Been a busy week. I’ve had very tight hamstrings on both legs for a few weeks now. NO amount of stretching is working.  On top of that this week my glutes have been especially bad again. It’s been a mixed bag of a week. I only got 40 miles in. I had planned to do 50 but it’s been painful at times.  Is everyone like this? I took a day off on Monday because my lower back was a bit stiff. Why cant I get rid of this? It keeps packing  in on the hills.

Tuesdays session was eight hills and sprints which is done on a hill near Rathfarnham village and a flat stretch of about 250 metres along the river. The contrast of the easy sprints with the hills was stark. I eventually had enough and the last two repeats were awful. The top girls had better stamina and passed me out which really makes you question your fitness.

Back out on Wednesday. A better evening in UCD than the week before. The rain held off  and I got a decent 8  laps of a 900 metre circuit done in 26 minutes. Role on Thursday and  I really felt sluggish again. What seemed an easy pace last week just wasn’t happening.  Two laps of the Tesco lap in Rahfarnham. It took the encouragement of the guys to keep me going. I did the two (2 mile) laps in around 21 minutes, not too bad at all.

Friday is my day off I tried to spend an hour or so loosening things out. The rain never stopped falling. The Phoenix Park was a mud bath, like I’ve never seen it before. A very fast session with 5 long extended Munich laps in 5.45 pace. Well the last 2 were actuallt just over 6 minutes. These conditions don’t suit me. I have terrible balance and footing. Everyone was passing me out on the hills. I was making allot of ground back on the flat but the hills were awful, really awful. Im flying the  road running and running awful on the cross country. I cant figure out if its miles or more speed work I need.

Roll on Sunday a new pair of trail shoes. We started off slow running as a group. Come six miles I wasn’t long falling behind. But I didn’t give up for some reason and there came a few points were I got a second wind. I ended up finishing 12 miles in 1:15 which I’m very happy about. I felt really strong at the end, passing out the lads at one point sonly too fall back a bit again.

I’m having problems at the moment and a few times during the week I questioned what I was bothering for. Next Friday I’m off to Lanzarote for 4 races in 4 days. I’m hoping that my drive comes back otherwise I think it may be a chance for a break after the National novice. Fingers crossed the determination makes a retuen as at the moment I’m not sure I’m enjoying this.