfort from the ribs so that was a good feeling. I did this for 9miles.

However, yesterday when I ran the Stook 10mile (for the 5th time) I still opted to take it nice and handy and also treated this as a normal training run and took it handy at around a 8:30-9min/mile pace for the vast majority of the run I also spent most of the time talking to people including Catherine Guthrie who represented Ireland at the Belfast 24hr in July of this year.

The exception to this was the flying mile (mile 8-9) where I ran the mile in 5:35min, I'd have run it faster only for the road was wet so I actually slowed myself as I was afraid I'd slip and fall on the steep hill.   Grace also joined me at Stook this year and she took part in the 5km event so it was nice to spend time together at the event.

The Famous Stook Cowbell

So whats next?

Next Saturday night I'm taking part in the Long Way Round which is a fund raiser for the South Eastern Mountain Rescue in Clonmel. It'll be a challenge as its almost all trail and mountain but it should be an enjoyable event and I'm looking forward to it.

Some Cycling & Running

It's been awhile since I've posted any updates and thats because I've been taking it so very...very easy.

Lately I've been doing a mix of shorter runs and cycling to keep things ticking over, I did do the JJ Ready 10km in September and while I pulled off a very respectable time of  43:33 I think going into it I might have been getting sick as I ended up off work with a chest infection which was a pain.

I did my longest run since the 100mile back in August last Sunday when I did a 10mile run but I have been regularly doing 10-16mile spins on the bike before work to maintain some level of fitness. To make the morning spins more comfortable I even picked up some over shoes in Aldi, they were well worth the buy.

This weekend I'm planning for a 15-20mile run as I'm very mindful that dispite my lack of running lately I've still paid to run the Dublin Marathon at the end of October so I still need to run that one way or another.

When I've not been running lately I've been busy brushing up on my woodwork skills by building a Little Free Library which I've put up outside our house, it's proven pretty popular with people.

Post Race Thoughts

So with Connemara 100 over I can sit back and look at what went wrong.

I had gone into this race with the idea of a sub24 finish and the idea of sticking to a stricter pacing plan in order to achieve this, of course those that look at my checkpoint times will know that things were looking a bit fast (although slower then last year).

Of course others that have finished just under sub 24hr actually arrived into Leenane much sooner then me so at the same time perhaps I wasn't going too fast but that when things did slow down later in the race (as you expect them to) for me they didn't just slow down they crashed and burned and this time resulted in me passing out.

Despite this, my legs were actually in much, much better shape then they were last year, less chaffing, less blisters, I could manage a brisk walking pace and not just a shuffle like last year so its not all negative.

In this case to me at least it seems like a faster pace then it should have been and also a mixture of the much warmer day that was in it, while I certainly wasn't de-hydrated in anyway the lack of sleep from the night before and the increased effort from the run eventually caught up with me.

I've done 3x 100mile races now and for each I've failed to hit my goal of a sub24 hours, for each I also experienced issues after the 80mile mark. Now for those that are reading this that haven't run Ultramarathons you're likely thinking "But you bloody ran 80 good miles!", yes I did and that alone is an achievement and even finishing a 100mile race is something in itself as its normal that depending on the race that between 50-30% of those that start simply will not finish.

So what's the end result of my thinking on this?
Honestly, I'm going to give 100miles a rest, at least for now. Instead I'm going to focus on other distances.   I'm not ruling out Ultra's altogether as I'd like to improve on my 50mile or 100km times as I feel I could push a 50mile finish down into the 8hour 30min -8hour 50min region or better if I just put the head down and focused on it. This would be a substantial improvement on my current 50mile PB of over 10hrs for an actual 50mile training run or 9:30 during a 100miler.

How's my recovery going after Connemara?
Initially on Monday I paid a visit to Bodymend for a session and initially I also felt good at the time of writing up my race report. But the next day things were far from pleasant and I was experiencing a good amount of pain just when sitting especially with my left leg, if I wasn't lying on the coach it was painful.

