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It looks like replacing the battery in my HR strap has sent the gremlins on their way again, at least the recent HR data looks believable. That’s good because I’ve got my first training plan from MC and it includes quite a few evaluation runs where I’m supposed to run at a specific heart rate for 4 miles and measure my pace at each mile. An accurate HR monitor is rather vital in that respect. The coach’s training program starts next week, with the first evaluation planned for Tuesday.

Maia is much better, thanks everyone for your sympathies. She informed me on Monday evening that she found her smile at the bottom of an ice cream tub, and several more bowls of ice cream have followed since. Any more and she’ll bite her tongue deliberately next time. She was absolutely ravenous on Monday, but has returned to her usual state by now. Little kids are amazingly resilient.

On a completely different note, the Chilean miners seem to have caught the world’s attention big time now that they have gone mainstream after being underground for so long [groan]. Niamh seems to pay particular attention to the one guy who had both his wife and his mistress waiting for him. She reckons he would have been better off staying where he was. There is an implied threat in that, of course. She’s clearly telling me that if I should ever be found having a mistress, I better pray for 2000 feet of solid rock between her and myself. But since I have no plans for taking up mining or a mistress, this has no practical application at the moment. (Actually, the cheating bastard seemed rather happy not to see his wife swinging a meat cleaver as he stepped out of the rescue capsule.)

Anyway, with my achilles improving on a daily basis I got a bit more daring on Tuesday and added a (very short) set of strides at the end of my run. That’s a much gentler introduction of fast paces than on my last attempt which ended so badly. I thought I could feel my achilles afterwards, but I’m not entirely sure if that was real or psychological.

Another steady run followed on Wednesday, which felt easier than a similar run on Monday, despite running virtually the same pace. I returned back to the Caragh Lake road for that one. Up to now I stayed away from that undulating road in order to protect my achilles, but I felt no twinge yesterday and thus will be back there again.

Today was easy again, still following the pattern of alternating easy and steady runs. Not much to say about that, but I picked up the pace on the last half mile; finally running 6:30 pace again put a massive smile on my face. I think I’m on my way back.

12 Oct

5 miles, 41:53, 8:23 pace, HR 134
incl. 4x100 strides

13 Oct

8 miles, 57:46, 7:13 pace, HR 158

14 Oct

6.1 miles, 48:09, 7:54 pace, HR 146
incl. 4x100 strides and a faster final half mile