Tuesday 9th July: 10 miles in 76 mins: (7:36 avg pace) I've Thursday off work, so might manage it then. I definitely still want to get in a long run of 15-18 miles, but with the race on Sunday, it'll have be done before Friday. I'm not sure what way I'll structure the week. Good test for Sunday's race too, as my recovery off hills is constantly improving, and something that I've been able to use to my advantage in races, and would hope to again next weekend.
![road to nowhere message board road to nowhere message board](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/empty-road-to-nowhere-22986675.jpg)
I know its only 6 miles MP, but the route makes it a tester.
![road to nowhere message board road to nowhere message board](https://i0.wp.com/www.winterbourne.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Art-angels-2.60-the-road-tonowhere.jpg)
Mile 7 was pretty flat, and managed to get time back down below 6:20 again. According to Garmin, 130 feet of gain, 0 feet loss, and on tired legs just managed to keep the pace under 6:30 still. Mile 5 has a very steep hill climbing up from The Valley Inn over the M1 before sloping downhill again towards Tinure. This is where it started getting a bit tricky. Gently eased into the MP stuff on Mile 2 with a 6:40 before sailing downhill in Mile 3 and 4 : 6:18 and 6:27. Still pretty hot, even though it was 9pm. Headed off on a tricky enough route, with 3 miles of it being very easy downhill running, 2 miles being up and down and 3 miles being much more up than down! Hilly countryside my way.Īnyway, the first mile downhill as a warmup was grand. Monday 8th July: 8 miles in 54 mins with 6 at MP (6:44 avg pace)Īfter a week of relatively easy running, a bit of a nightmare of a long run, and looking forward to a 4 mile and 3,000 metre race in the next 10 days, I decided a few miles at MP were required. Lots of mistakes made, but happy enough that I toughed it out and got plenty of miles in. seemed to all gang up on me so was just trundling home in 8-8:30 pace.Ĭompared to how good I felt the other week when I did the 20 miles on the N2, the last couple of miles of this were a disaster. It was really warm at this stage, not drinking properly, going uphill, a headwind, etc. Was feeling grand when I set off from the clubhouse again for the last 5.7 miles home, but a combination of many things meant I was fairly tired after a couple of miles.
![road to nowhere message board road to nowhere message board](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/country-road-7149643.jpg)
Pace was fairly easy, mostly 7:50s - 8:10s. The miles ticked over nicely with the lads, good having the company. Headed off with the lads around a hilly enough 11 mile route after taking the ridiculous decision of leaving my drink in one of the lads car, very clever given that temperatures were probably over 20 by this point. Had a bit of everything in this run, I suppose I could try and put a positive spin on it and call it fartlek!Īnyway, ran the 5.7 miles down to Dunleer to meet the lads in something like 6:53 avg pace, which was a bit silly really. Saturday 6th July: 22 miles in 2:52 (7:50 pace)