Lucky Me

I guess I managed to carry a bit of luck from last week over to this one. I was cycling past the primary school just as at least a dozen parents dropped off their kids. It's a narrow road, there are no less than five roads converging and you've got kids running from all directions, so it's all rather chaotic at the best of times. I was passing a car and right at that moment the driver opened his door without looking. I'm not sure who got more of a fright, him or me, as he missed me by probably less than an inch. As it was I was just able to continue on, but just one split second made all the difference and I could have taken a very, very nasty spill.

Running this week was different to usual due to all those hill drills I am doing. I did drills three times this week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with 10 easy miles the other days, and I have noticed how my HR has dropped significantly  all of a sudden. I didn't think my usual fast run on Saturday would be a good idea as my legs were feeling the effects of all those hills, so I settled into a reasonably comfortable pace, roughly the effort I'm hoping to do in Connemara in 2 months. That felt very much sustainable, though in Connemara I will have to do it 4 times longer, which is a completely different ask altogether.

After quite some deliberating I decided not to join the club run on Sunday but do a much hillier circuit instead. I ran up the Devil's Elbow climb and dropped down the other side of the hill and continued to loop around it, which is an elevation gain of about 500 feet, with one mile being particularly steep. I did that 3 times and was pleasantly surprised how well the legs were able to take it. In fact, the first loop had been the worst, the legs had felt distinctly heavy and took about 6 or 7 miles to get going properly. I even met the guys from the club run, though I felt a bit guilty about not joining them. The run was a bit longer than expected, I had planned to keep it closer to 18 miles but by the time I got home I had accumulated 20 miles once more.

The mileage this week is a bit higher than expected but I'm feeling pretty good. I'll keep going as is for a few more days and will decide later on if I'll train through teh week before the 50k in Donadea or if I should take a few easy days.

6 Feb

10 miles, 1:19:23, 7:56 pace, HR 133

7 Feb

10+ miles, 1:38:51, HR 136
   Hill Drills: strides, thigh drive, ankle drive, high knees

8 Feb

10+ miles, 1:13:55, 7:19 pace, HR 150

9 Feb

20 miles, 2:37:30, 7:53 pace, HR 143

Weekly Mileage: 81+