Progress

Another good week’s training in the bank with 2 solid sessions and a total of 51 miles for the week. I don’t really have mileage targets in place at the moment and actually it’s not something I typically do anyway but this week’s overall volume and number of sessions is where I want to be in and around for the next month or so. The easy thing would be to say right that’s 51 last week lets go 60 this week then 70 next week and so on… For me at the moment it’s all about consistent and smart training.

I had 2 key sessions this week, 1st session on Tuesday was 3 x 2k with 400m jog recovery. Wanted to run this at a faster pace than my typical tempo runs but without going too deep into the well at the same time as I’m really just testing the waters with some of the faster stuff! As always with these types of sessions I struggle to get into a rhythm on the 1st rep but eventually got into a decent flow hitting the following times:

· 6.44

· 6.39

· 6.39

Not the most spectacular times in the world but in relevance to my current fitness I was quite satisfied with the session and felt smoother as the session went on. Followed this with a couple of easy runs on Wednesday and Thursday then had a 10k tempo session planned for Friday which again went relatively well feeling smooth throughout running 35.08 averaging 5.37 mile pace. Finished off the week with an easy 11 miles on Saturday followed by a very much needed rest day Sunday. The main thing I’m happy with is that the body doesn’t feel to beaten up today and actually feels raring to go which is a good sign as it’s taken a few weeks to get to this point! Plan this week is very similar to last week with 2 main sessions and a long run of around 12 miles to finish off the week!

Last week saw 2 of my runners also have great weeks. Louise Kierans along with the Bailieborough running crew attempted a Marathon Time Trial last Saturday with everyone producing great runs. Louise ran a brilliant 3.31 with more definitely to come 😊 Paul Carroll attempted a 10k time trial in atrocious conditions in Shercock last Friday but still battled on hitting 35.55 which is 24 seconds inside his previous best 10k time. As I mentioned on Social media Paul is one of the most dedicated and consistent runners I know and gets on with every session with the minimum of fuss. Paul is definitely one of the main reasons I got more involved in coaching runners having asked me about 4 years ago for some advice before running a local 5k. Seeing the progress he has made in that 4 years has given me a great buzz and as much as I would love to say its down to my training, really its down to his hard work and appetite for training! The best is still yet to come!

A bit of a shorter one this week folks! Have a great training week 😊

Noel