A Completely New Runner

One week can be a very long time. Last week, after my first back-to-back sandwich of the training cycle I was utterly exhausted. The second run had been one of the toughest training runs ever and the thought of doing all that mileage in one single day seemed like a very fancy idea indeed.

Seven days later, and someone must have replaced my legs with a much better pair. I feel almost reborn. I did learn a few lessons last week and made a few adjustments. For a start, I made sure the run on Sunday was easy (though I feared I might have shot myself in the foot again with the long swim). On Monday I brought a gel with me on the run and consumed it after about 16 miles. I did not feel the need for some carbs at the time but wanted to make sure that my glycogen levels would not bottom out (I know, there is a line of thinking that says that can be a good thing in training from time to time). Then, for the rest of the day, I made pretty damn sure to refuel. In other words, any carbohydrate molecule within vicinity ended up in my stomach. I freely admit. It felt good to pig out for the cause.

On Tuesday I took another gel with me as well as a granola bar. The latter was an experiment. Since my stomach is not great at digesting gels, especially during the later stages of a run, I thought maybe something else might be more agreeable. I took the bar after about 6 miles. I really did not feel like eating at the time but made myself do it. With the first bite I was converted, it tasted really nice and also settled into my stomach. I think I might just take a couple of those to Connemara with me. And I took the gel, again at the 16-mile point. Again, I did not feel like I needed it but after last week’s minor hallucinations I wanted to make sure that there would be no repeat performance.

Anyway, Monday’s run was fine and I felt fresh as a daisy afterwards. And as soon as I took the first step on Tuesday I knew that this would be a much better run than the one the week before. The first 3 miles were relative sedate (8:30 pace) and I took it easy on the next 3 or 4 miles of climbing, but from then on I nudged the effort up a bit because I felt good and at that point there was no more need to take it so easy in order to keep extra reserves in the tank. Things kept going well, and I ran the last mile at sub-7 pace, just because I could.

Even though it was not the goal of today’s run, this was the first time ever that I had managed to run the second run of a back-to-back workout faster than the first one.

By the way, my original schedule had not asked for 2 consecutive 20-milers. Instead I had planned for a 20/18 workout. Initially it seemed like a splendid idea, especially for the 15 minutes of extra sleep this would provide. But at some stage on Monday I told myself to HTFU and decided to run a proper 20-mile long run on Tuesday as well. Well, after feeling so good after my run I was glad about that decision. And because of what is in store tomorrow I found it more than appropriate to have covered 40 miles, albeit in 2 days.

25 Jan

20 miles, 2:45:13, 8:16 pace, HR 140

26 Jan

20 miles, 2:43:20, 8:10 pace, HR 140
last mile @ 6:55