Sunday, May 25, 2014

Oldies

Two weeks ago, after suffering through a week of heavy legs and plenty of fatigue, I started whining about how tired I was all the time, only to feel much better straight afterwards.

This week has been much harder but I'll spare you the whining. I ran 50 miles last Saturday and some extended recovery time is to be expected. Obviously, I wished my legs would have bounced back miraculously and I were bouncing up and down the mountains without trouble, but that was never going to happen.

I can take solace in the fact that the HR figures look very good and my VDOT (HR/pace ratio) has reached higher values than ever before, so once I get out of that fatigue I should be running better than ever, which is after all the entire point of this training cycle. If it will happen just in time for the race in Belfast still remains to be seen. I have never done training like this and it's all a bit of an experiment, but I do remain hopeful.

The legs are very, very stiff for the first mile or two of my early morning training runs. I usually hobble down the driveway at 10-minute pace and gradually manage to get things going, but that does take time. I always used my first miles as my warm up, but it's getting more and more pronounced. I'm not sure if this is down to me getting older or if it's a side effect of the heavy training.

My right hip feels a bit weird. It has been slightly off for the last few months, but actually I can only feel it during the day, it seems perfectly fine when I am running. It is somewhat similar to the Achilles twinges I felt last year. They had stayed with me for several months, always just about noticeable but never enough to even consider a break in my training, and eventually faded away. Obviously I am hoping for a similar outcome with the hip. The discomfort is very mild., never more than 1 or 2 out of 10, but very persistent so far.

My back hurt again two days ago, but only for one day. Unlike the hip I'm pretty sure this is not running-related, and in fact running may well improve it.

I think I AM getting old, but I haven't fallen apart yet.
22 May
5+ miles, 40:44, 8:03 pace, HR 133
23 May
am: 8 miles, 1:03:57, 8:00 pace, HR 132
pm: 5+ miles, 38:26, 7:37 pace, HR 137
24 May
10 miles, 1:19:27, 7:57 pace, HR 137
25 May
10+ miles, 1:34:49, 8:47 pace, HR 141, Windy Gap
Weekly Mileage: 69

3 comments:

  1. Stubborn as ever Thomas which is great to see. The only thing though is that hip pain doesn't lie but you are too far into the training cycle to do much about it. It is worth investigating as any sports physio will tell you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Next weeks training should see you return to form Thomas, I'd love to see this training get you to Belfast in magnificent shape...& I bet it will. I would be delighted to be able to clock the weekly milage you've recorded the last few weeks, but I can't Get past 95 & most weeks are 85 with work & home life. Even at that my morning runs start at 5:30am & i feel Drained most of the time (also getting old) need to get more sleep I think. I fell back to my old ways of 5-6 hrs a night. I hope that hip doesn't start causing real problems for you!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm only thinking I'm getting old at 57. But I haven't fallen apart - YET.

    ReplyDelete