Getting there

The runs on Tuesday and Wednesday both started in the same fashion. I got up before the alarm, got ready, opened the door, noticed the rain, wondered for a second if I should wear a long-sleeved shirt or a rain jacket, and headed off. Tuesday wasn’t too bad; it stopped after a mile or two. The main problem were my calves, both of them felt very tight within a minute from the start. The right one settled down eventually, but the left one never improved. On the positive side the HR was 5 beats lower than on Monday, even though my pace was only slower by a few seconds. I tried to slow down, especially on the (gentle) uphill sections, but was only partially successful.

The weather was worse today, it was raining again, and heavily at that. I guess I'd better get used to it, last year thought me that it does indeed rain a lot on the Irish West coast. Who would have thought! However, I didn’t mind the rain at all, I was happy enough with the way the run went. The calves were both absolutely fine, which was a massive improvement to the day before. And the heart rate is coming under control as well. I did get on the other side of 9:00 pace, but I finally managed to find my relaxed stride again, and coasted all the way out and back home. The reward was an average HR of 150, still 10 beats higher than it used to be, but also 10 beats lower than only 2 days ago. I reckon I’ll settle back very quickly, and I’m really looking forward to some faster runs. All that recovery pace is rather boring, but I realise it’s also necessary.

Looking forward, I’m now leaning more towards a Lydiard-inspired training. Marc was very kind to respond to my queries, and in doing so gave a glowing assessment of his current training regime. I know perfectly well that everyone is different, and I also know that it’s still early days, even for Marc’s training cycle, but the more I think about it the more I like that kind of training. I hope I’ll manage to stay on the good side of the intensity/injury fence. Six months ago I decided to up my training from 55 miles to 70 miles per week, and was pondering exactly the same questions. Will I be able to handle it? Will the increase be too much? Will I get injured? In addition to that, I have to ask myself, is it wise to increase the intensity yet again, just after getting used to the new level? I guess, there’s only one way to find out for sure, but I’m definitely open to suggestions from more experienced and wiser runners out there.

14 Nov: 5 miles, 44:17, 8:51 pace, avg. HR 156
15 Nov: 5 miles, 45:38, 9:07 pace, avg. HR 150