Training Log Archive: sjreeve

was hoping to break the 5 hour for this, especially running the clockwise route as it seemed easier than anticlockwise in 2007 & 2008. the forecast wasn't great but on the day it was fine and this factored in my decision to take the blackstairs route up donard -steeper & tougher on the legs but shorter. i did waste a bit of time scrambling around & was caught by other runners and by commedagh was a bit down the field but a great bearing off commedagh and some good running and route choice and i had clawed this back by ben crom dam. it was now a slog across the bog to meelbeg and now the sun was out, no wind in the valley and with plenty of midges. i could tell my pace was slowing and my asecent of meelbeg wasn't as purposeful as it should -was just happy to enjoy the breeze after the stillness. i was caught again on the descent of meelmore but picked up the pace of the climb of bearnagh. there wasn't too much left in the tank but pushed hard to the col before descending down the glen river which was taken cautiously as passed walkers & tourist. my watch showed i had the time to take it easy, i should've chased down the two runners ahead but the trails were getting crowded and interrupting any rhythm.
pleased to finish under 5, but should've kept the momentum going across to the meels & then pushed on more on the home stretch.

increasing resistance from sprints into climbs

LVO WEE 10
mostly error free, just some "could've been better" route choices. no warm up so it took a while to get up to race pace.
wasted 15sec on bad route to 8
was slow coming out of 12 to 13, -5sec!
lost 10sec not leaping the stream to 15
took a slower route to 21 lost 10sec
felt i was slowing down running to 22 and could've ran a straighter line -5sec!
dug deep for the last few controls.
managed to flow through the course ok (apart from 12 to 13) & i guess i wasn't reading the bridge crossing for 8 or 21. nice to be describing errors in seconds instead of minutes!

couple of laps to then head to the castle and lower slopes of cavehill, passed the quarry. drizzle mist turned to rain - trails slippery in places. run felt good.

increasing resistance to fail

post work run in the drizzle.