Running Solo

Positive enough week for me this past week folks! Was able to run 6 days out of 7 and although intensity and volume is still at a low enough level definitely feeling more upbeat and positive about things! Its funny I looked back at my training diary from this time last year and the volume and intensity although it was slightly higher than now was still at just a ticking along level and this left me in quite good stead for the summer where I managed to equal a 10 year old 5k PB 😊

Weekly Recap:

Monday: 6.05 miles – 45.22

Tuesday: 2 miles easy – 3x6mins @ 5.35 mile pace with 2mins jog recovery – 1.5 mile easy

Wednesday: 6.06 miles – 46.11

Thursday: 5 miles – 38.27

Friday: 9 miles – 61.30

Saturday: 4.03 miles – 29.17

Sunday: Rest Day

Threw up a post on my Social media pages regarding Paul Carroll’s Marathon Time Trial last Friday but I’ll give it another mention here to give him an even bigger head 😉 At the beginning of the year Paul said he really wanted to complete a Marathon block with the view of running a Time Trial at the end of it. So at the beginning of February we put together a 10 week plan for a specific Marathon Block. I don’t like the idea of massive Marathon Block’s and with the uncertainty around at the moment I thought 10 weeks would be more than enough. Paul was extremely fit even before he started the block so really it was just about getting some Marathon specific sessions in. Paul has a great appetite for the more endurance based sessions and we set some challenging sessions and long runs with different variety each week to make things interesting. Paul nailed every session with probably only one long run he was dissatisfied with but that’s him being too hard on himself considering every single run was done solo!

The Marathon itself went really well and Paul was delighted with a 2.48 clocking which is an 8 minute improvement on his best time from Dublin 18 months ago. The time is all the more impressive considering Paul completed this solo, which is no easy feat! Talking to him afterwards he said he didn’t find it tough running it solo until about 16 miles but got very tough thereafter but he still held on well averaging 6.25 for the whole effort! Although the Time Trial itself will stand him in good stead moving forward, I think the 10 week specific block will aid him even more so as he will have this training in his legs before attempting his next marathon block!

Paul's Marathon Progress over the last 4 Years:

2017 - 3.17

2018 - 2.59

2019 - 2.56

2020 - PBs from 5k to Half Marathon

2021 - 2.48

As Paul enjoys his rest week I’ll continue to progress things slightly but will keep things relatively the same both volume and intensity wise!

Cheers for reading folks and have a great week 😊

Noel