On Wednesday I paid another visit to physio and had some dry needling done and the left leg hurt like hell after that, it took more effort to get into the car after the session then it did after the 100miler!   By Thursday however things seemed to improve after the dry needling and by the weekend my leg was starting to feel like normal again.

Now the left leg isn't giving me problems anymore I'm going to start with some easy runs this week and see how things go.  Overall though I feel fine, blister has healed up just fine and outside of being a little tired at the start of the week I feel good.

Recovery after Waterford

Last week was all about recovery and it didn't get off to a very good start sadly.
To started with on Sunday after the run to Waterford I could barely walk due to the pain in my right ankle that I mentioned in my Waterford race report, but I tried to walk anyway and I put on my walking boots to head to the wood with the dog, it wasn't a very pleasent experience and I basically had to walk with the laces untied.

Due to the ankle pain I took Monday as a rest day but on Tuesday I headed out for a very, very easy 5km run, it went pretty good but I could still feel the ankle and it still hurt at times throughout the day.

The rest of the week was made up of slow 5mile runs on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday to ensure everything kept ticking over after the 56mile run and I didn't seize up like I have when I've stopped running for a week after previously very long runs.      I had hoped to do a back to back 20mile and 10mile run on Saturday & Sunday but due to other commitments I wasn't able to do this and postponed it until next week.

This week I started off well with a 5mile run on Monday morning which was nice and quick but trouble started almost as soon as I got home, my back started hurting!  Throughout the day it was pretty painful but the more I moved around I'd find it would lesson the pain, sleep on Monday night was a very uncomfortable experience to say the least.

On Tuesday I had arranged to get the car serviced down in Waterford so I threw the road bike into the car and decided I'd cycle the Waterford greenway instead of running due to the pain and I managed to clock 32miles in around 2hours 20min at a handy enough pace, thankfully my back didn't hurt me during the cycle.

Yesterday I decided to try running again and headed out for a slow 4mile run with the dog, I could certainly feel the discomfort in my back but it went pretty well otherwise.

It's been a very mixed two weeks overall.

While I can completely explain the right ankle pain and slight swelling the back pain has just come out of no where and its not very pleasent, I simply don't expereince back pain at all generally so its concerning.   It's also pretty worrrying as I'm appreaching the 12/13th of August for the 100mile.

Galtee Mountain Trail Running

After a week of feeling aches and pains after the Dublin Marathon I slowly returned to running again, the aches and pains clearly were the result of the total lack of training before the effort I put in for the Dublin marathon.

Since Dublin I've thrown in some long runs of 16-17miles and about three weeks ago I did my first trail run in months!      Rather then my usual playground of Slievenamon and headed off with South Leinster Trailer Runners members Jaime and Paul to the Galtees for what was a short run of 10miles but it took in some very steep climbs.

I've never been to the Galtee's before so it was great to see a new area, though getting up both Galteebeg and Galteemore was certainly a challenge as the two summits had steeper sides then what Slievenamon would have to offer.

The view from Galteemore

Conditions were great, although there was lots of snow it wasn't actually that cold which was also great as I was mad or stupid enough to do the run in shorts! I guess I don't like ruining my streak of  NOT wearing running tights for the past few years, to be honest I've always found tights far too warn as I generally getting pretty warm when running.

Only once or twice did I feel the cold and those times were when I stopped for a prolonged period, I was however lucky that the conditions didn't drastically change as I managed to loose my jacket as it fell through the netting on my Ultimate Direction pack which is an awful shame as that jacket got me through the Thames Path 100, Vartry 50 and Connemara 100 in the rain :(

Really felt it in the legs for a good 4-5 days after the trail run but it was seriously good fun and the views were great. Here's a Garmin log of the trial run.

As part of the run I brought alone my GoPro Session and put together a quick video which can be viewed here in 720p of by checking it out below.

Things are on the up!

First off, its been ages since I've posted an update!

Nice clear day for a 16mile run

But at least this time its good news as after several dry needling sessions with my local sports physio (Bodymend) and some shorter runs and also cycling now and then I feel I'm finally coming back to form!

