Groundhog Day

Because of Sunday’s race I took it very easy on Monday. The original schedule might have called for another back-to-back sandwich for Monday and Tuesday, but I opted to give my legs some rest and just did 5 very slow miles instead. The quads very surprisingly sore, almost certainly a result of running down those hills between Farranfore and Firies at breakneck speed. Still, the trophy looks good in my cabinet.

I still did my back-to-back workouts, of course, merely delayed by 24 hours. I got up on Tuesday at 4:45 am, got ready and headed out of the door just after 5 o’clock. It was raining slightly and the wind was blowing, but luckily Full Moon had only been a few days earlier and despite the thick cloud cover the light was easily bright enough to run without headlamp. The wind picked up as I climbed up the hills on the eastern side of Caragh Lake, the rain turned from a drizzle into a downpour and the next 3 miles were rather challenging. Once I had crested the apex (and avoided being run over by two cars on the narrow road) things improved markedly. I was about to cross Black Stones Bridge, 9 miles away from home, when I heard some rustling noises coming from my left. This happens all the time and I didn’t pay them any attention when all of a sudden a big animal crossed the road immediately in front of me. It seemed at least 2 feet long but not very tall. I’m fairly sure it was a badger and I very nearly ran into it. Judging by its panicked grunting noised it was even more frightened than I was. The encounter was over in a flash, and I continued on my way (as did the badger, presumably).

For the sake of change I ran down some new roads for some extra miles, and both turned out to be very hilly, which cost me a bit of pace but should hopefully have increased the return my legs received from the run. The rain stopped eventually, even if the wind did not, and I got home without any further incidents, still feeling good.

The legs got stiffer and stiffer during the day, though. It’s amazing how they can feel perfectly fine after running 20 miles but turn into wooden boards after a few hours in the office chair, even though I always make sure to walk around every now and again.

I got up on Wednesday at 4:45 am, got ready and headed out of the door just after 5 o’clock. It was raining slightly and the wind was blowing, but luckily Full Moon had only been a few days earlier and despite the thick cloud cover the light was easily bright enough to run without headlamp. The wind picked up as I climbed up the hills on the eastern side of Caragh Lake, the rain turned from a drizzle into a downpour and the next 3 miles were rather challenging. Once I had crested the apex (and avoided being run over by [presumably the same] two cars on the narrow road) things improved markedly. It wasn’t until I reached Black Stones Bridge and did not encounter a badger that the day started differing from the previous one, up to then it had been an almost perfect carbon copy, even the cars had passed me at the same spots. Anyway, I did not run down the same roads as yesterday but did my “standard” loop until mile 13 when I decided to turn left and ran up another hill that would cut off part of the way but was rather steep and challenging on my tiring legs. I got into The Zone then and the rest of the run went by in a flash. I hardly remember anything about it, the miles ticked by on pure autopilot and before I knew it I was back home, another sandwich workout completed. It had not gone quite as smooth as the previous week, but a lot better than the week before that. I did notice, however, that my HR was higher than the previous week. The slightly hillier course might account for some of it, but definitely not all of it. I guess I’m still recuperating from the race. Tomorrow I’ll head for the pool to give the legs an opportunity to recover.

1 Feb

5 miles, 43:42, 8:44 pace, HR 132

2 Feb

20 miles, 2:45:59, 8:18 pace, HR 145

3 Feb

20 miles, 2:46:42, 8:20 pace, HR 144