Sunday, March 27, 2016

Kilmovee 10km 2016

How not to prepare for a 10km race:

Mon - Claregalway 9.5km recovery run 37:31 (3:57's)

Tue am – Claregalway 9.5km recovery run 36:14 (3:49's)

Tue pm - Tuam AC easy run 5.9km

Wed – 2km up, 10km treadmill Z2 31:35 (3:10’s), 1.6km down. All up 13.6km

Thu – Claregalway 9.5km recovery run 37:02 (3:54's)

Fri - Treadmill 7.1km easy run 30:15 (4:15's)

Sat – Kilmovee 10km 33:32. All up 15.4km

Sun – Claregalway 9.5km recovery run 36:40 (3:52's)

Total for week 80.0km

The legs were in bits Monday and Tuesday after the 10 miler. By Wednesday I was feeling okay so I did a threshold run on the treadmill. Big mistake – after that it felt like I’d ran a marathon and by the time the 10km came around on Saturday I wasn’t right. With hindsight I would have been better advised to take it easy all week with no sessions

Normally I would have been licking my lips as there was a good field for the 10km race. Conditions were tough – very breezy and I took it out fairly quick with the first km covered on around 3:05. I then settled into my running with another guy (Eamonn) and John Byrne as we battled the wind. Our group stayed together until around 4km by which time I was struggling – the other 2 didn’t speed up, I just slowed down and fell off the back!

The rest of the race I was hanging on watching the other 2 race each other up front. I did try one final push after turning at around 7km and getting some help from the wind but there was no closing in on the leaders. I then just kept ticking over the last couple of kms eventually crossing the line in 33:32 for 3rd place (well outside my course record of 32:17 from last year).

Not my greatest work but explainable – the legs just weren’t right and a shame I couldn’t give a better account of myself. Nevermind, onwards and upwards and just the kick up the behind I need to go back and start training a bit harder. Well done to Eamonn who won the race in 32:50 and to John who finished a close second and looks in great shape for the marathon.

Here’s a photo with my "please let this race be over" face on:


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