Progress, Definite

I have been whinging and whining more than enough over the last few weeks about my lack of progress. Fact is that recovery from Turin took much longer than I would have thought, especially when compared to how it went after Belfast where I ran almost 10k more (MC, on the other hand, wasn't surprised at all). 7 weeks after Belfast I ran the Dingle Ultra and came third after finishing strongly; 7 weeks after Turin I'm supposed to pace 3:15 in the Cork City marathon, which right now fills me with dread and horror!

After the faster few miles on Wednesday I was curious how the next few days would go. My past experience has shown that my HR often drops quite a bit in the days after the first one or two faster workouts, but since the last few weeks had been so different to my usual recovery patterns I wasn't quite sure if I had any right to expect a similar outcome.

I was pleasantly surprised how the legs felt on Thursday; there was no stiffness from those faster miles, though I knew perfectly well that that could still be in store the next day. I barely dared to hope when I saw the (relatively - it's all relative) low HR - would that downward trend continue?

Yes it would! I only ran 8 miles on Friday, unusually restrained for myself, and the average HR dropped below 140 for the first time since Turin! I know the pace was rather slow, but I knew straight away that things were looking good when I went over the first few hills without the watch beeping at me. Saturday's run was very similar, back to the usual 10 miles and with an even lower HR - albeit at the same slow pace.

At that point there was no doubt that things were finally looking up again. Emboldened by that progress I decided to run a first long (relatively - it's all relative) run on Sunday. The plan was 15 miles but after one loop through Killorglin I decided to go closer to home and criss-cross around the local roads so that I would be able to bale out earlier if I had to. The legs held up pretty well until 12 or 13 miles but when the deterioration started it happened very quickly and the last 2 miles weren't all that much fun. It wasn't just the legs - even when I was running really slowly the watch's HR alarm kept beeping at me, relentlessly. Swearing at the watch had remarkably little effect so eventually I just turned off the alarm (yes, I know, the sensible thing would have been to slow down even more). The numbers actually look quite good. The HR was fine and the pace a bit quicker than usual (a bit surprised by that - I went out at the same easy effort), but the lack of endurance is a bit of a worry. Right now I do have my doubts if I will be able to pace in Cork - but I won't give up hope just yet. I have felt doubtful before previous pacing jobs and they always went well in the end, so I first want to give myself every chance to do it. I still have 2 weeks and with the form curve finally pointing upwards all is not lost yet.

14 May

10 miles, 1:24:15, 8:25 pace, HR 140

15 May

8 miles, 1:08:10, 8:31 pace, HR 139

16 May

10 miles, 1:25:15, 8:31 pace, HR 136

17 May

15 miles, 2:03:16, 8:13 pace, HR 143