That's not to say that I didn't get any decent training in. I had to cut Wednesday's run from 11 miles to 10 because Maia woke just as I was getting up, and I had to change and entertain her for a while before I could get out. Lucky Niamh managed to sleep through most of it. Since my alarm time is always geared to getting me out of the door just in time for the planned mileage, any delay means a lost mile or two. But at least the 10 miles that I did eventually manage to run went by reasonably well, despite the protesting hamstrings. I find that if the legs are tired it's a good idea to push the effort down to tempo pace for a quarter mile or so. It really makes the subsequent miles at easy pace feel much better.
I got a bit of a lie-in on Thursday because the first hill repeats were on the program and I didn't want to overdo it. This meant I'd do a shorter run than I would have done otherwise, which in turn meant more time in bed. After two miles of gradually warming up I ran 2 miles at tempo effort. This was as slow as expected, 6:54 pace, which gives me a lot of room for improvement. One easy mile later I arrived at the foot of my hill and did 4 hill sprints of pretty much maximum effort, but only for 30 seconds each. At least this stopped the hamstrings from being the most sore part of my body, because the quads took over that particular mantle. Even though the total amount of time spent on those hill repeats came to only 2 minutes, they were sore for the entire rest of the day. I expected to be stiff on Friday, but against all odd I felt just fine.
The weather was quickly becoming a recurrent theme; the forecast predicts rain, I get beautifully blue skies in the morning, and by the time the rain eventually arrives hours later I am save and dry in the office. My luck finally went out today, Friday, as it was raining at the start of my run. But it wasn't too bad, more of a drizzle really, and even that stopped eventually. It was the first day since the race that my legs felt fresh, and after a couple of slow miles at the start the pace kept dropping without me even noticing. I completed 12 miles, feeling very good for once. I think the marathon is slowly loosening its grip, and I can start running properly again.
- 20 May
- 10 miles, 1:15:00, 7:30 pace, HR 157
- 21 May
- 8.25 miles, 1:04:16, 7:47 pace, HR 152
incl. 2 miles @ 6:54, 4x30 secs hill sprints - 22 May
- 12 miles, 1:29:43, 7:29 pace, HR 155
You have the same weather forecasters as us!
ReplyDeleteWell done with the hill sprints - looks like 4 was the perfect number at this time to avoid undue soreness.
Do you feel any lactate build-up at 30 secs? Just curious as Hudson recommends 10-12 sec alactic sprints for neuromuscular development.