Healing And Recovering

Andrew, me, Don and Liam after lap 1
Photo by Paul Kiely.

Jeez, I really am getting old confused. I was convinced today was Wednesday until about a minute ago when I accidentally checked my calendar and realised I was living in the past. I didn't know my senility was that advanced already - but then again, that's the nature of that beast.

By far the best news is that my legs are feeling really good. I was never sore at all after the 50k, walking down staircases didn't elicit any response at all, in fact it took me two days to even realise how well they had taken the load, simply because of the complete absence of any soreness.

I did feel a bit stiff on Sunday morning for my easy 5 mile recovery run, but by Monday I was already cruising along nicely, if still a little bit slow. The pace has increased a bit every day without any increase in effort, and yesterday I decided to increase the length of my morning runs from 5 to 8 miles simply because the legs felt so well that running so short did not seem justified.

On Wednesday the legs felt a bit heavy, very much as if I had done a workout the day before. This morning even that was gone and I felt just normal. I might have run a few minutes slower than expected on Saturday but I think from a training point of view I got it spot on. Now if I can do the same again in the Tralee marathon I'll give myself a good pat on the shoulder.

Half a second earlier I had been well airborne
doing an Eamonn across the finish line. Honestly!
Photo by Sportsmassage Ireland

There is still some discomfort coming from the right hip, but it's no worse when running than during the normal working day. In fact, the only time it could be called slightly painful is when getting up after sitting down for an hour or two. I could feel the hip at times during the 50k on Saturday but it never bothered me and it never got any worse. But I decided to take some remedial action - my usual response to a niggle is to throw out my older pair of shoes. And indeed, my Kinvaras had almost 1000 miles on them, so were due for a one-way ticket to the bin anyway. I compared the wear of the old pair to a brand new pair of the same kind (bought cheaply together in bulk a few months ago) and could see that while the wear on the heel wasn't too bad, the bumps beneath the balls of the feet had been completely worn away, a difference of several millimetres. Since changing shoes always seems to magically heal any issues I have I am highly optimistic for the same again; no need for a physio.

The HR has come down remarkably since Saturday; my VDOT values seem to have jumped from 55 to 60. I have seen it all before numerous times, it's no reason to get too excited. I'm still in recovery, after all I did run an ultra distance race 5 days ago. Any chances of doing well in Ballycotton are, well, remote, and the slower I run Tralee the better. I want to do well in Connemara, but the big goal is still 5 months away.

17 Feb

5 miles, 40:08, 8:02 pace, HR 132

18 Feb

5 miles, 39:59, 8:00 pace, HR 136

19 Feb

8 miles, 1:02:32, 7:48 pace, HR 136

20 Feb

8 miles, 1:01:28, 7:41 pace, HR 137