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A long time between drinks - so what has been happening?

Just settling into Irish life. A new house and car, exams, job hunting, and plenty of running. I'll focus on the running as this is after all a running blog.

Well, I've currently got a 100% race record here in the Emerald Isle. I've raced 3 times and secured 3 wins. The first was a new local 5km race at Monivea where I broke the tape in 16:28:

http://www.athenryac.com/monivea-5km-result

The race itself was a good hit-out and I wasn't really sure what to expect as I hadn't raced for a while. I took the lead just before the 1km mark and it was a really uncomfortable feeling not having anyone to chase. The first half of the race was on the road with the second half being a more technical trail run through the forest. I kept looking back expecting someone to overtake me and I also had the added worry of not taking a wrong turn. Needless to say I loved the course - my first ever road race win after racing for over 10 years!

The second race I won was a bigger race at Headford - an 8km race which is a distance I had not raced before so a guaranteed PB! I had been training pretty well with some solid sessions under the belt so I was expecting a good run. I took the lead from the gun and was never challenged. The conditions were wet - especially the last km or so where the rain became torrential. That didn't dampen my spirits and I was pleased with the time of 26:08 which was a good 30 seconds quicker than I was targeting:

http://www.headford8k.com/Headford8k/Home_Page.html

I backed up the next day with a long run and I pulled up a bit sore with a slight thigh strain. I knew I was pushing my luck having been running close to 100kms per week which is much higher than I would normally run. After a few days licking my wounds I decided to try a 10km track race with the aim of "taking it easy". After the warm-up my leg felt okay so I went into the race thinking I'd run a solid 35 minutes as a good session. That's pretty much what happened...for the first 2km which was covered in 6:56. Then the pace cranked up and I decided to sit on the lead runner. The next 2km was covered in 6:30 and I still felt okay. The pace then slowed a little with the middle 2km ran in 6:35. The next 2km passed in the same time and after all this time running in second place I decided to try and hit the front with a few surges. This went on for a few laps and a small gap started to open up. With 2 to go I ran pretty hard and was surprised to take the win in a time of 32:45 (last 2km in 6:09). The 5km splits were 16:41 and 16:04 so a big negative split. I think that's my 3rd quickest 10km of all time and left me wondering how much quicker I maybe could have gone if the pace was on from the gun. Here are the results:

http://www.athenryac.com/galway-10000m-results

So I'm not running any quicker than I was in Oz but I've started to win a few races. It's a bit embarrassing to be honest. In a strange way I much preferred being the one doing the chasing as it constantly spurred you on to keep training hard.

So what are the long-term plans? Depends on work. I'm tentatively targeting the Galway Marathon on August 29th but I'm a little underdone distance-wise. That's probably not a bad thing. If that goes well I may then focus on the Dublin marathon on October 25th for a serious crack at a quick time. There's no doubt I'm running well at the moment so I just need to focus on staying injury free and a few PB's along the way will get my confidence up and get me believing that quicker marathon times are still possible.

Here's a quick summary of my weekly distances since arriving in Ireland:

w/c 17th May 18.5km
w/c 24th May 51.1km
w/c 31st May 88.8km
w/c 7th June 72.2km
w/c 14th June 40.6km
w/c 21st June 77.3km
w/c 28th June 103.6km
w/c 5th July 95.4km

I should add that I've joined the Galway Harriers and they have been a very friendly and welcoming bunch. A good track out at Dangan and some excellent training grounds:

http://www.galwaycityharriers.com/

My next race is tomorrow. I'm representing the club at a track meet in Athlone. I won't win this race that's for sure as the standard is red hot. It's a 5km race so 12.5 laps of red lining. Looking forward to it - lets hope the weather is dry and not windy - that's as good as it gets over here! Sub 16 should be possible though I'm still a little sore after the 10km on the track a few days ago. A 15:30 would be a great run. Update to follow...