Shouldn’t this be getting easier?

Good God, was I glad when I finally stumbled back into our house today after the run. I really was at the end of my strength. Not for the first time I did wonder if I had bitten off more than I can chew, but those thoughts are usually forgotten come the next workout. These double headers are tough, no doubt about it. I guess that’s the point, though.

Niamh gave me a bemused look when I said I was off to bed at 9:30 Wednesday evening. I knew I would need my sleep, and for once I went to bed on time. I’m usually very disciplined regarding running-related things, but going to bed on time is the one exception to that rule. But I sure was glad that I had bucked that trend for once when the alarm clock went off at 4:45 next morning. As I got ready I checked the weather outside. Luck was on my side; the gale force winds had blown themselves out already, leaving just the rain behind. It was drizzly early on, but that soon turned into a heavy downpour, soaking me to the bones. The heavy rain lasted for about an hour, and for the rest of the run it scaled back to a steady drizzle. I was a bit worried that the wind might pick up again and ran 3 loops around the devil’s elbow again rather than risk being stranded miles away from home on the far side of Caragh Lake. That fear proved to be unfounded, but it also meant more hills that way, especially the big, steep climb up to the ridge of the hill. Doing it once is easy by now, doing it twice is harder, doing it three times is a challenge. On the second loop a dog started barking at me. That was at least one mile away from the nearest dwelling, I have no idea how it got there. It sounded like a big dog and I was a bit worried at first, but as I got close I could see that he wasn’t actually out on the road but in a field, separated from me via a fence. I could hear his angry barks for some time, but that didn’t bother me. The last few miles started to drag a bit, but I finished feeling pretty good. I was a bit surprised when I calculated my average pace, the effort felt faster than about 8:30. Maybe the distance is slightly off, but it’s the opposite problem to Wednesday, when I thought that I might have over-estimated the miles. But, as Marc rightly pointed out, a few tenth of a mile don’t make a difference come race day, and 20 miles is what I put down into my log.

I managed another early night, and once again felt pretty well rested at 4:45. The weather was a carbon copy of Thursday, it started as a drizzle, turned into a torrential downpour for an hour or so and eased off again, maybe not quite as much as the day before. I felt a bit chilly at times due to the wind, but I don’t seem to catch colds that way. I used to be worried about getting sick running in those conditions, but I have completed so many runs like that this winter that I’ve stopped worrying. The only times I got a bit sick this year was when the kids brought home some germs, and none of those episodes were bad enough to miss even a single day of running. I did feel a bit weary from the start of this run, and this was confirmed when I ran the first loop a whole three minutes slower than yesterday. I though “well, I’ll be late for work” and just kept going. The climbs were definitely tougher than the day before. At mile 6 I got some hunger pangs, and that was repeated about 5 miles later, but I managed to ignore those feelings until they went away again. From the halfway point on I was definitely tired. I guess my glycogen stores were running empty, and my usual muscle fibres were fatigued. Mike’s Mystery Coach uses fast double headers to get the usual fibres fatigued in order to get new fibres conditioned. I guess my slower but longer double headers fulfil the same role. That’s good as far as development is concerned, but you can take it from me, it’s not pretty at the time. At the 12.5 mile point, at the end of the second loop, I was definitely knackered and ready to go home, but managed to push myself to begin the third and final loop. The climb was hard work – very hard work. If you believe Mike, all my muscles had to work with were mouldy old mushrooms, and they didn’t like the taste. There was nothing to do but to go on and on and on, and eventually I crested the summit, and while the rest of it wasn’t exactly plain sailing, it was manageable. Right when I felt worst, the mp3 player chose a song by Nickelback, and one line of the lyrics went “Are we having fun yet?”. It was good timing, and brought a smile to my face.

To add to the pain, I got some friction burns on my neck from the shirt (hmm, they're bright red, but it doesn't really show in that picture). I’ve worn that same shirt dozens of times before, I haven’t changed my washing powder or anything else that would explain why it suddenly started hurting, but it did. And it wasn’t only my shirt, the chest strap of my heart rate monitor did the same to my left side, which is just as inexplicable. Unsurprisingly in that context, I also got some good old-fashioned chafing. Has my skin gotten soft all of a sudden? Sure, I spent over 5-and-a-half hours running in the rain on Thursday and Friday, but I still wouldn’t expect that reaction.

Whatever the reasons, I’m definitely looking forward to tomorrow, when I can just run comfortably over a flat course and without having to get up at some ridiculous time. It will be a breeze.

22 Feb: 20 miles, 2:49:09, 8:27 pace, avg. HR 148
23 Feb: 20 miles, 2:54:12, 8:42 pace, avg. HR 142