I'm going to miss mile repeats.....

Not really. But I was enjoying them up until today but I'm done with mentally for a bit. Brain fried!

It was a beautiful evening but I mostly wanted to get home and watch the Great British Bake Off with my daughter so I chose quality over quantity tonight. Which is a bit of a laugh as my times were all over the place. Inconsistancy seems to be the name of the game at the moment for me. 
I started with 2 warm up miles at 8:50min/mile and then 7:10, 6:45, 6:54 followed by 2 cool down miles. I'm happy with the actual paces I just wish they were a bit closer together. It's like I have a disconnect at the moment between how fast my legs will take me and what my brain is telling me. I suppose it was only the week before Athlone that I first saw a mile with a 6 on the beginning of it so I should give my poor old brain a chance to catch up. Slow learner!

I'm in love!

Yup! In love with my new shoes. I took a slight risk trying a different type of shoe but stuck to the same company (Saucony) as they have never let me down yet.

I tried the Saucony Cortana 2 (last years model as I'm brokedy broke right now) which is a neutral cushioned shoe as opposed to the Omni that I have been running in. I'm a suppinator rather than an overpronator so I should be able to get away with this and if I can't then it's on my own head.

From the minute I put these on they felt so fitted to my foot but light at the same time. I did an easy run yesterday just to check them out and they felt lovely but I wasn't sure if it was just because it was a gorgeous evening and I was just coming off a rest day. So today I brought them out for a shortened interval session (I have the HM Saturday and also was celebrating my daughters exam success so didn't want to keep everyone waiting.)

The plan was to do 4 miles total with 1 warm-up, 2 hard and then 1 cool-down. Was on my own too so wasn't sure if I would be able to push myself fully.

I needn't have worried.  The first hard mile came in at 7:10 and the second at 6:47! My first every sub 7 minute mile! Very very happy with that :)

Back home with a big smile on my face to celebrate....the Junior Cert results rather than my sub 7 minute mile which I didn't bother mentioning at home as nobody cares except me :)
My daughter did amazing by the way and I'm a very proud mammy. 

High mileage week!

Well high mileage for me anyway! I'll top out at about 55 miles this week with quite a few of those being marathon pace miles. There isn't that much speed-work on the schedule this week to temper the mileage increase so I'm going to try to do what is there exactly as prescribed. I'm trying out the treadmill at work tomorrow after everyone else has left.  This lets me dial in the session and hopefully just keep the legs turning until it's over. I'm quite looking forward to it in masochistic sort of way.

Conveniently this also fits quite nicely with the real world outside running in that I have to go to meetings in two different schools tomorrow night. Maybe you can see why I'm looking forward to a treadmill interval session now? Anyway getting the run in immediately after work is probably the only way it's going to happen and I hate missing sessions so that is the plan!

Legs feeling good. Fingers crossed, touch wood etc. that I will stay injury free.  Might book a sports massage for later in the week to fend off the evil eye/niggles.  

A good weeks running

I'm definitely feeling back in the swing of things here.  While last week was good in that I was consistently running I was also taking multiple naps per day (when schedule allowed) and was generally wiped by days end.  This week I've had energy to burn, which is great as I feel like that sort of gives me the green light to up my mileage a bit.  Doesn't it?

Also I've felt this week has had more quality miles as well as just quantity.

• Monday: Tempo run.  8 miles with 5 at threshold pace.  Was hoping that would be about 8:15 but ended up being neared to 8:30.  I thought straight uphill and into a headwind would be fine.  What? Anyway I worked my ass off for every single one of those miles so I don't care what the garmin says. This was followed by a steak dinner with my visiting parents and then a 2.5 mile walk to get rid of the meat sweats.
• Tuesday: Rest. Or two walks (am and pm) plus some strength work.  It was sunny....definitely a two walk day.
• Wednesday: Pyramid interval session at the track.  Fun!  No really....I think I'm starting to like the track. 
• Thursday: 6 miles with the club.  9 minute miles so faster than I would like for a recovery run but comfortable enough.  Will make up for it with extra slow long run miles. 

Pretty good so far!  

The plan is something short tomorrow 5-7 depending on weather and then long Saturday.  Hoping for 12 miles.  I have visitors this weekend so taking Sunday as a rest day which is good as I'm over-scheduled as hell the following weekend....but in a good way.  Time with new friends, time with my kids and a road race with the club.  Eek!

Wednesday whine

It's not that I particularly hate Wednesdays.  It's more that I hate the thought of going to the track.
Note that I'm quite specific about this.  I don't actually hate doing track work.  I just hate thinking about it. But I went anyway.

Ran down to the track (conveniently located about half a mile from my apartment) Did another mile warm up and then 5x800m at an average of 7.10min/mile and it felt fairly manageable (in hindsight that is.)  Another 400m cool down and then ran home.

And now I'm high as a kite and can't wait for next week.  When I won't want to go again.  Will have to come back here and read this to remind myself.