So much so that I even did a 20mile run last Friday morning and I managed a 16mile run yesterday morning, the 20mile last week was my longest distance I've done since doing the Connemara 100 at the start of August.

For anyone that has previously read my previous posts you might be aware that I did sign up to Dublin Marathon this year, however unlike last year where I aimed to knock 13min off my PB by aiming for sub 3:20 this year I'm not trying to do anything like that. Especially considering the injury issues I experienced after last year!

I've learned a very hard lesson after last years100mile, althoughI did do a cracking PB on a half-marathon in September  I ended up off the road after the Dublin Marathon because I didn't respect just how much recovery time I might need after the 100mile.

So this year with the 100mile being 2 months closer to Dublin then last year I really need to not fall into the same trap or I risk being off during through November, December and into January like last year due to injury.

So I'm taking it easy next weekend :)

Dry needling fun

Still not a whole lot of running these days as I'm still experiencing a fair bit of muscle problems, however after two sessions of dry needling by my local sports physio and my legs are starting to feel like normal again.

Still, I'm not going to get carried away, I'm starting off slow with only 1mile yesterday and 3miles today until things start to feel right again. After both runs I do a lot of stretching and rolling with a tennis ball which helped enormously.

In hindsight I should have had some sessions with the sports physio after Connemara 100, I also should have known that suddenly stopping for almost two weeks after such a big event was not a very good idea as historically my leg muscle don't like this as they tend to seize up somewhat and it would have been better for me to keep doing a small amount of running.  

It is however a catch 22 situation as I need to allow blisters to heal and running after the 100mile wouldn't have helped them heal.

Luckily i know that the dry needling does work for me even though its not the most pleasant sensation getting it done, I hope to be back to daily running in the next week or so.

Still recovering

Kells Priory, Co Kilkenny

Two weeks I decided I'd do a long run of around 13miles, so I headed off to run to Kells, Co Kilkenny and back making sure to run through the grounds of Kells Priory as I went.

Afterwards however I was finding my calf muscle got very right and uncomfortable so it really was a case of too much, too soon. You'd think I'd learn eh?

So rather then leave things I decided to head to my local physio and get some work done on the legs, something I had originally intended to do the week after the race anyway.

Things however are still not right and I've been doing very little running lately because of it, to help maintain fitness however I have gone out on the road bike a few times doing an hour here and there. I don't find it as enjoyable as running but it gets me out and about atleast!.

On a non-running related topic I've been toying with the idea of getting myself a Kayak, the idea is I'd use it for rivers (non-white water really) and when we go camping to different sites around the country I could throw it on the roof of the car and bring it with.   Just have to find the right kayak for the job :)

Recovering

Its been just over a week since the Connemara 100 and despite the problems I experienced during the race I'm feeling pretty good, initially my feet were a little tender but I've had no cramps or anything like that.    

Overall I feel good, but I'm not going to let that fool me as I know after such a race I need to allow time for recovery, with that in mind although I registered for the Dublin Marathon in October at the very last minute before it closed (the first time) I'm not aiming for a sub 3:20 like I tried last year as I'm not willing to risk a repeat of the problems I experienced after last years Dublin Marathon.

Dublin is however the yearly race I just love to do and my aim is to just run it in a comfortable time.

Over the past week or so I've not been doing much running, although I did do a fast'ish 44min 10km lastnight with the local club. I'm planning on increasing the running now and doing some nice easy 10-14mile runs over the next week.

Small amount of recovery

After ending the week of the Tullaroan Ultra with 67miles I went into somewhat of a recovery mode and took it easy last week....although I did run 4miles the day after the Ultra to loosen up the legs somewhat.

I ended the week with a fast 10mile at almost race pace as I managed it in 72min and my PB is 70.

The realization of the Connemara Ultra is dawning on me now and this week I went and sorted out accommodation for the weekend of the race, I've also started to think about what sort of stuff I need for the race to have in the crew car.  

Now I just need to sort a crew!

