Odd

I sometimes forget that I ran a rather strenuous race on Sunday, but my legs tend to remind me very quickly. They say it takes about a day per mile raced to fully recover, and even though I usually feel recovered quicker than that, this week was definitely all about getting my strength back.

Wednesday’s fartlek was a case in point. I found this a much better way to get some faster miles under the belt than a prescribed set of mile repeats. I could increase the speed when I wanted to and take as much recovery in-between as I felt like. That way I managed to run fast at times and still feel ok at the end of the workout. In fact, even though the overall pace was nothing to be proud of, I was surprised to find that the pace had been the same as last Wednesday’s fartlek session (where I hadn’t felt particularly good). Overall, I was reasonably pleased with that run.

And since the weather was absolutely foul that day I got a lift from Niamh into work and ran home in the evening, as I always do when I get a lift. This meant over 17 miles for the day, which left me a bit tired for Thursday. The first mile was very slow but I felt better with each mile, and by the end running was fun again. Maybe the fact that it was a nice day helped in that regard.

Sadly, that was only a break between two storm systems, and the next one arrived over Kerry this morning just in time for my run. Somehow I managed to oversleep by a few minutes, which left me short of time and I decided to give the lap around Caragh Lake a miss. The fact that my stomach felt dodgy was another argument, because I didn’t want to stray too far away from home in that case. Add to that the strong wind and I had all the reasons to remain in the vicinity of the Ard-na-Sidhe road to get some shelter from the elements. Running back and forwards three times on the same stretch of road is not the most exciting way to accumulate miles, but on a day like that it would have to do. For the first time since Sunday's race I thought I felt some zip in the legs, but somehow the pace didn't quite reflect that. And of course I did the same “get-a-lift-to-work-and-run-home” spiel again, as dictated by the elements. The strange thing was that on the evening run I didn't even try to run fast, yet ended up with the fastest pace of the week. With the way I have organised things I run more miles during bad weather spells than during nice weeks. Something's odd here. Maybe it’s me.

14 Jan

am: 12.1 miles fartlek, 1:32:59, 7:41 pace, HR 145
pm: 5 miles, 39:15, 7:51 pace, HR 145

15 Jan

10 miles, 1:20:20, 8:02 pace, HR 141

16 Jan

am: 14 miles, 1:48:29, 7:45 pace, HR 142
pm: 5 miles