Fool In The Rain

According to the bible it was raining for 40 days and 40 nights. I'm pretty sure nobody in Ireland would be too impressed by that story. In fact, if it stopped raining every 40 days it would bring a marked improvement compared to what we continue to endure here. According to that guy on the radio we've just had the wettest July in recorded history (hang on, didn't they say that about June already?)

Worse, I'm getting fed up with the fact that four weeks after Bangor I'm still merely hobbling along. Sure, I was perfectly aware that recovery would take a long time. However, that does not mean that I'm happy about it. Just like the fact that I was perfectly aware that it would be raining a lot this summer, again. I don't like that, either.

When Mystery Coach took over my training 2 years ago his advice to recover from the previous marathon basically boiled down to "run more and run slower". I'm trying exactly that right now, though I'm not 100% sure if the same strategy applies to recovery from a long ultra. After taking it relatively easy on Thursday because the legs were rather beaten up following Wednesday's trip up to Windy Gap, I ran around Caragh lake on Friday morning. When I'm in good shape I can breeze up the long climbs without a bother. On Friday I was struggling a bit, but keeping the effort low meant I got round in decent shape, if slower than anticipated. There was some discomfort in both knees on the downhills. The left one is still recovering from Bangor, but since it now feels fine on flat roads I'm not worried. The right one hurts since my silly accident on the assault course last week, and since that's not a running injury I'm not too worried about that one, either. So I just keep running.

Saturday was the group run; even though the miles were longer than on Friday, the relaxed pace with the group (about 9:20) made this a much easier effort, even though I could feel yesterday's effort in the legs (or is it the week's accumulated miles?).

Athletics has finally started at the Olympics. I wasn't particularly excited before the games but found myself really enjoying the swimming events and now I'm really looking forward to the track. Yesterday's women's 10k was already amazing, at least Dibaba's final push was. I'd be more than happy if it continues like that.

2 Aug

8 miles, 1:02:19, 7:47 pace, HR 149

3 Aug

15.15 miles, 2:05:25, 8:16 pace, HR 143

4 Aug

15.75 miles, 2:14:14, 8:31 pace, HR 137