Sunday, September 13, 2015

The 12 Days Of Sparta

The mileage this week was a rather modest 56 miles. Just looking at that number you might think I was recovering from Dingle and/or have started my taper, but in actual fact you'd be wrong.

Almost every run this week was a stressor, though I made sure to stress different elements on consecutive days. As for the taper, since I haven't done any training that would require tapering, this will be a rather short one. I've still got one week of training left, though I won't be doing any mad stuff. I'll then take it easy the last few days before the race but that's it.

The legs felt surprisingly fresh on Friday when I would have expected them to be stiff and tired after Thursday's intervals. I did another heat adaptation run, hoping that it would work despite the heavy rain. I wrapped myself into 4 layers once more but tried to take it a tad easier than on Tuesday when I felt I had gotten into slightly dangerous territory. This work is exhausting! The heart rate shows how hard I had to work despite the slow pace and I was definitely glad to be back home. Once I stopped running I had the same lightheaded feeling as on Tuesday, despite thinking I had taken it easier. Also, my HR was actually higher than on Tuesday, so something in my body did not agree with the easy effort. However, I recovered quickly and had none of the confused state that had scared me a bit two days earlier.

I did my standard 10 mile run on Saturday, the same run that would be the run-of-the-mill run in my training, except that I had not done one in months due to the time out with injury. Despite all the progress I have made over the last few weeks it did show that I am still a big bit off top shape - I could have sworn I was moving faster than 7:55 pace, pushing sub-8 still requires more effort than I would have thought. I'm really surprised that I managed to run Dingle at that pace last Saturday and how easy that had felt - race day adrenaline is powerful stuff!

Probably the 2nd best sight in the world! - Photo by Nick Papageorge
To cap off the week I ventured into the mountains once again, despite the heavy rain. There were no views to be had this morning (what a shame!) but that's not what I had come for. I needed to get some more strength into those calf muscles. The left calf has felt very tight all week but some work with The Stick three times a day seems to have gotten me over the worst. Anyway, I took it very easy on that mountain, I wasn't out to break any records. The heavy rain has left its marks, I actually came across a spot where a very recent landslide (maybe as recent as last night, it looked rather fresh) has redecorated the road - I did wonder if it was safe to continue but thankfully the rest of the way was unaffected by anything. The plan had been to spend 2 hours on that mountain. I expected that road to take a few minutes less but due to the slow pace I hit the time almost exactly. Yes, I can run faster than that but today was all about time on feet and getting some strength into the climbing legs.

Sparta is getting close.

11 Sep
8 miles, 1:06:49, 8:21 pace, HR 154
   heat adaptation run
12 Sep
10 miles, 1:19:18, 7:55 pace, HR 146
13 Sep
12.15 miles, 2:00:13, 9:53 pace, HR 145
   Windy Gap x 2

2 comments:

  1. Training looks to be gelling quite nicely. Hot baths and sauna's are another way of adding some heat stress without the leg stress, but can be just as tough. Do you have any sauna's locally?

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  2. Keep on truckin' Thomas - you've recovered well from the injury scare.

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