The Opposite Of Lonely

That’s what I am, according to Maia, now that the family has returned. Of course, there are times when, amidst all the fighting and screaming and shouting that comes with 4 children, loneliness seems to be an appealing alternative, but most of the time I’m not complaining.

Sunday’s run hadn’t been great and I was definitely worried about getting ahead of the recovery curve, as the coach used to call it. An easy run on Monday was always on the cards, but I was really surprised just how better I felt on Tuesday, the next hill drills day.

In an attempt not to overdo things I cut the number of drills by one; after the obligatory 4x30 seconds sprints I did a set of “driving with the thigh”. This usually feels rather tough, on previous attempts I usually managed 2x1 minute. This time I had 3 goes at it, lasting 80, 70 and 60 seconds respectively. I don’t set a target time for these – I stop whenever it starts to feel really tough. Actually, I noticed that the HR was a lot lower than last week for the same drill.

The second drill was ankles, which always feels much easier (and makes me wonder if I’m doing them correctly). I left it at that. It’s better to do too little than too much. Still, I did raise an eyebrow when I saw the average HR number back home. 139 for a workout that contained some sets of hill drills? I must have taken it seriously easy between sets (which, of course, is what I'm supposed to be doing).

Since last week’s evaluation workout had fallen victim to an idiot and his dog, I did another one this morning. Luckily the wind had died down just in time; I know from experience that the numbers get useless if it’s too windy. I set off towards my usual spot and for once I could actually see where I was going – Full Moon, I love you. Initially I had some troubles getting the HR up to the required level and then I had troubles keeping it there – it kept oscillating between 155 and 165 when it should have been stable at 161. Things finally started to improve halfway through the third mile. Remarkably, the Garmin recorded exactly the same HR for all four miles.

        Mile 1    6:36   HR 160
        Mile 2    6:46   HR 160
        Mile 3    6:51   HR 160
        Mile 4    6:51   HR 160
        Recovery to HR: 39 seconds

The significantly faster pace compared to earlier evaluations is probably down to some sharpening effect from last week’s race, which wouldn’t please the coach because it’s too early for that, but I had chosen to race knowing full well what might happen. Sometimes you need to have a bit of fun. As you can see, the pace dropped after the first 2 miles before stabilising. More important, to me at least, was the quicker recovery time afterwards. It’s not the best number I have ever seen, but it’s the best since October.

I think I have been fighting a cold all through November and December. It never bothered me much, but the blocked sinuses kept giving me the occasional headache and I'm sure it was at least partially responsible for some of the elevated HRs I’ve seen during that time. I think I’m finally getting over it; not only has the HR/pace correlation has improved significantly over the last few days, the constant, irritating pressure from inside my head seems to have gone as well. Things are definitely looking up.

9 Jan

8 miles, 1:04:49, 8:06 pace, HR 136

10 Jan

9.5 miles, 1:25:54, 9:00 pace, HR 139
   Hill drills: 4x30 sec sprints, thigh drive (80, 70, 60 sec), ankles (4 mins)

11 Jan

12 miles, 1:27:02, 7:15 pace, HR 149
   4 miles eval