Home And Away

I could have gotten used to it. All I had to do was to sleep until I woke naturally (which was still hours before anyone else in the house), get ready at my own leisure and then run for as long as I wanted. Once my run was done I could laze around for the rest of the day and mostly do f*** all. Unfortunately, the holidays are over and tomorrow I have to get back to work. Frankly, that sucks.

Running away from home is always a little bit tricky, mostly because you have to run on unknown roads, but it does not help if you leave your gloves at home at the coldest time of the year. On the plus side, Thursday night's storm wasn't particularly noticeable in Dublin while it must have been absolutely brutal in Kerry - I'm still shocked at the pictures of a destroyed Rossbeigh beach.

Anyway, I did manage a run every morning, even with frosty appendages.Thursday was alway going to be a very easy run after Wednesday's speed workout. I was still amazed how I had managed to run 22 repeats basically on autopilot and still went home before I was knackered, but there was still a price to pay the next day and I didn't even break 8-minute miles. The legs were definitely improved on Friday, but I still took it easy. It was a bit windy, but compared to what had happened at the other side of the island this was not even worth mentioning.

After 2 easy days I felt confident enough on Saturday to run a few faster miles. Problem was, I did not have my usual Killorglin loop, so comparing the run to previous ones isn't really on. I ran loops in Deer Park, which is pretty hilly. The first mile was as slow as 7:12, but things gradually improved. In fact, I pretty much felt better the longer the run went on and by the end the average had come down to 7:02. A bit slower than last week, yes.

Sunday's long run was in doubt after a rather ominous forecast, but it turned out to be much more benign than feared. Yes, it was cold, wet and windy but nothing like the stormy weather I had been expecting. The legs weren't exactly fresh and for a few miles I kept wondering if I was digging myself into a hole once more, but both the legs and the pace improved as the run went on (that seems to be a developing pattern) and I finished the run basically on autopilot.

It brought the weekly mileage just above 74, still a bit less that I would ideally like at this stage, but I'm getting there.

2 Jan

10 miles, 1:20:06, 8:01 pace, HR 144

3 Jan

10+ miles, 1:19:13, 7:48 pace, HR 145

4 Jan

10 miles, 1:12:25, 7:14 pace, HR 156
   incl. 8 miles @ 7:02 pace (HR 160)

5 Jan

17+ miles, 2:13:56, 7:50 pace, HR 146