More Workouts

On Friday I went out for a 15-mile progression run despite the fact that I wasn’t entirely sure if I had recovered from the intervals/long run double workout earlier in the week. What I had in mind were 5 easy miles, 5 miles at MP, and 5 miles faster than MP. I took my time and started as slowly as I wanted, because it always takes me a few miles to get warmed up properly. After 5 miles I cranked up the pace, but it took some time to get used to the higher effort. I didn’t quite manage MP for that segment, but wasn’t too far off it. I think the slower-than-planned first mile was mostly responsible for the missed target. I wasn’t sure if I had it in me to add 5 faster miles after that, but surprised myself for once. The last bit wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t as hard as I had expected it, and the faster-than-MP pace felt manageable. I was pleased.

I decided to make a change from the usual 10-mile recovery run on Saturday, and went for a loop around the Devil’s Elbow. That’s 2.5 mile flat miles, then 1.5 miles of very steep climbing, about 2 miles of downhill, less steep than the climb, and then a flat road back home. I used to run that loop all the time on my previous training cycle, when I prepared for the Connemara Ultra. No matter how stiff I felt at the beginning, the climb always had a good effect on the legs, and they always felt better afterwards. The climb was tough, as usual, and the fatigue in the legs never went away, but I ran slowly enough for a recovery run, even though the HR was a bit higher than I felt it should be. On the other hand, my normal recovery runs don’t include a big climb, and I have nothing to compare it with. I did over 5 hours of gardening work afterwards, which was necessary but maybe not ideal in regards to recovery.

Sunday seems to have become the day of the Exchange Workout, and since I felt that last week’s effort had been shorter than necessary I decided to increase the distance to 4x1 miles, alternating MP and faster pace with each mile. I had to overcome two mental hurdles for this run; the first one was to leave the house at all because the weather was miserable, windy and rainy, and the second one was to speed up after the warm-up, which just felt impossible initially. Once again, I got the pace wrong for the first mile. I was much too fast, and even though I realised the error halfway through the first mile and tried to slow down a little bit, I didn’t slow down nearly enough and came through in 6:48, ridiculously early. The second mile was only a few seconds faster than that, but at least I can claim to have stayed “in control” this time, and I concentrated mainly on form and relaxation, just like I had learned on Tuesday. The third mile at MP felt ridiculously slow in comparison, but at least I very nearly got the pace right this time. The last mile was tough, but going through the mantras “hips forward”, “lift the knees”, “swing the arms” helped a lot to run both fast and relaxed, and I came through in 6:38. I had hoped for faster times in the speed segments, but at least I can say for once that I had stayed in control all the way through, and remained relaxed for the entire time, which is in contrast to previous attempts at that workout. It took 65 seconds for the HR to return to 120 and 81 for 110, which is a bit slower than last week but better than the week before that; but because today’s workout was longer than last week’s, I can’t really compare the numbers.

I have to decide what to do next week because of the half-marathon on Sunday. I’ll probably do a long run on Wednesday and take it easy on the 3 days before race day, with maybe a fast mile or two thrown in for good measure. I’ll see.

31 Aug

15 miles, 1:55:45, 7:43 pace, avg. HR 147
3x5 mile in 43:04, 36:54, 35:47 (8:36, 7:22, 7:09 pace)

1 Sep

8.5 miles, 1:14:00, 8:42 pace, avg. HR 139, very hilly

2 Sep

9 miles, 1:10:02, 7:46 pace, avg. HR 147
4x1 mile in 6:49, 6:40, 7:18, 6:38, HR 120/65, 110/81

Weekly mileage: 83.5
Monthly mileage for August: 387