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| Ah yes, reminds me of home |
Except when it comes to running. I have to face up to the fact that it is taking me longer to recover from the Wings for Life run than I thought. I would have thought that recovery would be quicker than after Connemara, but I guess the faster pace made a difference and I suppose the accumulated fatigue from all those weeks of high mileage is taking its toll as well. I knew my training would be tough, but now I'm worried about overtraining. I did try and check my resting heart rate this morning and was rather shocked when the HRM never dropped below 50, but a quick check on the usual overtraining symptoms reveals that I do not show any other ones, so I'm definitely not in that territory. This week had seen less mileage than previous ones as I tried to recover from Sunday's effort, but it was still rather high. A few weeks ago I was asked in a comment if I do cutback weeks every 3 or 4 weeks, and my answer had been no. I thought about it, and to some aspects the answer is still no as I certainly don't believe in cutting back mileage on a pre-planned regular basis, but on the other hand I do cut back after a tough run, like last Sunday's.
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| This should become an annual occurrence |
I have yet another very long race next week. The original plan had been to train normally until at least Wednesday and then take it easy for a day or two, but instead I will dial it back slightly right from Monday.
This week has been a bit strange; the legs always felt really stiff for the morning run but much better in the evening and the numbers do reflect that. Today's 15 mile run was a mini-version of that, it took me half the run to get into it after a very slow start, but I felt pretty good during the second half and had no problem dropping the pace to 7-minute pace over the last 5 or 6 miles, feeling perfectly comfortable.
- 9 May
- am: 8 miles, 1:01:16, 7:46 pace, HR 142
- pm: 5 miles, 39:05, 7:49 pace, HR 137
- 10 May
- am: 10 miles, 1:20:12, 8:01 pace, HR 138
- pm: 5+ miles, 38:30, 7:37 pace, HR 140
- 11 May
- 15+ miles, 1:59:16, 7:53 pace, HR 141
Patience.... it seems you've got so used to super quick recovery that a slightly slower than usual bounce back has you worried that something might be amiss. You are still far ahead of the recovery curve than most runners would be.
ReplyDeleteSlow recovery suggests either you've got something else taxing your body, or simply that the training stress was higher and requires more time for recovery. If it's the later then all is good - you need the body to keep adapting and getting stronger, sometimes we need a short sharp shock of stimulus to get us to the next level.
If it's the former, perhaps you've got a low level virus, or not sleeping so well, more stress at work etc.
In both cases taking it bit easier this week will be the right thing to do. You clearly are very fit right now, you don't need to push things, consolidating is perfectly sound thing to do.
It's taken me two weeks to get back into proper training after the Fling, my efficiency for each run last week was up and down but nothing special. Then on Sunday and this morning I did a 13 miler and 6.5 miler respectively and saw a significant improvement in efficiency, with my heart rate much lower for a given pace. These runs are the most efficient I've ever done on these routes. It like it's taken two weeks for the post race adaptations to fall into place and now things have just clicked into a different gear.
BTW, what's the long race you have planned?
I'm not the expert here but I think a complete rest day wouldn't be a bad idea! It was me that raised the question of the low milage week in between every 3rd or 4th week, two weeks ago I was longing for it & now it's here I'm dreading it, I added two complete rest days this week Tuesday & thursday! So after my 10 mile this morning I have nothing till a 8mile wedensday evening & I can tell you it was easier giving up cigarettes. Two 5's on friday, a 10 sat morning & a 22 on Sunday will get me 60 miles for the week then it's three 90ish weeks & a weeks taper. I have to say I'm starting to love the Dawn runs, I'm half expecting to find myself staring out the window at 5:30am hearing the call of the road! Your doing a lot of milage & extra races Thomas, but we know our own limitations better then anyone else! For gods sake try not to get injured, if you fall I'll have to start questioning my own mortality :-) & I'm counting on you to talk some sence to me pre-race :-)
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