Running Updates

First of all, thank you very much to everyone who has donated money to my charity fundraiser so far. We have collected more than €500 already but that's still well short of my goal, and of course the more the better. There is still time to donate, the link is https://give.everydayhero.com/ie/for-sara. I cannot overstate how you all are helping. Sara's partner Brian called us the other day to tell us how much of a boost this has given to her and her condition had visibly improved.

I haven't posted any running-related updates since Donadea. There isn't an awful lot to report, really, Obviously I've been trying to recover as much as possible the last few days. Since I am a strong believer in active recovery I didn't sit around idly waiting for things to happen by themselves. Instead I dragged myself out onto to road on Sunday for 3 miles, which weren't the most fun 3 miles I've ever had. It took about 2 miles for the legs to loosen up a bit but by the time I had done 3 miles I really felt like I'd done more than enough.

The next few days were better and I did 5 miles, each day feeling better than the day before. There was never any acute soreness in the legs, which surprised me. I was even able to walk down staircases without any discomfort. Apart form going into the run very fit already, I think that could have something to do with me wearing the Hokas in Donadea. I think that they make me run a little bit slower because the cushioning might take away some efficiency but the muscles feel a lot better afterwards. It does leave me in a bit of a conundrum for Belfast; if I wear the Hokas I might require more energy but might be able to run better late in the race because the muscles aren't as damaged. There are a lot of "mights" in that sentence, I know. I will have to make a decision at some point but it's very much guesswork.

By Friday the legs felt well enough to increase the distance to 8 miles and I picked up the effort a few times on Saturday to get them spinning a bit faster than the usual recovery run shuffle. I went up to the Windy Gap on Sunday, though that didn't feel particularly great, so I turned around at the top rather than run towards Glenbeigh for a second climb as had been the original intend.

A few weeks ago I hurt my knee from doing the S&C training a bit too enthusiastically. That has gone away since, the knee is perfectly fine again. Unfortunately now it's my lower back that's giving out, and once more I'm pretty sure it's the kettlebells. That's the problem when you're new to something and don't entirely know the ins and outs. My lower back has always been a bit of a weak area and has been hurting several times in the past. I was really uncomfortable on Wednesday but it has thankfully improved since then, though it's still there. I will have to re-think my strength workouts.

6 Jun

5 miles, 43:15, 8:39, HR 130

7 Jun

5 miles, 43:35, 8:43, HR 130

8 Jun

5 miles, 41:41, 8:20, HR 130

9 Jun

5 miles, 41:07, 8:13, HR 135

10 Jun

8 miles, 1:05:33, 8:11, HR 136

11 Jun

8 miles, 1:01:32, 7:41, HR 146

12 Jun

10.7 miles, 1:35:03, 8:52, HR 142, Windy Gap