Return to Work

It had to happen sooner or later, and neither Niamh nor me were looking forward to it, but I had to get back to work on Monday. Niamh managed to organise a whole troupe of friends and neighbours to get the kids to and from school/preschool, so she can still take it easy during the day. But she had asked me not to go running in the morning (or at least cut it to 3 times during the week), because she can't look after Maia and prepare breakfast/entertain whoever gets up early at the same time.

This was totally reasonable, of course, but I was still desperate to go running. When she asked me not to go running in the morning, she meant from around 6 to 8 am, which is my normal time. However, she had no objections to running between 4 and 6, because even our kids are sleep by then - and if they're not, then we tell them to get back to bed. I did get "The Look" from her when I asked for permission, but she obviously decided that if I was deranged enough to seriously consider getting up at 4 am to go running, it would be better not to get into my way. In fact, she gave permission to stay out until 6:30, giving me an extra 30 minutes of sleep.

So, that's what I did. My reasoning was that if you go to bed at 10 o'clock, you still get over 6 hours of sleep before getting up at 4:15, being out of the house at 4:30 and running 15 miles around Caragh Lake. Unfortunately I had to organise a few things that took much longer than anticipated on Sunday evening, and didn't make it to bed until after 11. I just about managed 5 hours of sleep before getting up. I decided that I would be able to pull that off once, but not on a regular basis. The men in the straightjackets are probably getting ready for me by now, but I did indeed run the Caragh Lake loop, and was back home at 6:30. It was a bit slower than the previous three runs on the same loop, which may be due to the early time, or maybe I just settled on a more maintainable pace. Mind, it's still faster than what I used to run in the previous training cycle. After a shower and a bowl of cereal I even managed to get back to bed for an hour, but sleep was prevented by Cian who by then was wide-awake and chirpy, and in our bed. Typically, Shea chose that day to sleep until we had to wake him at 8 o'clock, which he has never done before. I could have slept for an additional hour, had I known.

Unsurprisingly, I was rather knackered in the evening, and went to bed soon after the kids. Niamh didn't mind, she had an early night too, and by 10 o'clock I was asleep. I had planned a shorter 10-mile run for today, so I had a lie-in until 4:50 (oh the luxury!), which meant almost 7 hours of sleep, as much as I usually get. I wasn't sure how fast I should run today, and just went with whatever the legs had in them. The quads felt rather stiff, which might be related to the fact that I'm cycling the 5 miles each way to work, and I'm not yet used to it. At the turnaround point I had to decide if I wanted a tempo effort or a slower effort with strides on the way home and opted for the later. I still managed a perfectly acceptable pace, and again was home by 6:30. This time Shea got up as soon as I came home, and any plans of going to bed again were shelved for some early-morning father-son-time. He deserves some of my undivided attention, especially now that the baby is here, and I wasn't going to deprive him. After eating some breakfast, doing a dinosaur jigsaw puzzle together and having a great old chat between pals it was time for the rest of the family to get up, too. As long as I manage to go to bed early enough, I think this will be sustainable.

12 Nov

15.5 miles, 1:59:04, 7:41 pace, HR 149

13 Nov

10 miles, 1:18:55, 7:53 pace, HR 147
including 9x100 strides