Early Rising Once More

When the alarm went off at 5:05am yesterday morning I was really tempted to stay in bed and get some more sleep instead of hitting the road again. But I did remember that this would be the last time for quite a while that I had to get up at such an unreasonable hour, and managed to drag my sorry self out of bed. The weather was quite benign; it has gotten warmer again, and even at 5:30 am it’s quite warm, about 10C/50F. Lola says we’re having an autumn-summer, and I couldn’t describe it any better than that. Unfortunately the weather forecast says that’s coming to an end now, and there will be rain for the next few days.

Anyway, the reason why I had to get up so early was a 17 mile training run, the last run of “serious” distance, 14 days before the marathon. I was a bit concerned how my right calf had tightened last week and decided to wear the DS-trainers once more, both to check if there would be any problems with my calf, and to get used to the reduced heel lift. The run itself went pretty well, but I really should have slowed down a bit. The first 5 miles went by in less than 42 minutes, and I pretty much kept to 8-minute miles for the rest of the run. It didn’t really feel that fast. If it’s the lighter shoes, or my imagination of how light the shoes are, of if it’s the reduced mileage from last week, but the pace felt less-than-marathon-pace to me. Maybe I shouldn’t say that out loud though, it might come back to haunt me on the 31st. The legs felt ok, but the soles of my feet were quite painful during the run. I’m not sure where that came from, I certainly didn’t get that pain last week, but if if happens again on marathon day I’m confident I’ll be able to push through it. I expect the legs to hurt a lot more in the final miles.

Remember how I managed to avoid getting a cold from the kids last week? Well, it didn’t last. I don’t think I picked it up from them, and it might be a different bug; I haven’t got a runny nose, but a sore throat instead. I keep picking up those little bouts of sickness at an alarming rate these days. I’m back on the Echinacea, and I was never off the Vitamin C anyway, and it will get better soon. It still passes the neck test, and I was out for a short but sweet 5-mile recovery run this morning. I was surprised how dark it was, even by the end of the run. I guess winter is coming closer and closer.

I have to drive to Shannon airport tonight to collect my mum, who is visiting us again. It means I won’t be able to get to bed until after 1 o’clock in the morning, which probably means that I might forego tomorrow’s run. I’ll see how I feel at the time. If I’m too tired, I’ll sleep in. If the kids wake me up anyway (and judging by the last few mornings, they will), I might go out, cause there’s no point trying to sleep while they’re bouncing on my head.

16 Oct: 17 miles, 2:17, 8:03 pace
17 Oct: 5 miles, 45:23, 9:04 pace