Ploddding Away...

 My wife hails from a village in County Louth called 'Stabannon'.  It's a phonetical translation of the Irish 'Teach Bannain', meaning 'Bannon's House'.  This Bannon fellow was most likely a big landowner (the land around these parts is exceptional).  On Friday, we traveled across the country from our Conamara home to Stabannon for a family wedding - giving me the opportunity to run those less familiar routes (although they are getting more familiar with every trip).

For the most part, last week was a poor training week for me.  I felt a bit of fluey (man flu), so I didn't run at all until the end of the week when I finally got out for a five miler in Stabannon, and another four miler in the same place on Sunday.  Friday's run brought me up past the old graveyard and onto the remnant's of a medieval castle which stands on the Old Ardee Road.  I ran this steadily - fastest pace would have been around the 8.20 mark.  

There was frost on the ground when Benny and I got out on Sunday morning, which gave the countryside a lovely wintery feel.  We were both a bit ropey after the wedding so we walked the first few minutes but once we got into our stride we felt good enough.  The frost had all but melted away by the time we arrived back home and some of the other adults in the house were beginning to wake up.

Yesterday, back in the comfort of my Conamara home, I got up on to the treadmill for a little more of the Coach Dion plan.  This time I just ran two sets of 8 minutes at 7.5 pace, with a one minute recovery in between.  It's only about three weeks now until 10k Chonamara, so I can't really say that I'm flying in training, but I'm hanging in there!  The target is 48 minutes... hmmm.