As predicted on Friday, Saturday’s run was very enjoyable. I am doing all kinds of workouts these days, hill running, mile repeats, long double headers, and sometimes it’s easy to forget that I’m doing this purely for the joy of running. I set out in the morning with the main aim of enjoying myself. I felt very stiff and slow initially, and that was confirmed when I passed the first (imaginary) mile marker in 8:40. I am always a slow starter, and I didn’t see the need to push any harder. However, the legs came round very soon after that, and running became both easier and faster. I started to inject some surges into the effort, every mile or so I accelerated for about a minute before dropping back to the old pace. I checked my clock once or twice and noticed that I kept getting faster, and reached the turnaround point (5.5 miles) in 42:40 (7:45 pace), which was sooner than expected, especially considering the slow first mile. I kept the surges going, and eventually the legs tuned into that higher pace all by themselves, without me really intending to do so. I felt very good, kept smiling and running, and completed the second 5.5 mile stint in 39:48 (7:14 pace). I’m not kidding myself and pretend that it was an easy run. It wasn’t, I definitely kept pushing the pace, but it wasn’t a tempo effort either, despite the fact that a year ago this would have been a slightly ambitious pace for a hard tempo run. I have gotten faster yet again in the last few weeks, and I think it’s the hill repeats that are responsible for that. Coming back to my original point, doing technical stuff like hill or mile repeats might not nearly be as enjoyable as a straightforward run like today’s, but if they make me faster and stronger like this then they’re definitely worth the effort.
Since this was supposed to be a 90-minute run, and I was back home nearly 8 minutes early, I added a cool down mile, something I probably should do more often, but never do. Unfortunately, not everything was plain sailing. I got some pain in my right hip over the last 2 miles, and it was fairly sore. I had noticed it towards the end of Friday’s long run, but had hoped it would go away again. However, it was worse on Saturday.
Sunday saw me back on the hills again, for another set of 4 hill repeats. I planned on performing the same workout as on Tuesday, mostly steep hill running with some bounding thrown in for the last two repeats. Each repeats lasts less than 4 minutes, but 4 minutes can be a very long time when you’re being tortured like that. I didn’t quite make the 90 seconds of bounding I had hoped for, both times I cut them after 60 seconds and switched back to steep hill running. Sometimes I don’t have the strength, either in the legs or in the minds. On the plus side, the hip problem didn’t even register.
Today I’ve got a sore throat again. Niamh’s sisters were here over the weekend (to the delight of the kids, especially Cian), and brought some unwanted germs into the house. Today all the kids are coughing, and Daddy isn’t feeling too great either. It didn’t stop me from running, but it did stop me from feeling at my best (at least I’m blaming the cold rather than the hill repeats). I went out with the same mindset as on Saturday, to enjoy 90 minutes of running on a reasonably flat course (well, with just a few climbs thrown in for variety). The first mile was even slower this time in around 9:00, and I put in the same surges. I didn’t quite speed up as much, and covered the 5.5 sections in 44:52 (8:10 pace) and 40:20 (7:20 pace). It kind of validates last Wednesday’s mileage though. Back then I had doubts if I could have run 7:15 pace at that effort. I have more or less repeated that twice since then, which points to the possibility that Wednesday was indeed as fast as originally calculated.
Alas, my hip hurt again, and more so than on Saturday. I googled a bit, and it might be bursitis, which generally affects runners (check!) who run a lot of hills (check!) and on hard surfaces (check!). I’ll try icing, stretching, and flatter routes over the next week (apart from tomorrow’s hill session, that is), and will hope to cure it that way. The other option is ibuprofen, but I generally avoid stuff like that as much as I can.
24 Feb: 12 miles, 1:30:46, 7:33 pace, avg. HR 151
25 Feb: 4 hill repeats, 1:10, avg. HR 148
26 Feb: 11 miles, 1:25:12, 7:44 pace, avg. HR 144
Weekly mileage: 85.5 miles
yeah, ibuprofen is a good thing to avoid - issues with renal failure, etc. i also decided to no longer take any pain relievers prior to a workout, b/c i worry that then i'll push things too hard b/c i feel okay. so now if i even take a pain reliever, it's afterwards. sometimes the ibuprofen (taken in small doses) can really help.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the hip.
ReplyDeleteI know you had some down time when you banged your head, but have you looked back over the last 4-6 weeks to check the variation in your mileage? Perhaps it's time for an easy week?
That said good work with the hill workouts, keep it up!
Fantastic run! It's amazing how hard you'll push yourself when everything feels great and the legs feel like they are running effortlessly. Hope that cold passes soon.
ReplyDelete185 weekly miles are the right mileage for a professional runner. What's your real goal?
ReplyDeleteThomas, reading your stuff gives me real hope. I feel (hope!) as though I might be a year or so behind you.
ReplyDeletecongratulations on a nice week thomas you are doing great!!
ReplyDeleteYou're running more weekly mileage than I ever did. I expect a sub-3 from you in the future.
ReplyDeleteI saw your comment on Eric's 7 hour 50k and you should really ask Olga about a difficult 50k. She did one that took 10+ hours and the same guy who put on both of these races puts on another one in Colorado with 17,000+ feet of elevation gain in 50k. You're talking 12+ hours if you can finish it.