Well I must be getting serious about Dublin, after no to low mileage the previous 11 weeks the Shamrock Warrior was not only out there four days last week but three of them were early morning runs....amazing what a ticking clock will do........
I was asked recently "why now?" after a few shallow months of training, my reply was "if not now, when?" Dublin is getting closer if I don't knuckle down now it'll be too late and since we're into "The Dog Days Of Summer" if I'm going to run at all it'll have to be in the mornings b4 it's too hot and humid so now felt as good a time as any to get back into the swing of things
It was no coincidence that Ireland's success at the recent European Athletics Championships in Rome had a galvanizing effect on me, Gold in the mixed 4x4 Relay, Gold in the women's 1,500m, Silver in the women's 200m and Silver in the women's 4x4 relay, we are a small country we don't have the climate or the facilities other nations enjoy, and a lot of our athletes live and train in America and traditionally we've only enjoyed limited success at the Euros, I vividly recall Eamonn Coghlan winning silver in the 1,500m in Prague in 78, in the years since then Sonia O Sullivan, Derval O Rourke, Mark English and Ciara Mageean had reached the podium at the Euros which I always feel is Ireland's best chance to medal it's a lot tougher at World's & the Olympics that said after our success in Rome I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do in Paris later this month.
For as long as I can remember wearing an Ireland running vest has been tremendous inspiration to me w/ my running, the fact 'The Holy Trinity" of Irish milers Ronnie Delaney, Eamonn Coghlan and Marcus O Sullivan have inspired me the last 48 years is no coincidence and hopefully a successful Olympics for Ireland will continue to drive me forwards towards Dublin at the end of October
Monday June24th Finally a brake in the bastard heat after a week of 90 degree plus temps the heatwave broke Sunday evening which allowed me an evening run on Monday
Having huffed and puffed thro a 4 miler on Saturday and a 3 miler on Sunday in the humidity even at 6am I could've been forgiven for not having high hopes on Monday evening however w/ temps in the low 80s I felt less sluggish than I had on the weekend and managed a 6 miler in 54.02.3 off 9 minute mile pace, my spits were:8.59-9.16-8.52-8.47-9.06-9.00 far from earth shattering but a few weeks back on a 6 mile run after I hit mile 4 I had to stop and walk for a mile b4 finishing off the final 2 miles, I talked last week about having to work on my S&C so this albeit a small victory was a victory none the less and something to build on moving forward
Wednesday June 26th Having ran Monday evening there was no way I was getting back out there in under 12 hours, on top of running 4 days in a row so I set my alarm for 5.55am and surprised myself by answering the call, it's probably the best part of a year since I managed a weekday morning run
Even at 6.30am it was 75 degrees but given in another 12 hours it'd be 95 I had little to complain about as I made my way out and back to Locust Point which is conveniently 2.5 miles from my front door to make it a nice 5 miler, during the winter I was running 6 miles further up along the Schuylkill River Trail on my lunch hour when time constraints were an issue so for the time being I'll make do w/ morning 5 milers since I still need to get home shower and be back out the door by 7.30am to get to work, maybe August if it isn't too steamy in the evenings I can return to 8-10 milers?
44.40.8 off 8.56 mile pace thanks to splits of:8.55-9.01-9.04-9.02-9.00, fairly consistent and something to shoot for come Friday morning if I could get up at 5.55am again, Thursday evening was looking a little on the steamy side.....
Friday June 28th two morning runs in a week the boy must be serious!, conditions were cooler than Wednesday 66 degrees which helped as I dropped my time to 44.08.5 off of 8.50 mile pace thanks to splits of:8.37-8.56-8.53-8.52-8.50
While Wednesday's splits were consistent today I kept them all under 9 min mile pace which is pleasing it tells me my S&C is coming back as I continue to move forward, three runs in a week and two of them were morning runs, more boxes ticked, now to finish the week off w/ gusto.........
Saturday June 29th......Bollix!!!!!! having gotten a 6 miler in on Monday I was aiming to tweak that a tad and go for 8 miles this morning however.......
W/ hindsight not answering the 5.55am alarm was probably my undoing as it was 7.20am b4 I eventually got out the door by which time the mercury had risen from 67 to 71 and at just over 2 miles in I could see the sweat drops bouncing off of my bandana like they did last weekend
I knew at 3.5 miles at the Art Museum I was probably cooked so I hung in for another half mile at Lloyd Hall b4 opting for the shorter 3 route home via Powelton Ave where I managed a stop/start walk/run mile to round out a laboured 5 miler
Not the finish to the week I was hoping for but lesson learned next Saturday when the alarm goes off at 5.55am get yer arse out of bed b4 it gets muggy!
I forgot to screen shot my overall time and splits, rest assured they were nothing to write home about however I did log 21 miles for the week, 38 miles in June and my yearly miles to date are 500 miles, a far cry from the 179 I had at the end of June last year
Hopefully this week was the start of me for now logging 4 days a week on a regular basis and getting up in the mornings to run, July will be just as hot and humid if not worse than June, Dublin is 17 weeks away hopefully next Saturday I can nudge my longer run to 8 miles and so on and so forth over the coming weeks to get back up to where I was in March at 16 miles, fingers crossed come mid August i'm up to 18 milers b4 rolling into 20s come September....
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