Magic

Wednesday morning, stupid o'clock.

The alarm was set for 5:45 but, as usual, I did not need it and naturally awoke a few minute before that (I don't know how that works, but it does). I got up, got dressed, and even before 6 o'clock was out on the road.

It was one of those crispy clear cold mornings that I love. Not even the moon was out, it was just me and a million stars on the dark Kerry night sky, but I had enough light to see the road. Not one car, and in fact not any other creature was to be seen until I got into Killorglin, over 30 minutes later. Killorglin itself was an island of light that I left behind again soon on the road towards Ballykissane, once again entirely on my own. I reached the turnaround point and headed back for the lights once more, but this being the end of November it was still dark when I emerged on the other side of town once more, and I still had the road mostly to myself - I only encountered 2 cars on the remaining 5 miles home.

My breathing was calm and fully controlled, 7-minute miles were passing effortlessly and my running motion was so smooth I felt like floating over the pavement rather than pounding it 190 times per minute.

It was one of the runs I live for. Even when I will no longer be able to run competitively, if I still get to run and experience mornings like that every now and then, I will be a very happy and content old man.

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On Thursday it was back to Earth. It was a cloudy and windy morning and I ran 5 easy miles on the way out and then used/tested a little app I wrote for the Ambit to do a "Kenyan fartlek" (60 seconds fast/ 60 seconds easy), though since this was the first run of that kind and I am still a bit worried about my hamstring I didn't exactly kill myself on the fast bit (6 - 6:30 pace, recovery was 8-8:30 pace). This explains the slightly higher HR on Thursday's run; overall I'm very happy with how training is going so far.

24 Nov

10 miles, 1:18:58, 7:54 pace, HR 140

25 Nov

10 miles, 1:18:39, 7:52 pace, HR 136

26 Nov

12 miles, 1:31:24, 7:37 pace, HR 141

27 Nov

10 miles, 1:16:17, 7:38 pace, HR 144