Gasket Blown

On Friday it actually happened. Niamh well and truly blew a gasket, with steam coming out everywhere and she looked like she was going to explode. Thankfully in that case it was literal - the car's gasket! Then again - it was actually my car's gasket! Getting an emergency phone call from your wife when you're still almost an hour away isn't that great a situation. I had to go to Dublin for Friday and we swapped cars for the day because I had to transport a sofa and a few boxes that would not have fit into my tiny Ford. I had driven that thing for well over a year and just crossed the 100000k mark on the odometer. You give it to your wife for one single day ...

Ah well. Repair bills (or replacements) do happen. Oh, and the weird thing was, when she phoned the AA for help it happened to be her brother-in-law on the other end of the line. I'm not sure what the odds are in that helpline centre but they cannot be big. Maybe we should have played the lottery that day.

Anyway, the one thing I had been worried about all that driving this week wasn't the fact that Niamh might destroy my car but that the additional stress might have an impact on my training, especially since we have stepped up this week. I had a bit of DOMS on Thursday, which was no surprise after my first hill session of the season but the next day that seemed to almost completely gone already, so I went ahead with Friday's planned workout while in Dublin.

We're doing back-to-back workouts now, though quite different to the long back-to-back runs that would usually be associated with ultra training. Instead I'm doing a few faster miles on Friday (long term readers might remember the "Fast Fridays" from years ago) and a longer run on Saturday, though since we're cranking things up very gradually this was still rather subdued training. The plan for Friday was 5 miles at 7:20 pace with a predicted HR of 155. and I ran 7:15 with a HR of 156. I just got into the zone and hardly ever bothered to check the watch, which felt just right.

Back home again on Saturday (now car-less) I awoke to some unexpected nice weather, a beautiful sunny morning and no wind whatsoever, which was just perfect for a longer run (I can't bring myself to call 13 miles a long run). The legs seemed surprisingly fresh considering Friday's workout and the long hours in the car, and the miles just flew by. I got to mile 12 when I finally started to feel tired, but by that time I could smell the barn. In fact, the last mile was the fastest of the day, which was not intended and came as a bit of a surprise. I guess I really wanted to get home.

Seven miles on Sunday rounded out the week, with the legs a little bit tired from the increased training this week but actually better than I would have expected, even with the blustery wind not exactly helping. Did Saturday's lovely weather really have to disappear quite so soon?

9 Mar

7 miles, 54:41, 7:48 pace, HR 145

10 Mar

8 miles, 1:00:43, 7:35 pace, HR 150

   incl. 5 miles @ 7:16 (HR 156)

11 Mar

13 miles, 1:42:01, 7:50 pace, HR 146

12 Mar

7 miles, 54:32, 7:47 pace, HR 146