Nobody to blame but myself

Things had being going well, and as always something had to give. After an easy 65 minutes on Wednesday I was looking forward to testing myself on thursdays tempo run. Because of this I was perhaps a bit over exuberant over the first few miles. I was fairly tired during the last 3 miles but still managed to get under my target pace of 5.45. It was also a timely reminder of the need to pace myself so better happen in a tempo than with 15 laps to go in a track race! Did another easy 65minutes on friday before taking saturday off in preparation for the opening track race of the season Sunday - Leevale open Sports
Wednesday: 9miles @ 7.20 HR140
Thur: Warmup: 1.6 Tempo: 6 mile @5.44 HR 177(5.39/5.39/5.49/5.46/5.45/5.47) Cooldown:3miles
Fri: 9miles @ 7.22 HR 139
Total for week:55 miles

Driving out in the car on Sunday I was thinking to myself that there was absolutely no reason why I should n't be able to run 9.15 for the 3K race I had entered and I was pretty much right, I clocked it at 9.15 on the button while my official time said 9.16. Felt I ran pretty well. Due to the high number of entrants they split the race in two & I found myself in the 'loaded' heat. This was a good thing as I knew I'd be dragged along rather than having to set the pace. When the gun went the race went off very quickly & I found myself towards the back of the field after the first lap despite clocking 73 secs. Stayed in this position for another lap before gradually working my way through the field. Felt totally in control. I was going as hard as I could but was able to focus totally on what I was doing. Could see a guy I knew about 50metres in front of me with maybe 4 laps to go & just knew I would catch him. Got on his shoulder with about a lap and a half to go & was able to sprint away in the final 200m. Felt spent but not shattered at finished & looking at the Garmin I had negative splited for probably the first time in my life! Still only managed 12th place mind.
So onto my current crisis - it's 3 days untill the intervarsities 10k and my throat is killing me. And I know exactly why. Our race was delayed on Sunday so I warmed up and stayed in the same t-shirt for the hour or so we had to wait untill we were called to the start. This might be ok in July, but despite the nice weather it was a really stupid thing to do at the moment. Am spraying my throat with Difflam, so hopefully will be ok come friday. Did n't get out yesterday and don't think I'll get out today. Hopefully get to do something tomorrow though
Sun: Warmup: 3 Race: 3K 12th in 9.15 Warmdown: 5miles
Leevale Mens 3K heat 1

East Cork 3K series:Race 1

After a hiatus of nearly a month from blogging, I can thankfully say I've been a bit more consistant with my training. It is now less than 2 weeks to go to the county cross country championships which is my main race of the winter. My training has gone pretty much to plan (so far) with my endurance phase leading up to the Cork half Marathon. Since then I have been trying to build stamina (using 800's,1000's & long 7 mile tempo runs).Over the last week or two I have started doing 400's & shorter faster 5 mile Tempo runs & also cut my mileage back from 70 to 55ish to enable the quality work to be done. The one thing I have lacked really is hill work but hopefully this won't count against me too much. I managed to squeeze in a XC race 10 days ago & it went well, without being spectacular.
So onto last night & the first race (of 7) in the East Cork 3K series. I love these races, they were my real introduction to racing and as it's over the same course your time really lets you know where you are. My best time from last year was 9.52 but I was confident of bettering it. I had it in my head to try and do 3.10 per lap which would give me 9.30. I felt like I was flying when I was doing my strides beforehand - better than I've ever felt before so went to the line brimming with confidence. On the first lap I found myself a few seconds down on the leading 2 after the first 600m. Then amazingly without any extra effort they started coming back to me & I actually caught them coming down the hill which ends the lap and first Kilometre. Our time was called as 3.06. As we rounded the corner I left the two lads to their own race & just concentrated on holding my pace. Even though I still felt ok I had slowed down a bit over the second half of the 2nd K & my time was 6.21 at the end of the lap, a second behind schedule. The last lap was a struggle (as it always is!) but even though I was really tiring my time was almost as fast as the second lap so I ended up with 9.37 (3rd place) which I was happy enough with. Conditions were n't ideal so hopefully the 9.30 barrier is achievable before the winter is over...