Tipping Point

Are you searching to find your tipping point or are you simply addicted to running?

Mike left that comment to my last entry. I can’t even pretend he’s exaggerating. 18 months ago, when I started training for the 2006 Dublin marathon, I consciously made the decision to ramp up my training, up to 70 miles per week, which back then sounded like an enormous amount of running. I was worried if that kind of volume would leave me injured, but as it turned out, I did just fine. I have since increased my mileage further with every training cycle, and my racing times have steadily improved at all distances, while the number of injuries has actually gone down. I’m sure there is a plateau somewhere, but I don’t think I’ve reached it yet. What the last two years have taught me is that the human body can take much more stress than we think. As for being addicted to running, I guess I can’t really deny that; on the other hand, neither can a lot of you.

Having said all that, I’m actually feeling like complete crap at the moment, but I think that’s a temporary setback and unrelated to running. Niamh had felt awful on Thursday, and now it’s my turn. She had originally suspected it to be mastitis, but I think we can rule out that possibility for me. It didn’t help that the kids, especially the twins, are an absolute nightmare today, so much so that I suggested to Niamh to drop them at the side of the road and start again, but she refused. I don’t know why, she must have been tempted too.

After that sandwich, a recovery run was all I had in mind for Saturday. Just as expected, the legs felt awkward and sluggish early on, and I feared this would be an embarrassingly slow run. Imagine my surprise when I checked my watch at the first mile, and read 7:30! Any fears of a slow run evaporated, but of course this wasn’t recovery pace by any stretch of imagination. However, I just started to feel good. I’ve once read a quote by someone “I’ll start running as soon as I see a runner smiling”. Had that person been around Caragh Lake yesterday he or she would have had to tie up the laces, because I just couldn’t help but smile and enjoy the run. As a result, I ran way too fast, and I knew it, even at the time, but I simply felt too good to slow down.

Sunday is my day for a tempo effort, but with the sandwich still in my legs and the nonexistent recovery I wasn’t sure what I would be able to achieve. I started out reasonably fast with a 7:13 mile, and the first loop went by quickly enough at 7:07 pace, but I could not quite keep up that effort, and the second loop was about half a minute slower. I could either blame the sandwich, yesterday’s faster run or whatever bug is messing up my body right now, but taking all those factors into account I think it was a reasonable effort. I’ll have to decide tomorrow morning if I’m up for a run. Niamh only felt affected for one day, and there’s still hope that the same might be true for me.

15 Dec

10 miles, 1:14:48, 7:28 pace, HR 147
including 12x100 strides

16 Dec

10 miles, 1:11:44. 7:10 pace, HR 154

Weekly mileage: 94