Rubbish!!

OH... MY... GOD... I'm in so much trouble!

Saturday did the usual disappearing act this weekend but I managed to grab hold of Sunday afternoon and got stuck into the 6 miles it took to cycle the long way to the Curragh (via Athgarvan). I arrived tired but determined to push this weeks running distance past last weeks 6 miles.

Easier said than done, my legs felt heavy & tired and I knew I was in for a tough run; not the best frame of mind to be in at the start of a training session. I ran towards Athgarvan and had to slow to walking pace as I passed "Donnelly's Hollow"... a natural bowl-shaped amphitheatre where the Irish champion boxer Dan Donnelly defeated the English champion George Cooper in 1815... I took advantage of this lengthy text on Donnolly's monument to rest before continuing. I checked the Garmin and was gutted to see that I had only covered a mile.

I turned around and headed back the way I came, taking a slightly different route back to my bike and happily notching up another 1.5 miles. I took on some water and was tempted to cycle home right then and there but thankfully I carried on and headed north toward the Race Course.

It was race day and although I was about a mile away I could see and hear the stands were full of cheering punters as a closely knit line of horses galloped past. I refocused and checked my watch, almost 4 miles done.

Wanting to avoid the mud track that I came across last week I decided to cross and footbridge that spans the motorway separating the Curragh plain from the race course. A quick check of the watch and I had covered over 5 miles. I wasn't sure what was on the other side, it turned out to be part horse training runs and part forest but not really suitable for running so I decided to cross back to the other side. Just then I checked the Garmin... dead as a door nail! The battery must have died.

I decided to run back the same way to get an accurate distance. It turned out to be a little over 7 miles in total, better than last week at least but still way short of what I should have been covering. The cycle home was fast and easy, almost all of it on the level or downhill.

There's not much time left! Only 2 months to the marathon and I can barely run 7 miles!! According to my training plan I should be running 19 miles next weekend... OH MY GOD... what am I going to do...