The Seven Castles

- Monday: Rest
- Tuesday: 8miles @ 8:06min pace
- Wednesday: 4.26miles @ 9.01min pace
- Thursday: 16miles @ 8:20min pace + 1.81mile walk
- Friday: 5.20miles @ 8:45min pace
- Saturday: Rest
- Sunday: 6.27miles @ 6:45min pace + 4.50mile walk

First run of the week was supposed to be a nice handy recovery run on Monday but instead I decided on a rest day and opted for a longer 8mile run on Tuesday.  

I got out the door at 6:30am on Tuesday and had a really peaceful run and had a number of the "this is why I enjoy running" moments, no cars around, the countryside around me and I could see Slievenamon off in the distance on such a nice clear morning.

Wednesday consisted of a a much slower 4.26mile run at a pace of 9min, I really should have done this run on Tuesday instead of the 8miler as I felt the 8mile run in the legs after it.

On Thursday I decided on a new route which passes near the old ruins of Kells Priory in Kells, Co Kilkenny which are also known locally as the Seven Castles.

The Seven Castlkes are pretty extensive and I've always enjoyed going for a walk around them when I was growing up, never thought I'd run from my house to them before work some morning.      Since I was passing nearby I decided I might as well run through them before I headed home, very odd  running through it at 6.30am.

After running through the seven castles I crossed over the nearby river and passed by the two watermills and headed for home, it was a 5am start for this run and it bucketed down rain for the first hour or so and although it pretty much rained for the entire run it was still enjoyable.  

I hope to do this route in the future again as its pretty enjoyable, however the second half coming back from Kells had some hills. Its likely this would do me no harm considering most of the routes I run are basically flat.

Friday was a slower recovery run and Saturday was a rest day, on Friday however I decided to sign up for the Stoneyford 10km in Co Kilkenny on Sunday. I'll write up a short report about that later in the week.

Weekly Total:  47 miles

Miles This Year: 810 miles