What a difference a week makes.

After last weeks performance in the Road Relays I was given  a dose of reality in the Intercounty cross country championships where I finished an abysmal 91st. In hindsight it's no less than I deserved, having had a pretty bad week in terms of commitment (sleep,diet,strectching etc.) On the day my only excuse, although possibly a valid one was my hydration level. I drank a bottle of water on the bus up but was finished it by 11:30. With my race at 15:15 I went through the rest of the time including warm up without drinking anything which was foolish & I knew it.
When the gun I went I knew after a hundred metres I was in for a bad day, with my hamstrings already feeling like they were after doing a hill session. I struggled around the course & just could n't get the legs going, and could n't suffer as much as usual either. All in all a big dissappointment but not a waste of time as the experience of racing against such a large (and talented) field will not doubt stand to me down the road (or field!)
Got back on the horse on monday by doing 85 minutes as the weather was pretty good for a change. Did 50 minutes on tuesday in the pouring rain followed by a talk given by a dietician. She emphasised the importantance of hydration (why couldn't it have been a week earlier?) but surprised me in saying that water is n't really enough when training really hard. She also reiterated the importance of timing and especially the first 20 minutes post exercise so I will try and make a concious effort now to make sure I've food/drink in the kit bag for after training. A final point of note she made was the importance of protein with each meal & highlighted that it's usually missing from brekkie so I've substituted the marmalade with peanut butter. We'll see how it goes!
Onto yesterday and it was time to see how the legs were in a session. The weather was awful but thankfully I had two lads with me to make things easier. Did 8x400's in 71 (last 2 were 72) and then managed 4x800's on my own in 2.30,2.32/2.34 & 2.31. Very pleased with how it went as it was definitely my hardest track session ever. In the back of my mind it helped to know that it was 10 days out from the National novice cross country. The last hard sesssion I did (14x400's) was 10 days before the intervarsities so hopefully there's something in that...
Sunday: Warmup: 3miles Race:5.6miles Warmdown:2miles
Monday: 12 miles @ 7.07 HR 142
Tuesday: 7.6miles @ 7.15 HR 145
Wednesday: Warmup: 1.5miles + 8x400 in 71-72/ 4x800 in 2.30-2.34 Warmdown: 1.5miles
 

East Cork Cross Country Chmpionships

No I'm not running the marathon. If I had to say this once over the weekend I had to say it 100 times. Went out for a few drinks (well Ballygowan) with some buddies on Saturday night & they were asking was it the marathon I was doing & when I said it was a 6k cross country race the inevitable 'shur I could do that' was the reply.
Anyway enough whingeing, did a brief 4 miles at the beach on saturday morning. Had planned on having a dip afterwards but the water was seriously choppy & I would have had to walk through a tonne of seaweed to get to it so I wimped out. Onto Sunday, a total of 11 men toed the line for the East Cork CC champs, we were the only club with a team (4) so we were always going to retain the trophy. This was one of the strangest races I ever did. Two of my clubmates who are undeniably much faster than me went to the front but the pace was easy enough to stay with them. We mustn't have been going too slow though as everyone else got burned off within a lap or two. By the the 3rd lap it still felt a bit easy so I took it out, don't know why - I suppose I knew I wasn't going to win so might as well get a decent workout. I dropped back again after this but the pace was still very manageable. Finally just starting out on the 6th & final lap one of the lads took off, I tried in vain to give chase. The other guy came around me with half a lap to go & even though I stayed with him for a few strides I decided that resistance was futile so let him on his way. With about 150m's to go he was however still in reach so I decided to give one last effort & as the line hurtled towards me I thought for a split second I had him but he copped me coming and put on a little burst himself. Still, was happy enough with my run & my first senior medal. A good preparation for next week.
Did a handy 8 yesterday morning - was home before 25,000 feet hit the streets of Dublin.
Last week: 53 miles total