Sunday, June 19, 2016

Annaghdown 10km

Last race for a while:

Mon – Treadmill 10.0km recovery run 36:35 (3:40's)

Tue am – 2km up, 10km treadmill threshold run 31:43 (3:10’s), 1.6km down. All up 13,6kms

Tue pm – Tuam AC easy running 6.7kms

Wed – Claregalway 9.5km recovery run 36:59 (3:54's)

Thu – 2km up, 10km Claregalway threshold run 35:23 (3:32’s), 2.0km down. All up 14.0kms

Fri – Treadmill 10.0km recovery run 36:31 (3:39's)

Sat – Treadmill 7.3km easy run 30:18 (4:09’s) plus strides – all up 8.0kms

Sun – Annaghdown 10km 32:44. All up 15.2kms

Total for week 87.0km

A good enough build-up to the race. A treadmill threshold run on Tuesday and then an outdoor threshold run on Thursday in extremely tough conditions. All set for Sunday.

I was chatting away near the start of the race and missed the gun. I had to then pick my way through the field but within the first 500m I had caught Owen and taken the lead. Not my greatest work but a good way to get the adrenaline pumping. Conditions were awful – wet and windy and not great for racing but I took it out hard knowing that I had the wind on the back for the first half of the race.

Through 5km in around 16 flat and feeling pretty good. But a few left turns and now it was hard work. I had a decent lead so no chance of being caught and I backed off a bit and settled into threshold mode which was around 3:20/km pace. I had the lead bike to follow (Peter Forde) which helped but there were certain parts of the course which were very tough and it felt like I was hardly moving.

I managed to pick it up a bit for the run home and a quick last 200m chasing some school kids during the finishing chute and I crossed the line in 32:44 for the win. Not a bad time given the conditions.
Within a minute of crossing the line I was being interviewed live on air for the local radio station. I have no idea what that sounded like but good fun and overall one of my favourite courses where  I managed to squeeze under 32 last year. Not to be in today’s conditions though.

Holiday to look forward to next week. Two weeks in Portugal departing Friday.

No comments: