Pushing On

I made it through the first week of the Transition phase without injury and with 2 intact, if slightly sore, legs. Doing this for the first time makes it difficult to judge if I’m doing enough, too much or too little, though I trust the coach to help me out if I’m straying too far off the path.

Since keeping your aerobic conditioning intact is absolutely crucial, the weekly long run remains a critical element of training. It was a bit fresh on Sunday morning; every other year I would have called -4C bitterly cold, but after the winter we’ve just had nobody is batting an eyelid at those temperatures. I did not expect to come across as many icy patches as I did, though. The roads we’re driving on are all fine and I did not think the back roads I use for running would be any different, but there were a few hairy bits. At least it confirmed that I had been right to stay away from the loop around the lake during the worst of the cold spell.

The legs were not exactly fresh; the hamstrings especially had plenty of residue from the hill drills in them, but I knew I would manage. In fact, the big climb early on was significantly easier than only two weeks ago. When I’m in reasonable shape I can just switch off at the bottom of the hill and proceed to the top on autopilot, which is exactly what happened. I made a mistake during the second half of the run, though. For some reason I started pushing harder than normal and ran the last 8 miles, over undulating terrain and with a slight net uphill at 7:24 pace, much faster than normal and definitely faster than I should have. It left me with rather sore legs for the rest of the day and I can still feel the effects today, Monday.

I hoped to make up for some of my mistake by taking it especially easy this morning. With the cold spell ending and the warmer air bringing loads of rain and wind it may have been the last run in nice conditions for a while. Once more I undershot the 140 HR, but in this case I’m pretty sure it was warranted. It still did not stop me from having sore quads today but right now I’m still hoping another good night’s sleep will do wonders.

30 Jan

19 miles, 2:26:16, 7:42 pace, HR 148
   last 8 @ 7:24 pace, HR 153

31 Jan

8 miles, 1:03:34, 7:56 pace, HR 138

Weekly Mileage: 73
January Mileage: 341.5