Someone Else's Turn

There was another 5k on this weekend, even closer to home. It was also closer to my heart because this really was one for the local community. It also doesn't hurt that I won it a couple of years ago, which obviously provides lovely memories. However, I once more decided not to run the big boys' race; my training felt rather disrupted this week, having to recover from Sunday's race, and I did not want to disrupt it any further. As lovely as the Glounaguillagh race would have been, I decided to accompany my youngest daughter around the kids' course instead. This didn't provide much of a workout but it was great to see her having fun and enjoying herself so much. Good choice!

The athlete with her prize

Anyway, after running no more than 5 miles at the start of last week and then feeling pretty much recovered, I thought it would be safe to run a bit longer on Saturday. That in itself might have been fine but somehow I got it into my head to push the effort a little bit. I'm not sure where that had come from, it certainly wasn't planned that way. It's not that I ran like a complete lunatic but I definitely ran a bit harder than would have been optimal. The legs started hurting after 10 miles but I kept going. The last few miles were dragging a bit but I got home before things fell apart. The numbers don't look too bad and an average heart rate of 147 doesn't seem all that excessive but the legs were a bit sore all day afterwards and they still didn't feel quite right the next day. My best guess is that plenty of  my muscle fibres were still in recovery and got overworked - I'd better take it easy again for a bit.

I thought I'd taken it easy on Sunday morning, especially with the blustery wind, but was rather surprised to see 7:44 pace on the watch. I could have sworn I had run much slower than that! Maybe the sunshine had provided some extra energy? It's rare enough round here.

31 Mar

7 miles, 54:26, 7:46 pace, HR 144

1 Apr

14 miles, 1:47:11, 7:39 pace, HR 147

2 Apr

7 miles, 54:12, 7:44 pace, HR 143