Saturday, May 09, 2015

A New Horizon

Oh shit! What have I done!


Right now I'm barely able to run 10 miles. I'm not even sure how I'm going to pace Cork in 3 weeks. And now there is the formal confirmation that I am going to run 153 miles in one go, across a mountain, in the heat, against some tough cutoffs.

A friend of mine once told me "you are looking for the race you cannot finish!" I cannot help but wonder if this is it.

Ah well. I still have over 4 month to get those legs into shape!

The past week has been a bit up and down, Wednesday felt tough, Friday felt good, and I can never quite put the finger down what is causing those swings because I did the same run every morning, at the same easy effort. I can't even blame the weather because on the one day with the most miserable conditions I actually felt my best.

The form graph is pointing slightly upwards but at  much more gradual angle than I would like and with a few dips in there as well. In past years there usually was a day when I suddenly felt a lot better. I'm still waiting for that day to come. Having said that, I undoubtedly feel a lot better than 2 weeks ago, there's no denying that.

On Saturday morning I finally decided to do something else or a change and headed back into the mountains. I had originally been planning on doing that last week but chickened out at the last minute because the weather was so bad. It was probably a good decision because my legs most likely would not have been up to it anyway. It was still tough enough this morning, no matter how easy I went. The first thing I did was to turn off the HR alarm, this was not a run for the watch to beep at me relentlessly. I was surprised how high the HR climbed on that steep gradient up to Windy Gap. The legs actually felt okay. I gave myself a free pass to turn around and go home whenever I felt like but managed it up to the top without much of a struggle. Mind, I took 30 seconds rest at the top before turning around - it felt unsafe to attempt running down that slope with quivering quads. I didn't pay any attention to pace and expected this to be the slowest mountain run I had ever done. Surprisingly this was several minutes quicker than back in February.

Maybe the legs aren't as bad as I thought? Anyway, I know I will feel the effects of today's efforts for a few days. Time to take it easy - not that I anything else would have been on the menu anyway.

6 May
10 miles, 1:25:40, 8:34 pace, HR 144
7 May
10 miles, 1:24:33, 8:27 pace, HR 142
8 May
10 miles, 1:25:00, 8:30 pace, HR 140
9 May
10.7 miles, 1:34:37, 8:50 pace, HR 155
   Windy Gap

2 comments:

  1. I can understand the urge to just go out do a tough run, break the mundane route for yet another easy run. If you aren't injured then I doubt there would be too much risk in it.

    I do wonder if sometimes our bodies get stuck in a rut, get a bit lazy when it comes to making the adaptations we want from our training. Giving the body a kick up the back-side to get the immune system back firing on all systems might be just what it needs to get back to normal.

    There is of course a bit of risk if your body is already over-stressed and needs more time to fully recover. Two weeks after the Fling and my body isn't feeling 100% yet, a couple of post race injury niggles are still there, but I'm lucky to not far away from being back able to start training harder again. I'm itching to get back a do hill run, or just less loose rather stick plodding along at 9 to 10 minute mile pace like I have. This is only after two weeks, I think I'd be bouncing off the walls if I had to be as patient as you have been over the last month.

    Kudos for your patience, figures crossed the hill run will kick start fitness once more.

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  2. The prospect of a 153 mile race is good motivation! Mountains are good - keep on the steady as she goes approach for a while.

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