This past month has all been about getting the disaster that was Connemara out of my head!Time to knuckle down and put in some quality workouts and get ready for the World 100 in September.I knew that physically I was in good shape,even in the lead up to the trails,so it was just a case of building on that.Training over the last few weeks has gone very well but I needed a race to really see proof that I was getting things right in training.Sunday saw Longford Marathon celebrate they're 10th anniversary and for the occasion they put on a 39.3 mile ultra marathon.I decided that I would give it a shot.
For the upcoming World 100 I have 2 specific goals....."Goal A",and"Goal B"
To see if these "goals" were in fact realistic and achievable and would use The Longford Ultra Marathon a testing ground.The aim was to run Longford at 80% effort.I wanted to feel like I could continue running at a similiar pace for another couple of hours after crossing the finishing line.Whether I finished the race in 1st place or 10th place was irrelevent.This was a training exercise with the bigger picture in mind.
Long story short......I completed the race comfortably in 6.30min\mile in a time of 4hrs 16mins.I was feeling fresh when crossing the finish line and without getting dragged in to a race I managed to place 1st!Even though I ran most of the race shoulder to shoulder with 2nd placed Vasilly Neumerzhitskiy it did not feel like a race as for me it was just another sunday long run,except this time with a bit of company!Feeling strong over the last couple of miles I opened a 2 minute gap and maintained it to the finish.
All in all it was a great days training and even better to get the win which will do my confidence the world of good leading up to Holland :)
