Would You Look At That!

It's time for another update, I guess. The legs had their usual post-race heaviness on Monday, though I could not help but notice that a 5k leaves a very different kind of heavy leg behind than a marathon or ultra. Also, when I added up the miles I had done the previous week I realised that I had done over 70 - not exactly a recovery week, and since we are now less than 3 weeks away from the championships I decided to ease up this week, which automatically implies I will be doing a 3-week taper. I have been experimenting a lot with different taper length and generally prefer a 2-week taper but after listening to my body decided to change things this time round. It's not as if I'm just sitting on my backside for 3 weeks; there is still a fair amount of training to be done, just not quite as much as in the preceding weeks,

On Tuesday the heavy legs had already disappeared and were replaced by wings that had my coasting along the road seemingly without any effort. I love it when that happens and would not really have expected it 2 days after a race effort. 7:40 pace was definitely faster than my usual easy training runs but I had not put in any real effort. There is definitely a sharpening effect going on.

The good feeling was not going to last forever, there was a noticeable feeling of heavy legs once
more on Wednesday, which had me scratching my head in confusion after everything had felt so easy just one day before. However, if you just looked at the numbers you would not have been able to tell: it was pretty much the same pace and HR as on Tuesday. Halfway through the run I suddenly remembered that I had been planning on running up to Windy Gap this week, making use of finally having some light in the early mornings, just before they turn teh clock forward this weekend. Obviously it was too late for that day but I decided to do it on Thursday instead, even though that would only give me one easy day before the final marathon of the training phase. On the plus side, going into a marathon with slightly heavy legs will ensure I will take it very easy - at least that's my present theory.

So, up to the mountains it was again on Thursday, and wouldn't you know it, the legs felt fantastic again. Even going up the steep 20% gradient of the final climb up to the gap was basically easy - I just did not feel any fatigue! The original plan had been to drop down to Glenbeigh after the first climb and do a second climb from that side but I had shattered a glass on teh kitchen floor when getting ready this morning and spent a good while cleaning up the mess, which meant less time for running. To be honest, I might still have been able to do the original run and still make it to work more or less in time, however I decided that it was a sign and one climb would be enough for the day (either that, or I simply chickened out).

As you can see from the photos, I received a parcel this morning. I usually don't get excited about new running gear, but this is different. Very different. I still can't quite believe this is actually happening but it's starting to feel rather real. I very much remember the days when I was running marathons in over 4 hours - who could possibly have predicted I was going to wear my country's colours one day!

23 Mar

5 miles, 41:10, 8:10 pace, HR 140

24 Mar

8 miles, 1:01:23, 7:40 pace, HR 141

25 Mar

10 miles, 1:16:58, 7:42 pace, HR 140

26 Mar

10.7 miles, 1:35:53, 8:52 pace, HR 142

   Windy Gap