Miles This week: 30.58 miles

The road to recovery III

I can feel things starting to get better week and week and its pretty hopeful!

This week I managed some 10mile runs with only some slight discomfort, I even felt like some of the speed was coming back into my legs as the pace improved for some of the miles. They legs are still holding up well the next day but I must ensure I do alot of stretching afterwards or I'm in trouble!

To be honest the stretching side of things is really no harm at all, I've always be awful for doing stretching after a run and I guess at this stage its coming back to bite me on the arse.

All was going well until Friday night when I was doing a 11mile looped run and I managed to twist my ankle in a pothole around 5miles from home.

While I didn't hurt at all during the rest of the run or even after after stretching on Saturday it really flared up after stretching and is painful enough today (Sunday) so no runs on Saturday or Sunday which is no harm I guess. 

There's no bruising and swelling from what I can see though so I'm going to ice it this evening and see how things are tomorrow.

This weeks runs broke-down as:
- Sunday: Rest
- Monday: 4.41miles @ 9:13min/pace
- Tuesday: Rest
- Wednesday: 11.01miles @ 9:23min/pace
- Thursday: 3miles @ 7:49min/pace
- Friday: 10miles @ 7:51min/pace and 1mile @ 9:19min/pace
- Saturday: Rest

Weekly Total: 29.45 miles
Miles This Year: 1,610 miles

The road to recovery II

So after last weeks post I decided I was going to run every week day but at a very slow pace and see how things panned out. The results were surprising, although the effort is higher than before I got injured the legs are feeling surprisingly fine for the most part.

The good news is there is next to no pain from the muscle in my left leg that I previously had problems with and more importantly I'm also not experiencing knee pain in my left leg.  

However I am feeling every so slight shin splints now and then in my left and right legs, I'm really not surprised by this considering my running form would have been affected by the injury which was causing me to put more load on my right leg.

For Wednesday I took a break from the 5mile runs and instead opted for 2miles, the first of which I ran around 700metres of at a faster pace. it felt great to run an avg pace of 7:20min for this first mile. For the second mile I took it nice and easy.

Thursday was a different affair, it was pouring out so I decided to do a slow 3mile run which took in a shortcut of a very very muddy country lane near my house.

Friday I was back 3miles but this time on road again, things were slower than Thursdays

After Fridays run I did feel some small amount of discomfort in my left leg near my knee, but once I stretched out my legs as normal everything felt fine.

When I started back running this week my aim was 5miles slow each day, but as the week went on I felt tired so I cut back the miles...likely hoping for too much too soon and also because I upped the pace which I shouldn't have done.

So now I'm taking a break for the weekend and next week I'm going to aim for more slow miles for another 5 days to see how things pan out.

Last weeks runs broke-down as:
- Sunday: Rest
- Monday: 5miles @ 9:01min/pace
- Tuesday: 5miles @ 9:00min/pace
- Wednesday: 2miles @ 7:49min/pace
- Thursday: 3.74miles @ 8:02min/pace
- Friday: 3miles @ 8:10min/pace
- Saturday: Rest

Weekly Total: 18.78 miles
Miles This Year: 1,580 miles

The road to recovery

So I'm still far from 100% but things are little by little improving thankfully.

For one I've managed a run 4miles this week in the morning with little or no discomfort and at an avg pace of around 8:40min/mile so thats a sight better then the 2miles I could manage the week before and experienced pain walking down the stairs the next morning.  

I also did a longer run at the weekend by taking part in the Stook 10mile race on Sunday...I didn't race it!

I had paid for the race weeks earlier so I figured I might as well run it anyway, I took it very easy and only experienced some discomfort around the mile 6 mark.    The funny thing is that the flying mile at mile 8-9 actually helped stretch out the leg muscles and by the time I finished the race the legs felt pretty good.

Another cow bell for the collection

After the race again things were also better as I experienced no pain while walking down the stairs that evening or the next morning.

Two days later I was back for a second session at the sports physio for some dry needing, not the most pleasant experience ever having needles stuck into my leg but its certainly bringing results.  But lots of bruises as well!

