100K World & European Championships

Reaching the finish line in Sparta Jarlath asked how I was feeling and I honestly felt like I still had a few kilometres left in me. My movement after the race was quite effortless and rather than head to my hotel I stayed at the finish line for a while to watch the other competitors finish.
I'm thinking that this was because of my overly cautious pacing out of respect for the race and the distance. In hindsight I know I could have gone faster but I still wouldn't have because my objective was to finish and not become one of the 70% by over cooking.


I had planned on taking a week or two of total rest before gradually starting back training and would then slot back into a regular routine with my club mates that would soon be recovering from the Dublin Marathon.

Less than a week after returning home I received a call from Ultra Running Ireland and was offered a place on the Irish Team for the 100K World & European Championships in Gibraltar.

Having raced the Anglo Celtic Plate (100K) a month after returning from Brive I know the endurance should be there but what I am lacking is leg speed. When training for the ACP I concentrated on running 800M reps similar to my regular Marathon routine but cramming the speed work caused some biomechanical problems and unplanned rest days. This time round my transition will be slightly different but follow the same principles while making best use of available time. One week of rest followed by a week of easy running to include double days as a time economical way of increasing distance. A peak week to include a few Tempo runs of 10K and a few longer runs of up to 30K at my planned race pace. This leaves me with two weeks to Taper and that will include a Sports Massage ten days before the race.