Another Olympics in the books amazingly 7 medals for Ireland, 4 Golds and 3 Bronze and a pair of 4th place finishes a great performance for our tiny country, what we lack in size, climate and facilities we make up for in heart and determination, it will be interesting to see what LA28 yields in four years time and beyond, how many people will have been inspired by Team Ireland in Paris and look to become future Olympians, I of course was the other way around{I know, you're shocked!!} it was my running in High School track that lead me to watching my first Olympics in 76 in Montreal and thus the 48 years and counting love affair w/ running....although after yet another disappointing week in my prep for Dublin I feel a trial separation might be on the cards.......it will never be a full blown divorce running and I have been together too long for that but at this rate living apart for a while has been mentioned, not quite ready to move out but the spare bedroom is getting a workout at the moment........
Wednesday Aug 7th Another night I either over estimated my ability to handle the humidity or under estimated how stifling it was.....the temps had finally dropped to 70 degrees so I felt confident heading out for a 12 miler, however as in recent attempts the humidity was high 82% and yet again this would be my undoing....
Out the door by 6pm I was cognizant of my opening pace, on my previous attempt at 12 miles I went out too hard for the opening 6 miles and paid the price for it after the turnaround so this time out I eased off the gas w/ splits of:8.42-8.53-8.52-8.48- as I reached Kelly Drive via Powelton Ave.....
When mile 5 crept up to 9.16 I knew what was coming next, the skies were grey and the air was thick and heavy, thanks to the cloud cover the turnaround on this 12 miler was way beyond where it was on on July 27th I had to go past Strawberry Mansion bridge where as on the previous run the 6 mile turnaround came up in between St John's Boathouse and the bridge, I live and die by the Garmin, gone are the days of " eyeballing" my distances but it's frustrating to do the exact same run and have differing turnarounds......I've seen "2001 Space Odyssey" I know these little feckers are not to be trusted!
9.20 at mile 6, 52.31 off 9 min mile pace the turnaround would have been 54.00 so my pace was slightly ahead of that.....however not long after the turnaround I stopped to walk b4 getting going again believing I could see it out....however this proved to be a false dawn and I was forced to stop and walk again back down Kelly Drive
I somehow cobbled together a 9.35 mile for mile 7 but the writing was on the wall, a 9.48 split at mile 8 and b4 Boathouse Row I reluctantly said "No Mas"........and had to walk the final 4 miles home w/ my tail between my legs......
8 miles in 1.13.13 off 9.09 mile pace great if I was prepping for the Philly 10k in 2 weeks time but somewhat alarming for PDR in 5 weeks time that I can't hit double digit mileage let alone the Dublin Marathon in 11 weeks time.........
Sunday Aug 11th Up and out the door by 7.30am, I'd elected for Sunday over Saturday as there was less humidity in the forecast.....however too much humidity for yours truly to handle.....AGAIN!!!!!! 70 degrees and 66 % humidity even at 7.30am, I had hoped a 16% dip in the humidity would help me......did it fuck!!!!!
Again cognizant of my pace I went out conservatively for the opening mile in 8.42 followed by 8.54, however by mile three the sweat was heavy on my Dublin sleeveless shirt as mile 3 went up to 9.03, I pushed on up Mantua Ave towards 34th St but crossing the Septa bridge I knew the gig was up, fuckin Garmin doesn't have my last two mile splits not that they were anything to write home about, much less blog but my overall time for 5 miles was 45.54.0 off 9.11, frankly I couldn't be arsed to try and work out what those splits were I'm at that point w/ my training right now.......
I keep saying now is not the time to panic and or throw my toys out of the pram I still have 11 weeks to turn it around for Dublin, less we forget in 34 years ago the day b4 PDR I got notification in the mail I'd gotten into the New York City marathon at that point I was only up to 13 miles and over the next 6 weeks I eventually upped my training to 20 miles in the afternoons as I was on third shift back then on route to a glorious 3.06 time that got me into the Boston marathon 5 months later where I ran a then pr 2.54 so it can be done, I just need to keep the faith.....and pray this bastard humidity fecks off!
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