My aim now is to take it very easy until Christmas or whenever things feel better, this week I'm going to start back with a few more morning runs at a slow pace because up until now I've been only doing one or maybe two morning runs in the race if even that.

Dublin Marathon Recovery and looking back

Its been over a week since Dublin and initially it wasn't particularly enjoyable, well ok my legs were
stiff but I've experienced far far worse before so its not the end of the world or anything.

The day after the Marathon I took on a 1.5mile recovery run as well as using the foam roller afterwards, recovery runs are never particularly enjoyable the first day or second day after a longer race but in my experience they are somewhat of a necessary evil as they really help loosen up the legs for me and they did help alot towards feeling back to normal.

Wednesday was no running and so was Thursday, by this point my legs were still feeling heavy especially when in bed but I opted to take in a nice slow 4mile ran on Friday morning and took on 8miles on Sunday morning

Looking back, was running Dublin a clever idea when I wasn't 100%?...well no, it was neither big nor clever but I'd have been seriously pissed with myself if I didn't and I would have always wondered so I certainly don't regret it.

Should I have perhaps aimed for a sub 3:30 time instead........in hindsight without a doubt yes, but then hindsight is 20:20 and I didn't know I'd only get to around mile 21 before the rug would be pulled from underneath me and I'd run into such problems.

All in all it was a learning experience, sure I could get away with running a short fast race when not 100%, hell I'd even get away with a longer slower race while not 100% but aiming for a marathon and trying to get a PB at the same time just isn't that do-able.   I guess you live and learn in that situation.

Still taking it easy

Only a few runs lately but they are starting to feel easier, so recovery is getting there bit by bit, I even

First time trying Montrail..

had a run this morning with some sub 6:50min miles.

I received two new pairs of runners last week, one for trail (Montrail Rogue Racer) and another for road ( Saucony Phoenix 7).

I was in very bad need of replacing the road shoes as the last pair had 1200+ miles in them at this stage.   I opted for new trail shoes because they were cheap and also I wanted a lighter non-gortex pair of trail shoes.

Why did I want non-gortex? Well, Thomas was right about encountering problems with them. While the first pair of trail shoes I bought are great for running through low streams, puddles etc.      Once water gets into them...it doesn't get out!  This can be seriously annoying if water gets into them early on in a run and you have miles and miles to go.

Last week I also picked up my first peice of running related stuff that I'm going to put on the wall in my house, I decided as Thames Path 100 was my first 100mile race that I'd frame the route map/t-shirt, race number and include the event and finish time on it.  Its due to take pride of place in my office at home.

Miles This Year: 959 miles

Recovery, Recovery, Recovery

So that's all I've been doing the past few weeks, straight after the Thames Path 100 I was completely floored when I got sick and now thankfully I've recovered from being sick and energy levels etc are all starting to return to normal.

I've mostly done a few short runs in the past two weeks with the longest run being 10miles last Sunday.   I'm not really pushing pace too much on any of these runs as the effort to run them is certainly harder then usual.

So all in all pretty uneventful, on a side note I've taken the time to finally update my marathon and race stats to include races that I did back in 2014.

Miles This Year: 860 miles

Recovery after Vartry 50mile

Its been just over a week since the 50mile and I'm very surprised at the recovery,

First of all besides the legs feeling abit heavy at the start of the week I have no blisters what so ever and no pains or stiffness in my legs. More importantly I passed the stairs test as I have zero problems walking up or down stairs.

I feel better then I did after numerous marathons I've done in the past and I certainly far better then after Portumna 100km last June or Connemara Ultra last April.  

Just to be on the same side at the start of the week I took it nice and easy with slow paced recovery runs. By Friday I had an enjoyable sub 8min/pace 4mile run and when I went out with the lads for the weekly LSR in Kilkenny City it started as a slow run but the last 5miles were sub 7:40min/pace with the last mile finishing at 7min/pace. 

So overall I feel I'm in good shape, certainly alot better then I would have expected after the 50mile run.

