Craughwell 10 mile 2016

Tuning up for the 10 miler:

Mon - Claregalway 14.8km recovery run 56:10 (3:48's)

Tue am – 2.0km up, 12km threshold run 40:46 (3:24’s), 2.0km down. All up 16.0km

Tue pm - Tuam AC easy run 7.1km

Wed - Treadmill 10.0km recovery run 36:18 (3:38's)

Thu – 2.0km up, 6 x 30 secs, 6 x 3mins, 2.0km down. All up 10.7km

Fri - Claregalway 11.1km recovery run 41:41 (3:45's)

Sat - Claregalway 8.6km easy run 37:41 (4:23's)

Sun – Craughwell 10 miler 52:56 (3:16’s). All up 23.7kms

Total for week 102.0km

A decent enough build up to Craughwell. Pace getting back on my threshold run on Tuesday and then a speed session on the treadmill on Thursday as a final tune-up before the 10 miler (running at 3:00/km pace on 2% incline).

Some of the big names were missing this year and that opened things up. The conditions were perfect and I took out the race hard and nobody went with me. Through the first km in 2:57 (downhill) and sub 5 minutes for the first mile. By this stage I’d opened up a nice lead so it was time trial mode from here on in. I felt pretty good and the effort level was even and the splits were in keeping with the profile for each mile.

At halfway I had about a 30 second lead and through 10km in about 32:30 which was a little quicker than last year. But I didn’t really nail the last 6km and although I was running strongly, the pace dipped by a second or two per km. The last mile is tough and what breeze there was we were running into it. But there was nobody with me and I enjoyed the last section rounding the final corner for the final 200m to the finish. My first win in Craughwell at the 7^th time of trying.

The time was 52:56 which was 15 seconds slower than last year so no PB but still a good strong run. It gives me hope that I still have it in me to break the 70 minutes for the half!

A few beers that night and why not! Here is me at the finish (courtesy of Edenhill77):