It started early on Friday, at 4 am. I could hear the wind and rain rattling the windows, but once I tentatively set my foot outside the door it wasn’t as bad as it had sounded. Still, the wind was going to be a real problem, and during the first mile I decided to change my route. The hills on the eastern side of Caragh Lake are totally exposed, and I didn’t fancy five miles of brutal headwinds, so I chose to run two loops around the Devil’s Elbow instead. The loop part of it is a bit over 5.5 miles, and the out-and-back section from our house to the start of the loop is just under 3 miles, which makes it 8.5 hilly miles, and if you run it twice it adds up to 17 miles, exactly the same distance I had planned on running that morning (it’s a good thing I can work out the math in my head at 4:20 while battling the brewing storm). The loop includes a rather brutal climb of over two miles, which obviously I had to do twice. Last year I used it as a measurement of my fitness, if I could reach the top without being completely out of breath I was in good shape. I surprised myself, even on the second loop I ran this basically on autopilot and never went into the “this-is-too-steep-please-let-it-stop” mode. In fact, I felt as fresh as a daisy after coming home. Looking at it from one angle I could say that I must be in good shape already, but on the other hand I wondered if I’m training hard enough. When you’re feeling so fresh after your long run it’s probably a sign that you should run longer. I know I said only last week that I intend to stay on that mileage for a while, but Friday’s run made me change my mind. I think I have to start running 20 miles once a week to get the best out of my training.
As an aside, after battling wind and rain for over two hours, I didn’t fancy doing it again on the bike, even for a short 20 minutes ride. I asked Niamh to drive me into work, and I got a lift from a colleague on the way home. I clearly still have some bounds.
Saturday’s weather forecast was especially brutal, but I got lucky. Shea had woken at 6 am, and by 7:30 all the kids had had their breakfast and I was free to go for a run. By pure chance this coincided with a lull in the storm. During the night I had woken several times from the sound of hailstones banging against the window, but by the time of my run the rain had almost stopped, and I just had the wind to battle against; but of course I didn’t escape the showers entirely. Nevertheless I had managed to find just that little window in the storm, because shortly after my 90 minutes of fun the hail returned, and the conditions were atrocious for the rest of the day. Everyone I met moaned about the miserable weather, but I was happy to have gotten my run in anyway.
Today, according to the weather page, the wind speeds were generally around 35mph, with wind gusts up to 55 mph, which pretty much tells you what it was like once again. Strangely enough, the rain had ceased, and I didn’t even get rained on (though it returned later on with a vengeance). Sunday is usually the day of a tempo run, and I ran at a reasonably strong effort. To be honest, I was disappointed with my pace; I had expected to run the 10 miles a minutes faster. I don’t know how much of that was due to the miserable conditions, but even taking them into account I would have thought I’d be able to run close to 7:00 pace. I guess I’ll see what the next tempo run will bring, but I certainly won’t fall into the trap of racing my workouts.
P.S.: Guess who gave her Daddy a big smile yesterday. I’m so happy!
- 30 Nov
- 17 miles, 2:12:36, 7:46 pace, HR 147
last 3 in 22:00 @ 7:20 - 1 Dec
- 12 miles, 1:34:31, 7:52 pace, HR 144
including 10x100 strides - 2 Dec
- 10 miles, 1:11:29, 7:09 pace, HR 155
Weekly Mileage: 91.5 miles
November mileage: 362.5 miles
You put up some serious mileage this week! Nice. Hope the weather doesn't make staying in too tempting. We're about to go through something comparable here soon. Stay warm and dry and happy running.
ReplyDeleteI think I dislike wind more than cold temps. Good job getting out and putting in the huge miles in spite of it.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the P.S., I was going to guess Niamh! It's been a while, eh? haha! Seriously though, that first smile melts your heart...
livin on the north west coast of merseyside we have had some pretty grim weather last night and today.
ReplyDeletewas singing "riders on the storm" as i splashed my way over the sand dunes today.
very impressed with your mileage Thomas,good job !
Winter and winter storms have arrived. I've decided there's nothing to do but run through them.
ReplyDeleteGreat weekly mileage! Thanks for your comment regarding WS 100 but I'm working on finding another challenge. The Canadian Death Race up in Alberta Canada looks interesting. It's 125KM with about 21,000 feet (6400 Meters) of climbing. Severe conditions can be expected. One year they had to rescue one runner on a summit who had hypotermia and two others on another summit for heat stroke.
ReplyDeleteStay healthy and run like the wind!
Gotta admire the early starts in the cold winter months. Not sure i'd be out there. Keep it up.
ReplyDeleteRe the comments thats the good thing about bloglines, i probably only comment on maybe half of what i read.
Glad you weathered the storm and hurray for baby smiles! :) :)
ReplyDeleteMaia?
ReplyDeleteThat's why I never complain about our many weeks of 30+C over summer. 91.5 miles - I had to get out the metric converter for that one - 147k is a big week Thomas - well done.