Well I Never

My tired legs on Saturday have really messed with my head. Even though I have felt good every day since, it left my wondering if I was overdoing my training and what would be the best way forward. In light of that, it was almost certainly a good thing that I had an evaluation workout on the cards anyway.

After the great numbers last time round I was unsure what to expect. I certainly feared that this week's figures would be worse, especially as I really wasn't feeling all that great while doing the evaluation itself. I did get quite some surprise when I checked the new numbers, though. As always, the numbers in brackets are adjusted pace, 7 seconds for every 2 heart beats off the 161 target:

       
        Mile 1    6:21   HR 160    (6:18)
        Mile 2    6:21   HR 161    (6:21)
        Mile 3    6:24   HR 162    (6:27)
        Mile 4    6:21   HR 161    (6:21)
        Recovery to HR 130: 33 seconds

That's very similar to last time round, with the same slight slowdown on mile 3 but subsequent pickup at mile 4, and the one second difference in recovery time is within the margin of measurement error, so basically that's the same pattern again, expect that each mile was about 5 seconds faster.

Wow!

Of course I have already gotten a load of "what a shame that you're wasting this form on a 100 miler", but I got the same last year and Bangor sure did not feel like a waste to me.

I followed that up with a mountain run on Wednesday morning but scaled it back again to a mere two crossings of Windy Gap because 1) the 3 crossings might have caused the fatigued legs last week due to overwork and 2) I do have a marathon on Saturday; even if it's only a training run and I'll train right through it, I sure don't want to feel like last week for 26 miles.

By the way, as mentioned a few weeks ago, I have been considering adding another marathon to my schedule this summer ever since having to cancel Connemara. I have now signed up to another one, though it's a 50k rather than a marathon, in Portumna. I have been wanting to run that race for years after hearing so many good things about it and I have a long standing promise to the RD that I was going to do it and this year I'll finally come good on that.

13 May

10 miles, 1:15:38, 7:34 pace, HR 138

14 May

11.75 miles, 1:22:10, 7:00 pace, HR 147
   4 mile eval: 6:21, 6:21, 6:24, 6:21, 33 sec recovery

15 May

12.25 miles, 1:47:27, 8:46 pace, HR 142
   mountain run, Windy Gap x 2