Week 4

A busy but enjoyable week with some good training sessions including 2 races and finishing with an 18 mile long run over a local but new route.
Yesterday I raced in the Irish Runner 5 Mile race in the Phoenix Park and because I'd decided to train through these early races I wasn't expecting good results. As detailed in my last post I was using my HR to determine effort rather than trying to maintain a constant pace as I normaly would when chasing a P.B (Personal Best).
Using my HR meant slowing on the hills and speeding up on the flats or downhills within reason so in some ways the races were a bit less pressurised although Tony was still there to keep me on my toes.
Suprisingly enough even after a full weeks training I finished both races with personal bests by a few seconds and seemed to recover quite quickly.
For my training sessions the day before each race I went for an easy effort and ran before work (6 a.m) which gave me an extra 12hrs recovery time. For these early morning sessions I would run on an empty stomach and have my breakfast when I got home. This might not suit everyone but is something I got used to when training for Ultra Marathons. Mind you I can also run within minutes of eating a full meal or eat as I'm running if needs be.

Because Tony and I had both raced twice this week we agreed that it would be sensible to run a slower than usual pace for our long run but we found ourselves constantly having to slow down to stay on pace. We talked all the way and anytime we lost concentration we seemed to drift back into what now seems to be our default long run pace of 7:30 min mile.

I'm sure that Tony would agree that a few months ago this pace would have been fast but after a while on a structured programme the body adapts through stress and recovery.
Train slow all the time and you will run slow all the time.