It was easy to come up with a workout for Monday. After my first attempt at dipping into the anaerobic zone for longer than a few seconds on Sunday, an easy run was always on the cards. Since easy runs always seem to be 10-milers for me these days, that’s what it was. It was quite windy, which is why I switched from the Caragh Lake road to the Ard-na-Sidhe one, but other than that I did as planned. My calves were stiff and tired, and the first 2.5 mile section took about 23 minutes, which is way slower than even 9:00 pace. The ego immediately kicked in and tried to press on the accelerator, but I managed to keep it in check and just plod along. I did get a bit faster, but that always happens after the first couple of miles. The main thing is, I managed to keep the effort at recovery level, and indeed came home with the lowest average HR for a run ever. 10 miles were in the book, but I still didn’t really feel recovered for the rest of the day.
I think listening to Green Day on Monday evening must have fried my brain, because I had a severe case of the stupids today. I have done that workout often enough by now, and really should know better. For Tuesday I had planned 10 miles with 7.5 miles at marathon pace, which means each 2.5 miles segment should take 18:07 (let’s ignore the extra half-second). But today, for some reason I had it in my basket case of a brain that the target time was 17:07. I really don’t know where that came from; I must be cracking up. Unsurprisingly, I missed the “target” time (I managed 17:33) , which led me to the conclusion that I had not yet recovered from Sunday’s workout, and kept pushing hard. The stupids didn’t stop there. When I finished the second segment in 17:45, I knew that this was a good 20 seconds faster than the actual target. I still didn’t connect the dots and kept believing that the first segment had been slow. Not only that, the target time switched back to 17:07 for the third segment. Don’t ask. I kept thinking “that’s too hard, I can’t possibly run like that for 26 miles”, but no, the truth didn’t dawn on me until after I had come home. I had felt like a mug on Sunday, but I felt a lot more like an idiot today. The original plan for tomorrow had been to do a long run with 7.5 miles at MP, but after today’s inadvertent tempo run this will be too hard, I think. I’ll just do a slow 20-miler, and if I feel like speeding up in the last few miles I’ll do so, but I doubt it, to be honest. I hope my brain will have switched itself back on by then.
20 Aug: 10 miles, 1:27:55, 8:47 pace, avg. HR 133
21 Aug: 10 miles, 1:14:55, 7:29 pace, avg. HR 153, with 7.5 miles @ 7:03 pace
No - not my favorite band! It can't be Green Day's fault!
ReplyDeleteI usually find that listening to them to make myself stupid is usually the best way for me to get through those difficult workouts. If I were smarter, I'd probably train much less.
Been hanging around with the American bloggers too much(post title)! Actually the problem might be too much mileage, I know there's no such thing as that in your vocabulary.
ReplyDeleteI'm so out of it. Who the heck is Green Day? Trick to avoid running stupid is to write your workout out on your hand or a scrap of paper. Works for me ;-)
ReplyDeleteFunny isn't it - how you can know something, but not know it at the same time. Then later it perks to the top of the brain...duh! Happens to me more than I care to admit.
ReplyDelete7.5 miles at 7:00/mi ... that's smoking.
ReplyDeleteDon't fret. The world is full of non-american idiots. Luckily, for you it was just temporary.
ReplyDeleteNot my favorite band too. Are you ready for the match on friday night?
ReplyDeleteI would love to be a stupid american runner for one day!!!
ReplyDeleteAbout the balance and running 100 mile weeks. If I remember from a previous post don't you go to work at like 9 a.m.?
ReplyDeleteMy problem is that the school day starts at 8 a.m. and I usually get there an hour early, which means I leave at 6:30 a.m. Now, if I was very gung-ho about high mileage I would need to get up and running by 4 a.m. every day so I could get home shave, shower, get dressed, pack my lunch (no, my wife does not do this for me) make coffee and get out the door. This is doable assuming my wife did not work until 10:30 p.m. during the week, I had all my planning for class done every day before I went to sleep and I could get my kids in bed before 10 p.m. My son sometime stays up until midnight, which means I do not get to sleep until my wife gets home.
The other problem is that if I wake up that early every day then it leaves me tired in the classroom and I do not dare fall asleep amongst a bunch of teenagers in a highly diversified low income school ditrict.
With all that said, I am hoping that by year two of teaching I can find that balance that will allow me 80-100 mile weeks on a regular basis, but this year I am a bit behind the learning curve. I don't doubt that it can be done. You are lucky that you have that balance, but I would be willing to bet that you are amongst the minority.
P.S. If this response sounds defesive it is not intended to do so. It's more like I am thinking out loud. I always appreciate and enjoy your feedback. And you can grill me and call me names like my fellow hometown bloggers do.
That's a good story Thomas. I always use the "blood is going from my brain to my legs" excuse. Yes, definitely an easy 20-miler after that.
ReplyDelete