Fallout

As soon as I woke on Wednesday I realised that I would be reminded of Tuesday’s hill session for some time to come. I had expected the quads to be sore, but they were absolutely fine. Instead my calves were in pretty bad shape. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to running on that pair of stumps, but Wednesday is the easiest day of my week, and I guess that helped. I ran alongside Caragh Lake, and when the watch said 30:30, I turned around. I usually run the second part a bit faster than the first and expected to be back home in exactly one hour, but must have accelerated a bit more than expected, because I was back in just over 59 minutes. The calves did behave somewhat while out running, but were rather sore for the rest of the day. Walking from one part of the office to the next one without anyone noticing my funny walk was a challenge.

I could only hope that I would feel better for today’s first part of my long run double header, but expected to actually feel worse. This was confirmed at 4 o’clock in the morning when I was woken by Cian’s crying. I limped to his bed, and he eventually calmed down (he’d had a nightmare), but refused to go back asleep in his bed because he was scared. I carried him into our bed, but it basically meant the end of my night’s sleep – it’s almost impossible to sleep beside that boy, he keep trashing about. What little sleep I got after that was finally brought to an end by the alarm clock at 5:10 am. The heavy rain that had fallen all night had thankfully stopped, but the gale force wind had not, and I resolved to cancel my initial plans to run around Caragh Lake and do two devil’s elbow loops instead, where there is some shelter on the part of the road that heads into the wind. I was just about to leave when the rain returned with a vengeance, and waited for about 3 minutes until the worst of that particular downpour was over. I correctly suspected that I would have to deal with similar conditions later out on the road though. Most of the country had snow today. Kerry had torrential rain.

The course did include the steep climb up to the devil’s elbow not just once but twice, and boy, was it hard work. I have run it so often in the last few weeks that I no longer think of it as particularly challenging, but today it was hard work, especially on the second loop. Cresting the hill has never felt so good, and I celebrated by running the second loop a good bit faster than the first (1:10 for the first, 1:07 for the second). Considering how bad my calves felt I was surprised by my pace, especially the sub-8 pace for the second loop. I’m not complaining, but I do hope that I won’t have to pay for my exuberance on tomorrow’s second part of the double header.

The calves, especially the left one, are still dealing with the fallout from Tuesday’s hill session. I was so sore at lunchtime that I wondered if it really is DOMS or some more serious signs of injury, but I’ve stopped being paranoid since. I guess I’ll know more by tomorrow. I expect to feel better in the morning; let’s wait and see.

7 Feb: 7.5 miles, 59:02, 7:52 pace, avg. HR 149
8 Feb: 17 miles, 2:17:26, 8:05 pace, avg. HR 151