Just not in it

The most important thing for me was the gorgeous smile I got from Maia when I came home after my run on Monday. She's definitely over her virus, and we have our happy and smiley baby back. My, how I missed that. She's also started waving goodbye every time she sees me. It's just too cute.

Oh yes, running. I forgot to mention one thing about the Killarney race on Saturday. It used to be a very competitive event, but last year they decided to make it a fun run only – no numbers, not t-shirts, no timer. None of that bothered me the least. But this year they went one further and did not provide water at the end! There was a café where you could buy water, which I would have refused out of principle even if I'd had money on me. I could not believe it, I have never heard of a running event where they did not provide water at the end.

If you really want, you can check out that video from the Ballydavid race. I caught a mere glimpse of myself at the start, but my finish is there. I'm the runner in the yellow singlet, coming around the bend 6:10 into the video. I noticed three things: 1) I came eight rather than seventh. I must have missed one runner when I counted them during the first mile. 2) The runner in front of me finished 20 seconds ahead of me. Considering that I was no more than 5 steps behind him with 1.5 miles to go, and that I had a decent last mile, that is a staggering gap. Not sure how that happened. 3) I took one look at myself and thought that I looked almost painfully thin. There is a reason for that, but I'll keep it for another post.

Tuesday is hill repeats day, and I have learned to hate hill repeats in the last few weeks. As soon as I left home I knew that I would not have a good workout. I was tired, and I felt stiff, especially around the hips. The right thing would have been to bin the workout and do an easy run instead, but I kept to the original schedule because I knew that I would not do the hill repeats at all if not today, because I hate them so much. And since it was the last hill workout in the schedule I thought I'd better get it done.

I did 8x2 minutes with 3 minutes rest. For the first 6 repeats I only got my HR into the low 170s, much lower than on previous workouts. Things slightly improved on the last 2, when I decided to give at least a little bit more effort. I've read that a lower heart rate can be a sign of overtraining, but that was not the case here. I was just not prepared to push myself as hard as during previous weeks. I had 2 races and 4 tough workouts in the previous 2 weeks, and I just could not bring myself to commit myself to the pain.

I guess there was not much point in stubbornly going ahead when my heart was not in it. So be it. I've got a fartlek workout tomorrow, and I'll try and hit the correct paces. In marked contrast to the hill sprints I like the fartleks and am therefore much more likely to fully commit myself.

One advantage of not giving 100% on Tuesday was that I felt much fresher than usual on Wednesday. The miles flew by, and the heart rate of 144 was quite low. I checked my log, and spookily the last 4 Wednesday runs all produced the same heart rate. The pace figures are telling though:

2 Jul: 8:06 pace, 9 Jul: 8:01 pace, 16 Jul: 7:58 pace, 23 Jul: 7:49 pace

That's some nice progress, don't you think?

22 Jul

8.3 miles, 1:13:19, 8:50 pace, HR 142
incl. 8x2 mins hill sprints

23 Jul

8 miles, 1:02:33, 7:49 pace, HR 144