From next week I'll get back to running every day but as I'm in tapering mode ahead of Thames Path on the 2/3rd May I won't be going too crazy (maybe one more 20mile run?).  Between now and then I just need to think about what I plan to bring, what I'll be carrying and whats going into a drop bag...decisions, decisions!

One thing is for sure, its going to be an experience......

This weeks runs broke-down as:
- Monday: 2.08miles @ 9:2omin/pace
- Tuesday: 5.04miles @ 9:14min/pace
- Wednesday: 2miles @ 8:49min/pace
- Thursday: Rest
- Friday: 4miles @ 7:32min/pace
- Saturday: 14miles @ 8:28min/pace (last 5miles at 7:40min or lower)
- Sunday: 5miles @ 9:28min/pace

Weekly Total: 32 miles
Miles This Year: 662 miles

Slievenamon & Home

My route around Slievenamon & home

Last week started with a rest day but then I decided on a long slog of a day on Tuesday by first doing 17miles around Slievenamon on trails and then running all the way home, this totaled approx 36miles but I paused my watch for approx 1mile by accident so I'm going to say 35miles.

I'll admit that the climbs on Slievenamon took alot out of me, this is likely because I've not done any trail running on it in a few months now so I did alot more walking then normal.   Overall really I did more walking then I would have liked.

The good news however is the muscles in my left leg did behave throughout so that's something that's very much positive especially given the issues I've had lately.

The rest of the week included alot less miles but I still managed both a 10 and 13mile towards the weekend, this ends a high(ish) mile week and I'll be taking it handy this week ahead of doing the Vartry 50mile on Saturday.

Last weeks runs broke-down as:
- Monday: Rest
- Tuesday: 35miles @ 13:43min/pace (paused the watch for 1mile)
- Wednesday: 5miles @ 9:19min/pace (Recovery)
- Thursday: Rest
- Friday: 10miles @ 7:48min/pace
- Saturday:13miles @ 8:49min/pace
- Sunday: 8miles @ 8:29min/pace & 1.67miles @ 25:33min/pace

Weekly Total: 73 miles
Miles This Year: 575 miles

Visit to sports injury clinic and some cross country

Last week I paid my first ever visit to a sports injury clinic (Bodymend.ie) and I have to say it was worth it, one visit won't solve issues...far from it but it certainly did help and give alot of relief and I have a rough plan on how I hope to get things back on track.

The week was less productive then the week before (36miles versus 31miles) but still far from the target miles I should be hitting at this stage and also the types of runs I want to be doing at this stage.

I did however take part in my first ever cross country run last Sunday.....was this a good idea?, well, perhaps not. But the team was short a man and I didn't want to chance doing a 20mile run yet so it was a good alternative I suppose.

Soon after I arrived at the race I discovered that when I previously ran the Stook 10mile in November the team I was running for placed so I got a medal for that, that was an unexpected surprise which I never knew anything about.

After a quick warm up I headed out for the 8km Intermediate and watched as most of the runners went off far ahead of me, I'll be honest I didn't expect this as I thought I'd be able to keep something even resembling a reasonable pace but the best I managed was a 7min/mile pace for one of the miles.

My average pace overall was 7:33min/pace, but the affort felt like I was running a 6:40min/pace which was pretty demoralising considering I've been able to maintain a avg 7min/pace for 13miles but yet here I was struggling to maintain even 7:33min/pace for just 5miles!

In the end I was a good 300metres off catching the next runner and when I finished there was two other guys behind me, it felt like a disappointing experience for me but the team still placed silver so its not all bad I guess.

Last weeks runs broke-down as:
- Monday: 10.92miles @ 7:57min pace
- Tuesday: Rest
- Wednesday: 11.10miles @ 8:38min pace (Sports Injury Visit)
- Thursday: 3.03miles @ 9:41min pace
- Friday:Rest
- Saturday: Rest
- Sunday: 5.03miles @ 7:33min pace (Cross Country)

Weekly Total: 31 miles
Miles This Year: 282 miles