Volume Speed

By Monday I had figured out what had knocked me sideways during Sunday’s run. It was not fatigue, it was not the cold, it was the medicine. After a really rough first half of the night after taking the medicine one more time, I slept soundly once the effects had worn off and when I stopped taking it, I suddenly felt so much better, it was a complete transformation.

I guess the lesson is not to take medicine for the first time as you’re about to go for a long run. Who would have thought! I really have to stop doing daft things like that at some stage, but I know I’ve said that before.

Anyway, I felt really good on Monday and was immensely pleased to see the pace/HR numbers come down significantly. I initially worried about having run too fast but the low HR and the fact that I was feeling great allayed my worries. I could have run repeats on Tuesday but decided to play it safe and did another easy run that day. The repeats were pushed to Wednesday.

"Two to Four repeats 1.5 mile to 2 miles in length with 1 mile at 7:15 pace between. The paces for the fast segments try 6:30 for the first then 6:20 and maybe 6:10, if you do 1 more try for another 6:10."

I only really read 6:30 and 6:20, knew I could do that and did not worry about the rest. As a result, I did not wake up to the dreaded thought of “Oh no, speed work!”, just a vague Fear of the Unknown. Ignorance is bliss.

I ran back and forwards on the last mile of the Caragh Lake road towards the Red Fox Inn. It’s not entirely flat, but it’s as flat as an entire mile gets around here, really.

The first repeat caught me out slightly by the fact that the required effort was a bit harder than anticipated. I had run that pace during a tempo run last week and must have forgotten what it felt like. But I managed just fine.

The “recovery” at 7:15 pace meant there was no hanging around. That’s pretty much the pace of most of my recent marathons. It’s not what I would call recovery. I had missed that bit in my initial assessment but reality caught up straight away.
The second repeat was ok but for the fact that I lost concentration after the turnaround and the pace suffered a bit. I could have caught up but decided against it. In the end, I was only out by a couple of seconds.

As soon as I took the first step of the third repeat, I knew I was in trouble. Not only was this the pace of my 10k PB, I had already run 8 miles at that point and was tired even at the very start. What got me through was the thought of my new hero, Yuki Kawauchi. Cheesy as it sounds, the vision of his pained grimace kept me going. The coach had told me to mind my breathing and if it got too ragged I should back off, but it was mainly the legs that were the limiters. The second mile especially felt like I was running all out, deeply in pain, wondering who on Earth would dream up a torture session like that and just how long 2 miles can be. For most of it I did not think I would make it to the end, but eventually I did. Thank you, Yuki.

The first thing that went straight out of the window at that point was the 7:15 “recovery” (haha) pace, I just staggered for the first quarter of a mile until I felt better. I really did not think I would be able to run that pace again, but one mile later had recovered sufficiently (and the memory of the pain must have dissipated already) to give it another go.

“I’ll just do half a mile”. Surprisingly enough, I was bang on pace after half a mile, so I added another half mile. What really surprised me was the fact that my pain threshold seemed to have been re-set slightly, the pace that had felt like pure hell a few minutes earlier now seemed just a tad more tolerable and I was running slightly more relaxed. I was still almost on pace at the 1-mile turnaround point and decided to give it one more half mile. The coach had clearly stated that the repeats were 1.5-2 miles, so I would not even be cutting the repeat short. What sustained me over those final 3+ minutes was the focus on the road sign that marked the end. I never even dreamed of running past that. As soon as I was done I checked the Garmin and was really surprised to see that I had been bang on pace. Immediately the guilt trip started, surely I could have added a final half mile?

2 miles @ 6:29 (HR 161), 1 mile “recovery” @ 7:19
2 miles @ 6:22 (HR 166), 1 mile “recovery” @ 7:13
2 miles @ 6:12 (HR 171), 1 mile recovery @ 7:46
1.5 miles @ 6:10 (HR 169)

I eventually managed to push that thought to the side and was actually really pleased with the workout. Let’s hope I did not burn myself out 4 days before Ballycotton.

I even voluntarily jumped into another ice bath back home, if only for 5 minutes rather than 10, because being late at work would not have been particularly clever.

The coach has promised that MP effort would become easier once the volume repeats kick in. This better be true!

28 Feb

8 miles, 1:01:06, 7:38 pace, HR 143

1 Mar

10 miles, 1:16:27, 7:39 pace, HR 142

2 Mar

13.1 miles, 1:30:01, 6:52 pace, HR 159
   2 @ 6:29, 2 @ 6:22, 2 @ 6:12, 1.5 @ 6:10