6:1! 6:1!! 6:1!!! 6:1!!!! 6:1!!!!! 6:1!!!!!! 6:1!!!!!!!
Friday morning, 6:00 am. The radio alarm goes off; very quietly, so that it only wakes me and not Niamh. For a second I wish I could turn around and go back to sleep, but then I get up anyway. 15-20 minutes later I'm out on the road.
It's raining, and heavily so, but the only difficult step is the first one, after that it's just a matter of tuning into the effort and getting on with it. It's dark because what little is left of the waning Moon is hidden behind the clouds, but the only tricky bit is our own driveway; once I've reached the road, I'm fine. I know the road so well, I can almost literally find my way with my eyes closed.
A bit over an hour later, another training run is in the bag. Day in, day out. Consistency is key.
Usually, the end of October means tapering for Dublin marathon, but since I'm not racing it, there is no need for a taper. Dublin will just be a long training run. And since there will be a 30-mile race/training run three weeks after Dublin, I'll get a pretty good idea about my recovery abilities.
- - -
Last January, I somehow got roped into buying a gerbil for the kids. Plus gerbil feed, stuffing, treats , … and a cage. After a few weeks, he managed to chew his way out of it. We caught him. He got a new cage. A big one. An expensive one. A gerbil-proof one, apparently. But, like with idiot-proof computers when the universe just came up with a better idiot, the little domestic rat seemed to take it as a challenge. He'd already managed to escape twice, but that was down to our own mistakes. Last week, however, he really did it. In fact, he clearly over-engineered the escape hole. We spent half an hour catching the little critter. Next time I'll get a cat to sort out the problem once and for all. Still, it's a cool escape tunnel.
- - -
Where was I? Oh yes, running. 8 easy miles on Thursday, 10 easy on Friday, 10 faster ones on Saturday (still very much controlled, though), 18 on Sunday. The long run was probably too fast at sub 7:30 pace, but the HR was reasonably low. That's 81 miles this week. As I said, consistency is key. Oh, and I've still got a sore throat.
Weekly Mileage: 81
Friday morning, 6:00 am. The radio alarm goes off; very quietly, so that it only wakes me and not Niamh. For a second I wish I could turn around and go back to sleep, but then I get up anyway. 15-20 minutes later I'm out on the road.
It's raining, and heavily so, but the only difficult step is the first one, after that it's just a matter of tuning into the effort and getting on with it. It's dark because what little is left of the waning Moon is hidden behind the clouds, but the only tricky bit is our own driveway; once I've reached the road, I'm fine. I know the road so well, I can almost literally find my way with my eyes closed.
A bit over an hour later, another training run is in the bag. Day in, day out. Consistency is key.
Usually, the end of October means tapering for Dublin marathon, but since I'm not racing it, there is no need for a taper. Dublin will just be a long training run. And since there will be a 30-mile race/training run three weeks after Dublin, I'll get a pretty good idea about my recovery abilities.
- - -
Last January, I somehow got roped into buying a gerbil for the kids. Plus gerbil feed, stuffing, treats , … and a cage. After a few weeks, he managed to chew his way out of it. We caught him. He got a new cage. A big one. An expensive one. A gerbil-proof one, apparently. But, like with idiot-proof computers when the universe just came up with a better idiot, the little domestic rat seemed to take it as a challenge. He'd already managed to escape twice, but that was down to our own mistakes. Last week, however, he really did it. In fact, he clearly over-engineered the escape hole. We spent half an hour catching the little critter. Next time I'll get a cat to sort out the problem once and for all. Still, it's a cool escape tunnel.- - -
Where was I? Oh yes, running. 8 easy miles on Thursday, 10 easy on Friday, 10 faster ones on Saturday (still very much controlled, though), 18 on Sunday. The long run was probably too fast at sub 7:30 pace, but the HR was reasonably low. That's 81 miles this week. As I said, consistency is key. Oh, and I've still got a sore throat.
- 20 Oct
- 8 miles, 1:01:45, 7:43 pace, HR 140
- 21 Oct
- 10 miles, 1:17:34, 7:45 pace, HR 147
- 22 Oct
- 10 miles, 1:09:33, 6:57 pace, HR 153
- 23 Oct
- 18 miles, 2:14:30, 7:28 pace, HR 147
Weekly Mileage: 81
That'd be my #3 rule of running. After #1 - family comes first, and #2 - did you read #1? If not, read again. Consistency, even if it's 'only' 10k a day beats big weeks followed by weeks of nothing.
ReplyDeleteOnce again I'm with Ewen on this one.
ReplyDeleteWe were in the library last Saturday researching gerbils, hamsters and guinea pigs. It's the guinea pig you want. Except the live to be about 10.
Sometimes when I'm at work I know how that Gerbil feels!
ReplyDelete